Take the Discipline

How to ‘Take the Discipline’

For people who wish to add external penances to their interior mortifications, how to ‘take the discipline’ becomes a question that is not so easy to answer. Of course, I can just start to randomly whack my back with a whip, but for how long do I continue? How often do I repeat the ordeal? And what should I contemplate while I am taking the discipline?

St. Faustina on How to Take the Discipline

Naturally, there are plenty of ways to ‘take the discipline’. One of them was described by St. Faustina in her diary, late in the year 1935. If you were asking yourself how to start, if you are looking for guidance, consider this:

“Interior mortifications take the first place, but besides this, we must practice exterior mortifications, strictly determined, so that all can practice them. These are: on three days a week, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, there will be a strict fast. Each Friday, all the sisters – each one in her own cell – will take the discipline for the length of the recitation of Psalm 50 and all will do this at the same time; namely, three o’clock; and this will be offered for dying sinners. During the two great fasts, ember days and vigils, the food will consist of a piece of bread and some water, once a day.”

Source: Divine Mercy in My Soul: Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, Notebook II, Entry 565.

Saint Faustina Kowalska with the first Divien mercy painting

Three Things to Ponder

Three things I wish to draw your attention to:

  1. The sisters are to take the discipline in their own cells, that is, alone. Taking the discipline here is not a public penance, but a personal, private one. In other words, this is not an occasion of public humiliation.
  2. “For the length of the recitation of Psalm 50” is a rather interesting ‘amount of time’. Obviously, a sister can rush through this as quickly as she can say the 19 verses of this psalm, barely getting one stripe in per verse, or she can dwell on each verse and devote several strokes to each.
  3. St. Faustina states precisely what this ‘session’ should be offered for, namely “for dying sinners“. To take the discipline is not restricted to acts of reparation for ones own sins, but can be offered up, like all internal and external penances, for the benefit of others.

Numbering of Psalms

To avoid confusion: The Ps 50 mentioned by St. Faustina is the Fourth Penitential Psalm, Miserere mei Deus, in English it starts with “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy great mercy”. Depending on who does the counting, this Psalm shows up as either 50 or 51. Here is a quick overview concerning the counting differences:

Psalms 1-8 are the same in Hebrew and the Septuagint.
Psalms 9 and 10 in Hebrew are combined as Psalm 9 in the Septuagint.
Psalms 11-113 in Hebrew are Psalms 10-112 in the Septuagint (Hebrew-1 = Greek).
Psalms 114 and 115 in Hebrew are combined as Psalm 113 in the Septuagint.
Psalm 116 in Hebrew is divided into Psalms 114 and 115 in the Septuagint.
Psalms 117-146 in Hebrew are Psalms 116-145 in the Septuagint (Hebrew-1 = Greek).
Psalm 147 in Hebrew is divided into Psalms 146 and 147 in the Septuagint.
Psalms 148-150 are the same in Hebrew and the Septuagint.

Source: Why are there Two Different Numbers for the Same Psalm?

Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

January: Month of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

The month of January has traditionally been dedicated to the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

We find devotion to the Holy Name to be deeply rooted in Sacred Scripture, especially in the Acts of the Apostles. It was promoted particularly the Franciscan Order, St. John Capistrano, as well as St. Bernard and St. Bernardine of Siena, and extended to the whole Church in 1727, during the pontificate of Innocent XIII.

The Church praises the wonders of the Incarnate Word by singing the glories of His name. The name of Jesus means “Savior”; it had been shown in a dream to Joseph together with its meaning, and to Our Lady at the annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel.

