Much time during the Christmas season should certainly be spent focusing on charity. With God giving us such a precious gift – His only son – we would all do well to imitate His generosity by giving to those around us. But shouldn’t we save all of that for the Christmas season? While charity is the greatest of the theological virtues, and should be practiced abundantly regardless of season, I think many of us confuse charity with frivolous shopping.

Besides, this is Advent, a season for joyful preparation. Advent is all about the coming of Our Lord. While it is a penitential season – we can do much to prepare ourselves for this great gift – it is also a season for joy.

Liturgically, the four-week season of Advent is divided into two halves. The first two weeks are focused on the Parousia – the second coming of Christ. The readings during Mass guide us to meditate on the last things (eschatology) – death, judgment, heaven, and hell – occurring during the end times.

The final two weeks of Advent are centered around the first coming of Christ – the Incarnation. The readings at Mass help us to direct our attention toward the mystery of God becoming man. We would do well to seize this opportunity to reflect on the fact that the Incarnation was done for us, to repair the damage done to humanity by original sin. We can also take the time during Advent to engage in penance that is intended to help us repair the damage that we have done because of our own sin.

Christmas is a wonderful season, but we must not be so eager for the Nativity of Our Lord that we completely overlook the mystery of the Incarnation – the Word becoming Flesh. Let us spend this season in joyful preparation for His coming. There is plenty of time later for cookies and carols.

I have selective discipline.  I will follow a strict regimen and a very structured life — if it brings me some sort of desired result — within a time frame that I find suitable.  Think about how ridiculous that sounds.  I am disciplined when it suits me?  Why, that’s not discipline at all!

Regularly, I will adopt some sort of prayer schedule.  Sometimes I’ll get up early in the morning and begin with the Divine Office.  After a few days I will decide to sleep in, and I’ll just pray the Rosary on the way to work.  The following week, I’ll totally abandon prayer.  It’s a viscious cycle.  I keep repeating it.

Prayer and a disciplined spiritual life are critical for me to stay close to God.  When I stay close to God, I make good, selfless decisions.  When I turn my back on Him, I end up doing things that will eventually have me crawling back into the confessional.

For some reason, the simple things are always the most difficult for me.  The answer to my spiritual troubles is very simple — I need to pray, fast, and serve God before all others.  If only it was that easy.

Does anyone have any guidance that they wish to share?

Today after work, I wanted to come home and go into seclusion. I wanted to lay on the couch, turn on the television, and pout. Rather than go for my scheduled jog and make the dinner that I had committed to, I wanted to go out and grab some Subway sandwiches so that I didn’t have to do anything. These feelings lasted for about 15 minutes, when I realized that the path that I was heading down was one where I was going to try to think myself happy. And experience has shown me that thinking myself happy is something that never happens. I have to get up and do something — preferably for someone else!

I’ve been working hard to lose the vices in my life and grow in virtue.  I’m finally starting to see that the simple acts of penance that I do on a daily basis — the simple things that I can offer up to God — along with a more consistent prayer life, have really begun to help me grow.  Life isn’t perfect, but it sure feels pretty close most of the time.  The times that I’m feeling down don’t last nearly as long as they once did.

So the next time that you’re feeling down, go do something for someone else.  You have to act your way into right thinking.

I always notice when children misbehave, but I often forget to notice when they’re behaving kindly. I never fail to recognize when people are talking disruptively (no matter how quiet) in a situation that is best suited for quiet. Yet the people who sit attentively go completely unnoticed.

Did I get old all of a sudden? Have my standards changed, or are people changing?

When I was a child if I was making noise in church (on the rare occasion that I was actually in a church of some kind), I’m very confident that some sort of corrective action would have taken place to silence me. (Note: That’s not a good thing.) When my children were younger, we treated them similarly. We never would have accepted unruly behavior in a quiet environment. It’s just disrespectful.

Am I just overly sensitive to the feelings of others? From my perspective, it seems like most people are concerned with only themselves. They give no thought to how their behavior (or the behavior of their children) might affect others.

