Of course, the uncertain route leads through purgatory and additional suffering in its flames before the gates of heaven can be opened. But then, according to "Mother" Teresa, suffering is good. "Mother" Teresa (who herself, it should be noted, had checked into some of the finest and costliest clinics and hospitals in the West during her bouts with heart trouble and old age) once gave this game away in a filmed interview. She described a person who was in the last agonies of cancer and suffering unbearable pain. With a smile, "Mother" Teresa told the camera what she told this terminal patient: "You are suffering like Christ on the cross. So Jesus must be kissing you" (Hitchens, p. 41).
Pope John Paul II used to beat himself with a belt and sleep on a bare floor to bring himself closer to Christ, a book published Wednesday says.
The late pope had a particular belt for self-flagellation and brought it with him to his summer residence, according to the book, "Why he is a Saint: The True story of John Paul II."
In the second millennium, Saint Francis of Assisi, who is known to have received the stigmata, painful wounds like those of Jesus Christ, is said to have asked pardon to his body, whom he called Brother ***, for the severe self-afflicted penances he has done: vigils, fasts, frequent flagellations and the use of a hairshirt.
At the latter half of the 20th century, Saint Josemaría Escrivá practiced self-flagellation and used the cilice, a modern-day version of the hairshirt. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, a modern-day saint who received the stigmata wrote in one of his letters: "Let us now consider what we must do to ensure that the Holy Spirit may dwell in our souls. It can all be summed up in mortification of the flesh with its vices and concupiscences, and in guarding against a selfish spirit... The mortification must be constant and steady, not intermittent, and it must last for one's whole life. Moreover, the perfect Christian must not be satisfied with a kind of mortification which merely appears to be severe. He must make sure that it hurts." Like St. Josemaria, Padre Pio and Mother Teresa of Calcutta used the cilice and discipline regularly as means of doing penance
So, your source for information on Mother Teresa is Chris Hitchens? Why am I not surprised?
Do you assume that Mother Teresa had the medication on hand to relieve the cancer patient’s pain? Who told you that she refused to give medication when she had it?
As far as ascetic practices go, I doubt you have any understanding at all, whatsoever.
Isn't it stunning that Roman Catholics believe they must suffer self-inflicted pain in order to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit?
Most people don't give themselves pain. But if Roman Catholics believe this pain is necessary for salvation, then this goes a long way in explaining why they would want to believe a saint would pray for them and give them some of their earned merit.
A salvation stand-in.