January 16, 2008

PENANCE

1. There are two kind of penance, interior and exterior. The first is necessary for all sinners, the second for some is useful, for others is pernicious.

2. Penance is an agreement made with God to leave evil, and to do good. Likewise before penance one left what was good to do evil.

3. In the soul which judges and condemns itself without despairing, penance is a continuous refrain from any corporal consolation and mental delights

4. Penance means to abstain from sin, thus the one who does not care to leave every defect, but leaves sin by habit, is not a perfect penitent.

5. Penance is measured more by the proportion of true humility, than by the diversity and the measure of corporal afflictions.

6. Penance is the voluntary endurance of pains, afflictions, insults, and all tribulations.

7. The true penitent has an unquenchable thirst and hunger for justice, derisions, and any evil.

8.
A penitent is one who judges and condemns himself from the heart regarding himself unworthy of pardon while begging justice with mercy, and so his merit is forgiven by God.

9. If you want to obtain pardon as soon as possible ask God with heartfelt humility, not so much for justice but for mercy.

10. A true penitent does not judge the aforementioned things as impossible, or as leading to desperation; those of a different opinion, should be careful because they might be a false penitent.

11. True penance excludes any self love, and without any regard for itself ends in the pure love of God, but false penance is caused by pain, or fear of death.

12. Penance always finds new ways to punish itself, to restrain gluttony, any concupiscence, and always keeps the justice of the soul.

13. The true penitent weighted so much by his sin, that he thinks that even with all the Saints, all the Angels, and with the whole world, he cannot satisfy God.

14. The true penitent keeps thinking how he has dishonored God, despised God, and mocked God, who is all perfect, all beautiful, all justice, and all graciousness. He has lost his virtues, and the spiritual riches. He is interiorly confused and so ashamed that he considers the external shame as nothing.

15. The perfect penitent says: if God does not want to forgive me, may He be forever blessed; if He wants to condemn me, and have me dead in hell, still I want to hope in him.

16. Just as those who are physically ill but sound of mind, do not seek compassion from the doctor, but a remedy to accelerate healing, the true penitent in effort to be healed again provokes meekness in God as a vengeance against himself.

17. The true penitent would not dare to call upon the mercy of God, if God had not commanded it.

18. The true penitent is not satisfied with reconciliation with God; but wants to keep growing in perfection of the virtue, and to be pleasing to God.

19. The true penitent, knowing to have used illicit things, will abstain himself even from the licit ones.

20. Do not believe the diabolic thought which says this is a little defect, this sin is of little importance, because Christ has died for each one of them.

21.
Sin, which is not cancelled by penance right away, through its own weight, draws another sin. Indeed old sin needs a persevering penance and a lot of convalescence.

22. The penance of Christ, and of His Mother, is as different from ours as light is from darkness.

23. The penitent rises right away from a fall done out of pure ignorance, or fragility.

24. The penitent does not rise easily when he falls of his own malice, or of careless negligence, although that defect is not that grave.

25. Do not be saddened by fruitless sadness. If you fall often out of ignorance or fragility, do not despair but rise right away remembering that the just falls seven times a day and rises up.

26. Woe to the one who, after sinning, does not feel stimulated to penance but becomes steeped in crass negligence, or forgets the sin.

27. The hope of the one who says, I will do this sin and then I will repent does not posses penance.

28. Just as the malice of the impenitent sometime reaches the point of excluding any penance, so the malice of the sinner who is a penitent becomes real, so that it does not become damnable.

29. The true penance that is really acceptable to God and fruitful for men, is the mortification of the will, and of one's passions.

30. Interior penance in spiritual things is more solid and fruitful than the exterior.

31. The one who bears deprivation of interior consolation by God with a tranquil spirit is already a sharer of true penance.

32. If one willingly endures the penance sent by God, it will be without any danger and worthy of a great prize.

33. The penance sent by God, even of minimal things, but accepted willingly, is more pleasing to God, and more useful to man, than any virtuous thing done by one’s self.

34. The one who does penance yet wants to always defend and confirm his own will through penance continuously remains at the beginning point of penance.

35. The one who does external penance, without the spice of discretion, should repent, because he is not doing true penance.

36. Sometimes an overwhelming lack of tenderness will be forced upon the one who uses exterior penance without discretion.

37. Just as the one who gives himself to feeble things cannot be spiritually acute, so the indiscreet penitent sometimes cannot avoid falling into serious defect.

38. Just as the distraction of thoughts, frequent distracting movements, and obscurity of the mind are the company of immoderation, so the integrity of the mind and the purity of chastity accompany moderate fasting of the penitent.

39. The one who considers exterior penance his ultimate aim is similar to the one who makes no difference between the end and the means, or between a hostel and one's own country.

40. The one who cannot perform exterior penance complains and is disgusted if he should be lacking something at meal time, shows to have as his end exterior penance.

41.
The one who disciplines the body without discretion convinces himself that he is doing great things. He is besieged with anger, vainglory, and condemns others who do not do the same things. This is against the counsel of St. Paul, who reprimands those who judge their neighbor, saying that those who eat or fast are doing it for their own glory and not of the Lord's.


42. Fasting, vigils, and other corporal afflictions are good when the flesh is afflicted in such a way that it not be impaired to perform necessary activities.

43. Remember, you indiscreet penitent that God does not graze on what you violently steel away from your need.

44. Just as the happy flesh leads us to sin, so the moderately afflicted one would lead us back to the truth. As we have fallen from the joys of Heaven through gluttony, so through abstinence we will return to them.

45. Just as God has always been pleased by the living host, so has he always been displeased by the sacrifice of stolen goods.

46. Some can endure a fast of two or three days, while for others the daily meal is not substantial; therefore, without a sense of guilt we have to adapt to the age, physique, and habit of an individual. It is important to take care of nature, because to ruin it would be imprudent.

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