“Withdraw…”

For a couple of weeks now, after my post, “These eyes will behold…” I have continued reflecting on custody of the eyes, tongue, ears, etc.  To be watchful is to guard your senses.  Then I decided to do some research and prayerful thinking about hermits and anchorites.  Of course, everyone knows what a hermit is, but I mean a hermit of the Lord, one who withdraws from social interaction in some solitary place, someone who keeps to himself in silence in order to live more completely in the presence of God. As in the Middle Ages, a resurgence of this vocation is springing up and flourishing throughout Christendom, including in the Catholic Church.  Many vow poverty, chastity, and obedience to their bishop, to a simple rule which they themselves write, and which the bishop approves.

Less familiar is the anchorite or anchoress.  In the Middle Ages, such a person attached himself or herself to a church, chapel, or monastery, even to go so far as to construct the anchorage or cell to the outside of the church itself with one window opening to the interior of the church and one window opening to the outside, to the street.  Not entirely silent, the anchorite—usually an anchoress or woman—lived close to the Eucharistic Presence and attended Mass through the interior window, but was able to respond to people who might come for assistance in prayer or counsel through the exterior window.  The anchorite/anchoress was believed to be a true anchor of prayer for the church or monastery, and as such was welcomed by the priest, bishop, or community.

What both the hermit and anchorite have in common is a more intense withdrawal from the world in order to devote their life to God.  “The word anchoress comes from the Greek anachoreo meaning to withdraw.”

The times being what they are, I have come to the conclusion that I myself need to intensify my prayer life, to withdraw more completely from the world.  To severely reduce television time, secular reading, etc., to practice better custody of the eyes, ears, tongue in order to have more solitude of silence and a deeper prayer life.

On Jan. 30, I reflected on the word withdraw during Adoration. I visualized someone (like me) on the verge of exiting a building, a little house—but stopping, backing up, watching what is before her, stepping backwards, drawing herself within her house, refusing to exit her home, seeing what is out there, refusing to participate in it.  This is, of course, a crude image, but it states a truth, nevertheless. Watchfulness is certainly a part of the process, a discerning look at what is about, what is before me and around me. Custody of the eyes, the ears, the tongue constitutes the heart of this watchfulness, not to let the world in, people, yes, but not the world, not sin, not sinful inclinations. Not the territory, the atmosphere, the flavor, the fascination, the seductive draw of the world, the flesh, and the devil. To avoid anything that may be the least bit tainted.

It will take me the rest of my life to learn this life of withdrawal.  What I withdraw from is what is outside, what the anchoress perceives through her exterior window, if you will.

I am fully aware, also, of the role that memory will play in all of this.  The reality of the world has fastened itself in great, colorful detail to my soul through my memory, and it is probably this internal construct of the world that will give me the greatest struggle.  I can withdraw from the world, but will the world leave me if it lives within me?  It will require constant renunciation, vigilance, surrender to the Holy Spirit and Abandonment to Christ.

Then we have the other half—or more—of the equation.  If I am withdrawing [drawing myself within], to what inside am I drawn?  Here it is the interior window which is all important—the opening to the Eucharistic Christ.  To the extent I withdraw from, I must be equally drawn to:  To be crucified with Him and to be hidden with Christ in God—to be drawn, to be present to the indwelling Trinity.  This is the within.

To be an anchoress is not only to withdraw, but more significantly, to dwell within, to indwell. Physical separation and solitude give the walls.  Vigilance and discernment give the cloister. Interior silence gives the substance.

Today, I was reading St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, remembering her three levels of silence:  the silence of the walls of Carmel [exterior silence], the interior silence of her inner cloister, and the silence for which she most longed:  the great silence of God [the indwelling Trinity in the sanctuary of the heart].

The whole purpose of the life of anchoress is to live in all three levels of silence, especially in the silence of the indwelling Trinity. One thing that I have learned by reading online, is that today this vocation can take many shapes, enabling those called to an eremitical lifestyle to  fashion it in ways appropriate to their abilities and resources. This includes private consecrations or public witness of consecration according to Canon 603.

As we enter Lent, let us withdraw to the sanctuary of our hearts, to be watchful in prayer, to wait on the Lord.  What else can we do in the silence, in the separation, in the long hours of day or night, except to repulse every influence that is not from God?  To turn always, to be drawn to the Blessed Trinity who dwells in our heart.  It is enough that we are present and not distracted more than we have to be.  Let us practice being attentive to the burning Hearth and Fire in the center of our being.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Embracing the Eremitical Life

How I Became a Medieval Style Anchorite

Hermits in Diocesan Life–The Anchorite

Hermits and the Roman Catholic Church

How to become a Catholic Hermit

“These eyes will behold…”

Near the end of my rosary this morning before Mass, as I gazed at the Tabernacle, these words came to my mind, brought to me by the Holy Spirit:  “These eyes will behold the Glory!” The Glory of Christ, of the Blessed Trinity—all that awaits us in Heaven!  These physical eyes of mine that gaze at the Tabernacle, at the wonder of the Eucharist, our Bread Who has come down from Heaven will still be my eyes in Heaven!

