Ideas for mortification

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I’ve been looking into mortification and I’m not sure I can do the slashing of my back or gouging out my eyes thing (thank you internet for having those images :roll_eyes:)

Do you have any ideas of what can be done? What do you do?

I’ve been fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays. I offer up my time at the gym, because I don’t really like doing that but I know it’s healthy and makes me stronger. Can that even be offered up as mortification/suffering?

Thank you and God Bless.
 
Sounds like mortification to me. It can be little things, like refraining from dessert a couple nights a week or not listening to music when you’re riding in your car. It doesn’t matter what or how great our acts are, what matters is the love and reverence with which they are done.

-Fr ACEGC
 
Leaving the little additions to our foods, like, don’t add salt or ketchup or cheese or sour cream, that is a small mortification.
 
That reminds me of a story Mark Twain told. About a a couple guys who got the flu and were very sick. The one guy was a drunk, smoked and ran after women. The doctor told him he had to give up booze. stop smoking and chasing women. Sure enough he got better! The other guy was the preachers son and he didn’t drink, smoke or chase women. He died! Mark Twain said it was no wonder. The guy had no vices to give up when adversity came. He neglected his vices!
So give up sins but not everything that is bad for you! You may need it to throw overboard when adversity comes. Love Mark Twain!
 
If you had some spare time you might find joining a long queue or two would suffice.

Years ago I’d ask my father in law a question but I wasn’t a Catholic then.
 
You know it occurs to me that a very tiny stone in your shoe can be extremely irritating, that’s if you’re seriously looking for a compromise.
But I’d agree with others here that small sacrifices carried out with love are probably all that’s necessary.

Weeding the garden is possibly my nemesis.
 
St Faustina would pray the Divine Mercy chaplet with her arms outstretched, she called this her little mortification.

She had others too.
 
Cold showers
sleeping on floor
reducing carbs/snacking/sweets
no social media/music
 
I could never sleep on the floor because I could not get off the floor unless I called the fire department. I will stick to something I can control like less sweets.
 
I don’t advocate the physical abuse of the body as our bodies are our temples and we should treat them accordingly. There are so many other ways to mortify ourselves other than cause bodily pain and suffering. I know that there those that will not agree with me, but that’s OK. At the same time, I thought the Church now frowns on such mortification unless with the oversight of a spiritual director.
 
Yes, the Church does frown on extreme mortifications. A good spiritual director can advise.
 
Listening to an entire speech by Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or Bernie Sanders. Painful man, painful.😉😜
 
Faithfully living the second as well as the first command of Jesus which together sum up Jesus’s requirements, and all the commandments.
Jesus said that to treat others with practical love, which God also accepts as love offered to Him … Matthew 25 verses 31 to 46. He shows clearly in these verses that practical love for others is his ultimate criteria for judging souls.

The hardest mortification, hardest penance, can be to give kindness and assistance to other people, especially when you don’t feel like smiling, being respectful, helping others in little or large ways etc.

Daily life brings innumerable opportunities to act towards others with appropriate and generous kindness, regardless of cost to our pride, our desire for easy entertainment, our self- will, and so on.

Jesus summed up the commandments with love God above all, love others … in these do we find the most valuable form of mortification, the more so if we do so willingly and humbly.

May God bless us and assist us in living His commands of love in times that it is challenging as well as in times when when our hearts flow with warmth.
 
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Yes absolutely agree. Never understood it. God loves us and loves our physical bodies (as much as our soul) as it makes up us. Why would Hewant us to physically hurt ourselves?

I love my husband’s body and grieve when it is hurt. Why would God be different?
 
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