Author Topic: Order of Taking the Discipline (Read 4339 times)

Pyrrhos · « **Reply #5 on:** September 17, 2011, 01:30:08 AM »

I mean the Second Vatican Council.

While it is true that this kind of mortification is not suited for some types, I think it is a great mistake to see it entirely as an "antiquated and cruel practice".
Our Christian forefathers, and we just need to look a few decades back in time, had much more to suffer, many inconveniences and involuntary mortifications. But nowadays, in a world drenched by softness, comfort, decadence and ever present temptations...would it not be even more suitable to have recourse to the discipline?

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #6 on:** September 17, 2011, 01:46:05 AM »

Quote from: Pyrrhos

I mean the Second Vatican Council.

Oh, I don't regard it as a "Council" but that is a subject which ought to be discussed in another sub-forum...

Quote

But nowadays, in a world drenched by softness, comfort, decadence and ever present temptations...would it not be even more suitable to have recourse to the discipline?

This is true. However, the effeminacy and cultural perversion that you have mentioned have deteriorated the true notion of penance and mortification to the point where those practices such as the discipline, the cilice, etc., ought to be adopted until the individual has the correct notion of interior mortification, and has given himself over to the earnest practice thereof.

It would be foolhardy and rash to take the discipline or put on the cilice if one has failed in mortifying little egotistical impulses that are often very subtle and hidden, and are even to be found in exterior practices of piety in a great number of cases. This is why the active and passive purification of the senses is necessary in order to attain to that self-detachment that is requisite to enter unto the higher apices of the interior life, where charity is thoroughly purified of self.

The discipline ought to be reserved for those souls who understand well and practice the teachings of such great masters as St. Louis Marie de Montfort regarding the mystery of the Holy Cross and our ineluctable obligation to carry it after the footsteps of Our Lord. Even then, the counsel and consent of one's Spiritual Director is necessary in order to safeguard the practice from spiritual vainglory (since it would then be done under docility and obedience).

Pyrrhos · « **Reply #7 on:** September 17, 2011, 01:54:36 AM »

Of course, you are completely right.

I am just afraid that most confessors in this day and age are rather hostile to these methods, as it seems to me that they are hardly in use anymore.
But it is also true that the discipline is probably not the best choice for many states in life, but more so for those who want to consecrate themselves to Our Lord in a special way.

Whether the Council has to be seen as such I am not competent to judge. It would seem to me that it was a General Council in its first part, but that is just my private opinion.

Ethelred · « **Reply #8 on:** September 17, 2011, 02:49:18 AM »

No thread hijacking intended, but just a small hint to Pyrrhos: Do you know the famous visionary poem named Lied der Linde ?

Amongst many other things it says that there will be a glorious 21st Council in the (near) future which will enlighten the world. Please see paragraph starting with "Preis dem einundzwanzigsten Konzil ..." in the linked Lied of the Linde.

After having studied such catholic visions (Irlmaier et al) carefully, I think this Linde poem could come true in every aspect. In case it would come true, it also means that the Vaticanum II which is also numbered the 21st "council" will be erased completely.

Also good Bishops like Williamson, Tissier de Mallerais and many priests think that the Vaticanum II will be erased.
Personally I say: Of course, of course! :-)