Is assigning penance to yourself wrong?

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Is assigning penance to yourself wrong? Can you give it to yourself or only a priest can give you penance. If you decide for example that for 1 week you will not eat meat or give up on your favourite music or pleasures, or that you will say a number of prayer everyday is it OK or is it wrong?
 
Sure you can assign yourself penance, but Confession is still required to be absolved of mortal sins. Voluntary penance is an act of contrition, 🙂
 
cristyd said:
Is assigning penance to yourself wrong? Can you give it to yourself or only a priest can give you penance. If you decide for example that for 1 week you will not eat meat or give up on your favourite music or pleasures, or that you will say a number of prayer everyday is it OK or is it wrong?
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It is not at all wrong; in fact, it can be a great idea if done in a healthy way. Two considerations, though:
  1. It’s much better to take up a practice like this under the guidance of your priest or spiritual director.
  2. You must never think that your own penance is somehow “necessary” for graces or salvation in the same way that sacramental confession and absolution is. Occasionally over-scrupulous people try to assign themselves bonus penance after confession because they never feel like they can obtain true absolution of their sins without jumping through extra hoops. From the way you phrased your question, I admit, I wonder if you’re not in danger of a bit of over-scrupulosity. You should never let private devotional practices like fasting distort your proper understanding of the theology of personal salvation and of the sacraments. That goes back to point (1) though, and why you may want to talk to your priest or spiritual director. 🙂
 
cristyd said:
Is assigning penance to yourself wrong? Can you give it to yourself or only a priest can give you penance. If you decide for example that for 1 week you will not eat meat or give up on your favourite music or pleasures, or that you will say a number of prayer everyday is it OK or is it wrong?
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Wrong? No it is right! It is absolutely what **everyone **should be doing, and does not require a spiritual director at all!

The Confessor **never **as a general rule assigns you all your penance. Never ever, you are **expected **to add to your penances. You are expected to be able to do so without hand holding, and be responsible that way.

Penances became lighter in Confession to prevent people from being scared away, not because you do not in fact owe a much larger amount of penance. It has gone in fact too far that way.
 
cristyd said:
Is assigning penance to yourself wrong? Can you give it to yourself or only a priest can give you penance. If you decide for example that for 1 week you will not eat meat or give up on your favourite music or pleasures, or that you will say a number of prayer everyday is it OK or is it wrong?
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You are performing a act of mortification rather than assigning yourself penance. Mortification is self-inflicted privitation.
Penance is a necessary action for forgiveness, penance is reperation to God for offences committed against Him. Penance is a requirement of Absolution.
Whatever definition is used keep doing what you are doing. It is a outstanding method of spiritual growth!
 
While I don’t want to get into an alleged apparition that has not been approved, Pope John Paul II said that there is nothing wrong with one message that came from there - **Repent,
Convert, Fast, Pray and do Penance. **
 
It is not a bad idea to assign yourself penance. We do it for Lent, and others choose to do it throughout the year. It’s a good way to bring the body to submission to the will of God and keeping it in alignment and pure against the temptations of the fallible flesh. However, there are such penances that can be harmful in the way they are used. The penances you described are relatively harmless, but any penance, if used for the wrong reason can be harmful to the soul. If the penance is used only for your good, it can cause pride and bring you further away from God. Pride is very dangerous for the soul as it makes us into our own god.

The saints used such penances as hair shirts, cilices, and other uncomfortable disciplines that were approved only by their spiritual directors and used under careful observation so as to make sure psychological harm wasn’t established. These disciplines are not used as much today because of the prevalence of depression and other disorders of the mind. I know of a few traditional Roman Catholic monasteries who continue to use them such as the Carmel of Valparaiso, NE and the Carmel of Elysburg, PA. That’s the reason these orders are so strict as to who is allowed to enter because you must be psychologically healthy and know how to use common sense in these disciplines. 🙂
 
Penance in the lives of the saints went beyond their call to duty, it’s like a marriage that your really happy in, you want to do something extreme, so as to express your profound love…as servants to God what can we truely give Him but ourselves, Jesus sacrificed himself as Penance to the Father. so following in His footsteps, would be as St. Paul says: beating our bodies into submission, more so controlling all the Passions, and in chasity giving of ourselves within the true sacrifice of penance back to God. It is a sweet gift in Gods eyes. (but as only through Grace which can alone be given within the Sacrament of Penance.) So yes given sentence to your unruly passions through penance is a way of mortification, and God is indeed pleased…yet you need only keep that between you and the Almighty…for Holy is His Name.:juggle:
 
Always do penance under the direction of your spiritual director or pastor. Also, you must be in the State of Grace for your penance to have any value.
 
cristyd said:
Is assigning penance to yourself wrong? Can you give it to yourself or only a priest can give you penance. If you decide for example that for 1 week you will not eat meat or give up on your favourite music or pleasures, or that you will say a number of prayer everyday is it OK or is it wrong?
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I think it depends on what you consider penance. Certainly penance given in the Sacrament of Penance by a Priest in Confession is obligatory to expiate the guilt of sins. Now if you were to do more than what the Priest required - of course its not a bad thing. In fact its a good thing. Confession is always necessary for Mortal sins to be forgiven. Giving yourself a penance for them doesnt get you absolution. Only a Priest can give you absolution which is what we are all after. Penance merely expiates the Guilt for the sin. Stain remains from all mortal sins - hense the need for Acts of Charity and Penance and offering Sufferings and Sacrifices. So you can look at it this way - Say you commit a mortal sin and you are sorry for it and you repent and you go to confession and recieve penance from the Priest. All that means is that GOD isnt going to send you to hell for it. Does that mean that poof we are pure? No , it doesnt. If it was a really bad mortal sin we may still have stain on our soul even though we are no longer responsible for the guilt and so from that point on - our acts of Charity and Virtue and Our Sacrifices and sufferings offered to GOD little by little the Stain is washed away. If by the end of our life our Virtues have washed the Stain of Sin from our souls - we may be able to go straight to heaven. If not - we may have to go to purgatory for a time because of the stains of forgiven mortal sin.

Pax
 
Thank you very much for all your replies. I see many of you told me that the penance can’t replace the confession. I just wanted to say that I know this and i would never think of not confessing a mortal sin.
My question was about some penance that you would assing to yourself for you small venial sins or some bad habits that you have.
 
cristyd said:
Thank you very much for all your replies. I see many of you told me that the penance can’t replace the confession. I just wanted to say that I know this and i would never think of not confessing a mortal sin.
My question was about some penance that you would assing to yourself for you small venial sins or some bad habits that you have.
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Well living your faith requires us to all do penance. The Church has the pentitential Season of Lent with Mandatory Penance only because in her wisdom - Holy Mother the Church knows that we probably wouldnt do it voluntarily. But its better to do penance voluntarily. And better still to do penance known only to GOD and yourself. All of this is scriptural.

pax
 
Robert_Burns said:
Well living your faith requires us to all do penance. The Church has the pentitential Season of Lent with Mandatory Penance only because in her wisdom - Holy Mother the Church knows that we probably wouldnt do it voluntarily. But its better to do penance voluntarily. And better still to do penance known only to GOD and yourself. All of this is scriptural.

pax
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Thanks for your reply.
 
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