The same eyes that I use in Adoration, in my home, in the streets, in watching television….  I realized how precious is the purity of our eyes.  How critical that we “guard our eyes.”  The Fathers of the Church have much to say about “custody of the eyes.”

I read online:  “At its most basic level, custody of the eyes simply means controlling what you allow yourself to see. It means guarding your sense of sight carefully, realizing that what you view will leave an indelible mark on your soul.

 “Many of the saints, in their zeal for purity, would never look anyone in the face. ‘To avoid the sight of dangerous objects, the saints were accustomed to keep their eyes almost continually fixed on the earth, and to abstain even from looking at innocent objects,’ says St. Alphonsus de Liguori.” [https://www.catholicgentleman.net/2014/06/custody-of-the-eyes-what-it-is-and-how-to-practice-it/]

Sam Guzman, the author, offers many practical suggestions as to how to maintain custody of the eyes, so difficult in today’s world.

I am a rather solitary person, but I have had an experience recently while watching television which has prompted me to sharply reduce the amount of time and what I watch.  As I viewed a movie, suddenly erotic scenes erupted before me.  To my shame, I was caught off-guard and did not turn away.  This failure I had to bring to confession.  Because we never know when such scenes may rise, we need to be prudent and eliminate all possibilities.  Safest to watch older films which never tread on purity or engage in content offensive to faith.

“If your eye offends you, pluck it out.” – Jesus

 “The thought follows the look; delight comes after the thought; and consent after delight.”  -Saint Augustine – Bishop of Hippo, Father, and Doctor of the Church

 “Oh! how many are lost by indulging their sight!”  – St. Alphonsus de Ligouri

“The eyes, because they draw us to sin, must be depressed. He that looks at a dangerous object begins to will what he wills not.”-Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Father and Doctor of the Church, Mor. J. 21, c. 2.

Sister Maria Catherine, O.P. asks us: “What am I thinking about all day long? What am I putting into my mind to nourish it? Monastic writers discuss a practice called “custody of the eyes,” at length. These wise fathers in the faith encourage me to discipline my eyes. When I’m driving along the highway, do I have to look at every billboard? When I go grocery shopping, do I dwell on a Kardashian gracing the cover of People?

 “My mind needs something life-giving to feast on. Paul emphasizes this, when he says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious if there is any excellence or anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). How do I find more of these things to dwell on? A twofold approach could be helpful: Where am I wasting time on frivolous images?  What am I reading? What do I listen to? Minimizing the time spent on what doesn’t lead me to God, will help me to make room for the things that will deepen my relationship with Christ and open my heart to what is truly restorative. ”  [http://www.catholic-sf.org/CSF-home/voices/article/csf/2017/01/01/practicing-custody-of-the-eyes]

As with the eyes, so with the ears; and equally, with the tongue.

Last night as I listened to Marino Restrepo,  Catholic Evangelist from Colombia, he advised that the first thing that we should do when we rise in the morning is to “consecrate our tongue to the Lord,” for custody of the tongue is equally important.  Even in the Old Testament, we read:  “Set a watch, Lord, beside my mouth and a door about my lips.” [Psalm 38:1]  The same tongue that we use daily to talk to our family, to visit with co-workers, will be the same tongue with which we will adore the Holy Trinity for all eternity.

St. James cautions us about the use of our tongues: “So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire.” [James 3:5-6]

What is obvious is all the sins, venial and mortal, which we commit with the tongue, sins against charity, patience, even purity.  What is not so obvious is the seriousness of the wasteful and idle words we speak.  Jesus told us in the New Testament:  “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment.” [Matthew 12:36] This “idle” has alternately been translated as “careless,” “thoughtless,” “empty,” and “worthless.”  Mea Culpa. This teaching of Jesus has always struck me with a pang of dread and fear. Which of us has not been guilty of idle talk often, if not constantly?

In the midst of His teachings in the discourse on the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us:  “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.”   [Matthew 5:37] Jesus urges no subterfuge, duplicity, dishonesty, but purity in speech, simplicity, and transparency. I see in His words also an urgency to paucity, not to multiply words, but to respect silence as an option in many situations, with many people.

As we approach Lent, let us seriously consider working on custody of the eyes, ears, or tongue—wherever we most grievously offend our Lord.

Sensuality & The Holy Spirit

AUDIO

As I try to enter more deeply into my “inner cloister” where the Holy Spirit abides in all His power as the director of my soul, I continue to read from Conchita:  A Mother’s Spiritual Diary.  I find these teachings:

+  “The Lord told me: ‘The world is buried in sensuality, no longer is sacrifice loved and no longer is its sweetness known.”