This year, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus on January 3rd, 2025. If you wish to honor the Most Holy Name of Jesus on this day especially, consider praying a chaplet dedicated to it. The chaplet can be prayed with any tenner or rosary and consists of three sets of ten for you to keep track of. On the large beads, you pray a quote from Scripture and add your intention, as stated below:

The Most Holy Name of Jesus
IHS monogram, with kneeling angels, atop the main altar, Church of the Gesù, Rome

Chaplet of the Holy Name of Jesus

+ By the Sign of the Holy Cross, + from our enemies deliver us, + O Lord, our God.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry
for having offended You, and
I detest all my sins because
I dread the loss of heaven
and the pains of hell, but
most of all because they offend you,
my God, who are all good and
deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the
help of your grace, to confess
my sins, to do penance and
to amend my life.
Amen.

Prayer

Incline unto my aid, O God.
O Lord, make haste to help me.

(If you prefer to pray this in Latin:
Deus in adiutorium meum intende,
Domine ad adiuvandum me festina.)

First Decade:

On the large bead, you pray the following:

Lord, Thou hast said:
“Ask and ye shall receive;
seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you,”
I seek, I knock, I ask this favor [here, you can mention your intention].

On each of the ten small beads, pray:

Incline unto my aid, O God.
O Lord, make haste to help me.

Deus in adiutorium meum intende,
Domine ad adiuvandum me festina

Second Decade:

On the large bead, you pray thus:

“Amen, I say unto you,
if ye ask the Father anything
in My Name it shall be given unto you.”
It is of the Father and in Thy Name,
Lord, I ask this favor [here, you can mention your intention again].

On each of the ten small beads, you pray:

Incline unto my aid, O God.
O Lord, make haste to help me.

Deus in adiutorium meum intende,
Domine ad adiuvandum me festina

Third Decade:

On the large bead, you pray this:

Lord, Thou hast said:
“Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but My Word shall not pass away,”
Thou wilt grant me this favor [here, you can mention your intention once more]
because Thou hast said it and
Thy word is true.

On each of the ten small beads, you pray:

Incline unto my aid, O God.
O Lord, make haste to help me.

Deus in adiutorium meum intende,
Domine ad adiuvandum me festina.

Finish the Chaplet with a Glory Be (Gloria Patri etc.) and the Fatima Prayer (O mi Jesu, demitte nobis debita nostra etc.), and the Sign of the Cross.

“Blessed and praised, at every instant and in every place, be the Holy Name of Jesus. His Most Sacred Heart. His Most Precious Blood. And His Cross be our refuge and salvation. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”
Saint Faustina Kowalska with the first Divien mercy painting

Mercy or Justice – You Choose

“Free Will”, “Your Choice” – Theologians as well as philosophers have written more about the topic than one person can read and digest in a lifetime. Our Lord Jesus, on the other hand, can sum it up much more succinctly: Mercy or Justice – You Choose.

“(90) Write: I am Thrice Holy, and I detest the smallest sin. I cannot love a soul which is stained with sin; but when it repents, there is no limit to My generosity toward it. My mercy embraces and justifies it. With My mercy, I pursue sinners along all their paths, and My Heart rejoices when they return to Me. I forget the bitterness with which they fed My Heart and rejoice at their return.

Tell sinners that no one shall escape My Hand; if they run away from My Merciful Heart, they will fall into My Just Hands. Tell sinners that I am always waiting for them, that I listen intently to the beating of their heart . . . when will it beat for Me? Write that I am speaking to them through their remorse of conscience, through their failures and sufferings, through thunderstorms, through the voice of the Church. And if they bring all My graces to naught, I begin to be angry (90) with them, leaving them alone, and giving them what they want.”

~ Jesus to St. Maria Faustina, quoted after “Divine mercy in My Soul. Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska”, Stockbridge, MA 1987, p. 610f.

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mat 4:1
J.R.R. Tolkien

Relationship Advice from J.R.R. Tolkien

When J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a letter to his son Michael (then in his tweens) giving relationship advice, it being late January of the year 1941 while Michael was recovering from an injury at the hospital in Worchester, he explained at length how things had gone in his own life. The letter comes as close to a biography of Tolkien’s life up until that point as it gets, and the last lines of it (as printed in Humphrey Carpenter’s 1981 edition of “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien“, Letter 43, quoting from page 53f.) have been oft quoted:

“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: The Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death. By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

As relationship advice goes, I dare say it is somewhat surprising. Why? Because it goes far beyond the ordinary advice a father would give his son when it comes to such matters. And yet, as far as I can see, there is no better advice.

