Does penance from Confession wipe away all my punishment?

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irishcolleen45

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I had gone to Confession and asked for additional penance for my sins. The priest seemed shocked that I asked for that.
My understanding is that my penance from Confession might not be enough to wipe away all my punishment if I don’t say it properly.
Thoughts?
 
From my understand (perhaps someone can confirm this for me), penance is more so our reconnecting to God, but when the priest gives absolution in persona Christi, this is when our sins are wiped away.

When we go to confession, we ought to present all of our sins that we can possibly remember. “For this sins and sins of my past life, I am sorry.” This is a common phrase Catholics give when not every sin is remembered despite our best efforts.

This is more so regarding mortal sins, though it’s prudent to present venial sins too.
 
Penance is our willingness to show that we want to be right with God and show sorrow for our sins through acts of penance.

What you’re talking about is temporal punishment due to sin. Confession does not inherently, nor automatically, wipe the punishments due to sin.

This is a very sticky topic, but to clean it all up, basically, the temporal punishments due to sin will be made known in your personal judgement and for all the heavenly elect to know in the general judgement (how the effects of your sins affected others and their salvation, stuff like that).

Here are some ways to reduce or eliminate temporal punishments due to sin [DISCLAIMER, again, punishment due to sin is between you and God]
  1. if you have offended someone, go to that person, apologize, make restitution, and try not to offend again (you broke their lamp, so you repaired the lamp, paid for the repair, or bought a new one).
  2. offer penance for the temporal remission of sin by decidedly solemn prayers, fasting, or almsgiving (you broke your friends lamp, they are so mad, they don’t even want to talk to you, so you offer some penance for being bad to your friend by either donating some money to a worthy cause, saying a rosary or a series of them, or do a bit of fasting, maybe skip a meal or two.
  3. there is always divine mercy sunday … where the indulgence permits the remission of all punishment due to sin, in your whole life, for everything, for anything, up to the point of your confession. look that one up, this one is probably for you!
Sure there are other ways, these are the basics that I use to help with sins. This is all murky ground, you’ll never know how your sacrifices are applied to your punishments, if at all, or if all of it … TRUST in the infinite MERCY that is God … do what you can that you know you can to remit the temporal punishment due to sin … but as we go through all this, we learn very quickly that it is soooooo much better to avoid the sin in the first place. And, in the end, if you’ve not paid enough for your temporal punishments, there’s always the final purification of Purgatory to release any and all worldly attachments and uncleanliness, so there is a safety net.
 
There is still temporal punishment after forgiveness. As we tell kids, you tell mom you are sorry for drawing with crayon on the wall and she forgives you. That does not mean you do not have to go clean up the wall.
Indulgenced acts may remit some or all temporal punishment.
 
TheLittleLady said:
There is still temporal punishment after forgiveness. As we tell kids, you tell mom you are sorry for drawing with crayon on the wall and she forgives you. That does not mean you do not have to go clean up the wall.
Indulgenced acts may remit some or all temporal punishment.
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OP: That temporal punishment I believe TheLittleLady is referring to is that purification of the taint of confessed sins that is the purifying action of the state of life with God we call Purgatory. What one above poster said that sins are forgiven when the priest gives absolution is correct and true. The “crayon on the wall cleansing” aftermath is the purview of what is to come.
Shalom
 
Priest was shocked probably because penance is not a way to make up for the temporal effects of sin … maybe he was surprised you used the word penance in a different light or meaning than he was expecting.

Penance is an outward sign of the inward disposition of repentance … the priest may have looked at you funny as he may have thought “what can I give him to make him more repentant of sins?” That would confuse me as well, because your repentance is not on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a little repentant and 10 being the most repentant, we either are sorry for our sins or are not.

As I posted before, what you’re seeking is the remittance of temporal punishments due to the effects of sin, seems to me at least.
 
No, it does not remit temporal punishment. @KatyCatholic summed it up nicely (👍). If you want to look deeper, I suggest starting with the Catechism- CCC1422 and on.
 
gcshapero said:
This is more so regarding mortal sins, though it’s prudent to present venial sins too.
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Regarding venial sins, I was told by another priest that confessing venial sins “this side of the veil” can reduce our time in purgatory since venial sins also have temporal punishment.
 
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