+  “To the extent the Holy Spirit will reign, sensuality, which today invades the earth, will disappear.”

And more ominously:

+  “In these latter days sensuality has set up its reign in the world. This sensual life obscures and extinguishes the light of faith in souls. That is why more than ever, it is necessary that the Holy Spirit come to destroy and annihilate Satan who under this form penetrates even the Church” (Diary, Jan. 26, 1915).

We must not associate sensuality only with sexual preoccupation, lust, promiscuity, though these are certainly potent forms of sensuality much loved by Satan.  No, unfortunately, what Jesus is telling Conchita and us is that sensuality pervades and penetrates, buries us, invades us even in the bosom of the Church.

I realized that the Holy Spirit was showing me something here.  I have long been dissatisfied with the level of mortification in my life.  I have long realized the deepest meaning of what Jesus told his disciples when they were unable to rout demons from their hold on unfortunate souls,  “This kind can be driven out only by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29); I knew that had it been me, I would have been as powerless as the disciples were.  Sensuality pervades and penetrates me—and I knew I had to get to the bottom of it.   I continued to read over several days from Conchita:

+  “…what makes the soul insensitive, is the life of the sense, this sensuality which seeks only self-satisfaction in laxity and in ease, binding the spirit and cutting off its wings.”

+  “To the extent the Holy Spirit will reign, sensuality, which today invades the earth, will disappear.”

Now I began to see the connection:  we are ruled either by the Holy Spirit or by sensuality.  To the extent that sensuality rules us, it “seeks only self-satisfaction in laxity and in ease, binding the spirit and cutting off its wings.”

As she teaches us about “Asceticism and Penance,” she explains:

+  “Truly the most formidable foe of perfection is ‘ego,’ with its self-love, its tastes, its seeking for ease and comfort. Once this ‘ego’ is conquered, the place is ours and Jesus is ours too, entirely. He does not come into a house already occupied. Then the Holy Spirit becomes everything for us. He only sets up His shelter in the solitude of a pure soul.”

Sensuality, this self-love with its tastes and seeking for ease and comfort, infects all of us.  But although we may have driven all mortal sin from our lives, even most venial sin, sensuality continues—unheeded, taking different forms such as love of food and eating for the pleasure of it, fastidiously seeking comfortable surroundings, bedding & furniture, cool & heat, the inability to make ourselves exercise, “sleeping in,” and a million other little attachments.

I realized some time ago that gluttony is my greatest weakness.  I’m from Louisiana; we Cajuns love to eat—and we eat a lot.  The food is wonderful; and even when it is not, we tend to overdo the good times.  As I prayed about all of this and reviewed the varied ways we can sin through gluttony, I became convinced that I probably sin through gluttony every day.

Several months ago I looked and found online some wonderful articles about gluttony which I would like to share.

+  “Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Doctor of the Catholic Church, argued that there was six primary ways gluttony is committed:

• Praepropere – Eating too soon. [Unfortunately, this teaching tells us that eating between meals, if we are healthy, is an act of gluttony.]
• Laute – Eating too expensively.
• Nimis – Eating too much.
• Ardenter – Eating too eagerly (burningly).
• Studiose – Eating too daintily (keenly).
• Forente – Eating wildly (boringly).

[If you have never sat with a carton of ice cream, eating right out of the carton, count yourself blessed—I know I have, to my shame, and more than once.  A story of one of my uncles, Uncle Louis—now deceased—reveals how when he bought ice cream he always bought two cartons:  one for the family and one for himself!  My cousins and I have commented more than once that addiction to sugar runs in our family.  The tragedy is that sugar addiction is so widespread now, wreaking havoc on the lives and health of so many Americans.]

St. Thomas Aquinas further explains:

+  “The inordinate concupiscence may be considered in two ways.  First, with regard to the food consumed [what you eat]: and thus, as regards the substance or species of food a man seeks “sumptuous” — i.e. costly food; as regards its quality, he seeks food prepared too nicely — i.e. “daintily”; and as regards quantity, he exceeds by eating “too much.”  Secondly, the inordinate concupiscence is considered as to the consumption of food  [how you eat] : either because one forestalls the proper time for eating, which is to eat “hastily,” or one fails to observe the due manner of eating, by eating “greedily.”

Richard Conlin blog gives a wonderful compendium of teachings by varied Church fathers on his blog:  A Catholic Approach to Food and Fasting.  For example, St. Augustine tells us:

+  ‘Who is it, Lord, that does not eat a little more than necessary?’

