An easy way to get a Plenary Indulgence on any Friday in Lent

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Tis_Bearself

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You can easily get a Plenary Indulgence on any Friday in Lent. Keep it for yourself or give it away to a deceased soul in Purgatory. Here’s how:
  1. Make sure you’re in the state of grace
  2. Receive Communion on any Friday in Lent
  3. After Communion, recite (out loud, but you don’t have to say it loudly, you can whisper it) the following prayer before an “image of Christ crucified” such as a crucifix, or a painting of Jesus crucified:
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before your face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech you to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment, while I contemplate with great love and tender pity your five wounds, pondering over them within me, calling to mind the words which David, your prophet, said of you, my good Jesus: “They have pierced my hands and my feet; they have numbered all my bones.”

(If you prefer to pray in Latin, there’s a Latin version of this prayer that starts “En ego, o bone et dulcissime Jesu” that you can find online.)
  1. Make sure you satisfy the usual conditions for the Plenary Indulgence, namely
  • no attachment to sin, even venial sin
  • receive Holy Communion (note: the Communion you need to receive to perform the steps above will fulfill this condition)
  • recite (out loud, but you can whisper) prayers for the Intentions of the Holy Father; the suggested prayers are 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary and 1 Glory Be.
  • go to Confession within 20 days (can be within 20 days before, or within 20 days after).
By doing this simple act, you can get one Plenary Indulgence for yourself or for a poor soul in Purgatory on each Friday in Lent. Note that one Confession can cover several Plenaries, as long as the Confession is within 20 days of the prayer you do for the Plenary, but you will need one individual Communion for each Plenary and one individual set of prayers for the Holy Father for each plenary.
 
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For those of you who do the Stations of the Cross for Lent, also be aware that you can get a Plenary on any day of the year for doing the Stations at “approved stations” (generally that means, in a church or shrine that has stations set up, with a minimum of a cross installed for each station) as long as you fulfill the conditions of step 4 above and are in a state of grace.

You can only get one Plenary a day so if you do stations and the above prayer both on a Friday, then one of those will be plenary and the other partial.
 
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Ok. This is where I get confused… I am confessing all my mortal and grave sins at my first confession. Does that not take away my venial sins?
 
Confession, done correctly, absolves you from all sins, including venial sins. However, because you are human, you will likely commit venial sins again within hours of leaving the confessional. The just man is said to sin 7 times a day, which presumably are venial sins if he is “just”. Venial sins also don’t take you out of a state of grace, though mortal sins do.

The condition for the indulgence doesn’t require you be free of all venial sin. That would be too hard for any of us except maybe saints. (It does require you be free of mortal sin in order to be in a state of grace.)

The condition requires you to be free of all ATTACHMENT to sin. That means, you reject sin, you don’t want to sin, you will yourself not to sin, you resolve not to sin. Including rejecting venial sins.
 
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So. Even though I resolve not to have any desire and act on that desire to sin. I probably will sin, because I am human. So therefore, I had better do that plenary indulgence asap after confession. Am I understanding correctly?
 
Not quite.
The confession has to be within 20 days, which is not “right away” if you confess on Feb. 1, stay in state of grace (in other words don’t commit mortal sin) and get a plenary indulgence on Feb. 20.
I try to get a plenary daily, and my last confession was Feb. 2. I’m sure I have committed a number of venial sins since then.

I just say at Communion time, “I will myself not to sin, I reject sin, I don’t want to sin, Lord, help me not sin” and mean it. Then I say the Act of Contrition either right before or right after I receive. Then I figure I’ve fulfilled the “no attachment to sin” condition the best I can.

I’ll go to confession again on or around Feb 23 when my 20 days are up.
 
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I’ve said this prayer every Friday in Lent after communion for years seeking a plenary indulgence. I never heard or was taught the “must be outloud” part, and wonder where you found that information.
 
This sounds like medieval hocus-pocus superstition. What is your source for this “formula’”?
 
Limoncello4021 said:
I’ve said this prayer every Friday in Lent after communion for years seeking a plenary indulgence. I never heard or was taught the “must be outloud” part, and wonder where you found that information.
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The Enchiridion states that you need to “recite” the prayer.

