Have you ever received an unusual penance?

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Joannm said:
To me that seems a bit excessive for a penance. How long would it take you to complete the penance? It took me two months to read that book, I mean to really READ it, not just read through it.
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It took me more than two months to read it! Just pray for us sinners…:o
 
I had an interesting event happen this past weekend after reconciliation that just now popped into my head.

Evidently the priest gave the same penance to everyone and it was to meditate on the gospel for that day, Saturday.

My darling wife and I were in the chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament saying our penance and a woman in a wheelchair wheeled over to me and told me that she didn’t know which gospel to meditate on and she needed to know because it was her penance.

She had one of the missalettes that one finds in the pews that don’t have the weekday or Saturday readings, only the Sundays. I told her I assumed that the priest meant the Saturday gospel, not the Sunday gospel since the vigil is actually Sunday’s readings. Since I had read the Saturday readings earlier in the day I was able to provide her with the short version of the gospel. Her eyes lit up when she heard what it was about so it must have struck a note.

She thanked me and wheeled off.

This is a fine example about how our sin and absolution affects other members of Christ’s body, the Church. There is no victimless sin and our salvation truly affects others.

My wife was grinning and shaking her head. She really enjoys my goings on because she is the cause. It’s her fault. She prays for me every day.

Eddie Mac
 
Eddie_Mac said:
I had an interesting event happen this past weekend after reconciliation that just now popped into my head.

Evidently the priest gave the same penance to everyone and it was to meditate on the gospel for that day, Saturday.

My darling wife and I were in the chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament saying our penance and a woman in a wheelchair wheeled over to me and told me that she didn’t know which gospel to meditate on and she needed to know because it was her penance.

She had one of the missalettes that one finds in the pews that don’t have the weekday or Saturday readings, only the Sundays. I told her I assumed that the priest meant the Saturday gospel, not the Sunday gospel since the vigil is actually Sunday’s readings. Since I had read the Saturday readings earlier in the day I was able to provide her with the short version of the gospel. Her eyes lit up when she heard what it was about so it must have struck a note.

She thanked me and wheeled off.

This is a fine example about how our sin and absolution affects other members of Christ’s body, the Church. There is no victimless sin and our salvation truly affects others.

My wife was grinning and shaking her head. She really enjoys my goings on because she is the cause. It’s her fault. She prays for me every day.

Eddie Mac
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*Oh I love your story. How awesome! Equally awesome is that you and your wife go together. My dh and I go together when he has time off work, but he works weekends when confession often is scheduled, so…sometimes it’s just me and the kids. I think there is something mighty powerful when a couple goes together…

Your story is very inspiring, and I agree, our sins and penance can help us to help others. :)*
 
JSSebastianoP said:
Fascinating (I find it so as I’m a bit of a polyglot myself) …

Pax.
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More Typo correction time. Actually, looked up the grammar.
joH’a’, batlh’a’ vavma’duq je puqloDlIduq je qa’lIduq pInobqaqu’taHqu’. wIHar.

I’m also a bit of a polyglot; Klingon is interesting because, while a conlang (constructed language), it has a very different structural pattern from my other languages of use: English, Spanish and Russian. It’s one of two conlangs I’ve used, if one doesn’t count Church Slavonic… which is, essentially, a conlang. Further Klingo-geekiness should probably be in a different thread… over in backyard fence.
 
Aramis said:
More Typo correction time. Actually, looked up the grammar.
joH’a’, batlh’a’ vavma’duq je puqloDlIduq je qa’lIduq pInobqaqu’taHqu’. wIHar.

I’m also a bit of a polyglot; Klingon is interesting because, while a conlang (constructed language), it has a very different structural pattern from my other languages of use: English, Spanish and Russian. It’s one of two conlangs I’ve used, if one doesn’t count Church Slavonic… which is, essentially, a conlang. Further Klingo-geekiness should probably be in a different thread… over in backyard fence.
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Is the thing you find strange about it a structure that’s agglutinative (It seems agglutinative, like Greek, German, or Japanese)? I’m admitting to knowing absolutely nothing about Klingon - I really only know English and Italian with decent skill in Russian and Japanese… I didn’t think of Curch Slavonic as a conlang… Anyway - I think it was an interesting penance and I wish that, as a whole, we knew preists better so they could give us more appropriate penances…

Pax,
 
JSSebastianoP said:
Is the thing you find strange about it a structure that’s agglutinative (It seems agglutinative, like Greek, German, or Japanese)? I’m admitting to knowing absolutely nothing about Klingon - I really only know English and Italian with decent skill in Russian and Japanese… I didn’t think of Curch Slavonic as a conlang… Anyway - I think it was an interesting penance and I wish that, as a whole, we knew preists better so they could give us more appropriate penances…

Pax,
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Church Slavonic was derived by picking the common terms of several early slavic languages. It’s the glue that held the slavic languages close, in that it approximated all of them, and was very rigidly used, and used frequently… it turned into a combination of liturgical and common tongue, whilst never being the vulgar tongue, yet remaining intelligible to most of them.

Yes, it was a good penance… it made me think about the Glory Be in a new light, examining the meaning.