Richard Conlin also cites, in addition to St. Augustine (354-430), St. Frances de Sales (1567-1622),  St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651-1719), the Cure of Ars—St. John Vianney (1786-1859), St. John Climacus (1600s—also known as St. John of the Ladder), St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787), St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), The Lord, to St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), St. Mark the Ascetic (5^th century), Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604), St. Maximos the Confessor (580-662), and finally, St. John Cassian. St. John Cassian, a contemporary of St. Augustine, lived from c. 360 – 435 AD—if he is citing “Church Fathers” then he is surely citing the apostles and their immediate successors; so these teachings reach us from the very beginnings of Christianity.  I include the years these saints and Fathers of the Church lived to show how persistent these teachings have been over nearly two thousand years.

It is St. John Cassian’s teaching over which I have been mulling these last few months:

‘I shall speak first about control of the stomach, the opposite to gluttony, and about how to fast and what and how much to eat. I shall say nothing on my own account, but only what I have received from the Holy Fathers. They have not given us only a single rule for fasting or a single standard and measure for eating, because not everyone has the same strength; age, illness or delicacy of body create differences. But they have given us all a single goal: to avoid over-eating and the filling of our bellies. . . A clear rule for self-control handed down by the Fathers is this: stop eating while still hungry and do not continue until you are satisfied.’”

I think this must be the golden standard of control, but I can’t help but marvel over that last sentence—I wonder if I ever eat a meal and adhere to that directive.  I know I am not alone in this.  How often have you heard,  “Make room for dessert!”  Even when we have eaten a good meal and are satisfied, we usually find room for that delicacy known as dessert.  We live in gluttony every day.

The question is, what to do about our sensuality which, if left untended, will erode our life in the Spirit.  Conchita tells us:

+  “…spiritual combat against self and against tendencies…remain in each of us, even after a sincere conversion. It is necessary to fight to the death, “I must strive to uproot this ‘ego’ which tenaciously stands up at every instant, wanting to dominate everything… I would like to kill it and bury it deeper and deeper.”  One of Conchita’s children told a researcher that she had a tendency to “a touch of gluttony”—she admitted that she could not pass a confectionary [candy store] without going in.  So there’s hope for us!

Last night as I reflected on these ideas, the Holy Spirit  showed me something else:  fasting is so difficult for me.  Why?  If we have not taken gluttony in hand in our lives, how in the world can we fast successfully?  Fasting takes us beyond temperance, normal control, into deeper submission to the Holy Spirit.  How can we do this if gluttony and sensuality erode our life in the Spirit every day?

I am convicted.  I read on a site called “Courageous Priest”:

+  …”what we know as man’s desires – often inordinate ones – which are called “concupiscence”, is left in us for our moral betterment and proving.”  Remember also St. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”—three times he begged the Lord to remove it, and was told:  “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:8).

I must fight harder, that is obvious.  But the fight will remain; that is also God’s will—concupiscence, the tendency and temptation to any kind of sensuality “is left in us for our moral betterment and proving.” Like those addicted to alcohol, we have to take one day at a time—sometimes one moment at a time,  struggling to cooperate with actual grace.  This is the meaning of “actual grace.”  The Church teaches that there is a difference between actual grace and sanctifying grace. An easy way to understand actual grace is to remember that it enables us to act. It is the strength that God gives us to act according to his will.   What God promised St. Paul was actual grace—“My grace is sufficient for you.”  But He did not release him from the daily struggle.  Neither are we exempt, as all the saints attest.

Last, I am comforted by Conchita’s teaching from Christ on PENANCE.  Repentance, daily if need be, is key:

+  “”Penance is a great virtue and the spirit of repentance is a gratuitous gift which God grants to whom He pleases. Its influence is universal, not only for liberating man from sin, but for helping him practice all the virtues. Penitence appeases God’s justice and transforms it into graces. It purifies souls, extinguishes the fires of purgatory and receives in heaven a most sublime recompense. Penance pays for personal faults and those of others. Penance is the sister of mortification. Both work together hand in hand. Penance helps the soul rise above things of the earth. Penance cooperates with the Redemption of the world. Penance humbles man, it penetrates him with an inner feeling of his baseness and his wretchedness. Penance brings light to the soul. It consumes and causes to disappear all in it that is purely material. It raises him higher and higher above the earth, making him taste of delights hitherto unknown and pure. But this penance should be the daughter of reverence and exist in the soul, hidden from all humans” (Diary, Sept. 24, 1895).

Scripture also gives us courage and encouragement.  Jesus tells us in John 16:33:

+  “I have spoken these things to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world.”  What is ever needed is trust, humility, prayer, perseverance.

