Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Catholic Living in the Modern World => Topic started by: AnthonyPadua on August 23, 2025, 07:14:21 PM
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I am thinking of getting myself a cushion/pad for kneeling. Currently using my pillows but they aren't very thick. I've briefly looked online but there are so many options I am not sure what to get. Any recommendations?
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How about the pads they sell specifically for kneeling outdoors while gardening? Try an outdoor supply or gardening shop.
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If you're not disabled and under 50, kneeling on the hard floor is a great sacrifice and act of mortification. Much less painful than what the saints practiced.
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If you're not disabled and under 50, kneeling on the hard floor is a great sacrifice and act of mortification. Much less painful than what the saints practiced.
In my case, the people doing penance will be those who pick me off the floor!
Yes, I’m just a bit past 50!
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In my case, the people doing penance will be those who pick me off the floor!
Welcome to the club.
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I find anything more that the bare minimum padding makes my knees fatigue of kneeling quickly.
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Whatever works for you ... don't trust the generalizations of some anonymous people who don't know you. If you have problems with your knees, such as old sports injuries, or arthritic knees, etc. ... it would be imprudent to kneel on "bare floors" or even the un-padded wooden kneelers. In fact, even if your knees are in good shape, kneeling on hard surfaces can cause damage over time. Other things can be done for penance that don't involve potentially damaging your joints. Our Lady instructed the children to stop certain penances they had undertaken since it could have caused them physicla harm.
So the answer to your question is entirely subjective, analogous to how some people sleep better on softer mattresses, but then other people hurt their backs on soft mattresses. It all depends on your physiology, how you tend to position your body when you sleep (sides, back), and whether you have other issues (back or knee pain etc). Again, you could sanctimoniously declare "just accept the penance", but then if you're not getting enough sleep, that can cause emotional, psychological, and even spiritual issues (+Lefebvre insisted on seminarians and priests getting sufficient sleep ... and I'm sure he knew cases where some had "cracked"), or if you don't sleep on the right surface, you might wake up and then barely be able to walk or function or do your job (especially if you do manual labor).
This is why Prudence is considered the Queen of the Virtues, where you have to weight and take into consideratin many different factors. No, doing as much penance as possible in all areas is not some absolute good, and savors of that leaven of the Pharisees. Instead, sometimes various penances can do more harm than good, or are done for the wrong motives, e.g. pride, something that offends God more and keeling on a cushion or even just sitting down. That's yet another reason why it's important to obtain good spiritual direction if possible. Otherwise, use sound judgment while not turning things that are relative, ends to various means, as if they were ends in and of themselves.
By orders of magnitude the greatest moritifcation should be of one's pride, and doing things only under obedience to a director helps offset that. People aren't given to pride, for instance, when they abstain from meat on Friday because they're doing it out of obedience to the Church's law. In this, for instance, if you were to opt for some thick cushions, you could humble yourself by declaring yourself inferior to those who can keen without them, and that would please God much more than someone thinking highly of himself for kneeling on a bare floor.
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My husband wears knee pads when he has to do manual labour. Otherwise, it would cause damage over time if he just were to kneel on the hard floor. And he was in a car accident prior, so his knees are not in the best shape and he’s in his 30s. You can look at volleyball knee pads too, they’re very soft.
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How about the pads they sell specifically for kneeling outdoors while gardening? Try an outdoor supply or gardening shop.
We got a bunch of these garden kneeled pads for our wedding since it was in a gym with hardwood flooring. Later we donated then to a mission chapel. 🥰
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In fact, even if your knees are in good shape, kneeling on hard surfaces can cause damage over time. Other things can be done for penance that don't involve potentially damaging your joints.
Are healthy knees going to benefit him in eternity? How is he ever going to be prepared to lay down his life for Christ if already he were to come up with worldly excuses to avoid a little discomfort? Did Christ find a nice mossy patch to kneel in the garden? I doubt it.
If and when he becomes physically unable to kneel then he might consider a cushion.
Your advice was not prudent... it was wimpy and childish.
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:facepalm: It's not about the discomfort. If you mess up your knees and, oh, say, work a manual job and suddenly have a hard time doing it and lose the ability to support your family ... or same thing goes for your back. That's actually a significant drawback with kneeling on the floor, instead of on a slightly elevated surface, since depending on what you have to do with your feet, it could end up being an ergonomically challenging position. I've known people that had to go on disability as they got older since they could no longer work due to physical issues. I'm sure it pleases God to engage in imprudent activity just so you could act like some "big shot" for "eternity". I said quite clearly that you can certainly find other ways to accept "discomfort", but none of these are absolutes. Turning things like this into absolutes is textbook "leaven of the Pharisees". That's precisely what they did, turn various laws, rules, and regulations into ends in themselves rather than as means of serving God.
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Church pews have cushions in the kneelers. We aren’t jansenists.
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Church pews have cushions in the kneelers. We aren’t jansenists.
