“Is this common (someone offering their suffering for the benefit of others) in modern Catholicism?”
Sure. The suffering offered is joined to the Cross of Christ in humility since no one has before or after suffered as greatly as Christ.
Some offer their suffering and mortifications for the conversion of sinners and the world. Others offer suffering for the Consecrated, or for their family or whomever they are inspired by God to pray.
Fasting is another mortification and very good when linked to prayers. Many people fast, pray, offer suffering and mortification and do so privately so that you never can tell.
Offering suffering and pray often makes intense pain and sorrow bearable.
It’s also called following Christ into the desert. If He askes you to follow, you do. Just ask for the Grace to do it.
Thank you for you input.
As I told Mark, I am familiar with the practice in the Middle Ages but hadn’t heard much about it in the modern era, especially since Vatican II.
I remember the older nuns discussing mortification when I was in Catholic school, but the younger ones didn’t see it as “necessary”.