Can someone please explain pragraphs 1430-1460 of the Catechism for me? I’ve been struggling with this for a while and can’t seem to get it straight. My main problems are these:
What exactly is penance
What exactly is repentance
What do praying, almsgiving, and fasting have to do with the forgiveness of sins and penance
Does almsgiving fall under the category of good works which we are supposed to do
Is Love/Charity, as used in the Bible, the same as good works
I’ll try to put thes in layman’s terms, but I’m sure someone or some people will contradict me. In any case, we’re all here to learn, so I will stand corrected.
Penance is the act of illustrating you are sorry by doing either what the priest says to do in confession or by giving yourself a task to do with charity that expresses your sincere sorrow.
Repentance simply means you’re sorry. It comes from the heart. You can’t just simply say your sorry, you must feel it too.
Praying, almsgiving and fasting can be seen as types of pennance or they can be just done out of love for God and neighbor. They all show you are serious about your love for Christ. Fasting shows obedience and discipline and that you are willing to give something up for God.
4.Yes, almsgiving falls into the good works category, so does praying and fasting and anything else done with charity.
Love and Charity are not good works; they are themselves something entirely different - graces from God. But good works are produced from these graces.
If anyone would like, please clarify, elaborate or correct me if I’m wrong. I wrote these in simplistic terms and off the top of my head.
If you break a bone and have it set it heals but is still weak. You need to do exercises to strengthen it.
Before the Fall our soul was perfectly subject to God, our body was perfectly subject to our soul, and the world was perfectly subject to our body. Sin breaks the link between our soul and God. When that link is broken the others also are lost.
Forgiveness heals those breaks but they must be strengthened by rehab. Prayer strengthens the link between our soul and God. Mortification, fasting, strengthens the subjection of our body to our soul. Alms giving strengthens the link between our bodies and the world.
This is not a perfect analogy, but I use it for my RCIA classes and it seems to help people understand. Also note that it is just my speculation, I have seen no Church
Teaching on this, **
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