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In the Calced Carmelite Ritual (Tit. IX, cap. v., no. 7)[1], there is to be found the most beautiful variant of the Order of Taking the Discipline, a penitential rite wherein the Monks whipped themselves whilst praying some Psalms in penance for their sins. This practice was very widespread amongst our Medieval forefathers, and it was taken up particularly during Lent and Passiontide.

Advisory notice: Do not attempt to take up such a practice without the counsel and permission of your spiritual director, and for minors this is expressly forbidden unless you have the consent of both your parents and that of your Father Confessor. This practice can be very injurious to one's physical health, and it can lead to great spiritual delusions and a ruinous pride if it is undertaken under the impulse of self-love and is unaccompanied by other exercises of exterior and, above all, interior mortification. I mean, if you can take the discipline unto the shedding of blood and yet answer rebukes with sharp and bitter words or satiate the palate with all sorts of deliciousness, then there is a serious spiritual malady there.


Here follows a loose translation of the rubrics for this rite as found in the Carmelite Ritual.

Note how the prayers and the rubrics lend themselves to metaphorical symbolism that illustrates the great place that self-abnegation and penance have in the interior life. In the Carmelite Rite, there is the explicit elucidation upon two fundamental realities: 1) the necessity of the patronage and tutelage of Blessed Mary ever Virgin in the spiritual life, and particularly in the life of penance and prayer; and 2) how the sacred Passion of Our Lord is the ultimate impulse towards penance and self-abnegation: by imitating the virtues He heroically exemplified during the Passion, and by doing so for the love of such a good God Who suffered for us so many torments.



1. At the competent hour according to the custom of whatever Provence, with the Brothers congregated in choir, or in the capitular choir, and with the Crucifix placed amidst lighted candles, the Litanies of Blessed Mary the Virgin are said.

Then the Hebdomadary says:

R. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
V. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

Thy grace, we pray, O Lord, pour forth upon our souls: that [we] who, with the Angel announcing, have known the incarnation of Christ Thy Son; by His Passion and Cross, be led unto the glory of resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

2. Then, having said the Antiphon Veni Sancte Spiritus, etc., with the Versicle and Prayer, meditation is made until at the sign of the Superior; meanwhile all the lights are extinguished. The Prior, or, him absent, the Hebdomadary makes the general Confession, saying Confiteor, etc. The Brothers say Misereatur, etc. Confiteor, etc. and the Prior or the Hebdomadary Misereatur, etc. Indulgentiam, etc. and then he says

My brethen, do ye take hold of the disciple, lest the Lord be angered, and ye perish from the just way.

3. And all make the discipline reciting Psalm 50 Miserere with Gloria Patri and Psalm 129 De profundis also with Gloria Patri. Which having finished, they shall pause until the signal of the Superior, and then the Canticle Nunc dimittis is chanted and the lights are kindled.

4. Then all the Brothers, from the greater to the lesser, come forth to kiss the Crucifix, and amidst all this the Hymn Vexilla Regis prodeunt is chanted.

R. They have given gall for my meat.
V. And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. [Ps. lxviii., 22]

Let us pray.

Gaze, we pray, O Lord, upon this Thy congregation, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be deivered over unto the hands of the wicked, and to ascend upon the Cross unto torment. Who liveth and reigneth with Thee throughout all ages of ages. R. Amen.

Annotation

[1] Rituale Ordinis Fratrum Beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ de Monte Carmelo juxta Jerosolymitanæ Ecclesiæ antiquam consuetudinem recognitum atque ad normam Codicis Juris Canonici et Constitutionum Ordinis accommodatum; Reverendissimi Patris Kiliani Lynch totius Ordinis Prioris Generalis jussu editum. [The Ritual of the Friars of the Order of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel according to the Ancient Custom of the Church of Jerusalem; and Revised according to the Norm of the Code of Canon Law and Adapted to the Constitutions of the Order; Published by Order of the Most Reverend Father Kilian Lynch, Prior-General of the Entire Order] (Romæ: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1952).

Fascinating, as always.

The using of the discipline was not only widespread during the Middle Ages (though maybe especially common), but a ordinary form of penance and mortification till the times of the Council.

Which of the Councils?

I know that this was one of the ways St. Jean Marie Vianney was enabled to convert and sanctify his Parish. Perhaps the present-day clergy ought to imitate his example in this regard...

I was warned by my Father Confessor to eschew such practices because I am too prone to vainglory, but I still am allowed to esteem the beauty and significance of these ancient rites.