Penance!

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Nelka

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Why don’t priests dish out huge penances anymore?

I’ve never been told to say 100 Hail Mary’s or two decades of the Rosary.

I always get one prayer.

I know some may say it serves the same purpose but has anyone been given a chapter in the Bible to read or something like that?

The only different one that I had was when I was single, the old priest told me to pray to St. Joseph and ask him for assistance.

I’m not asking for your sins just if you’ve been given a strange penance.
 
My priest normally suggests sitting in front of the tabernacle, focusing on the Passion of Christ and saying to myself, “Jesus come into my heart” or “Let me live for You” ten or fifteen times. It always helps me to refocus my attention to Jesus!
 
Though typically for penance I’m given a Hail Mary, an Our Father and the Glory Be to say, recently our priest had me read and say St. Francis’ prayer, which was very appropriate for the confession. But a pleasant surprise nonetheless.
 
My priest generally gives a penance to pray and meditate upon the Hail Mary or the Our Father, and to say a sincere Act of Contrition. Sometimes he asks additionally that I pray for ‘your pastor’s intention’ (which he doesn’t name) or pray ‘for the sick of our parish’, or something similar. I am particularly moved when he asks for these heartfelt prayers or additional prayers because they cause me to be more aware of my sinfulness and the mercy of our Lord in his forgiveness.
 
My confessor doesn’t give the 3 Hail Mary’s or 4 Our Father penances. Some that I have gotten from him… Deny yourself something for a day and offer it in thanksgiving for the things God has done for you or for XYZ person; go bask in the quiet before Mass and let God speak to you (that confession had to do with lack of quiet); spend a few minutes in prayer for XYZ person / asking God to increase your capacity to love him /thanking him for the ways he shows his love in your life; spend some time reading this weekend’s Gospel and put yourself in the place of [one of the characters] and let God speak to you…

I know some people don’t like these open-ended penances, but i’ve grown to appreciate them. I think they do have the desired effect of turning thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes more towards God.

A blog post…
Show me the good

I have a related story that I have shared here before…but it’s been a while. Our previous pastor always gave a penance of “one Our Father”. No matter who, no matter what. I had taken my boys to confession, and after all of us had had a few minutes to say our penance, I leaned over to my 11-year-old and asked him if he was ready to go. “I’ve got about 58 more minutes, mom,” was the reply. Apparently he had gotten the One Hour Father. 😃
 
Nelka said:
I’ve never been told to say 100 Hail Mary’s or two decades of the Rosary.

I always get one prayer.

I.
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I never heard of anyone being given 100 Hail Mary’s which is not really much, less than a rosary. 1-2 decades is hardly an enormous penance.

You are given the penance the priest judges will be most helpful to you at this time. Since he did this in the person of Christ, accept it with humble thanks and do it, without worrying that it is too much or too little.
 
acadian said:
My
I have a related story that I have shared here before…but it’s been a while. Our previous pastor always gave a penance of “one Our Father”. No matter who, no matter what. I had taken my boys to confession, and after all of us had had a few minutes to say our penance, I leaned over to my 11-year-old and asked him if he was ready to go. “I’ve got about 58 more minutes, mom,” was the reply. Apparently he had gotten the One Hour Father.
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I simply must share this with our pastor who always gives this penance for first confession.

and I like the story he tells about the little girl who was crying when he came out of the confessional. Why are you crying?
The priest told me to say 3 Hail Mary’s
Well, that is not a lot.
Father I only know ONE!
 
I recently had an RCIA class with a priest that claimed that he always asked “Is this penance okay with you?” because when you go to confession, your sins are immediately absolved. Penance is something that you can show your full devotion to the church.
 
Funnily enough I went to confession today and was given one decade of the Rosary, the Annunciation.

Never had more than one prayer and less than one week after I start this thread it happens.

It was nice.

:yup:
 
I went to confession the other day. I was discussing how much I doubt God and how I worry that I won’t be good enough for Him, during which I got upset and started crying. I think the priest felt bad for me because all I had to do was pray “God I believe in You, give me peace” and spend some time reflecting. He also said that God won’t give me peace until finals are over with, but to not get too stressed :p. I feel like I got a lot more out of this as penance than I would from some hefty guilt trip.
 
We have a priest at our parish who usually gives a Holy Hour for a penance. The other usually gives a psalm to read. 🙂
 
When went recently, I was told to go and pray and share with God all that I am thankful for, and specifically to thank Him for His Son, Jesus.
 
I find that having a spiritual director who is also my confessor can sometimes lead to “bigger” penances! 😉

My latest penance was to spend an extra half an hour or so everyday of Advent in prayer, working on some specific issues.
This is “in addition” to my normal prayer routine, which is pretty vigorous already! :eek:

My SD compared it to an athlete (a baseball pitcher, was the analogy he used).
He said that that in addition to a regular workout, a pitcher may spend extra time everyday concentrating on the core muscles that they use when pitching,
to help prevent strain, and to strenghten the muscles so that one could have more power & control.

Really think about complaining about “light penances”-
be careful what you pray for, you just might get it!! 😛
 
It is important to understand that penance is not “punishment.” The purpose of our penance is to really help us to overcome our faults. For the worst sin I ever committed the priest, my regular confessor, gave me 1 Our Father to thank God that I was able to confess it.

Another time for simple venial sins he asked me to make the Stations of the Cross, slowly.

Usually I am asked to say a prayer that is it. But the idea is that when you do your penance you should be meditating on the loving mercy of God who has forgiven you. I see my penance as an act of thanksgiving.

Another time I was given an Our Father to say slowly. I must have really got into my meditation since it took me 45 minutes to say it.
 
I’m normally sent to just pray in front of the tabernacle for 5 minutes or something. At least, that’s what I got last time. It was a pleasant surprise because the whole night before I was thinkin about just praying in front of the tabernacle for a long time. I spent a whole hour in front of the tabernacle. The Lord heard my desire and gave me such a lovely gift.
 
Nelka said:
Wow! A Holy hour? What do you have to do during that?

:eek:
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A Holy Hour is a devotion where you spend an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament, usually exposed in a Monstrance or else hidden in the Tabernacle, adoring, talking with Him, prayerfully reading a spiritual work, or just being silent in His Presence. It is actually incredible and recommended by many saints. Many ppl sign up for Adoration once a week and some ppl are able to go every day. Remember the night of Our Lord’s agony, how he found the apostles sleeping, and rebuked them for not even being able to spend an hour awake with Him? 🙂
 
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