Sensible suggestions

[Bro. Paul]

Slept on the floor myself last night, with the windows open, trying to keep in mind those who have no choice but to sleep with little shelter, etc...

How do people look at their possessions when it comes to penance?

I was challenged some years ago now when it came out following a certain Cardinal's death that he had left virtually no possessions. Following my Wife running off with someone else, and all the fall out that that leaves in it's wake, I have been reviewing my own possessions and the manner in which I spend my money, etc... I am slowly addressing this, and, I am working on the idea that apart from clothes, furniture, etc., which are needed for life, a person should only look to 'own' those things which can fit in their coffin... Needless to say, the money saved from not buying things I don't actually need would not be saved away like a miser, but would be used for good causes... Ideally, I would love to get to a point where I could fit my Life inside an Airstream Trailer and live a better Gospel Life.

Just wondered how other people viewed such...

[trenchtown]

I travel widely for my work and find I need very little to sustain myself in what i consider to be relative comfort. I hear that I am considered ascetic by those I have dealings with. When I return home I find myself somewhat lost in my wordly posessions and wonder if it damages the lines of communication with my creator. Penance helps in this regard. I spend some of my free time looking at avenues to put my surplus income to good use. Possesions and money give me no spiritual benefit and in fact I think ones posession of such things can encourage negative chracter traits in others.

[St.Rose]

deleted

[a_brother]

A small penance that is practiced regularly in monasteries is putting a couple of small pebbles under the sheet on your bed. It is mildly uncomfortable and provides a constant reminder while you lie in bed.

[ClareFrances]

Without getting personal, my greatest weaknesses would seem to be patience and humility. From time to time I have done the following:

1) Tied a piece of 1/4 inch sisal rope tightly around my waist. It gets itchy in a hurry and after several days including showering with it wetting and drying becomes a constant torment.

2) As above, but tied in the back, passed under my crotch, and looped over the back of my neck while sitting down to force me to keep my head bowed when standing or kneeling. Additionally I must wash after using the bathroom because of the rope which causes further wetting and drying.

3) Put something in my shoe (cherry pit or peach pit) for a day or longer. Walking becomes agony. Because I am tempted to remove it during the day I pass a small luggage lock through the top eyelet on low hiking books before tyeing them, leaving the keys at home, so I cannot remove them. The laces and my skirt cover the small locks.

4) Wear a diaper for an extended period. Adult disposable diapers are very itchy and the inability to use the bathroom is extremely humiliating/humbling. I will fit one diaper and tape it on myself with alternating layers of white duct tape and filiment packing tape so it can only be cut off. Then I slit the plastic bottom and wear a second diaper over it. As I go about my day I am forced to carry extra diapers with me, change myself when necessary so as not to leak, but am never dry as I cannot remove the inside diaper. Plastic bloomers make it even more uncomfortable and the crinkling noise they make is also humiliating/humbling. On an overnight trip with a pilgrimage to a shrine this becomes severe indeed.

None of these attract attention or appear visible to anyone watching me, and if the diapers were visible someone would only assume me to have a medical condition.

Additionally I have given up wearing pants and wear only ankle lenght skirts year around, reversing materials against the weather. I wear the light ones in the winter and the heavy wool ones in the summer.

Although I do not have a spiritual director as such, my cousin is a nun and we talk. My husband also sees to it that I do not go too far with any of this.

"praise be to you O Lord Jesus Christ"

[Pia]

Gosh, those penances sound quite extreme to me, ClareFrancis (I hope you don't mind me saying so!)
As for myself, I haven't started wearing the cilice I have had now for a few weeks...I don't know what's holding me back. Fear? Making sure I am using it in the right spirit?
I tend to practise mortification through food, and when eating out/at friends, always ensure I eat a good portion of something I really don't like, and to endeavour that others aren't aware of my likes and dislikes
Grace and peace to you, ClareFrancis, I don't think I could do some of the things you do. Would you mind if I asked what led you to them?

Pia <><

[Dark Knight]

to endeavour that others aren't aware of my likes and dislikes
<><

These things which i once thought where little have turned out to be the things that have had the most dramatic effect on my life. But it seems i am still only able to make progress.

Fraternally yours ..

[Pia]

I have been thinking about your post, ClareFrancis, this weekend, and while some of the things you describe leave me feeling uncomfortable, I must admit (I feel God calls us to humilty, but does not demand humiliation) I have been led to try the stone in the shoe penance. I'm afraid I am not ready to try a cherry stone, but I have a very small stone in one shoe, which, when I walk, is a constant reminder and a call to prayer. Only a small things (and I still feel the interior mortifications are the most difficult!) but it's the small thing I offer to the Lord today.

Pia <><

[Windhover]

to endeavour that others aren't aware of my likes and dislikes
<><

These things which i once thought where little have turned out to be the things that have had the most dramatic effect on my life. But it seems i am still only able to make progress.

Fraternally yours ..

There's great truth in this Brother Knight.

[ClareFrances]

i was only sharing my thoughts and i guess "extreme" or "severe" in in the perception of he/she who is experiencing the penance or mortification. As to why, there is much which is too personal to relate, but i find that by keeping myself in constant discomfort, my thoughts are elevated to God and i am reminded of my mortality and weakness. i find that doing anything for a long time gets habitual and loses its effectiveness, so i change what i am doing every couple of days or a week at most.

i do have another idea to share, which has helped me with both humility and obedience. Last year for Lent my husband and i made an "obedience jar" which is simply an opaque jar into which we have deposited slips of paper. We have written on the slips of paper additional obediences or penances. During Lent for the first 10 days, we drew out one each day, the next 10 days two, the next ten days 3 and the final 10 days of Lent 4 each day. We must do whatever is written on the paper. The paper is returned to the jar after it is drawn so it is conceiveable to draw the same excercise multiple days in a row, but we have no control over it. We feel what is imposed on us is guided by the Lord. What we have in the jar ranges from the small (smile at everyone you speak to today, kneel on the floor rather than the kneeler at Mass, or genuflect and say aloud "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me! each time we pass through a doorway), to the moderate (say an extra 5 decade rosary, or attend an extra mass, or skip a meal), to more severe (no food today, pray the 20 decades in the penitential style of Padre Pio while kneeling unsupported with arms outstretched).

We missed it after Lent was over so we re-instituted it as an everyday mortification. Each day we draw one obedience and perform it. We have not taken any penances out of the jar, but have added some as time has gone on.

praise be to you O Lord Jesus Christ