/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>637054

No, it's not. My body is a temple and I would purge it from evil passions and my sins by any means necessary. Not being allowed to hurt your body prevents a lot of baseline ascetic practices, like fasting for 40 days, or three days a week with no food and water, etc.

>>637054

Is Opus Dei worth joining?

>>637055

Ok so it would be ok to use use flagellation and cilice belt, as long as you use it as a disciplinary tool to keep you on the true path?

>>637057

i have only read about opus dei, but i do find them intresting

>>637060

Yes. That's all asceticism is anyway, training and keeping yourself on the path. Use it.

>>637251

Sounds reasonable, how would you go about doing this in your daily life, and with that i mean the flagellation and cilice belt ? and when you flagellate is the goal to draw blood or how long do you do it, under a set of prayers or a number of strokes?

What are the criteria to join opus dei? do you have to live with them or do they have a seperate mass they attend to?

>>637346

you can sage all you want you filthy anime poster, thanks for response though

>>637418

Wrath self directed is still the same thing in substantialibus

>>637335

Opus Dei is all about integrating God into your daily life – with regards to mortification, most of the guys seem to keep it private and hidden, where it belongs. As St. Josemaria Escriva said, we should "choose mortification that don't mortify others." I'm paraphrasing a bit, but there's a specific section of "The Way" where he talks about someone who fought every single day not to put sugar in his coffee – he called these sorts of battles heroic. That's what mortification is at its heart – denial of the self for the love of God. It's abstaining from one good to choose a higher one.

Now, with regards to the cilice, flagellation, hairshirt etc – these are advanced mortifications for those advanced in the spiritual life (and for those who are already practicing the "simpler" mortification – denial of food, hot showers, etc). I don't do any of those things because I am pretty far down as is. Moving too soon to the harsher mortification can lead to you to do them out of a damnable spiritual pride – with each lash you'll just be bringing yourself closer to Hell and farther away from God. That's why it's so important to get a good spiritual director who can analyze these things and figure out what's best for you. One of Opus Dei's main services is spiritual direction, so definitely go find an Opus Dei priest and explain your situation. It's possible you are ready for these things but looking at things just probabalistically, it's highly unlikely.

"Joining" Opus Dei depends on how you plan to do it. There are three "levels" so to speak – Cooperators, Super-Numeraries and Numeraries. Anyone who assists "The Work" is a Cooperator – this means praying, almsgiving, etc. For those who wish to go further, you can become a Numerary, a celibate male or female who gives his or herself fully to The Work. They live in the Opus Dei centers and go to work "normal" jobs in most cases – judges, lawyers, business men etc. Supernumeraries are similar except they can get married and do not live in the Opus Dei centers.

Right now I am just a Cooperator, but I will become a Supernumerary soon after my wife and I get married. I might be mistaken on a couple things but I am 90% positive this is an accurate picture of Opus Dei. If you're really curious though definitely try to find an Opus Dei center in your area – they are super friendly and will be thrilled to show you around and explain everything to you.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Why you you willingly take part in destroying the temple of your body? God gave you your body as a gift to you because He loves you. You repay his kindness with harming and destroying the gift He gave you? Why? Just stop and think and ask yourself:

Will this work I do in the name of God appease Him so he may help save me?

If your child started harming itself would you condone it?

>>637054

Why you you willingly take part in destroying the temple of your body? God gave you your body as a gift to you because He loves you. You repay his kindness with harming and destroying the gift He gave you? Why? Just stop and think and ask yourself:

Will this work I do in the name of God appease Him so he may help save me?

If your child started harming itself would you condone it?

Edit, SAGE because self-harm is not smart

>>637530

what about; If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

So it's better to harm the body than to sin.

You can start small with mortification by just taking cold showers.

>>637054

To each their own but I personally think it is more sinful and harmful than masturbation.

God wants children, not slaves.

>>637427

>substantialibus

im gonna need some help to understand what that means to be honest

>>637430

ok thanks for awnsers, im not sure there is any opus dei where i live, i think closest one as 60km away, do you mind explaining a littel bit about damnable spiritual pride, i havent heard about that before, and how is it decided when you are ready for the next step?

>>637543

im not sure what you mean with that in this context

>>637529

There is a reason im here asking these questions, and im thankfull for all responses that can give me awnsers, especily >>637430

who has insight