Michael went on to marry Joan Griffiths with whom he had three children. One might have expected him to become a priest after such advice, but that was the choice his older brother John instead. As a sidenote, it might be of interest that John Tolkien became an exorcist even before being ordained.

The rosary is the scourge of the devil. — Pope Adrian VI

The rosary is the scourge of the devil

The rosary is the scourge of the devil.
~ Pope Adrian VI

The rosary is the scourge of the devil. ~ Pope Adrian VI

Learn more about the (only!) Dutch pope here:

Wikipedia entry about the 16th century Pope Adrian VI

The 1908 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia characterised the task that faced him: “To extirpate inveterate abuses; to reform a court which thrived on corruption, and detested the very name of reform; to hold in leash young and warlike princes, ready to bound at each other’s throats; to stem the rising torrent of revolt in Germany; to save Christendom from the Turks, who from Belgrade now threatened Hungary, and if Rhodes fell would be masters of the Mediterranean – these were herculean labours for one who was in his sixty-third year, had never seen Italy, and was sure to be despised by the Romans as a ‘barbarian’.

In Utrecht they still point out this house to strangers, And name it after him: the house of pope Adrian, Still his bust stands in its façade. Less elevated Was the ancestry of this pope, the son of a boat builder, His name is still proudly spoken by thousands of tongues, Only briefly, but with honor, he wore the papal crown.

In Utrecht they still point out this house to strangers,And name it after him: the house of pope Adrian,Still his bust stands in its façade. Less elevatedWas the ancestry of this pope, the son of a boat builder,His name is still proudly spoken by thousands of tongues,Only briefly, but with honor, he wore the papal crown.

The Very Basics of Repentance in C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”

The Very Basics of Repentance in C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”

If you have ever read C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”, even just in parts, you may remember the light, almost jovial style of it. Small wonder: “Mere Christianity” is a collection of radio talks turned book format. In it, C.S. Lewis aims to sum up what all Christians can agree upon, regardless of denomination. For this reason, you can find there many Christian concepts boiled down to the principles involved, with one of them being the very basics of repentance.

C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity book cover

“Now what was the sort of “hole” man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to
behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature
who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms,
surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready
to start life over again from the ground floor—that is the only way out of a “hole.” This process of
surrender—this movement full speed astern—is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is
no fun at all.


“It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit
and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of
yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch.
Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the
more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a
perfect person—and he would not need it.


Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not
something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He
chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back
without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot hap pen. Very
well, then, we must go through with it. But the same badness which makes us need it, makes us
unable to do it. Can we do it if God helps us? Yes, but what do we mean when we talk of God helping
us? We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself, so to speak. He lends us a little of His reasoning
powers and that is how we think: He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one
another.”

Interested to read more but not interested in buying a copy of C.S. Lewis’ book? No problem at all! The text is available in pdf format on the inernet – for free.

C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity” pdf

October Our Lady of the Rosary

October: Our Lady of the Rosary

The month of October is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. During her last apparition at Fatima on October 13, 1917, Mary specifically referred to herself as “The Lady of the Rosary.”  If you are not in the habit of praying the Rosary but have considered learning or starting again to pray it, this is the perfect month to do so.

Our Lady of the Rosary
Our Lady of the Rosary

On October 7th, the RCC celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. According to tradition, Our Lady famously appeared to St. Dominic de Guzman and gave the prayers of the Holy Rosary (as we know them today) to assist him as a spiritual weapon in combating heresy and leading souls back to the one true Catholic faith. Since then, the Rosary has been an infallible source of grace and strength to those who pray it. At Fatima, for example, Our Lady instructed the three children she appeared to to learn how to read and write so that they could pray the Rosary and spread the devotion to it.