The norms on indulgences in the Enchiridion state,

" 32. An indulgence attached to a prayer can be acquired by reciting the prayer in any language…"
and also

“33. To gain an indulgence attached to a prayer, it is sufficient to recite the prayer alternately with a companion or to follow it mentally while it is being recited by another.”

One of the other notes also says that deaf and dumb people can get the indulgence by “reciting (the prayers) mentally”.

We had a discussion some time back on CAF about whether, given all this, “recite” means “say out loud” because I had been saying the Prayers for the Holy Father’s Intentions mentally, e.g. silently. The consensus was, in view of the plain meaning of “recite” and the distinctions the Enchiridion makes in the norms and elsewhere about “mental prayer” vs. spoken prayer, that “recite” means “speak the prayer” (unless you are physically unable to speak, as discussed in the norms).

I now always say the prayers out loud when it says “recite”. Although in general I think God hears all kinds of prayers, the Enchiridion rules are there for a reason and you’re supposed to follow them if you want the indulgence. It’s easy enough to do.
 
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KevinK said:
This sounds like medieval hocus-pocus superstition. What is your source for this “formula’”?
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The Enchiridion of Indulgences published by the Vatican in 1968 and updated a few times by the Vatican since then.

If you don’t like it, feel free not to do it. Actually, if you’re not a Catholic, which is what I presume from your many posts on here, i don’t think it applies to you anyway.
 
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TheOldColonel said:
I’ll trade you five plenaries or two indulgences, soldier. Do you like to play poker?
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Sorry, Colonel, I don’t keep any indulgences to trade. I promised them all to Mother Mary as part of my Total Consecration. I think I’m already in hock to her for four or five rosaries I didn’t get said this week.
 
When doing an indulgenced act, usually before I do it I pray “God, please apply this indulgence to either my own soul or to the soul in purgatory who needs it most, whichever of us needs it more in light of the future.”

Does anyone else do something similar?
 
Like I told the Colonel, my Morning Offering specifically says every day that Mary gets all the indulgences to apply as she sees fit. I presume she takes them to Jesus to apply. I have a mental picture of Mary going around with a big basket collecting all the indulgences and then taking them to Jesus, like the ushers do with the collection baskets at church.

The caveat is that if you ask her to apply one to a specific deceased soul, she will (according to Father Heilman) honor your request, like a mom is happy to do a favor for a child who has been good. So I ask her to please apply my daily plenary to the deceased soul who I have written in on my spreadsheet to get the next plenary indulgence. Sometimes I write one in for a soul most in need, or a specific type of soul (a deceased cop, Irish person, priest, etc.) most in need. Sometimes it is a deceased relative or friend of mine, or someone I read about in the newspaper, or a celebrity who died. The partials can be applied to anyone.

I kept one or two indulgences in the past for myself, but I don’t anymore because the idea is to give away all your good works and then throw yourself on God’s mercy. Besides, the Enchiridion says you get a plenary at the point of death if you’re “properly disposed” (I presume that means you haven’t rejected God and have repented any sins you might have) and “have been in the habit of saying some prayers during (your) lifetime”, so if I pray regularly for others, I don’t need to keep one for myself. God will give me one at the moment I need it.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
The condition requires you to be free of all ATTACHMENT to sin
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I always took the “no attachment to sin” requirement to mean that if you are habitually (on a daily basis) committing some certain sin, then you are attached to it and not eligible for a plenary indulgence (though still a partial indulgence).

For example if you cuss on a daily basis and are trying to overcome it but are still attached to using foul language, you would be ineligible for a plenary indulgence.

There is an account of St. Philip Neri, who died in 1595, preaching a jubilee indulgence in a crowed church. A revelation was given to him that only two people in the church were actually getting it, an old char-woman and the saint himself.
 
Spyridon said:
There is an account of St. Philip Neri, who died in 1595, preaching a jubilee indulgence in a crowed church. A revelation was given to him that only two people in the church were actually getting it, an old char-woman and the saint himself.
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Yes, that story is popular. So, maybe we don’t get 100% on our Plenary Indulgence. But a 99% partial would still be pretty good. If you’re giving it to the poor souls, while we try to do the most we can for them, probably even a partial helps.
 
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