Requesting Alternative Penance

[Jesus_123]

"For me prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look towards Heaven,
it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy."

• Saint Therese of Lisieux

**Saint Padre Pio **. . . the famed Holy Franciscan Stigmatist Priest of the 20th Century . . . called the Holy Prayer of the Rosary his “weapon” . . .

**. . . :coffeeread: . . . **

HE PRAYED CONTINUALLY:
THE CROSS AND** THE ROSARY** - by Joseph A. Pelletier
"The great gifts by which Padre Pio is so well known were not substitutes for the normal working of God’s saving grace. Like all of us, he needed the regular channels of grace- the Sacraments, Scripture, the Mass and private prayer. In fact, his need for prayer was very great, in direct proportion to the greatness of his mission and of the gifts received for the fulfillment of that mission. Prayer was for Padre Pio, as for us, the means of obtaining God’s help for avoiding sin and practicing the Christian virtues.

Padre Pio was chosen by God to teach and to remind the world of the redemptive value of Christian suffering. That is the divine purpose behind his mysterious, life-long illness, the long years of molestation by the devil, the tedious hours in the confessional and the** 50 years of atrocious pain in his hands and feet, his side, shoulders, and head**. God chose him to remind a world which had come to shudder at the very thought of pain and suffering that man is expected to share in the sufferings of Christ, after the manner of St. Paul: “ In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His body, the Church” (Col. 1:24. See also II Cor. 4:10-11).

Continual prayer was vital to Padre Pio because of the continual crosses that he was called to carry. This began in his very early youth. When he was only six years old, he would leave home early in the morning to go to the mountain to pasture two sheep owned by the family. He went with another child of his age. Rather than play, as his friend wanted to do, he made little crosses with twigs of wood and planted them in the ground. The remainder of the time he spent reciting the rosary. The cross-in many forms- and the rosary. These would be the two most representative things of Padre Pio’s life.

The **rosary **was part and parcel of Padre Pio’s love for the mother of Jesus. He used this prayer to maintain and nourish his love of Mary. But he also used it as a most powerful intercessory aid for obtaining from God the help that he needed for himself and that he sought for others.

The saintly Capuchin’s love of Mary and constant recourse to her through the rosary was based on the teaching and recommendations of the Church, for which he always had the greatest respect, also on his sense of faith, which was a gift of the Holy Spirit. His love for his heavenly mother and his confidence in the power of her intercession grew daily through what one priest has called, “the reality test”- the proof of experience.

As one would expect from someone so filled with the love of Mary and so convinced of the power of the rosary, Padre Pio recommended both to all who approached him and particularly to his “spiritual children” who sought his very special protection and help. He sent them all to the Mother of Jesus and told them to say the rosary every day.

Padre Pio’s example confirmed his words. He gave the example of private, personal use of the rosary, as well as public recitation of that prayer. Those who saw Padre Pio in what he called his free moments, as he walked from one place to another, will remember him holding the rosary to his breast and praying it as he walked. Father Eusebio of Castelpetroso, a Capuchin who was Padre Pio’s constant companion for five years, once decoyed him into revealing that **

• on a particular day he had said **60 rosaries ****of 15 decades. +

It must be remembered that Padre Pio slept at the most two or three hours a night, never continuously, and often he never slept at all. The precise number of rosaries he said each day, of course, is not the point. **The point is that he prayed the **rosary ****continually in his free moments.

It was one of Padre Pio’s joys to officiate at the recitation of the rosary and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the church. During the last years of his life when he could no longer officiate, he continued to attend faithfully, helped to the church by two brother Capuchins who supported him under each arm."​

. . . all for Jesus+
. . . thank You Blessed Lord+
. . . thank you Blessed Holy Mother Mary+
. . . thank you Blessed Holy St. Joseph+
. . . thank you Blessed Holy St. Francis+
. . . thank you Blessed Holy Mother Church+​

 

[HereticalTheist]

+HereticalTheist . . . there is a very real danger in your approach to Christianity and Catholicism . . .* as one who has shared on another thread that you just recently returned to the church after a long time away* . . . and that is that you are exhibiting in your dialogues a clear predeliction toward embracing the ancient heretical approach to Christ and His Church which is known as . . . “cafeteria Catholicism” . . . where an individual lifts up and establishes . . . themselves . . .as infinitely better than and above . . . God . . . and trusting in their own flawed judgment . . . they cherish and cling to the . . .“pick and choose” . . . method of belief . . . ignoring or casting aside whatever doesn’t please their sensibilities as members of the fallen race of sinful mankind . . . rather than humbly approaching the Kingdom of God and the salvation of one’s soul by our Wonderful Lord and our God as a . . . precious holy gift . . . to be explored and discovered . . . and prayerfully learned . . . in the Shadow of the Holy Cross . . . so terribly stained with our Saviour’s blood . . at the tragically torn and wounded nail-scarred feet of our . . . Crucified Lord . . . Jesus **. . . the Blessed Christ . . .

. . . all for Jesus+​

Due respect friend, but did you convert all at once, come to believe everything the Church teaches overnight and nevermore have misgivings? Please. Be realistic. Furthermore, the there is marvelous room in the Church for adopting differing views on many questions. Some believe that if they die wearing a brown scapular they get out of Purgatory instantly. I believe that this belief is pious superstition. Until the Church solemnly declares otherwise, I will go on thinking so.

 

[JRKH]

Due respect friend, but did you convert all at once, come to believe everything the Church teaches overnight and nevermore have misgivings? Please. Be realistic. Furthermore, the there is marvelous room in the Church for adopting differing views on many questions. Some believe that if they die wearing a brown scapular they get out of Purgatory instantly. I believe that this belief is pious superstition. Until the Church solemnly declares otherwise, I will go on thinking so.

All too often we find people who confuse personal devotions with dogmatic declarations.

Also I would mention that, there can be room for “accepting a teaching” based upon the authority of the Church to declare it (such as the Marian dogmas) without having yet come to a full understanding of it. (If indeed one EVER comes to understand the particular teaching).

We are all on a wonderful, marvelous journey.

Peace
James

 

[puzzleannie]

I Could I tell the priest this and ask for alternative penance…that seems to be conspicuous and absurdly self-centered and contrary to the spirit of repentance to me! I would likely just have to learn to say a Rosary…but then my penance would seem rote, and half-hearted, and that also seems absurd and contrary to the spirit of repentance.

it is not wrong I don’t think to ask for another penance, but there is a positive value in the humility which first allowed me to enter the confessional in the first place, continuing in acceptance of the penance, which signals I am also accepting the other direction the priest gives me, along with the absolution. since it comes from Christ acting through the priest that is double reason to accept the penance, then simply ask the Holy Spirit to make the prayer all it should be, I frequently ask the Holy Spirit to direct my prayer so what comes out of my mouth will be more than my often rote unthinking words.