Saints who prayed the Rosary

If and when you pray the Rosary, you are in very good company, both today and throughout the ages. Here is a short, by no means comprehensive list of saints who prayed the Rosary.

  • St. Benedict XVI
  • St. Bernadette Soubirous
  • St. Anthony Mary Claret
  • St. Dominic
  • St. Josemaria Escriva
  • St. John Paul II (who aded the Five Luminous Mysteries)
  • St. Thérèse of Lisieux
  • St. Louis de Montfort (who happens to be a relative of ours)
  • St. Pio of Pietrelcina
  • St. Pius V
  • St. Pius X
  • St. Francis de Sales
Don’t know how to pray the Rosary?

There are many books on how to pray the rosay, and what to contemplate while praying the many Ave Marias. If you are just starting out, here are a few links that might help you:

How to Pray the Rosary in English

The Prayers of the Rosary in Latin

Gregorian Chant Sung Rosary

Mater Dolorosa in Stone

How the Pray the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady Chaplet

Halfway between the birthday of Our Lady on September 8th and the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th, I’d like to introduce the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady chaplet, and explain how to pray it. Since September is particularly dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, this is the perfect month to learn how to pray this chaplet. It commemorates the seven swords that pierced the heart of Our Lady as she suffered with her son.

Our Lady pierced by seven swords
How to pray the Chaplet

This chaplet is somewhat similar to the Rosary, although using Rosary beads for it can be a little confusing. The reason is that for this chaplet, you pray seven sets of seven Ave Marias, and the ten-plus-one beads of the usual Rosary or tenner doesn’t lend itself very well to the purpose. But what did the Lords gave us fingers for?

When you start the chaplet, make the sign of the cross and pray:

“Mary, who was conceived without sin and who suffered for us, pray for us.”

Then say the Sorrow you are meditation on, and pray seven Ave Marias. At the conclusion of each set of seven, pray:

“Holy Mother hear my prayer, and renew in my heart each wound of Jesus my Savior.”

Repreat this until you have meditated on all seven Sorrows.

Stabat Mater Tryptichon

What to Meditate On

In this chaplet, we remember each of the seven sorrows of Our Lady while praying the seven Aves mentioned above. These are:

  1. The Prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:34-35)
  2. The Flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-21)
  3. The Loss of Jesus for Three Days (Luke 2:41-50)
  4. The Carrying of the Cross (John 19:17)
  5. The Crucifixion of Jesus (John 19:18-30)
  6. Taking Jesus Down from the Cross (John 19:39-40)
  7. Placing Jesus in the Tomb (John 19:39-42)
Mater Dolorosa

How to Conclude the Chaplet

When you are done with the last Sorrow, pray this closing prayer:
“O Mary, you truly became the Queen of all martyrs as these seven bitter swords of sorrow pierced your Immaculate Heart! By the merits of your tearful distress obtain for us and for all sinners the graces of perfect contrition and conversion. Help us always, dear Mother, to imitate you by taking up our crosses and following Jesus with limitless love and generosity. Amen.”

Seven Swords Pierced Mary's Heart

Short Version

If you are looking for a short prayer to pray this month in particular, or to add to your usual Rosary, the opening prayer, said three times, may serve, so I will repeat it here once more:

“Mary, who was conceived without sin and who suffered for us, pray for us.”

Pietà photo 1888

September: Our Lady of Sorrows

The month of September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, Mater Dolorosa: On September 15th, we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Our Lady of Sorrows

From very early on, Mary was keenly aware that the Son of God, who was also her son, was born to suffer, to be the “man of sorrows” the prophet spoke about. This month, September, we particularly remember Mary’s role in the life and passion of Our Lord, how she suffered when He was still a child during the flight to Egypt and when Simeon prophesied over the child Jesus during the Presentation. More suffering followed when she lost Jesus for three days when He was twelve, and finally when she went with Him every step of the way during His passion. She was the first to pray the Stations of the Cross, even as they were unfolding.