Not everywhere they don’t! I’m thinking right now of three chapels I’ve visited where some or none of the kneelers were cushioned, just bare wood or thin, peel off, stick-on indoor-outdoor carpet. (If you remember the 1970’s, you probably had at least one such rug in your home!)
How about sitting for three to four hours on an old splintery 6” wide board propped up with three cement blocks?* The Swartzentruber Amish know how to do penance!
Or when you’re the driver of a van full of Amish visitors who arrive a quarter way through the four+ hour service and you end up sitting on a very tippy milking stool?
*The bench filled mostly with 12-15 year old girls, collapsed during the bishop’s sermon when a large spider descended onto the shoulder of the 13 year old seated over the center cement block!
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Church pews have cushions in the kneelers. We aren’t jansenists.
Not everyone attends Mass in a dedicated church or chapel building. My family moved from Seattle to a farm in eastern Washington (developing raw ground in the Columbia Basin Project) in the mid 1050's. From about 1957 until a new rural parish was erected and a church was built in 1964 we usually attended Mass in the public school cafeteria, with linoleum flooring. We were a mission of St. Patrick's in Pasco, about 25 miles away. A few brought kneeling pads but most knelt on the floor. I attended the parochial school starting in 2nd grade in 1958. It was ten blocks west of where the original church (built 1910) was. Until the new church was built next to the school in 1963 we had our weekly school mass in the cafeteria, kneeling on the linoleum floor.
In the United States I've never seen a Catholic church or chapel without padded kneelers. However, during my Peace Corps service in Colombia 1973-1976 and when I worked on an agricultural project in Uganda for two months in 1985 plain wooden kneelers without padding, or just a thin layer of burlap (to protect the trouser or dress material, not for cushioning) were not uncommon.
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I'm sure it pleases God to engage in imprudent activity just so you could act like some "big shot" for "eternity". I said quite clearly that you can certainly find other ways to accept "discomfort", but none of these are absolutes.
Humility is not being a "big shot".
Kneeling is probably the least discomfort to offer up.
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Church pews have cushions in the kneelers. We aren’t jansenists.
Any kind of kneelers in churches is less than 200 years old, and pews were adapted from the protestants.
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Any kind of kneelers in churches is less than 200 years old, and pews were adapted from the protestants.
It’s still pre-V2, so it’s acceptable. Many Trad chapels use tv monitors because the building is small. This is a modern novelty but that doesn’t make it wrong. Not everything that is new, is bad.
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Altar servers and priests kneel on the bare ground. Just saying.
It is funny to see the men give general answers and the women are speaking directly to AnthonyPadua, who they have personal opinions about and are trying to help him grow as a man.
He is probably not kneeling for prayers for hours a day.
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Altar servers and priests kneel on the bare ground. Just saying.
It is funny to see the men give general answers and the women are speaking directly to AnthonyPadua, who they have personal opinions about and are trying to help him grow as a man.
He is probably not kneeling for prayers for hours a day.
First off, priests don’t kneel for most of mass. And servers kneel on carpeted steps. No one is in pain during mass.
If one is thinking about the pain in his knees, then he can’t concentrate on God, which is the whole point of prayer. Some people are pushing quasi-Jansenist stuff, where pain = holiness. That’s extreme and not catholic.
If fasting got one to heaven, then the Church would have us fast everyday. But She doesn’t. Because pain/suffering is not the point of religion. Love of God is.
And if the pain of kneeling doesn’t help you pray better, then it’s bad. For some, it might help them. Everyone is different. St Peter was different from St Paul. That’s the principle.
Self/inflicted pain for religious purposes is almost never advised. It can lead to a dangerous temptation of pride. And excessive self-focus. The best is to do penance that the Church says. And accept the trials that God sends into your life. Any other penance, which you put upon yourself, is a danger.
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Altar servers and priests kneel on the bare ground. Just saying.
It helps to stay still on hard surfaces. Shifting around will make the knees hurt
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It is different for everyone. Raised kneelers for me are harder to kneel on.
I agree garden pads for gardening work well.
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Altar servers and priests kneel on the bare ground. Just saying.
It is funny to see the men give general answers and the women are speaking directly to AnthonyPadua, who they have personal opinions about and are trying to help him grow as a man.
He is probably not kneeling for prayers for hours a day.
Why are you making this a gender issue? You can clearly see based on the upvotes/downvotes, who is more reasonable. If someone needs to help him grow as a man, it’s going to be another man.
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Why are you making this a gender issue? You can clearly see based on the upvotes/downvotes, who is more reasonable. If someone needs to help him grow as a man, it’s going to be another man.
Is it wrong to point out an observation that I thought was interesting?
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I personally have a very difficult time kneeling while holding my baby during Mass, because of ab separation in pregnancy. I have little core strength. I think we need to give one another the benefit of the doubt. Let God and the individual decide what’s appropriate.