What Happened to Penance?

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

The message of our Lady at Lourdes was: Do penance; the same words were repeated at Fatima: Do penance.  But how often is penance preached?  The current tendency is rather to downgrade the need for penance, to reduce the severity of the fasts and the number of days of obligatory fasting.  To make religion comfortable, however, is enough to make the Angel cry out again to any church like Ephesus: Repent and go back to the old ways (Revelation 2: 5). 

(Ven.Fulton J. Sheen)