While I may be hypersensitive, I think we Americans could use a good dose of discipline! So many people seem to be completely incapable of sacrifice. We eat too much. We spend too much. We talk too much. We sit on the couch too much. In today’s society, can you imagine if you were to ask a Catholic to abstain from meat on a Friday (outside of Lent)? We have this sense of entitlement that comes from — well, I don’t know where — but it seems to come from the devil!

Paragraph 1438 of the Catechism tells us that we should include penitential practices on Fridays. What a wonderful way for us to embrace the discipline that we are called to. So why don’t we? Instead of practicing discipline with an eye on Christ, we practice excess with an eye on the world.

There are numerous scriptural references to fasting and prayer, and I suggest that we could all benefit by taking them seriously. Why not start some sort of Friday tradition in your family?

My immediate reaction was one of shock and fear.  I mean, did he seriously want me to wear this huge Catholic bling in public?

Fortunately we agreed that I could wear a light jacket over the top of it to make me feel a bit more at ease.

The purpose in this whole exercise was for me to feel what it might be like to be Simon of Cyrene, the man who helped Jesus to carry his cross.  Simon certainly endured some physical challenges hefting the cross up to Calvary, as I did wearing this heavy brass crucifix all week.  While my experience was nothing in comparison to Simon’s, I did feel a little bit of discomfort, and I was constantly aware of the burdensome weight around my neck.

But I’m sure Simon also experienced some embarrassment and uneasiness.  He surely felt some shame at being associated with this condemned man.  Jesus and those being crucified with him that day were kind of like outcasts to those passing by.  Wouldn’t Simon feel some embarrassment at being associated with this group?

Since I kept my cross fully hidden throughout the week with a fleece jacket, I had no need for embarrassment.  I will say that I was very conscious of its presence, especially for the first day or so.  When I got to work, I hurried into the restroom to check myself out in the mirror.  I could notice a slight bulge from the crucifix, but I was fairly certain that nobody else would pay any attention.  Just to be sure, I turned the crucifix so that the corpus was facing my chest.  Even though it was more uncomfortable that way, it was better hidden, and that was my primary concern.

I made it throughout the entire week without issue.  I even managed to whip my son at H-O-R-S-E and P-I-G a couple of times on the basketball court while wearing it.

So what did I gain from this experience?  I learned that I lack a lot of confidence when it comes to my faith.  My conversion to the Catholic faith didn’t involve any burning bushes, and I wasn’t knocked off my horse like St. Paul.  My conversion has been slow and steady.  Though I now fully embrace all the teachings of the Church, and have for some time, I still don’t feel comfortable trying to defend these beliefs.

I can talk with other Catholics all day long, and I think I’m better informed about the truths of our faith than the average parishioner, but I still have some sort of fear of confrontation.  During the entirety of Holy Week, my biggest fear was that I might have to explain to some non-Catholic why I was carrying this cross.  I would have preferred that my focus be on the great sacrifice that was made for us all.

I’m not sure why I have this fear, and I’m not really sure that the reason matters at all.  But the fear definitely matters.  God has done a lot for me in this life.  He has broken me down, and is building me back up.  I’m certain that He isn’t doing this so that I can sit back and enjoy my faith in secret.  So I’m going to work on this fear.  I’m going to confront it face to face.  I’ve got a spiritual director with a mean streak, and I have a feeling that things could get interesting.  I’ll keep you posted.

What is Penance?

Often times, penance is thought of as some sort of remedial punishment for sins that we’ve committed.  Sinner goes into confessional and confesses sins.  Priest gives absolution and assigns penance.  Sinner does simple act of penance such as a set number of Our Father or Hail Mary prayers.  Penance is complete.  If this is all that there is to penance, then it’s easy to understand why so few are interested in its practice.

Unfortunately, some priests aren’t very creative when it comes to doling out penance in the confessional.  If you’re lucky, you’ll find a confessor who will thoughtfully analyze your sinful tendencies and apply a penance that is very appropriate for you.

