Can I do a novena as the penance that I received during confession?

[catholic0913]

Hello,

I went to a confession and the priest told me to pray 5 decades of rosary in each day for 7 days. Before I went to confession, I was going to do Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena for the intention of forgiveness of my sins and grace to not to commit them again.

Maybe I am being overly cautious, but should I do the 7 days of penance and than pray the novena to have them both done, or can I just pray the novena and it will count as both praying the novena and doing the penance that I received from the confession (as 9 days are longer than 7 days)?

Thank you,

 

[Katherine438]

I would do the penance and the novena separately.

 

[catholic0913]

just a curiosity,

if my intention is to complete the penance only, is it okay to commence the Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena in place of the penance?

 

[Katherine438]

just a curiosity,

if my intention is to complete the penance only, is it okay to commence the Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena in place of the penance?

I’m not a priest, and I think this question is for a priest … but I wouldn’t include a penance with a novena … I would think that would not be appropriate … but as I say, I am not a priest.

I think this is a good question for the apologetics section.

 

[spiderweb]

If you were already planning on doing the Novena on your own, then that shouldn’t take the place of the penance given by the priest. That is my opinion.

In our family, we always said a daily rosary. If in the confessional, the priest gave a penance of a few Hail Mary’s, or Our Fathers, or a decade of the rosary, it was always understood that that was in addition to any daily prayers currently being said or planned on being said. Penance is Penance, Devotional Prayers are private Devotional Prayers.

 

[porthos11]

just a curiosity,

if my intention is to complete the penance only, is it okay to commence the Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena in place of the penance?

I’m not familiar with the novena, but I guess the main question is: does the Novena include 5 decades of the Rosary per day?

If so, then yes, this can count for the penance.

If not, you need to fulfill the penance by praying the Rosary.

The principle here is that the least burdensome interpretation always prevails.

 

[Irishmom2]

Hello,

I went to a confession and the priest told me to pray 5 decades of rosary in each day for 7 days. Before I went to confession, I was going to do Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena for the intention of forgiveness of my sins and grace to not to commit them again.

Maybe I am being overly cautious, but should I do the 7 days of penance and than pray the novena to have them both done, or can I just pray the novena and it will count as both praying the novena and doing the penance that I received from the confession (as 9 days are longer than 7 days)?

Thank you,

The easiest thing to do would be to just do what the priest told you to do for your penance, not change it to what you want. Maybe he has a reason for what he told you.

If you were going to do the knot undoer Rosary before confession, I would not combine them. It sounds like combining them to “get it over with.” Do your penance, and do the novena on the day after you finish your penance.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

just a curiosity,

if my intention is to complete the penance only, is it okay to commence the Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena in place of the penance?

Can. 981 The confessor is to impose salutary and suitable penances in accord with the quality and number of sins, taking into account the condition of the penitent. The penitent is obliged to fulfill these personally.

vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P3G.HTM

You cannot replace your penance with a novena. Whether or not your confessor can switch it, IDK. I don’t think it would look good if you were to go back to your confessor and ask for a different penance.

 

[Polycarp1]

Do the penance as directed. Obedience is a key component in reconciliation.

 

[porthos11]

The key thing is that the penance is a Rosary, not a Novena.

If the Novena includes a Rosary (I don’t know if it does), then that Rosary can count towards the penance because the Novena itself is voluntary.

If it does not, then the Novena does not substitute for the Rosary as a penance.

 

[InLight247]

When you go to confession and receive the penance from the priest, you do the penance as you are told. Didn’t you say “I resolve to do the penance” in your act of contrition?

If you want to do extra penance with the Novena of your choice, that is fine. But you are not supposed to replace the given penance of Rosary for seven days with your own preferred Novena.

 

[Kaliaa]

What is the problem with doing the penance as given to you by your confessor? It is your obligation to do it as assigned. You can always talk to your confessor when he is giving you the penance if you have a problem with it. If it’s something really bothersome then go back to the confessional and talk to him or if he is a priest you know well, stop him and ask him when he’s not busy with something else. He might say that doing it in the course of a Novena is fine with him.