Sources: 

https://richardconlin.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/a-catholic-approach-to-food-fasting/

http://www.courageouspriest.com/warning-gluttony-gateway-sins-flesh

http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2008/08/20/st-thomas-aquinas-and-gluttony/

http://www.spiritualdirection.com/2010/05/03/what-virtues-can-i-practice-to-overcome-the-root-sin-of-sensuality

http://www.christianperfection.info/tta36.php

https://www.ewtn.com/library/SPIRIT/SLP2B1C3.TXT

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Mortification: Training Brother Ass

Yesterday, as I sat before the blessed Sacrament preparing for confession and for Lent, I decided to go back to a talk which I gave a couple of years ago on mortification. Although it is posted on another page on this blog, I want to repeat it here because it is such a complete study, referencing several saints: St. Francis, St. Anthony, St. Frances de Sales, St. Louis de Montfort, St. Jose Marie Escriva, St. Jean Marie Vianney, Cardinal Desire Mercier (1851-1926). Actually, the full name of the talk is “Mortification: Training Brother Ass”—a name traditionally used by the Franciscans.

“Training Brother Ass,” however, refers to so much more than restraining the too eager body—indeed, “Mortification can be ACTIVE or PASSIVE, EXTERNAL or INTERNAL. We should daily mortify the BODY, IMAGINATION, MIND or INTELLIGENCE, MEMORY, WILL, OUR EXTERIOR ACTIONS, OUR RELATIONS WITH OUR NEIGHBOR,” as the summary suggests. [You will find the paragraphs numbered, for your convenience is returning or referencing the material.] Have a blessed Lent.

SOUL FOOD Talk 8: TRAINING BROTHER ASS – MORTIFICATION
[1.] Mortification refers to the Christian ideal of dying to self through deliberate restraint of our unruly passions and appetites. It refers to our struggle against evil inclinations. It distinguishes between external mortification, for example, fasting, controlling one’s tongue and internal mortification “the discipline of the heart,” overcoming aversions, resentments, dangerous attachments. While both kinds of mortification are important, St. Alphonsus views the internal as both more demanding and more fruitful for spiritual growth. [Thanks to redemptorists.com]

[2.] CARDINAL MERCIER: The aim of Christian mortification is to counteract the evil influences which original sin continues to exert on our souls, even after Baptism has regenerated them. Our regeneration in Christ, while completely wiping out sin in us, leaves us, none the less, very far indeed from original rectitude and peace. It was recognized by the Council of Trent that concupiscence, which is to say the triple covetousness of the flesh, the eyes and the pride of life, makes itself felt in us even after Baptism, in order to rouse us to the glorious struggles of the Christian life*. It is this triple covetousness which Scripture calls sometimes the old man, as opposed to the new man who is Jesus living in us and ourselves living in Jesus; and sometimes the flesh or fallen nature, as opposed to the spirit or to nature regenerated by supernatural grace. It is this old man or this flesh, that is to say the whole man with his twofold, moral and physical life, that one must, I do not say annihilate, because that is an impossibility so long as our present life continues, but mortify, which means to cause it to die, to reduce it almost to the powerless, inactive and barren state of a corpse; one must prevent it from yielding its fruit, which is sin, and nullify its action in all our moral life.

[3.] [livingchrist.webs.com] St. Francis of Assisi used to refer to his body as “Brother Ass.” This was common knowledge and practice among the Franciscans. At the moment St. Anthony of Padua (a Franciscan priest) died, he appeared to a beloved brother, Abbot Gallo, and told him, “I have come to say goodbye, for I have left the ass at Arcella, and am now hastening to my fatherland.” Not thinking anything had happened out of the ordinary, Abbot Gallo looked for Anthony to talk with him, not even realizing that St. Anthony had died.

[4.] Brother Ass has no mind, only a comfort zone which he hates to leave. What is sweet to the taste, to the touch, to the smell, to the hearing, and to the sight is his only focus. To let Brother Ass have his way is to feed the body at the expense of the soul and spirit. If we give Brother Ass his way in all things, he will do nothing hard, will have his way with us, (like an unruly and hard to control beast), will be spoiled and greedy, and will always take the easy way out. Without Brother Ass, we cannot function as human beings. We do not have a body. We are a body. Our growth and perfection as good Christians depends on a balance between the flesh and the spirit, with the spirit always having the upper hand.

[5.] Therefore, Brother Ass needs some serious training. Insofar as we deny Brother Ass, we strengthen our moral strength, our will. And it is our will that God wants. A strong will that seeks perfect union with His Will. Giving in to Brother Ass will prolong our struggle to reach perfection, deter us, and may completely stop us in our tracks. Mortification is taken from two root words: mors — death, and facio — to make. So mortification means literally to make to die, or to kill. What are we expected to kill? The inordinate love of all things material or self-serving–everything that pleases Brother Ass.

