Reparation and penance

[YehoiakhinEx232]

One of the biggest problems I struggle with is frustration at the state of the Church and the world, and I think something that will really help with this problem is developing a devotion to the Passion and crucifixion of Our Lord, offering up prayers of reparation and penance for the sins of the world. I think it would really help me detach myself from the world, and focus on Christ, as well as become a more charitable person.

What do you think? Does anyone have any suggestions, tips, and advice on this? Any useful articles, videos, or books on this?

 

[Fauken]

Do you pray the stations of the cross during Lent? You could try praying them every Friday. If you consecrate yourself to Mary, you could choose to renew it on the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows. Perhaps you may also be interested in Passonist spirituality?

 

[simonjosiah1]

the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary are very powerful

 

[Edward_H]

We could learn to offer every annoyance, point of friction, effort against our desire, we make every day, for all of these concerns/sins/

Waking up
Taking the trash out.
Redoing some work.
Paying the bills.
Dealing with rude bosses.
waiting in lines
being dropped from a long waiting time on the phone from a service rep/phone menu.
Changing the diaper when you’d rather search on line for sports scores.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

All good suggestions on here. One more I would add, that doesn’t take very much time per day (especially when you learn the prayers by heart, which is not hard) is the St. Bridget’s 12-year prayers (7 prayers on the Passion).

There are also a set of St. Bridget’s prayers for 1 year (15 prayers on the Passion) but they are a significantly greater time commitment as there are twice as many prayers, they are longer, and not easy to memorize.

 

[hymin]

The Angelic Doctor wrote, “Then when he says, seek the things that are above, he draws his conclusion about the end: first, that a person should aim at some principal end; and second, that he should judge other things in the light of that end.” (Col, Super ad Colossenses, C.3 L. 1, 137)

We ought to understand and aim at Charity. It is good to understand Charity from the Spirit who effected St. Thomas Aquinas in his Explanation of the Ten Commandments (found online). With a heart set in the principal end of Charity, we are able to obtain light to the viewpoint on other causes which are only temporal and of fate. Not to disregard penance, (vis. the virtue of mind to perform generous almsgiving, fasting, and prayer) which the Council of Trent says ought to occur always in the Christian life.

 

[Trishie]

“A Christian should always remember that the value of his good works is not based on their number and excellence but on the love of God which prompts him to do these things.” (Saint John of the Cross)

In our penances, in our prayers, in our practical acts of kindness towards others,
please grant that we are always motivated by Your love.

 

[Trishie]

Reparation through suffering

Father of all peoples, please receive from all ages the sufferings of the innocent and the contrite, in reparation for the sins of the guilty!

Behold—
the bereaved and the deserted…the hopeless and the despairing…the displaced and the poverty-stricken…the injured and the physically sick…the mentally and the emotionally ill…the retarded and the incapacitated…the frustrated and the afraid…the isolated and the elderly…the addicted, the imprisoned and the persecuted. Behold those young, to old, sinned against by injustice, misunderstanding, abuse and neglect…those whose hearts this world has broken…those crushed by remorse and racked by misery and sin…those with lives empty of purpose—
all persons with suffering within or with suffering imposed from an external source!

Please receive their pain, grief, and loneliness, their weariness, anxiety or desperation—in conjunction with the spiritual, mental and physical anguish of Your Son, as reparation for all the sins of humankind.

Father, through Your love of Jesus, please bless and welcome the sufferers! Hold them gently in Your arms and comfort them. Heal them, claim them, and fill them with Your life and peace.

Please accept all the undirected suffering of those who do not know God. Receive this suffering in atonement for all offenses against You and any person. Allow Your mercy, compassion, and power to release humankind from bondage to sin, suffering, and death.

You grant me compassion to desire to bring their pain to Your redeeming grace. Therefore, gather their tears, those fallen and those unshed. Draw them up into yourself through the sun of divine love, to purify them as a rain of mercy to fall upon the parched souls of humankind. Thus, we may grow in Your love and the earth may be filled with life and fruitfulness pleasing to Your divine purposes.

Heavenly Father, out of all the cries and moans and tears, hidden or revealed, from earth’s beginning, please hear our prayer. Joined as one with Your Son we all cry out—“My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” Of those who torment and those who pass by uncaring and unseeing, we say—“Father, forgive them. They know not what they do and fail to do!” With Him, we then cry trustingly—“Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit!”

Our Father, please listen to our prayer, in union with Your beloved Son whom You raised from death to everlasting glory and joy. In Him who bore all humankind’s sins, please receive all suffering, struggle, and sorrow that sin has brought upon our race.

Anything separated from God is meaningless, but in God, all becomes renewed and holy. Please accept from Jesus’ hands the suffering of every person throughout time, held within His own redemptive suffering. This that the whole price of atonement is met, and harmony is restored to Creation in the eternal triumph of Your Kingdom. Thank You, God of our redemption!

 

[hymin]

properly speaking penance is a virtue of the will. However, forming your conscience with the true faith, the effect will be a right application of prayer, says Fr. Mitch Pacwa. For prayer to be done right - the will is generous in giving God all three forms of penance mentioned.

 

[hymin]

Sorry for the additional reply, but this might be helpful to someone.
“Penance results from faith, hope, and charity.” (STh III, q.85, a. 6, c.). Dr. Peter Kreeft in his book How to be Holy says that the act of abandonment to divine providence is an exercise of faith, hope, and charity. From abandonment by the prompting of God, a heart in operation is turned to will acts of penance. With the robust fear of the Lord, the soul wants to be a friend of God, who once thought itself the enemy (and has the potential to destroy his or herself or save his or herself [cf. Thomas Aquinas, Heb, C. 10 L. 4, 549]). It seeks the truth. It learns the faith of the Church and properly applies penance.

“Even the movement of fear proceeds from God’s act in turning the heart; wherefore it is written (Deuteronomy 5:29): “Who shall give them to have such a mind, to fear Me?” And so the fact that penance results from fear does not hinder its resulting from the act of God in turning the heart.” (STh III, q. 85, a. 5, rep. 3)