Penance is a condition of the heart.
One can do acts of penance, just as they can commit acts of jealousy or acts of passion. It is not suffering, other than the suffering one feels when acknowledging his own sinfulness.
I think many people seem to think penance is merely making recompense to those one has harmed.
Here is one Catholic definition (sorry if stating Catholic doctrine out loud disturbs you as it has obviously done to some others);
1. Spiritual change that enables a sinner to turn away from sin. 2. The virtue that enables human beings to acknowledge their sins with true contrition and a firm purpose of amendment. (See Penance, Virtue of.) Confidence in God's mercy and forgiveness is fundamental to the Christian virtue of penance, along with a determination to be conformed to the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ through the practice of mortification.
Exactly. Penance is a condition of the heart, not actions, and NOT, IMO, suffering. Except maybe for regret and remorse for sins committed.
As for Catholic doctrine, why would it offend me? I don’t get offended if a Muslim tells me Allah will throw me into Hell if I don’t accept their religion.
I do get offended if they were to try to force me to do so, or pay an extra tax for the privilige of not doing so.
It seems to me that if you have confidence that you are right with God, what others say doesn’t really matter, so why get offended. A lot of people don’t think that way, though.
That being said, there was nothing in your quote that I could not agree with, except that litle bit about mortification. I don’t exactly know what that means, but it doesn’t sound good, if I remember the little Latin that I had 50 years ago.