Opus Dei

[Crusader]

The Barrister:

baltobetsy beat me to it! Matt’s a great guy, good Catholic, and his Unofficial Opus Dei Faq is well-written and covers most of the basics.

I don’t need to join Opus Dei as I have already received my Fifth Degree in the Knights and have achieved the rank of “Jesuit Assassin.”

Are you speaking about the Knights of Columbus? I thought there were three degrees, plus the patriotic fouth degree?

 

[johnnycatholic]

I think the ODAN site is bad news as well if you read thier section on corporeal punishment they say that the official position of the church is that it can cause pride which can lead to people carrying it to unhealthy levels. I can’t find anything that the church teaches that indicates that. The only thing I could find is that it should be guided by a spiritual advisor.

And for nucatholic, it’s mortification not desecration.

 

[AquinasXVI]

Fellas:

Guess who started mortification? None other than Jesus Christ himself. “Prayer and Fasting”, the 40 days in the desert, prayer vigil all nighters.

Sanosuke as much as I agree with your reasoning of the toughening part, the very popular quote of Nietzsche is deeply flawed. Herpes doesn’t necessary kill but it doesn’t make one stronger. Sex before marriage doesn’t kill on the spot but doesn’t make the fornicator stronger. Pardon the drastic examples. I used to use this quote a lot in college until I found out that Nietzsche was completely nuts. That quote sounds energizing but cannot be universally applied.

Opus Dei. What a blessing this charism to the church.

in XT.

 

[Chris_Jacobsen]

Physical mortification is practiced in our society. But, it’s not practiced for the love of God, but for self-serving reasons.

People diet, instead of fast. An example is the woman who lets her self go after she is married. After she gets divorced, she diets, exercises and does other physical changes to make her self attractive. She does this so that she can attract another man.

 

[Subrosa]

Corporal mortification is an ancient way of doing penance. In the bible you can find passages refering to its practice. It has two methods: wearing irritating sackcloth, or wearing a sackcloth, or cilice (silis) around your thigh, and using a small whip called a “discipline” across your back. It should not draw blood.

Gen 37:34, 1 Kings 21:27-29, 2 Kings 22:19, Dan 9:3, Ps 69:7-11, Is 22:12-14, Joel 1:13-14

The practice of mortifying oneself was began, as I understand it, by St. Paul. In 1 Cor 9:27, some translations use the word “mortify” in the passage.

So, I fight, not as beating the air: but, I mortify my body, and keep it in subjection; lest, perhaps, having proclaimed to others, I myself, should not be accepted.

mun.ca/rels/restmov/oracles4th/1cor.html (Last line of IX)

My NAB uses “train and drive”, fitting the context of the athletic analogy used by Paul. Other translations use other words including “discipline my body” and “beat my body.” But, I understand that “mortify” is used in the earliest translations of the epistle.

Other New Testament passages that are pertinant are… Jas 4:8-10. Rev 11:3, Rom 8:13, Gal 5:24, Col 3:5

 

[Augustine]

nucatholic:

Is not one’s body the temple of the Holy Spirit? Should we then desecrate the temple of the holy Spirit?

Should you give in to the wills of the temple of the Holy Spirit? Oftentimes don’t we find ourselves doing the will of the flesh instead of the will of the spirit? Sometimes the will of the spirit has to be forced upon the flesh, contradicting its wishes of comfort and pleasure.