Stabat Mater

Many Western composers have put to music a hymn from the 13th century, “Stabat Mater”, “The Mother was standing”. On the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, this hymn is sung at the liturgy.  The first two stanzas run:

Stabat mater dolorósa
juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
dum pendébat Fílius.		At the Cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last:
Cuius ánimam geméntem,
contristántem et doléntem
pertransívit gládius.		Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,
All his bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has pass’d.

Of course, there are a lot more stanzas to it, and if you are looking for a version of the Stabat Mater online, you will find anything from three-minute videos to over an hour long compositions. I happen to like this rendering of Antonio Vivaldi‘s version a lot:

Andreas Scholl: Stabat Mater

The Prophesy of Simeon

The sword that “at length” pierces Our Lady is a reference to the prophesy of Simeon:

“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35, KJV)

Since Mary’s sorrows are seven in number, depictions of Our Lady of Sorrows with seven swords piercing her, or Mary surrounded by pictures showing her seven sorrows, are numerous.

During the month of September, many people pray the Seven Sorrows of Mary in much the same way they otherwise pray the Stations of the Cross.

Georges de la Tour: The Penitent Magdalene. 1640

Why Penance

Why penance? If I confess my sins and am properly contrite in heart, is that not enough to atone for my sins? Why penance, then? What additional good does penance, self-imposed or otherwise, do to the penitent if a change of heart and mind, metanoia, has already been achieved?

There is a personal answer to the question “why penance” as well as a general one.

Personal Penance

On a personal scale, the damage sin does is not undone by contrition, repentance, confession, even absolution. The sin itself may be forgiven, but the soul must still heal, as must the relationship of the sinner to God and his fellow man. In order to assist this healing process, penance is a powerful tool.

Penance for Sin in General

Aside from personal shortcomings, there is what one can call the ‘sin of the world’. Our world is far from ideal: The ideal state is summed up in the third petition of the Pater Noster: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. In order to contribute to Jesus’ great work of atonement in our own small way, we can align ourselves to His suffering through penitential practices.

Penitential Practices

So now that we know why penance is important, how can we do penance?

There are many ways in which we can do penance. Lent is a time when many people, young and old, abstain from things they usually do or consume, like participation in social media, drinking coffee, or eating sweets. In former times, both the weeks leading up to Christmas (Advent) and the weeks leading up to Easter (Lent) were penitential times, times of preparation for great events in the Christian year. Even at a Christian king’s court, feasting was out of the question in those times.

Other people spend more time in prayer, thus offering time they otherwise might have spent in amusements. They choose this penance in an attempt to attune their mind and soul to the will of God, and often also to avoid the temptations their former amusements contained.

Then there are the physical ‘inconveniences’ people offer to Christ for their own sins and the sins of the world: They take the discipline, wear celices or hair shirts, sleep little and in uncomfortable places, eat sparingly and simply, or hold vigils in honor of Christ and His saints.

Many people do penance by serving others: They feed the poor, cloth the naked, visit the prisoners, both literally and figuratively. Some serve humbly in their families, workplaces, churches, and schools. Others assist the widow and the orphan, the old and the sick, offering up time and resources in atonement for a world spun out of control.

Scourge and Pillar
Scourge and Pillar – Symbols for Penance
The Daily Sacrifice

Ultimately, all penance is practice for the daily sacrifice every one must bring if he wishes to follow Jesus Christ: “Take up your cross and follow me.” With patience and humility, we give our suffering, self-imposed or otherwise, to Christ, and ask Him to turn it into atonement for our own sins as well as the sins of our community, our nation, the human race.

Crossed Keys and a Scourge