Harshest Penance?

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I don’t know about harsh but the most difficult penance I’ve ever been given was when I was told not to leave the Church before kneeling down and kissing the feet of Jesus on a crucifix at the back of the Church.

James
 
Well…I have several options to go with.

The harshest, the best, and the most whacked out are three different penances for me.

The “harshest” one I got was from a Priest in St. Peter’s in Rome. 7 Our Fathers, 7 Hail Mary’s, and 7 Glory Be’s in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The best was to spend time front of the Eucharist praying about this particular sin

And the most whacked out? A priest told me to “be good to myself for one whole day”. That one might also have been the hardest to do…'cause what does that mean???
 
I guess my “harshest” was five Hail Mary’s. Other than that, one time I was told to read two specific psalms. Sounds puny compared to what some of the rest of you received.
 
My harshest pennance was to go to the cemetary and pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and walk to each grave until one spoke to me, than I was to pray for that person. When I found my first one (after about an hour of prayer) it began raining, but only for about 30 seconds and I took that as a sign and I continued to walk and a second one spoke to me. This one was a deceased Priest!
I prayed for them and offered Holy Mass for the Priest on several occasions. After a few months of fervant prayers, it just stopped.

Now I look forward to going to the cemetary. They need our prayers!
 
Robert in SD:
I was instructed to read the parable of the Prodigal Son. That was the best harshest penance ever.
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After about 21 years of not going to Confession, I received the reading of the Prodigal Son parable also.

23 years later, I still find it one of the most powerful passages in the Bible.
 
wow… and to think that 1 hail mary and 1 our father was bad…
 
At my parish, there’s a polish priest who has given me a full rosary to pray as my penace. So I like to go to my pastor who knows me better and is aware of the spiritual progress I’ve been making, and I get 3 Hail Mary’s and 3 Our Fathers usually.

The easist penance was at St. Peter’s in the Loop where I was given a few minutes of reading something spiritual (so I read the Bible)

The best penance? Hmmm…all of them.

I like the advice I get from confession.
 
I once got an entire rosary…no big deal. The worst part about the confession, though, was the old priest I spoke with. He laid it all out as if he was yelling at me - “You’re going right to hell if you don’t stop that garbage!”

He sort of scared me straight. But I’m glad he did what he did. Sometimes it’s the tough stuff that we really need to hear in order to help us the most. This guy…whew! He wasn’t in any mood to spare my feelings.

:amen:
 
DaveBj said:
???

Most of the activities listed as penances I would not consider to be penances; they’re things I’m already doing (praying the Rosary), or would gladly do anyway (read parts of the Bible, etc.). The one about helping raise a needy child was cool, though.

DaveBj
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I agree! I read the Scriptures and do the whole prayer thing as much as I can. I loved the post about penance being a state of life, not just a weenie thing we do after confession. As a middle school religion teacher I frequently talk about the need for altered behavior and attitudes, not just “doing penances”. May I practice what I preach!

I guess the harshest one I know of was when (name bleeped) was told to go find a spiritual director and stay under direction for two years. WOW! But it totally was the right thing they needed, and it led to much glorious growth and fruit. That person is now in a leadership position in the local Church community and is known for their pastoral gifts…

I did once have a priest tell me that something which I had confessed was NOT a sin. That felt weird. Then later in the same confession, after I confessed something else, he told me it was REALLY BAD and I must never ever do it again. He was, of course, totally right. :o
 
Five Hail Marys and one Our Father was the harshest…

To learn to love God more and myself was the oddest and the best.

:gopray2: That was from a wonderful East Indian priest who is always very thoughtful and gives excellent advice in the confessional.
 
One person wrote that harshest penance ever received was to read a particular liberal book that included all this Eastern theology, zen and son on…This is not really a “lawful” pennance as far as I know. We are supposed to be reading pius books, not ones that conflict with the Catholic churches teachings.
I don’t know for sure, but I think that if the pennance is morrally unreasonable, you can request a different one…and in this case, if the book or pennance conflicts with your moral beliefs, you shouldn’t be obligated to do the pennance…I would ask a different priest. I enjoy the harder of more interesting pennances though because they are more rewarding and sort of a "self improvement.
 
go to adoration 5 times for a half-houri have not yet completed it, im not sure if i need to, thst was at another parish and my pastor told me when i told him that i had not completed it, he said the penance was unreasonable. so i dont know, i go to adoration whenever i can anyway…
 
I once confessed to our retired Bishop. He gave me a Penance of five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys. The way he said it almost made me chuckle in the confessional, too: “For your Penance, say the Our Father and the Hail Mary [4-5 second pause] five times each.” This past weekend, I received the same Penance from our Associate Pastor, a newly ordained Priest who is 65 years old.
 
In return for complete forgiveness for my sins what could be hard?
maggiec
 
I never got any really “harsh” penances, maybe a decade of the rosary at the most. But I recall once in college talking with a friend, when out of the blue he said, “Well, only one more week on my penance.” “One more week?” I asked, “What was the penance?” “No dating for 2 weeks,” he said. I never went to confession to his priest.

JimG
 
BEST penance: Harsh? No. Challenging? Yes:

Read all the citations in the New Testament pertaining to St. Peter and find out how this capricious, impetuous man became a saint who accepted martyrdom for the love of Christ.

I think I’m still working on that one. And every time I read anything about Peter in Scripture, I find myself meditating on that point . . . Penance and conversion are really the same thing, aren’t they? And they never end. The cock crowed. “You know I love you.”
 
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Brain:
go to adoration 5 times for a half-houri have not yet completed it, im not sure if i need to, thst was at another parish and my pastor told me when i told him that i had not completed it, he said the penance was unreasonable. so i dont know, i go to adoration whenever i can anyway…
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Unless you have extraordinary constraints in your life, that doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. It sounds like a pivilege.
 
Wonderful “penance” – when I made my general confession, the priest who received it assigned as penance an hour of thanksgiving in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Since it was the fourth day of a full week (7 days) of retreat in total silence and solitude, this “penance” was perfect joy! I’ll never forget it. I had the impression that the sacrament of penance was perfunctory and tedious in the Catholic Church, and my first Catholic experience with confession was ANYTHING but perfunctory. (I had been an Episcopalian, where the Sacrament of Penance is usually handled more personally and more formally than in the average Catholic parish.
 
I returned to the Catholic Church after 20 some years…along with all the sins I could not have remembered over that time…I had a long penance of many Hail Marys and Our Fathers and Glory Be’s
Then the Priest did something I didn’t expect, he put his hand on mine and said…welcome home child:) the tears just started rolling down my face…it was a very wonderfull expierence and I thank the Lord I finally found my way back, so in a nutshell, my penance has become my passion…“to keep the Lord in my life forever”:yup:
God Bless,
Kayla
 
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