My confessor has given me a “penance of service” from my last confession. He suggested that I “help someone in need.” I’m trying to think of what to do in that regard, as I took it to mean I should help someone directly and not by our “Giving Tree” gift to a child in need, nor the $20 my wife and I are donating along with the rest of her coworkers for a family in need that they have “adopted.”
Any advice would be appreciated. I don’t simply want to drive around the city looking for a homeless person that’s panhandling and tossing him some change.
jnofs,
Here’s my take on something like that. Please, whatever you do, DO NOT respond to these questions with direct answers on forum posts. Answer them only in your own heart and mind.
What sin did I commit and confess that caused the priest to assign a penance of service? How serious was that sin? What would I consider appropriate restitution for that sin?
Examples: If your sin was to steall something from a store worth about $2, then putting $2 into a charity basket might be an appropriate penance. If the sin was to take advantage of the working poor and cheat them out of a just wage for the last 20 years, and you profited in the tens of thousands, well that would call for a considerable amount of service. Two extremes merely to illustrate the point.
As for your $20 donation, it seems that you have been planning all along to make that donation, so it would realy not fulfill the penance. A penance is not something we have already planned, it is something done after confessing to remind us of our need to “set things right.”
How serious were your sins? (remember don’t answer that here) What do you feel would be an appropriate effort to “undo” the bad act of the sin itself? Perhaps if you usually do one gift for the giving tree, a second unplanned gift might be in order this year. Perhaps giving a little more than you planned for the adopted child might be appropriate. Ask yourself the honest question, how much did my sins “cost”? How much time, service, or money would be appropriate to make up for this? Depending on the sin itself, and depending on your own economic situation (remember no direct responses), is simply giving money or writing a check appropriate restitution? I do not mean to imply an answer, only that this is what you should ask yourself. Don’t limit yourself to thinking only in terms of dollar amounts. Think of ways to “undo” the sin. Whom did I injure? is a good place to start when asking whom should I help?
How much does it “hurt” you to make that donation, and how much “hurt” did you cause by your sinning?
