DISCIPLINE
An instrument of penance, which ordinarily consists of a set of cords or chains, small or large, simple or terminating in bars and balls of hard substances (wood, metals) used to chastise the flesh through flagellation.
The use of these and similar instruments of penance is common in the history of Christian asceticism and is frequently recalled in the lives of the saints, constituting an exercise in spiritual perfection. The principle upon which it is based is the necessity of mortification (v.) as a means for the complete triumph of God in the soul.
The use of discipline, undertaken for supernatural motives—of penance, satisfaction, or impetration—is highly meritorious. It aids in subduing the body (cf. 1 Cor 9:27), overcoming carnal concupiscence, and overcoming various temptations. It fosters a habit of humility, which prepares the soul for special graces from the Lord, being a practical acknowledgment on the part of the penitent of being a sinner and in need of God’s mercy, offended by sins. It nourishes the spirit of compunction and austerity, and renders one similar to Christ, who suffered flagellation.
Spiritual masters recommend it chiefly for three purposes: 1) to make satisfaction for past sins; 2) to conquer oneself, that is, so that sensuality may obey reason and all the lower parts of man may be more subject to the higher; 3) to seek and obtain some grace or spiritual gift, such as sorrow and tears for sins, an intimate sense of the sufferings Christ endured in His Passion, or the resolution of some doubt (cf. St. Ignatius of Loyola, *Exercitia spiritualia*, addition 10). Indeed, physical mortification does not directly, as it were physically or physiologically, uproot vices, but rather induces in the soul supernatural motives that make it flee from those vices and attract to itself special graces from God to avoid them.
Such chastisement of the flesh, however, must be regulated by discretion; care must be taken that the pain is felt in the flesh but does not cause infirmity or impede greater goods. Ordinarily, it is advised that flagellation not be prolonged. The immoderate use of such instruments of penance, if accompanied by a certain obstinacy, without or against the advice of one’s spiritual director, can become harmful.
On the other hand, those who consider it useless and wish to suppress all use of discipline and other external mortifications (cf. the doctrine of Molinos condemned by Innocent XI, Propositions 38, 39; Denz-U, 1258–59; and the condemnation of Americanism: Denz-U, 1972) err in the opposite direction.