[6.] As you read the lives of the saints you see that they practiced mortification on a heroic level, living sometimes on bread and water for days at a time, or little more; staying awake for hours to pray at night; wearing a hair-shirt–which itched Brother Ass to death! They lowered their eyes so as not to give Brother Ass the pleasure of unrestricted vision and distractions; they retreated into lonely places, restricting even pleasant socializing with friends and other people; they kept silent, mortifying the hearing. It is not likely that we are called to such extreme practices, but it is advisable to do small things to train Brother Ass.

[7.] Failure to deny the flesh has grave consequences. Our personal health crises are often the ultimate result of failure to control Brother Ass, letting him have all the sweet, fatty, pleasant tasting foods he wants, instead of making him eat what is good for him! Our marriages often break up because neither husband or wife is willing to give in or concede to the other foolish things for the sake of the union. We give in to our children and spoil them for themselves and for society. Our lack of mortification has resulted in a polluted or weakened society, planet, and a weakened Church. Brother Ass is all about the flesh, what the body wants, convenience, ease, and pleasure.  Mortification will help prepare us for times of temptation and trials. We will be stronger, will have the spiritual stamina to endure for Christ. Yes, we are called to this–all of us–not just the saints on the holy pictures. We are the body of Christ; we are the saints!

[8.] [ http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/Handbook/Mortif.htm%5D ST. LOUIS De MONTFORT echoes this attitude when he writes: “Never give your body all it demands. With permission, refuse it even some lawful satisfaction.” Montfort led a life of rigorous mortification. He willingly gave up the comforts of life because he firmly believed that “wisdom is not found in the hearts of those who live in comfort.” Mortification of the body, according to de Montfort, is indispensable in our efforts to possess Wisdom. Speaking of bodily mortifications, he says that accepting our life as it is and living it patiently everyday by enduring our bodily ailments, the inconveniences of the weather, and the difficulties arising from other people’s actions is mortification enough. To this we may add some voluntary penances and mortifications, such as fasts, vigils, and other austerities practiced by holy penitents.

[9.] De Montfort points out that interior mortifications are more important than exterior ones, even though the latter are not to be disregarded. The conquest of selfishness, or self-will, is the greatest challenge. De Montfort also teaches that little mortifications are often more meritorious than great ones because they are less apt to give rise to vanity. Small interior acts of mortification made for God, for example, repressing useless words and glances or checking a movement of anger or impatience, etc., could turn out to be great victories.  In this connection, he specifically asks—in his down-to-earth language—to mortify “1) a certain natural activity that inclines you to hurry and to accomplish much; 2) changing moods that rule you and displease your neighbor; 3) your tongue, which always wishes to talk, laugh, mock etc.; 4) a tendency to lack religious modesty in your bearing, which makes you act like a child, laugh like a fool, jump around like a juggler, and eat and drink like an animal.”

[10]. SUFFERING THAT HAPPENS TO US IS KNOWN AS PASSIVE MORTIFICATION. SUFFERING WE ALLOW TO HAPPEN IS KNOWN AS ACTIVE MORTIFICATION. [http://www.mariancatechist.com/spiritual_reading/seeking_sanctification.html]
Passive mortifications come in various forms, but they are not the sufferings we experience from having sinned, e.g., suffering a hangover after being intoxicated. Rather, they come to us unsolicited, the consequence of living in a world that has fallen from the grace of God. Passive mortifications can be grave, for example, sickness or injury, the death of a loved one, losing one’s employment. For the most part, passive mortifications come to us in smaller and less severe versions such as a difficult boss or co-worker, a spouse who from time to time is insensitive and uncaring or children who are demanding and unappreciative.

[11]. St. Jose Marie Escriva, the founder of the Opus Dei Prelature often pointed out that our daily life and work provide significant opportunities to experience passive mortifications, primarily through petty annoyances like an unexpected change in plans, instruments or tools that fail us, the discomfort caused us by the weather being to hot or cold. When these small crosses are embraced generously and courageously they help us to grow in holiness. Pope Paul VI spoke eloquently about carrying these kinds of daily crosses in his March 24, 1967 Address: “To carry one’s cross is something great. Great….It means facing up to life courageously, without weakness or meanness. It means that we turn into moral energy those difficulties which will never be lacking in our existence; it means understanding human sorrow; and finally, it means knowing really how to love.”
[12]. For the most part active mortifications that are not severe can be exercised repeatedly throughout the day. Examples would be: punctuality—to arise from bed immediately in the morning, to be on time for work and returning punctually after a break, to not leave a task undone because it is difficult to bring to completion. Most importantly concerning punctuality is to maintain definite times for prayer throughout the day. We must avoid praying only “when we feel like it” or “when we have time for it.” We should set times for prayer within our day and keep to them. To deny oneself sleep in order to maintain a vigil of prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament, is a laudatory practice of active mortification.

