Guess they never heard of fasting or abstainence or wearing sackcloth or sitting in ashes???
And they claim the Bible as their basis for faith?
Why don’t they quote all of it?
What? That would be cherry-picking! /s
Our priest told us he viewed him as a Mystic.
I think it is a fair assumption given other mystic of the Church.
Catherine of Sienna said that Jesus Christ was her novice master. But, supposedly under the direction of Jesus, she regularly whipped herself until the blood ran down her back.
Teresa of Avila recounted an incident when she was sick and suffering and feeling miserable, and Jesus told her that is how he treats His friends. Teresa replied that it was no wonder that Jesus had so few friends.
John of the Cross said that the "dark night of the soul" (intense spiritual and emotional suffering) is necessary for intimacy with God.
Francis of Assisi said that it was "perfect joy" to be cold and hungry and rejected and verbally abused. He glorified pain and suffering and poverty. At the end of his life, Francis had the stigmata. These are visible, bleeding, painful wounds which occur in the same locations as the wounds which Jesus Christ suffered on the cross. They are wounds in the hands and feet and side. They can also include wounds in the back (from whipping) and head (from the crown of thorns). Francis' disciples considered the stigmata to be a sign of God's great love for Francis.