Penance and Mortification

1. Penance and Mortification NCSU LYFE 18 February 2018

2. What Does it Mean to Repent? “The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Gn 3:6

3. Guilt and Punishment “For his part, the LORD has removed your sin…since you have utterly spurned the LORD by this deed, the child born to you will surely die” 2 Sam 12:14-15

4. Double Effect of Sin “To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.” CCC 1472

5. “Now, penance consists in contrition of the soul, and mortification of the body; these two parts are essential to it. The soul has willed the sin; the body has frequently cooperated in its commission.” Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year Volume V: Lent Penance

6. Judge of the Living? “This man God raised (on) the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.” Acts 10:40-42

7. “In order that my life may be one Act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a Victim of Holocaust to Thy Merciful Love, imploring Thee to consume me unceasingly, and to allow the floods of infinite tenderness gathered up in Thee to overflow into my soul, that so I may become a very martyr of Thy Love, O my God! May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear in Thy Presence, free me from this life at the last, and may my soul take its flight--without delay--into the eternal embrace of Thy Merciful Love!” St. Thérèse, Diary of a Soul The Logic of Penance

8. How to Avoid Purgatory “You do not have enough trust. You have too much fear before the good God. I can assure you that He is grieved over this. You should not fear Purgatory because of the suffering there, but should instead ask that you not deserve to go there in order to please God, Who so reluctantly imposes this punishment. As soon as you try to please Him in everything and have an unshakable trust He purifies you every moment in His love and He lets no sin remain. And then you can be sure that you will not have to go to Purgatory.” St. Thérèse, letter to Sr. Maria Philomena

9. Mortification Question: What are the two causes of yielding to temptation from an interior perspective?

10. Mortification “The practice of Christian asceticism in order to overcome sin and master one's sinful tendencies, and through penance and austerity to strengthen the will in the practice of virtue and grow in the likeness of Christ.”

11. Matter for Mortification and Penance of the Body - Regulate your sleep, avoiding in this all faintheartedness, all softness, especially in the morning. Set an hour, if you can, for going to bed and getting up, and keep strictly to it. – Mortify your mood—do not complain about small things or inconveniences - Guard against making the slightest illness a reason for dispensation or exemption from your daily schedule or for special treatment - Close your eyes always and above all to every dangerous sight, and even - have the courage to do it - to every frivolous and useless sight. See without looking; do not gaze at anybody to judge of their beauty or ugliness. - Bear with everything which naturally grieves the flesh, especially the cold of winter, the heat of summer, a hard bed and every inconvenience of that kind. St. Francis de Sales: "I am never better than when I am not well."

12. Matter for Mortification and Penance of the Imagination -Mortify your imagination when it beguiles you with the lure of a brilliant position, when it saddens you with the prospect of a dreary future, when it irritates you with the memory of a word or deed which offended you. If you feel within you the need to day dream, mortify it without mercy. - Mortify the natural organ of your mind, which is to say the tongue. -Guard what the eyes look upon so as to protect your imagination and memory.

13. Mortifying the Intellect "Do not be content to take in superficially what you read and hear, but endeavor to go into it deeply and to fathom the whole sense of it. Never remain in doubt about what you could know with certainty. Work with a holy eagerness to enrich your mind; arrange and classify in your memory all the knowledge you are able to acquire. On the other hand, do not seek to penetrate mysteries which are beyond your intelligence." St. Thomas Aquinas Advice to Students

14. Mortifying the Will -Above all, mortify your will; that is the decisive point. Bend it constantly to what you know is God's good pleasure and the rule of Providence, without taking any account either of your likes or your dislikes. Be submissive, even to your inferiors, in matters which do not concern the glory of God and the duties of your position.

15. “…fasting is practiced for a threefold purpose. in order to bridle the lusts of the flesh,--"In fasting, in chastity“—2 Cor 6:5-6 in order that the mind may arise more freely to the contemplation of heavenly things—Daniel 10 in order to satisfy for sins—"Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning." (Joel 2:12) ST II-II q.147, a.1 Fasting and the Natural Law

16. “Then the disciples of John approached him and said, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast [much], but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.’” Mt 9:14-16 Christian Fasting

17. Total Fast from Food and Water—Like Our Lord in the Desert and linked to the Eucharistic Fast Partial Fast—one small meal with two additional meals that add up to the one other meal How Do We Fast

18. Can. 1249 The divine law binds all the Christian faithful to do penance each in his or her own way. In order for all to be united among themselves by some common observance of penance, however, penitential days are prescribed… Can. 1250 The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent. Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday… Canon Law on Fasting

19. The Badge of Christian Warfare “[T]he observance of the Lenten fast is the very badge of the Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the cross of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God's glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.” Pope Benedict XIV