And Tlhingo-hol is interesting in part because of the agglutinative nature, in part because of the lack of prepositions and adjectives…
 
I heard a story of one penance was to kneel at the entrance to the church and take a step forward for each Hail Mary or Our Father until they reached the tabernacle and then prostrate themselves. Talk about a strict penance, but sometimes I guess that’s what we need.
 
Matariel said:
I heard a story of one penance was to kneel at the entrance to the church and take a step forward for each Hail Mary or Our Father until they reached the tabernacle and then prostrate themselves. Talk about a strict penance, but sometimes I guess that’s what we need.
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That sounds like an unforgettable experience.
 
Our priest is very creative. I never recived Our father or Hail Mary. But yesterday he was too creative.🙂 I was assigned pilgrimage to nearest place of pilgrimage. On foot.😦 It is 65km. :eek:I crave for very old and noncreative priest. :D(Sorry for my english. It is my second language.)
 
chalibda said:
Our priest is very creative. I never recived Our father or Hail Mary. But yesterday he was too creative.🙂 I was assigned pilgrimage to nearest place of pilgrimage. On foot.😦 It is 65km. :eek:I crave for very old and noncreative priest. :D(Sorry for my english. It is my second language.)
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Your English is good! Keep trying - you’ll get it! 😉

Pax.
 
chalibda said:
Our priest is very creative. I never recived Our father or Hail Mary. But yesterday he was too creative.🙂 I was assigned pilgrimage to nearest place of pilgrimage. On foot.😦 It is 65km. :eek:I crave for very old and noncreative priest. :D(Sorry for my english. It is my second language.)
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hahaha :DAw. Well, God will be your strength, good luck on your journey! 🙂
 
whatevergirl said:
That sounds like an unforgettable experience.
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I’d sure be making some MIGHTY big steps in between them there prayers! :eek: And I certainly wouldn’t want to have to do it in our BIG Cathedral - instead I’d be hoping it was in another of our local churches which is kinda sorta ‘in the round’, so the aisles are much shorter!
 
The most unusual penance so far was I was told, whenever I am feeling tempted in a particular area, to play “Bible Roulette.” Of course Fr. didn’t use those words, but after growing up Pentecostal I thought to myself, “You want me to play Bible Roulette!?” However, I did it and it was actually effective. Every verse I turned to reminded me of a past experience that encouraged me not to give up or despair. Fr. also recommended doing the same thing with St. Faustina’s Diary. 🙂
 
LilyM said:
I’d sure be making some MIGHTY big steps in between them there prayers! :eek: And I certainly wouldn’t want to have to do it in our BIG Cathedral - instead I’d be hoping it was in another of our local churches which is kinda sorta ‘in the round’, so the aisles are much shorter!
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Yeah, lol…imagine if your local parish was St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and you were given this penance. 😃 It would have a lasting impression no doubt! 😉
 
MrsHall said:
The most unusual penance so far was I was told, whenever I am feeling tempted in a particular area, to play “Bible Roulette.” Of course Fr. didn’t use those words, but after growing up Pentecostal I thought to myself, “You want me to play Bible Roulette!?” However, I did it and it was actually effective. Every verse I turned to reminded me of a past experience that encouraged me not to give up or despair. Fr. also recommended doing the same thing with St. Faustina’s Diary. 🙂
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I like this, but why that title? I might be dense this morning…I am not seeing the connection?
 
chalibda said:
Our priest is very creative. I never recived Our father or Hail Mary. But yesterday he was too creative.🙂 I was assigned pilgrimage to nearest place of pilgrimage. On foot.😦 It is 65km. :eek:I crave for very old and noncreative priest. :D(Sorry for my english. It is my second language.)
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That is worse than reading the Diary of St Faustina…:eek:
 
Joannm said:
I was asked to bake a cake for my family once.

But my strangest penance was to say three things good about myself every day for a week and also to go out and do something nice for myself, like get a pedicure or manicure or my hair done. It was at a time when I was really putting myself down.
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I once received a similar penance. The priest told me I take life too seriously and to go out and have a good time. I was rather surprised, as this particular priest does not have a reputation for being easygoing, but is seen as very traditional and rather strict.

I did as instructed and had a very good time with an understanding Catholic friend who was more than happy to help me with my penance.🙂
 
CB_Catholic said:
I once received a similar penance. The priest told me I take life too seriously and to go out and have a good time. I was rather surprised, as this particular priest does not have a reputation for being easygoing, but is seen as very traditional and rather strict.

I did as instructed and had a very good time with an understanding Catholic friend who was more than happy to help me with my penance.🙂
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I reeeeeally like that penance. 😃
 
I did get a slightly unusual albeit not hard penance today. I was to say one Our Father slowly out loud by myself. I was at the mall chapel so I could’t do that there. (Our diocese has a chapel in a local mall staffed by capuchin priests who offer confessions and have mass twice a day ad they have a table of free rosaries, bibles and other catholic litterature):cool: I stood under the awning of the Foleys or whatever it was that went out of business and said it there and ate my chocolate Mother Angelica says to reward yourself whenever you go to confession with ice cream or pizza. I always pick up a chocky on my way out whenever I visit the chapel out of the bowl of candy one of the voluteers brings.
 
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