Sacrament of Reconciliation: Have your penances been wimpy?

[Lurch104]

ridesawhitehors:

Trelow:

You could eat your neighbor then mate with his dog and still only get one Our Father from father.QUOTE]

ewwwww… …

I once had a confessor assign a penance of meditating on the opposing virtue to my sin for a 1/2 hour a day, once a day for a week.
This was truely difficult, I did accomplish it, and it really helped.

It sounds to me like you have met a Legionaire of Christ. Those priests take the sacrament of reconcilliation seriously. Meditation on a virtue that is in opposition to your root sin is a standard of thiers.

Some wonderful advice I was recently given by Fr. John Hopkins of the Legion was to create a list of biblical passages that relate to the virtue in opposition to my root sin. This way, I have a ready table to reference when I need some inspiration (he reccomended a daily meditation for about 10 minutes).

I love the Legion!

 

[annemjones96]

romano:

Yes, mine have been pretty wimpish too – a single Our Father or the standard three Hail Marys. And not only that, but I do find a tendency in certain priests to actually make excuses for my sins instead of firmly telling me to get my act together. I go in hoping for a tough talking-to and dressing down, but instead hear stuff like: “Well, everybody does that. I wouldn’t worry about it” or “Well, it’s just something in your nature, your character.” Some priests act as if they are actually afraid to get tough.

I’ve found that too. In fact, in the parish I grew up in, there was one priest who was like that and gave lighter penances. The other would give you a talking too and a heavier penance if needed. He is the pastor and older. I remeber going to confession with our class and everyone waiting their turn would be praying harder that the younger priests confessional would be unoccupied first. The older priest tends to be long winded as well, so you could be in there a while as he went off into a story (this man has a story for every situation ). As a kid I didn’t appreciate it. As an adult I am glad that he is still able to hear my confession when i go to visit my parents.

 

[Fortiterinre]

A lot of priests who assign “wimpy” penances expect that you will truly give some time in meditation on that single Hail Mary. My confessor tends to do this, and I have greatly benefitted from it. I can rattle off Hail Mary’s like an auctioneer, but when my penance is to pray ONE, you better believe I pray it much better!

 

[Dr.Bombay]

When I go to an FSSP priest, I usually get a rosary. Most other priests, it’s either a few Our Fathers or Hail Marys.

Then there was one priest a few months ago. He told me to “perform an act of kindness for someone.” Now, really. I’ll never complain about the harshness or lightness of a penance, but give me something specific, not some vague generality! I spent the whole week obsessing over whether the kindness I just performed was really kind, just doing my job, kind enough, more than kind, generous to a fault, whether the kindness had to be planned or could be spontaneous…ugh! Talk about giving me a bad case of scrupulosity. :nope:

 

[krazykatlady]

The wimpiest penance I ever received was to “do something nice for somebody.” I was totally confused because as a wife, mother, and nurse I was spending my whole life doing nice things for people.

 

[travellinmike]

After 20 years of non-practicing, I came back Ash Wednesday this year. That first Saturday of lent I unloaded a laundry list of mortal sins that include pretty much every vice short of murder.

I was unpleasantly surprised when I was told to “Sit quietly for a few minutes and think about how the Lord has gently pulled at your heart all these years until you were ready to return. He never gave up on you”

Sheesh.

Mike