And what do you call what the Romans did to Jesus?
Discipline means picking up our cross and suffering as the Lord did.
The Jesus Prayer
Adam Rodriguez
Cameron Diaz
We do actually have the Jesus prayer, or variants of it under the category called ejaculatory prayer.
catholictreasury.info
goes over them
Do not trust in me, my Jesus, because I shall never do any good.
I distrust myself, but I trust in Thee, my Jesus.
Eternal Father, for the love of Jesus Christ have pity on me. My God, I wish for Thee alone, and nothing more.
Send me any Chastisement, but deprive me not of the power of loving Thee. I thank Thee that Thou gives me time to love Thee. I love Thee, my Jesus, I love Thee; and I hope to die repeating, "I love Thee, I love Thee."
'I give You my will, my liberty; dispose of me as You please.'
'Thou art omnipotent; make me a Saint.'
'May I die rather than ever offend Thee again.'
'O God of love, give me love.'
are some examples
Another my favorite saint was fond of was begging not to be sent to hell
The discipline is a reference to the tool, that's what it's called,
others included chains on legs which caused pain or things which restricted movement, hair shirts that were itchy/uncomfortable, things with eating like adding bitter liquid or ashes, or just cold showers.
There are many reasons it's done, to become detached from the world/pleasures, gain better control over your body, offer the suffering to Christ so that he can help others, become more united to Christ by the suffering and a couple other things.
It's really only reserved for people quite advanced in the spiritual life usually at monasterys though. A key part of it is absolute obedience to one's confessor, if they instruct you to alter or stop you must follow.
This nature of mine," she used to say, "inside and out is always seeking its satisfactions, and always on the lookout for a respite. Give me leave to do all I can to overcome self. The flesh would like to command, and instead I wish to make it serve me as it ought, now and forever."
Look Jesus, it is my body that rebels, but I shall know well how to manage it. It often cries out, and would fain not obey me, but I'll see to that. Yesterday it seemed as if it would revolt, and I made it keep quiet by dint of hard blows.
Some quotes from a saint on it
We view sin as incredibly evil/bad and it makes sense to make steps to avoid it
Basically every saint or atleast some of the greatest ones practiced it devoutly
"To defend his purity, St. Francis of Assisi rolled in the snow, St. Benedict threw himself into a thorn bush, St. Bernard plunged into an icy pond… You… what have you done?" […] "If you realize that your body is your enemy, and an enemy of God's glory since it is an enemy of your sanctification, why do you treat it so softly?"
"If we are cruel in crucifying the flesh, you by sparing it are far more cruel."
And again to be clear to anyone reading this, do not do anything without explicit permission from your confessor/spiritual director
Adam Morgan
Oh yeah I forgot to say, while jesus prayer was big in the east the most common one in the west was
Incline unto my aid O God, O Lord make haste to help me
I know some monastaries had it in their rule that was the only prayer you were allowed to say in the restroom
Owen Lopez
I'm the op who discovered the jesus prayer and i'm catholic
Daniel Allen
I practice it, if you do it diligently with attention for the whole of your day, righteous flows from you, love of people and God increases, and so on. The problem comes when you have Satan trying to steal it from you, but that's okay, keep going.
Leo Ross
we have our own traditions that are better, listen to this talk and read our saints instead of schismatics, like there is no reason you should have read that before Introduction to the Devout life by St. Francis de sales or something I linked it above.
Video series below is a great short series going over all the aspects of the spiritual life, with some reading recommendations.
Sorry for being so harsh, in the lecture I linked he acutally talks about being dissapointed seeing so many modern Catholics going for the jesus prayer when they don't even know what ejaculatory prayer is or the west using Incline unto my aid o God , O lord make haste to help me for 1700 years
youtube.com
catholictreasury.info
the section on prayer goes over everything as well
if you want to read something more modern
amazon.com
Like I said above, if you acutally read into mental prayer and the way the saints prayed, the eastern stuff just looks silly in comparison.
Easton Martinez
Look at all the mental gymnastics Catholics have to do to renounce one of the oldest practices of the church. Augustine and Aquinas have led you guys very astray.
Josiah Miller
I didn't actually say it was bad in itself done properly, I said we did it, many similar things like it, with a much richer tradition with a much greater of variety and depth of prayer.
It is bad done in the style of oriental meditation where you try to quiet your mind that lot though, that's not christian and has some problems that I dont really care to get into.
Catholic spirituality is so obviously and overwhelmingly superior in every way to goofy eastern stuff anyone who actually puts the time into actually read into it won't need arguments because it's just self-evident.
Just listen to the embed
Lucas Clark
The EO responses to it are hilarious as well they just cry prelest and say our saints went mentally insane
Imagine reading this and thinking it is prideful (what some influential EO saints have said)
I will speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. If I consider myself anything more than this, behold You stand against me, and my sins bear witness to the truth which I cannot contradict. If I abase myself, however, if I humble myself to nothingness, if I shrink from all self-esteem and account myself as the dust which I am, Your grace will favor me, Your light will enshroud my heart, and all self-esteem, no matter how little, will sink in the depths of my nothingness to perish forever.
It is there You show me to myself – what I am, what I have been, and what I am coming to; for I am nothing and I did not know it. Left to myself, I am nothing but total weakness. But if You look upon me for an instant, I am at once made strong and filled with new joy. Great wonder it is that I, who of my own weight always sink to the depths, am so suddenly lifted up, and so graciously embraced by You.
It is Your love that does this, graciously upholding me, supporting me in so many necessities, guarding me from so many grave dangers, and snatching me, as I may truly say, from evils without number. Indeed, by loving myself badly I lost myself; by seeking only You and by truly loving You I have found both myself and You, and by that love I have reduced myself more profoundly to nothing. For You, O sweetest Lord, deal with me above all my merits and above all that I dare to hope or ask.
May You be blessed, my God, for although I am unworthy of any benefits, yet Your nobility and infinite goodness never cease to do good even for those who are ungrateful and far from You. Convert us to You, that we may be thankful, humble, and devout, for You are our salvation, our courage, and our strength.
Levi Williams
Guys, we don’t need to be rude to the Orthobros. The Jesus Prayer is a nice prayer and does good things, let’s focus on that. I didn’t know about the Catholic version, so I did learn something from this thread, but without being cucky, it’s totally possible to be ecumenical and brotherly to our brothers in Christ, let’s try and practice that. I’ve gotten awesome stuff from Orthobros and I appreciate their insights.
t. Embarrassed Catholic