The Saints and Penance

Penance can be a much bigger part of life than just what we have imposed on us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  The least amount of reading about the lives of the saints will reveal that most of them routinely imposed some sort penance upon themselves.  Many saints adopted lifelong dietary restrictions that would make our twice yearly church-mandated fasting seem totally insignificant in comparison.  Some saints were known to discard all of their belongings in order to adopt lifestyles of poverty and simplicity that are beyond the comprehension of our materialistic minds.  And all saints made large sacrifices of their time in order to spend more time in prayer with God.  These extreme penitential sacrifices would be looked upon as borderline insanity in our time.

What is the Purpose?

So how can penance be a good thing?  Why would one want to embrace penance?  After all, doesn’t God want us to be happy?  Didn’t he give us food to eat, shoes to wear, electronics to enjoy?  Why in the world would we want to give up these gifts?  In short, because these worldly things will only bring us temporary happiness.  Lifelong happiness has to be rooted in something much bigger than a big steak, a cold beer, a plasma TV, an SUV, a nice manicure, or an enormous house.

Penance, when done out of a love for God rather than for personal pride, is like spiritual exercise!  This spiritual exercise can and will help us to overcome worldly temptation, and help us to focus more of our lives on the will of God.  Discerning and acting upon the will of God will bring true and everlasting happiness.

Priorities

Why do so many people spend several hours per week in the gym?  What about the discipline necessary to follow a strict diet?  These disciplines, or similar ones, are necessary for some people to reach their physical goals.

Why do [good] students spend hours studying intently rather than going out and having fun?  This discipline is necessary for them to achieve their educational goals.

Why do people get up in the morning to go to work rather than stay home and do something more rewarding?  This discipline is necessary in order for us to achieve our financial goals.

In our modern “me first” society, many people focus an inordinate amount of energy on working out at the gym to improve the way they look.  Many of us (or our spouses) work many more hours than necessary in order to get the extra money for — fill in the blank.  We’re always busy trying to achieve that which will make us immediately comfortable.  We feel a sense of entitlement toward our free time, as though we’ve earned the right to relax in some mindless way whenever we want, because — well just because!  Our time is precious, but it seems that we always have just enough time to work toward our financial goals, and we can usually fit in plenty of time to work on our physical goals.

But what about our spiritual goals?  Maybe that’s the problem — many of us have none.

Getting Closer to Christ

If your primary spiritual goal is to get closer to Christ in this life and share his love with other people, so that all of you may have the opportunity to share in his salvation, then penance is a fine tool to use to help you get there.

Penance can be any number of things to any number of people.  The worldly temptations against which you struggle are probably not the same as mine.  One can sacrifice a meal, a snack, a video game, computer or television time, or some other activity.  To make this sacrifice really beneficial, one can devote the saved time to prayer.  No matter what act of penance is chosen, it should always be done joyfully.  Jesus himself told us not to look gloomy when we fast!

If you’re reading this, then that means that you’re probably Catholic.  As you know, we Catholics believe in Purgatory.  This isn’t intended to be an article on Purgatory, but in general, the period in Purgatory is intended to cleanse and purify us before we face God.  After all, he is perfect.  It’s the least we can do.  Penitential acts done here in this life can shorten this period of purgation for us, or for others.

Reparation

If you spill a glass of red wine on your friend’s new carpet, that friend will likely forgive you.  But if you’re really and truly repentant, you’ll stay and help your friend clean up the mess that you’ve made.  Similarly, when we Catholics go into the confessional, God in his endless mercy forgives us of all our sins.  But that doesn’t mean that the work is done.  We still have to clean up the mess.  Acts of penance can be offered up to God in reparation for our past sins, shortening our time in Purgatory.  Or one can offer these penitential sacrifices up for the sins of others, a very noble and generous practice.

Penance = Love = Conversion

Penance doesn’t have to be painful or debilitating.  Those of us who feel called to do penance will feel this calling in different ways and to different degrees.  One thing is certain, penance is a worthwhile gift to Our Lord when done out of love for Him.

You wouldn’t hesitate to make a sacrifice for one of your children.  So why won’t you make a sacrifice for God?  Look around you.  You’ve been blessed.  Show some gratitude.  Prayer is valuable and necessary.  Add in some penance, and God will know that you mean business.  The conversion that you experience will be with you forever.

For further reading about penance from some folks who know what penance is all about, check out:

• The Confraternity of Penitents
• The Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Francis