Otherwise I’d do it as assigned and follow up with the Novena. I know we do a lot of multi-tasking in our lives but I don’t think it is something we should be doing in regards to our prayer life.

 

[Bookcat]

just a curiosity,

if my intention is to complete the penance only, is it okay to commence the Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena in place of the penance?

I do not know what that is.

Just simply do the penance as given or ask the Priest to change it if you wish.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Hello,

I went to a confession and the priest told me to pray 5 decades of rosary in each day for 7 days. Before I went to confession, I was going to do Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena for the intention of forgiveness of my sins and grace to not to commit them again.

Maybe I am being overly cautious, but should I do the 7 days of penance and than pray the novena to have them both done, or can I just pray the novena and it will count as both praying the novena and doing the penance that I received from the confession (as 9 days are longer than 7 days)?

Thank you,

I am sorry but you are frankly receiving very poor answers here, which shows why one can be very ill served in presenting a question to people not suited to answering it on the one hand or answer with qualifications such as “it seems to me”.

This is a very straight-forward and basic question in what concerns this sacrament.

A penitent may augment the penance given, doing more than what was imposed, but they may not diminish the penance imposed without commutation from one who has faculties to hear confessions.

In other words, you could not cut into half the penance received without a confessor commuting your penance to that.

You may, however, add to the penance so long as the penance itself is contained within whatever it is you are doing. In your case, your penance would be fulfilled by the rosary novena you wish to do. There is no need to do the penance and the rosary novena concomitantly.

If the penance had been to consider the Passion of the Lord prayerfully for 10 minutes and you spent a half hour walking the Way of the Cross, you have similarly more than fulfilled the penance.

 

[catholic0913]

I asked this question because the novena to Mary the Undoer of Knots requires praying 5 decades of rosary for 9 days. Since penance was for me to pray 5 decades of rosary for 7 days, I thought that I could replace penance with the novena.

am I still wrong?

 

[porthos11]

I asked this question because the novena to Mary the Undoer of Knots requires praying 5 decades of rosary for 9 days. Since penance was for me to pray 5 decades of rosary for 7 days, I thought that I could replace penance with the novena.

am I still wrong?

You are not, and that is the key detail you should have mentioned. Not all of us know what the novena entails.

Yes, this will satisfy your penance.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

I asked this question because the novena to Mary the Undoer of Knots requires praying 5 decades of rosary for 9 days. Since penance was for me to pray 5 decades of rosary for 7 days, I thought that I could replace penance with the novena.

am I still wrong?

I just typed a long explanation as to why what you propose is perfectly acceptable for fulfilling your penance.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

You are not, and that is the key detail you should have mentioned. Not all of us know what the novena entails.

Yes, this will satisfy your penance.

I do not understand why you are faulting the original poster. The poster clearly specified that it was a rosary novena. It is responders who failed to give the correct answer…not the original poster.

Post 1: is it okay to commence the Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena

 

[catholic0913]

Thank you for replying.

I have another question:

I went to a confession with a different priest the other day, and he gave me a really vague penance. He said “When you say your rosary, pray for the forgiveness of your sin and grace to not to commit them”.

so my question is: Let’s say I want to pray a rosary novena with some intention other than the penance. does this mean that while I commence this novena, I have to pray 10 decades of rosary everyday, since (5 decades of rosary for penance)+(5 decades of rosary for the other intention) = (10 decades of rosary each day)???

or can I just pray 5 decades of rosary each day to address both the penance and the special intention (i.e. praying 5 decades of rosary for both penance and special intention)?

 

[porthos11]

I do not understand why you are faulting the original poster. The poster clearly specified that it was a rosary novena. It is responders who failed to give the correct answer…not the original poster.

Post 1: is it okay to commence the Mary Undoer of Knots rosary novena

Missed that phrase.