What are some examples of penances?

[Joannm]

A couple of times the priest has told me to suggest a penance … now that is hard! You are much harder on youself than the priest maybe that was their point!

That happened to me once. It was sort of a different type of confession that I won’t go into but we had a big conversation before the acutal confession and he told me to think of several penances that I could do. It also was during Lent so maybe that worked into it. IT was a long time ago so I don’t remember all the details. Anyway I thought of some penances which he approved and he added one or two.

 

[Joannm]

I once confesed a biggie that was on my heart for a long time. The priest knew ahead of time that it was really bothering me. For my penance he gave me 1 Our Father. I questioned him on that and he said that I beat myself up enough over the sin and that saying 1 OUr Father in thanksgiving was more than enough after what I went through.

 

[Belle10]

There are lots of great points in this thread.

I just wanted to reiterate what several other posters have said: our penance doesn’t make up for our sins, nothing can – that’s why we humbly ask for and receive God’s mercy and forgiveness in the confessional. I don’t view penance as a “punishment” – after all, praying or reading the Bible isn’t a punishment, but a blessing! I view it as water to sprinkle into my soul to enrich the seed of grace that was planted there during absolution, to help me avoid sin from that time on.

 

[Junebug999]

Thank you for your responses.

Belle, what you said gave me a lot to think about. Thank you.

 

[sheila0405]

The point about penance is it should make us reflect on the mercy of God, who forgives us by His grace, not by our good works, because He still loves us. It shouldn’t make us hate ourselves, but should focus our eyes on Him.

A lot of people would like to be given harsh penances, wearing hair shirts, fasting, etc. but that’s a misunderstanding. It’s also dangerously close to believing that we are able to pay for the eternal consequences of our own sins, which none of us can!

The way someone once explained it to me, the old penitential manuals priests used in the medieval Church used equivalents in days’ ‘fasting’ as the way to measure penances, because this was like the minimum currency of the Church. Going without food doesn’t do a lot of good in itself, so it’s the least powerful way of making spiritual progress. For example, the simplest prayer, crossing yourself and saying “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen” carried an indulgence equivalent to 7 years’ fasting!

Prayer, almsgiving, scripture reading, or nearly any other positive good work will always be worth more as penance than fasting and self-denial.

Perhaps it’s worth noting that if your priest gives you 1 Our Father as penance, in the old penitentials that was considered the equivalent to 15 years’ (or is it 10 years?) fasting! It’s not that we’re being let off easy, just that what is impossible for man is possible for God.

This is one of the wisest posts I have read. Penance is really a way for us to make a reparation, or to repair, a wrong committed. I like the example of nails in a board. If I vandalize a house putting dozens of nails through a door, then when they are pulled out, there will be holes in the door. I repented of my vandalism, I did penance by taking the nails out, but now the results of what I did are there: HOLES. I can then make reparation, either by filling in the holes or getting a new door outright. But the original act of vandalism is the offense–repairing the door only has to take place because of the wrong done in the first place. So it is with Confession. We break our relationship with and wound our great God. He forgives us through the Sacrament. The effects of our sin often still remain. Where we can, we do penance to repair. Where we can’t actually undo the damage, we perform an act of charity which will be appropriate to the underlying offense. I hope this makes sense.

 

[Belle10]

This is one of the wisest posts I have read. Penance is really a way for us to make a reparation, or to repair, a wrong committed. I like the example of nails in a board. If I vandalize a house putting dozens of nails through a door, then when they are pulled out, there will be holes in the door. I repented of my vandalism, I did penance by taking the nails out, but now the results of what I did are there: HOLES. I can then make reparation, either by filling in the holes or getting a new door outright. But the original act of vandalism is the offense–repairing the door only has to take place because of the wrong done in the first place. So it is with Confession. We break our relationship with and wound our great God. He forgives us through the Sacrament. The effects of our sin often still remain. Where we can, we do penance to repair. Where we can’t actually undo the damage, we perform an act of charity which will be appropriate to the underlying offense. I hope this makes sense.

That’s awesome!

 

[AngelRose81]

All the ones I’ve gotten have been say some Hail Marys, Our Fathers, & Glory Bes. The only time I have gotten something different is the other day when the Gospel was the beatitudes, my penance was to pray & meditate on the beatitudes. I thought that was quite a good one actually.

Just a side note, we were talking to Fr. the other day and he was talking about 60 minutes and Andy Rooney and he said that he’s thought for years that a good penance for somethings would be to have to watch a marathon of 60 Minutes. He said that has got to be the toughest show to watch and its just hard to set through it! We were rolling when he said that!!!

 

[cheeto1]

usually it’s one our father
once I got looking at a crucifix to love Jesus more and more
this last time I got a prayer called examination of conciousness
(not examination of conscience)
it’s really hard for me,
I fall asleep at night

 

[Kathrin]

One priest often has me pray for something, e.g world peace, or the souls in purgatory.

Kathrin

 

[panoikei]

When I first came back Home [aka revert]. After confession one of the priests was giving out Hail Marys for each of the people I mentioned in the confessional. He said it similar to that. I would mention so many people because conversion was difficult from a non-denominational fundamentalist bible only saved by baptism anti-Catholic…you get the gist, church. So many people had hurt me in my life including family memebers, now diseased and some priests. I thought he meant a decade of Hail Mary’s for each individual. So here I was, prayer management…pull out the rosary and just say several rosarys…a full 20 decades… …It was exhausting and time consuming…3 kids and a wife. Well, I went to him another time, between the other priest that seems easier. Don’t get me wrong, but something seemed off. I thought this was great, but then my wife said something and he told me something about praying for all the souls that would commit suicide tonight [not mine BTW] and doubt came to mind that I might be misunderstanding what he said in the past. For a moment I actuall was trying to figure out how in the world will I be able to do that. Then it dawned on me to ask. So I emailed him in detail what I was doing and asked what he meant. I said I was confused…mind of an engineer at work here folks.

Oh, he was thrilled for all the prayers, but said that was not what he meant to convey and apologized. He meant a total of 10 Hail Marys for the entire group as a whole. I thought he was punishing me for having ever left the seminary and was making me work my way back… So me and my wife [see to the left] died laughing.

As sad as I am he didn’t make me use the “cat tail” like in the DaVinci Code and the Opus Dei guy, I just say my little 10 Hail Mary’s and use the extra time to read my LOTH.

Don’t worry, the priest had my wife say prayers from the heart at first. Then one day he gave her 5 Hail Mary’s and she was so overwhelmed because of the situation with her family not knowing and other things that he got worried. She said I can’t do it… he was shocked and said to just say a prayer to Jesus from your heart… Later he told her that she was the only person that ever refused a penance…15 years…We still joke about it today, but she’s doing much better. You see men scare her for good reason…our former faith. mean ole men. cruel to women. She had to gain trust in them first. Now she’s doing well.

Don’t worry. But if you can’t do a penance, don’t be shy, tell him. He can give you something simple or appropriate for where you’re at.