[13]. Other examples would be to smile and be joyful even though your day or situation has been and continues to be difficult, to remain silent and charitable when you are being criticized without a good reason, to participate in conversation with those who are boring or overbearing, overlooking those irritating details of the people with whom we live and giving up some comfort that we have come to cherish.

[14]. “…Mortification of the imagination—avoiding that interior monologue in which fantasy runs wild, by trying to turn it into a dialogue with God, present in our soul in grace. We try to put a restraining check on that tendency of ours to go over and over some little happening in the course of which we have come off badly. No doubt we have felt slighted, and have made much of an injury to our self-esteem, caused to us quite unintentionally. If we don’t apply the brake in time, our conceit and pride will cause us to overbalance until we lose our peace and presence of God.

[15.] “Mortification of the memory—avoiding useless recollections which make us waste time and which could lead us into more serious temptations.

[16.] “Mortification of the intelligence—so as to put it squarely to the business of concentrating on our own duty at this moment and, also, on many occasions of surrendering our own judgment so as to live humility and charity with others in a better way.”

[17.] Finally, it needs to be pointed out that to realize the spiritual growth and benefit that results from active and passive mortifications does not require that we carry them out with a conscious intention of uniting each one to Christ’s redemptive suffering at the time they are done. To do so, would be continually distracting and make our daily work almost impossible. Our daily mortifications will be united to Christ’s redemptive work by virtue our having made our Morning Offering, “… I offer to you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings …”

[18.] Those mortifications that are most pleasing to God are those that involve being more charitable to our neighbor, more dedicated to the work of the Church, and those that help us to be more faithful in carrying out the obligations that are necessary to our state in life.
http://www.religious-vocation.com/penance_and_mortification.html

[19.] Saint Jean Marie Vianney: “Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray! but some people think of nothing but sleeping. There was once a solitary who had built himself a royal palace in the trunk of an oak tree; he had placed thorns inside of it, and he had fastened three stones over his head, so that when he raised himself or turned over he might feel the stones or the thorns. And we, we think of nothing but finding good beds, that we may sleep at our ease. We may refrain from warming ourselves; if we are sitting uncomfortably, we need not try to place ourselves better; if we are walking in our garden, we may deprive ourselves of some fruit that we should like; in preparing the food, we need not eat the little bits that offer themselves; we may deprive ourselves of seeing something pretty, which attracts our eyes, especially in the streets of great towns.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1551293/posts

Practice Of Christian Mortification -Cardinal Desire Mercier (1851-1926)
[20.] Mortification of the body – Mortification of the senses, of the imagination and the passions
1 – Close your eyes always and above all to every dangerous sight, and even – have the courage to do it – to every frivolous and useless sight. See without looking; do not gaze at anybody to judge of their beauty or ugliness.
2 Keep your ears closed to flattering remarks, to praise, to persuasion, to bad advice, to slander, to uncharitable mocking, to indiscretions, to ill ¬disposed criticism, to suspicions voiced, to every word capable of causing the very smallest coolness between two souls.
3 – If the sense of smell has something to suffer due to your neighbor’s infirmity or illness, far be it from you ever to complain of it; draw from it a holy joy.
4 – In what concerns the quality of food, have great respect for Our Lord’s counsel: “Eat such things as are set before you.” “Eat what is good without delighting in it, what is bad without expressing aversion to it, and show yourself equally indifferent to the one as to the other. There,” says St. Francis de Sales, “is a real mortification.”
5 – Offer your meals to God; at table impose on yourself a tiny penance: for example, refuse a sprinkling of salt a glass of wine, a sweet, etc.; your companions will not notice it, but God will keep account of it.
6 – Bear with everything which naturally grieves the flesh, especially the cold of winter, the heat of summer, a hard bed and every inconvenience of that kind. Whatever the weather, put on a good face; smile at all temperatures. Say with the prophet: “Cold, heat, rain, bless ye the Lord.”
7 – If you feel within you the need to day dream, mortify it without mercy.
8 – Mortify yourself with the greatest care in the matter of impatience, of irritation or of anger.
9 – Examine your desires thoroughly; submit them to the control of reason and of faith: do you ever desire a long life rather than a holy life, wish for pleasure and well-being without trouble or sadness, victory without battle, success without setbacks, praise without criticism, a comfortable, peaceful life without a cross of any sort, that is to say a life quite opposite to that of Our Divine Lord?
10 – Seek to discover your predominant failing and, as soon as you have recognized it, pursue it all the way to its last retreat. To that purpose, submit with good will to whatever could be monotonous or boring in the practice of the examination of conscience.

