Self harm on Good Friday/lenten fridays (Religious)

[SilenceForSilence]

NOTE: Before you read this, be warned that if Christianity offends you, this is not for you to read.

I am Roman Catholic, and I have a friend who told me that she self harms only on fridays during Lent (40 day period before Easter). Until Good Friday, the last Friday of Lent, the self harm is negligible, but on Good Friday, which celebrates the Crucifiction of Jesus Christ, It is quite serious. I asked her why she does it, and she said that she needed so feel some part, even a very small fraction, of the pain Jesus felt during his time from being scourged at the pillar until his crucifiction. I told her that that wasn't his intention when he allowed himself to be put to death, but she says that she feels so guilty, because Jesus experienced that pain so we could all be saved, that she had to try to feel his pain, too. I failed to convince her to stop. She is in no danger of killing herself on purpose or by accident, so I'm not horribly worried.

The reason I wrote is because I feel that some of her ideals are rubbing off on me, and I have been experiencing intense guilt, and now it is greater, because I have recently watched "The Passion of the Christ", and am feeling a strong urge to self harm on friday. I haven't self-harmed in over a year, and know the risks, but I don't know why I feel so determined. Even my own advice I gave to her is mattering less to me. Does anyone else feel this guilt-driven urge to self-harm? For any religious reasons?

[bambino]

personally no as I'm agnostic.
But I would strongly advise you do not follow through with this. You and your friend are obviously very dedicated but I don't think it was God's intention that you should suffer, surely God wouldn't want you to hurt yourself. I mean if we're all his children.
I mean didn't Jesus take all the suffering, all our sins so we wouldn't have to suffer? Isn't self harming disregarding his own sacrifices.

I don't know my religious knowledge is limited. But thats the way I'd look at it.

[georgiamay]

I think I remember reading somewhere that it's common for people that have devoted their life to prayer to hurt themselves for similar reasons, I remember I heard my RE teacher talking about it when she went off on a tangent in a lesson once, and I looked it up and found this. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortification_of_the_flesh) I know it's not the most reliable source, but it'll do for now.

I did some digging through my RE book and found these quotes that might be useful to you:

"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

"You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord." - 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

^^ basically, you are God's temple, and destroying your body in any way, for example, cutting yourself, is like cutting the temple of God.
The second quote basically says that you shouldn't change the appearance of your body, and making cuts that will scar will probably do that.

I'm an atheist, so I can't really relate to this, but I think if God does exist, he wouldn't want you to hurt yourself, because he sacrificed his only son for us. Plus, your body is God's temple, and I'm sure that if you're Roman Catholic, you don't want to destroy Gods temple.

[SilenceForSilence]

Thank you for your replies, and thank you for going through the trouble to find the Bible passages and quoting them. I'm sorry to bother you guys. I'll probably just be really careful this good friday to not self harm. I haven't heard those bible verses in their exact wording for a long time. I'll think more on it. I'll try my best, it's just that lent and Good friday are very hard on my conscience. Thank you again.