What Everyone Should Know About:

The Sacrament Of Penance

by St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Continued from Issue No. 29
Let us now proceed. We have spoken of the examination regarding mortal and
venial sins. But were a person to do an action with a doubt whether it was a
mortal or a venial sin, what kind of sin would he commit? He would be guilty of
mortal sin, because he exposes himself to the danger of grievously offending
God. Hence he must first (wisely) resolve the doubt; 2a and if he neglects to do
so, he must confess it, at least as it appears before God. But super scrupulous
persons, who have doubts about everything, must follow another rule: they
must obey their (wisely chosen) confessor. When he tells them how to handle
their doubts and resolve scruples, they should obey with exactness; otherwise
they will render themselves unable and unfit to perform any spiritual exercise.
Before I proceed further I exhort every one of you to make a general
confession, if you have not as yet made one. And I now speak not only of those
whose confessions have been sacrilegious on account of having concealed sins,
or invalid because of lack of sufficient examination of conscience, or of sufficient
sorrow; but I speak of all who wish to be permanently converted to God. A
general confession is a great means of bringing about a true change of life.
After her conversion to God, St. Margaret of Cortona told all her (unforgiven)
sins to her confessor and thereby made herself so pleasing and dear to God that
Our Lord Himself spoke to her and called her "My sinful one, My poor little one."
She one day said to Jesus Christ, "Lord, when will You call me Thy daughter?"
Jesus Christ answered, "When you have made a general confession of your
whole life, then I will call you My daughter." She made a general confession;
and from that time on Jesus always called her His daughter.

Sorrow
Sorrow for sin is so necessary for obtaining forgiveness, that without it even
God Himself (at least in His ordinary Providence) cannot pardon sin. Unless you
shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3). A person who dies
without making an examination of conscience or a confession of his sins, may
be saved by making an act of sincere perfect contrition when he has not time to
confess his sins nor a priest to whom he can confess them. But without sorrow
it is impossible for the sinner to be saved.
And here is the mistake of those people who, in preparing for confession,
endeavor only to call to mind their sins, but make no effort to excite a true
sorrow for them. This sorrow we must earnestly ask of God; and before we go
to the confessional let us say a "Hail Mary" in honor of the sorrows of the
Blessed Virgin, that She may obtain for us a true sorrow for our sins.
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The Fatima Crusader. Even after mortal sins are forgiven in Confession, the soul
must still pay part of the temporal punishment due to sin. God in justice exacts this
of the forgiven sinner. Whatever temporal punishment is not paid in this life is paid
for in purgatory. That is why it is most useful to gain indulgences while you are alive
so that your purgatory time will be shortened. Here Our Lady of Mount Carmel is
depicted removing some souls on the first Saturday according to Her Sabbatine
privilege promise. For more information about this promise write

Five Conditions for Forgiveness of our Sins

To obtain the forgiveness of our sins in the sacrament of penance, our sorrow
for them must have five conditions: It must be sincere, supernatural, sovereign,
universal, and accompanied with a hope of pardon.
1. Our sorrow must be sincere. It must be not be in the mouth only, but also in
the heart. This is the kind of sorrow required by the Council of Trent: "A sorrow
of the soul and a detestation of sin committed, with a purpose of sinning no
more" (Sess. 14, chap. 4). The soul, then, must conceive a true sorrow, a true
displeasure or regret and true bitterness of heart, for the sins that have been
committed; it must hate and abhor them, saying with the penitent king
Ezechias, "I will recount to Thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul" (Is.
38:15).
2. The sorrow must be supernatural; that is, it must arise not from a natural but
from a supernatural motive. It would not be sufficient to repent of your sin
because it has harmed your health, your property, or your reputation. This
would be a natural motive, and sorrow proceeding from such a motive is of no
use. The motive, then, of our sorrow must be supernatural; we must repent of
sin either because it has offended the infinite goodness of God, or because by it
we have deserved hell or lost Heaven...