[21.] Mortification of the mind and the will
1 – Mortify your mind by denying it all fruitless imaginings, all ineffectual or wandering thoughts which waste time, dissipate the soul, and render work and serious things distasteful.
2 – Every gloomy and anxious thought should be banished from your mind. Concern about all that could happen to you later on should not worry you at all. As for the bad thoughts which bother you in spite of yourself, you should, in dismissing them, make of them a subject for patience. Being involuntary, they will simply be for you an occasion of merit.
3 – Avoid obstinacy in your ideas, stubbornness in your sentiments. You should willingly let the judgments of others prevail, unless there is a question of matters on which you have a duty to give you opinion and speak out.
4 – Mortify the natural organ of your mind, which is to say the tongue. Practice silence gladly, whether your rule prescribes it for you or whether you impose it on yourself of your own accord.
5 – Prefer to listen to others rather than to speak yourself; and yet speak appropriately, avoiding as extremes both speaking too much, which prevents others from telling their thoughts, and speaking too little, which suggests a hurtful lack of interest in what they say.
6 – Never interrupt somebody who is speaking and do not forestall, by answering too swiftly, a question he would put to you.
7 – Always have a moderate tone of voice, never abrupt or sharp. Avoid very, extremely, horribly; all exaggeration.
8 – Love simplicity and straightforwardness. The pretenses, evasions, deliberate equivocations which certain pious people indulge in without scruple greatly discredit piety.
9- Carefully refrain from using any coarse, vulgar or even idle word, because Our Lord warns us that He will ask an account of them from us on the Day of Judgment.
10 – Above all, mortify your will; that is the decisive point. Bend it constantly to what you know is God’s good pleasure and the rule of Providence, without taking any account either of your likes or your dislikes.

[22.] Mortifications to practice in our exterior actions
1 – Never give one moment over to sloth: from morning until night keep busy without respite.
2 – Devote yourself solely to your present occupation, without looking back on what went before or anticipating in thought what will follow. Say with Saint Francis: “While I am doing this I am not obliged to do anything else”; “let us make haste very calmly; all in good time.”
3 – Be modest in your bearing. Nothing was so perfect as Saint Francis’s deportment; he always kept his head straight, avoiding alike the inconstancy which turns it in all directions, the negligence which lets it droop forward and the proud and haughty disposition which throws it back. His countenance was always peaceful, free from all annoyance, always cheerful, serene and open; without however any merriment or indiscreet humor, without loud, immoderate or too frequent laughter.
4 – He was as composed when alone as in a large gathering. He did not cross his legs, never supported his head on his elbow. When he prayed he was motionless as a statue. When nature suggested to him he should relax, he did not listen.
5 – Regard cleanliness and order as a virtue, uncleanness and untidiness as a vice; do not have dirty, stained or torn clothes. On the other hand, regard luxury and worldliness as a greater vice still . Make sure that, on seeing your way of dressing, nobody calls it “slovenly” or “elegant”, but that everybody is bound to think it “decent.”

[23.] Mortifications to practice in our relations with our neighbor
1 – Bear with your neighbor’s defects; defects of education, of mind, of character. Bear with everything about him which irritates you: his gait, his posture, tone of voice, accent, or whatever.
2 – Bear with everything in everybody and endure it to the end and in a Christian spirit. Never with that proud patience which makes one say: “What have I to do with so and so? How does what he says affect me? What need have I for the affection, the kindness or even the politeness of any creature at all and of that person in particular?” Nothing accords less with the will of God than this haughty unconcern, this scornful indifference; it is worse, indeed, than impatience.
3 – Are you tempted to be angry? For the love of Jesus, be meek.
To avenge yourself? Return good for evil; it is said the great secret of touching Saint Teresa’s heart was to do her a bad turn. To look sourly at someone? Smile at him with good nature. To avoid meeting him? Seek him out willingly. To talk badly of him? Talk well of him. To speak harshly to him? Speak very gently, warmly, to him.
4 – Do not be witty at the expense of charity.
5 – If somebody in your presence should take the liberty of making remarks which are rather improper, or if someone should hold conversations likely to injure his neighbor’s reputation, you may sometimes rebuke the speaker gently, but more often it will be better to divert the conversation skillfully or indicate by a gesture of sorrow or of deliberate inattention that what is said displeases you.
6 – It costs you an effort to render a small service: offer to do it. You will have twice the merit.
7 – Avoid with horror posing as a victim in your own eyes or those of others. Far be it from you to exaggerate your burdens; strive to find them light; they are so, in reality, much more often than it seems; they would be so always if you were more virtuous.

[24.] Conclusion: Would to God we had the right to apply to ourselves these beautiful words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians: “In all things we suffer tribulation … Always bearing about in our body the death of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies.” (II Cor. 4:8-10)

SUMMARY: Mortification can be ACTIVE or PASSIVE, EXTERNAL or INTERNAL. We should daily mortify the BODY, IMAGINATION, MIND or INTELLIGENCE, MEMORY, WILL, OUR EXTERIOR ACTIONS, OUR RELATIONS WITH OUR NEIGHBOR.