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.”
The Seven O Antiphons of Advent

The Seven “O” Antiphons of Advent

The seven “O” antiphons of Advent are an old tradition in the Roman Church. Since at least the eighth century they have accompanied the Magnificat canticle of Evening Prayer, starting December 17 and ending on December 23.

The seven “O” antiphons combine our present hopes for the coming of the Divine Savior with the ancient prophesies, all referring to the Book of Isaiah. In like manner Our Lord Jesus Himself explained His works on earth by interpreting OT prophesy to His contemporaries. All the antiphons all end in the call “Veni!” / “Come!”, much like St. John’s Book of Revelation.

Use your last week of this penitential time to prepare for Holy Night by praying the seven “O” antiphons of Advent! Here they are, in Latin as well as Enlish:

December 17: “O Sapientia” / “O Wisdom”
(from Isaiah 11:2-3 and 28:29)
O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O Wisdom, Who didst come out of the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from end to end
and ordering all things mightily and sweetly:
come and teach us the way of prudence.

The Seven O Antiphones of Advent

December 18: “O Adonai”
(from Isaiah 11:4-5 and 33:22)
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

O Adonai, and Leader of the house of Israel,
Who didst appear to Moses in the flame of the burning bush,
and didst give unto him the Law on Sinai:
come and with an outstretched arm redeem us.

The Seven O Antiphones of Advent

December 19: “O Radix Jesse” / “O Root of Jesse”
(Isaiah 11:1 and 11:10)
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse, Who dost stand for an ensign of the people,
before Whom kings shall keep silence,
and unto Whom the Gentiles shall make their supplication:
come to deliver us, and tarry not.

The Seven O Antiphones of Advent

December 20: “O Clavis David” / “O Key of David”
(from Isaiah 9:6 and 22:22)
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;
qui aperis, et nemo claudit;
claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Key of David and Sceptre of the house of Israel,
Who dost open and no man doth shut,
Who dost shut and no man doth open,
come and bring forth from his prisonhouse the captive that sitteth in darkness and in the shadow of death.

The Seven O Antiphones of Advent

December 21: “O Oriens”/”O Dawn of the East”
(from Isaiah 9:2)
O Oriens,
splendor lucis æternæ,
et sol justitiæ:
veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Dawn of the East,
Brightness of the Light Eternal
and Sun of Justice,
come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

The Seven O Antiphones of Advent

December 22: “O Rex Gentium” / “O King of the Gentiles”
(from Isaiah 2:4 and 9:7)
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis,
qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.

O King of the Gentiles and the Desired of them,
Thou Cornerstone
that dost make both one,
come and deliver man, whom Thou didst form out of the dust of the earth.

The Seven O Antiphones of Advent

December 23: “O Emmanuel”
(from Isaiah 7:14)
O Emmanuel,
Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster.

O Emmanuel,
our King and Lawgiver,
the Expected of the Nations and their Saviour,
come to save us, O Lord our God.

Gaudēte, gaudēte! Chrīstus est nātus Ex Marīā virgine, gaudēte!

Gaudete! Gaudete!

It’s Gaudete-Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. Even penitential times have their joyful highlights – the birth of Our Savior is nigh! Here and also here you can read up a little bit on Gaudete-Sunday, and here on the Gaudete Christmas carol you will find below in an a-capella version I particularly enjoy.

Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine,
gaudete!

Clamavi de Profundis presents Gaudete a-capella

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

St. Andrew Advent Novena

In preparation for the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray this Advent Novena starting St. Andrew’s Day through midnight on Christmas Eve (11-30 through 12-24). Join us!

Pray this prayer every day 15 times:

+Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold.

In that hour vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

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