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3. Our sorrow must be sovereign. Not that it need be accompanied with tears
and positive physical feelings; it is enough if it is a deliberate determination of
the will, that one would wish3 he had suffered any positive evil rather than have
offended God. Let timid souls who are always troubled at not feeling senseperceptible sorrow for their sins give their attention. It is enough for them to
repent with the will that is, to be sorry for their sins, preferring to have lost
all things rather than to have offended God. St. Teresa has given an excellent
method for knowing whether a soul has true sorrow for sin: if one has a sincere
purpose to sin no more and would be content to lose all things rather than the
grace and friendship of God, let him have confidence; for then there is no doubt
that he has true sorrow for his sins.
4. Our sorrow must be universal extending to all grievous offences offered to
God, so that there is no mortal sin that the soul does not hate above all other
evils.
I have said mortal sin; for to obtain the pardon of one venial sin it is not
necessary to have sorrow for all our venial sins; one venial sin may be forgiven
without obtaining pardon of another; to obtain forgiveness of any venial sin it is
enough to have sorrow for it.
But whether the sin is mortal or venial, God cannot pardon it unless the soul
sincerely repents of it. Let those who confess only venial sins for which they
have not sorrow, remember that their confessions are null. So, when they wish
to receive absolution, they must have sorrow for at least some of the venial
faults that they confess, or must accuse themselves of some sin of their past life
for which they are sincerely sorry.
But with regard to mortal sins, it is necessary to have true sorrow for all and a
sincere purpose not to commit them again; otherwise none of them (nor any
venial sins either) will be remitted; for no mortal sin is pardoned without the
infusion of grace into the soul; but this grace cannot exist in the soul along with
mortal sin. Therefore, no one can obtain the pardon of one mortal sin without
receiving pardon of them all.

The Soul Must Detest and Hate

ALL Mortal Sin
It is related of St. Sebastian the Martyr that he used to heal diseases by the
sign of the cross. One day the Saint went to see Cromatius, who was sick, and
promised him health, provided he would burn his idols. Cromatius burned them,
except he reserved one of them for which he had a special affection. Thus he
did not recover his health and began to complain to the Saint. Then the Saint
told him that it was useless to have burned the other idols as long as he kept
one of them. It is not enough for the soul to detest some mortal sins. It must
detest and hate them all. For a person who has committed several mortal sins,
it is not necessary to detest them one by one (that is, reflecting on them
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separately one by one). It is enough to detest them all with a general sorrow as
grievous offences against God. If all be thus detested and deplored, though
some sin may have been forgotten, it is forgiven.
5. Our sorrow must be accompanied with the hope of pardon, otherwise it will
be like the sorrow of the damned, who are sorry for their sins, not because they
are offenses against God, but because they are the cause of their sufferings;
but their sorrow is without hope of pardon. Even Judas repented of his
treachery. I have, said he, sinned in betraying innocent blood (Mt. 27:4). But
because he did not hope for pardon, he hanged himself on a tree and died in
despair. Cain also acknowledged that he had sinned in killing his brother Abel;
but he despaired of pardon and said, My iniquity is greater than that I may
deserve pardon (Gen. 4:13); and therefore he died in a state of damnation. St.
Francis de Sales says that the sorrow of true penitents is a sorrow full of peace
and consolation; for the more a true penitent grieves for having offended God,
the greater his confidence of obtaining pardon and the greater his consolation.
Hence St. Bernard used to say, "O Lord! if it is so sweet to weep for Thee, what
will it be to rejoice in Thee?"
In order, then, to dispose a soul for the divine pardon in the sacrament of
penance, its sorrow must have these five conditions (namely, it must
be sincere, supernatural, sovereign, universal, and accompanied by a hope of
pardon.) It is necessary also to know that sorrow for sin is of two kinds;
namely, perfect contrition and imperfect contrition (or attrition).
FOOTNOTES:
2a.
3.

." That is, one must become reasonably satisfied that the course of action is
lawful before undertaking it. onde bisogna che prima di operare deponga il
dubbio ..."
" "... sensibilit positiva; perch basta che sia appreziativo colla volanta ...

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