Post by Eric Gajewski on Nov 17, 2016 16:16:00 GMT
TradCatKnight: Mortification in our spiritual life
By Fr. Martín HARRISON, O.P.
How we dread the word “mortification”! It suggests terrifying penances, hair-shirts, plank-beds and other extraordinary hardships practiced by some saint; mark the word “extraordinary.” Such penances are not for “ordinary” people like ourselves, but for those called by God to be out of the ordinary through the help of special graces.
Yet penance in some form or another we must do, since we are bound to mortify the flesh and its desires. What does mortification really mean? In a spiritual sense it may be defined as the act of subduing the passions and appetites of our lower nature by fasting or severities inflicted on the body, the act of subordinating all natural impulses to the influence of the Holy Spirit, in a natural sense it may denote being humiliated by circumstances, depressed by disappointments or vexations; but these are not penances in the strict sense, though they may be turned into true mortification by our method of acceptance.
tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2016/11/mortification-in-our-spiritual-life.html#more
By Fr. Martín HARRISON, O.P.
How we dread the word “mortification”! It suggests terrifying penances, hair-shirts, plank-beds and other extraordinary hardships practiced by some saint; mark the word “extraordinary.” Such penances are not for “ordinary” people like ourselves, but for those called by God to be out of the ordinary through the help of special graces.
Yet penance in some form or another we must do, since we are bound to mortify the flesh and its desires. What does mortification really mean? In a spiritual sense it may be defined as the act of subduing the passions and appetites of our lower nature by fasting or severities inflicted on the body, the act of subordinating all natural impulses to the influence of the Holy Spirit, in a natural sense it may denote being humiliated by circumstances, depressed by disappointments or vexations; but these are not penances in the strict sense, though they may be turned into true mortification by our method of acceptance.
tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2016/11/mortification-in-our-spiritual-life.html#more