Stiffest Penance?

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The stiffest penance I ever received was that I had to do an act of kindness for a priest who was very mean to me and my family. The penance also included saying a whole rosary for him and to do this act of kindness with the stipulation that if it isn’t completed do not go to communion and I try to go daily. I am happy that he was firm with me because we should be kinder to our priest even if they aren’t!
 
I’ve never had a stif penance. Go pray X Our Fathers and X Hail Marys. Go be nice to someone you don’t like. The usual stuff.

I once had a bizarre penance. I went to confession the day I got married. I wanted to make sure everything was in order for my new life. The priest holding confession was an ex-Assembly of God minister. His approach was very evangelical. He was giving the same penance to everyone. He handed me the hymnal and said, “I think this is a beautiful hymn. For your penance, I want you go into the nave, study this hymn for 10 minutes, and then pray on the text for another 10.”

I studied the hymn for 2 minutes, realized that half the text was not in accord with Catholic teaching, and then spent 10 minutes praying for forgiveness and the ministry of the priest.
 
I understand where you are coming from, John, but it isn’t necessarily about earning one’s forgiveness. I think it is, IMHO and my own experience, that we realize how much we have offended someone we love and want to make it up to God the same as we would anyone else dear to us. At least that has been my own feeling coming back to him after my own absence.
 
this thread reminded me of the time that the poor expectant mother who entered before me became sick in the confessional. there was a lot of scurrying around for that one. I had fun teasing the priest that whatever penance he had given her, I didn’t want it!
 
Most of my penances have been very light, but once I was told to offer myself up in union with the Mass as an oblation to God’s mercy.

Stiffest? Maybe. Strangest? Definitely.
 
There was one time when I was in Quebec this summer and I stole a candle from the garbage (NOW, this store that I was working at threw all their junk away, but if one were to pick up the junk from that garbage, one still had to pay if they got caught). Because of that, I was to give to charity and spend time with charity work.

I happened to donate several clothing items and a painting before I left the province!
 
When I went to Confession last Holy Week after being away from the Church for many years, the priest gave me the hardest and most wonderful penance I think he ever could have given me. He told me to meditate and pray on the forgiveness and mercy of God. I think I cried more on that day than I have in a very long time, but I felt amazing afterward.
 
The stiffest penance I was given was to read the Prodigal son parable three times in the Gospel of St. Luke and each time put myself in the posistion of the Son, father, and Other son and do it sometime before Christmas day.
 
Well, I am fairly new at this penance thing. I got my stiffest, 5 our fathers and confession once a month unless in mortal sin then next day no exceptions(the parish I went to has daily confession) so I have no excuse, except I have to drive an hour to get there. I was told that wasn’t good enought. Until God tells me I don’t have to come anymore. Also I am not allowed to try and leave the church without contacting a priest. Me thinks me got what I may deserve.
Hurts, but it is a good hurt.

scared
 
After confessing gossipping about my SIL I was assigned to pray a Hail Mary for her every morning for a month.
 
I had 12 Our Fathers and 12 Hail Mary’s. The latest was 5 acts of kindness.
 
1 apostles creed, 10 Our Father’s & 10 Hail Mary’s was my penance today.
 
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scared:
Well, I am fairly new at this penance thing. I got my stiffest, 5 our fathers and confession once a month unless in mortal sin then next day no exceptions(the parish I went to has daily confession) so I have no excuse, except I have to drive an hour to get there. I was told that wasn’t good enought. Until God tells me I don’t have to come anymore. Also I am not allowed to try and leave the church without contacting a priest. Me thinks me got what I may deserve.
Hurts, but it is a good hurt.

scared
Click to expand...
Congratulations! You found yourself a fine priest.
 
Mine came many many years ago, and I am sure everyone had this one if they were Catholic during their childhood.

After confessing that I had been mean to my sister, more then once. I had to do a good deed for her. The kicker was that I could not be found out, or it didn’t count. :eek: For a kid that was hard.

Since then it has always been the standard x number of Our Fathers or x number of Hail Marys.
 
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Lux_et_veritas:
Congratulations! You found yourself a fine priest.
Click to expand...
Yah you would think problem is it was annonyomous so I don’t know who the priest was. Although he was good, I was very surprised at what he had to say.

scared
 
Time to bring this thread back out of the doldrums for the newer people to experience.
 
It seems that we can broaden (sp?) the scope to different categories here:

“stiffest”: there’s a tie: one was a rosary, the other is when the priest asked me what I wanted to do for penance and I chose to fast from a meal

most unique: donate an item of clothing

most effective: I confessed losing patience and being less than loving with particular people… the penance was to pray 4 “our fathers” one for each person, thinking about the most positive thing about them. it TOTALLY worked!!! Next time I saw each person, I wasn’t irritated or dreading it. I enjoyed their company.

I brought this to my spiritual director and he loved it and said “I’m going to use that one”. I think they were classmates.
 
The most I have ever been asked to do was to recite 3 Hail Marys every night before bead, and three in the morning upon waking up, in a prostrate position, for two weeks. (Which is 84 Hail Marys, so not really all that many.)

As to the most unusual, I was instructed to go see another priest.

There is a part of me that doesn’t really care for the really light penances.

Also, on the topic of penance, has anyone ever heard of “writing a letter to an elected official” as a penance? That has been on a list of possible penances in the communal penance service program at the parish the last few years. It seems very odd.
 
It’s been at least 6 months and a good time to bring out this charm of a thread for those who haven’t seen it.
 
As of today, the stiffest penance was the “act of kindness” thing.

It was originally a “visit the hospital” penance, but I balked. So Father commuted it to “act of kindness”.

I really hate “acts of kindness” penances. I guess that’s what makes it a penance.
 
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