Indulgences?

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brother_sun

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I have read what an indulgence is and I use them, but I was wandering does an indulgence only remove the guilt of the sin or the actual punishment of the sin? I saw on a websight that explained indulgences that it seemed to be saying an indulgence only removes the guilt of the sin and I thought otherwise. Can someone explain this is in simpler terms? Also what does it mean by an attachment to sin. Does it mean an addiction to a particular sin?

Your brother in Christ

If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire." --Saint Catherine of Siena
 
brother_sun said:
I have read what an indulgence is and I use them, but I was wandering does an indulgence only remove the guilt of the sin or the actual punishment of the sin? I saw on a websight that explained indulgences that it seemed to be saying an indulgence only removes the guilt of the sin and I thought otherwise. Can someone explain this is in simpler terms? Also what does it mean by an attachment to sin. Does it mean an addiction to a particular sin?
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Not sure what website you were looking at. The Manual of Indulgences states:
An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment for sins, whose guilt is forgiven…
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Guilt is removed by the Sacraments, primarily Baptism and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). To obtain an indulgence, you must be properly disposed and must meet certain clearly defined conditions. Partial indulgences remove part of the punishment due to sin. Plenary indulgences remove all of the temporal punishment due to sin and usually require multiple actions.

To be free of attachment to sin (this includes venial sins) means that you are sorry for ALLl of your sins and that you firmly plan to avoid ALL sin in the future. God will judge whether you are truly free from attachment to sin. It may be that, even though you’ve met the other criteria for a plenary indulgence, you are still attached to sin in God’s judgement in which case the indulgence would be partial and not plenary.
 
Revert07 said:
To be free of attachment to sin (this includes venial sins) means that you are sorry for ALLl of your sins and that you firmly plan to avoid ALL sin in the future. God will judge whether you are truly free from attachment to sin. It may be that, even though you’ve met the other criteria for a plenary indulgence, you are still attached to sin in God’s judgement in which case the indulgence would be partial and not plenary.
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Sounds right to me.

Mind you, partial indulgences are not to be sneezed at in the slightest (any lessening of purgatory is an excellent thing, right?)

And you can get them for some very simple things - blessing yourself with Holy Water, your Morning, Evening or Night Prayer if you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a Rosary (five decades in a row), half an hour in Adoration, half an hour of scripture reading…
 
LilyM said:
Sounds right to me.

Mind you, partial indulgences are not to be sneezed at in the slightest (any lessening of purgatory is an excellent thing, right?)

And you can get them for some very simple things - blessing yourself with Holy Water, your Morning, Evening or Night Prayer if you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a Rosary (five decades in a row), half an hour in Adoration, half an hour of scripture reading…
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Likewise, the stations of the cross are a great way to earn indulgences for the poor souls in Purgatory.
 
Thank you for all your answers. Being in this forum has helped me a lot, especially some of the Catholic websights that other people list. I have gotten a lot of information that will be usefull in my walk with Christ.

Your brother in Christ

“If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire.” --Saint Catherine of Siena
 
I was in a situation where a plenary indulgence was granted. However, because I am waiting for an annulment to go through and can’t receive the sacraments right now, I guess I’m just out of luck. That has troubled me greatly.
 
HERE is an excellent podcast about Indulgences - The Treasury of the Faith. It is 40 minutes long, and one of the best explainations I’ve heard about indulgences, what they are, where they came from, and why we should take them seriously.

Scroll down to season three to find it in the page.

~Liza
 
so indulgences give remission from temporal punishment. is there anything that gets rid of eternal punishment. the guy in that podcast(link above this post) says that once you commit mortal sin you are subject to eternal punishment. So even those who confess their mortal sin will still face eternal punishment?

is this a true statement or am I just confused?
 
followerofGod said:
so indulgences give remission from temporal punishment. is there anything that gets rid of eternal punishment. the guy in that podcast(link above this post) says that once you commit mortal sin you are subject to eternal punishment. So even those who confess their mortal sin will still face eternal punishment?

is this a true statement or am I just confused?
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I don’t know what the guy said, but he’s either wrong or you misunderstood. Eternal punishment would be Hell. When somebody repents of a mortal sin and goes to Confession, they will not go to Hell. However, they may have to go to Purgatory for awhile to suffer the temporal punishments of that sin, even though it is forgiven. But no matter what, at some point, Purgatory ends and the soul enjoys eternal peace in Heaven.

Now, if a sinner repents and confesses his mortal sin, and then receives a Plenary Indulgence, the temporal punishment is removed and they go straight to Heaven.
 
It seems to me very hard to get a plenary indulgence. Sure, doing something that has a plenary indulgence attached to it, like praying the Rosary in a community, seems easy enough, but to be completely detached from all sin? It’s not that I want to commit sins, it just seems almost like a oath to not sin, which seems very hard. Maybe I’m over analyzing this, I don’t know.

Also, does anyone know if let’s say I am in a state of mortal sin, and I die in a car accident tomorrow, will I go to Hell?😦
 
masondoggy said:
I don’t know what the guy said, but he’s either wrong or you misunderstood. Eternal punishment would be Hell. When somebody repents of a mortal sin and goes to Confession, they will not go to Hell. However, they may have to go to Purgatory for awhile to suffer the temporal punishments of that sin, even though it is forgiven. But no matter what, at some point, Purgatory ends and the soul enjoys eternal peace in Heaven.

Now, if a sinner repents and confesses his mortal sin, and then receives a Plenary Indulgence, the temporal punishment is removed and they go straight to Heaven.
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Thank you. that clears it up for me!

God bless you.
 
hamburglar said:
It seems to me very hard to get a plenary indulgence. Sure, doing something that has a plenary indulgence attached to it, like praying the Rosary in a community, seems easy enough, but to be completely detached from all sin? It’s not that I want to commit sins, it just seems almost like a oath to not sin, which seems very hard. Maybe I’m over analyzing this, I don’t know.

Also, does anyone know if let’s say I am in a state of mortal sin, and I die in a car accident tomorrow, will I go to Hell?😦
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well If you Confess and perform your penance with a contrite heart with a true want to be better and not commit sin with a strong attempt and soon after that perform your act with a plenary indulgence attached to it. It would seem that you could do it.

Im not sure about the car accident scenario, from what I gather from everything is that if you are in a state of mortal sin when you die no matter how, you are in trouble. God is just and fair and all loving so you never know what he can do given circumstance.
 
On the topic of indulgence I read a lot about needing the correct disposition in order for it to count as plenary. what is the disposition one should have? I mean I think for most it would be that they want to be exempt from pain and suffering from their forgiven sins.

so what is the disposition one should have to make there act of indulgence true and full?
 
followerofGod said:
On the topic of indulgence I read a lot about needing the correct disposition in order for it to count as plenary. what is the disposition one should have? I mean I think for most it would be that they want to be exempt from pain and suffering from their forgiven sins.

so what is the disposition one should have to make there act of indulgence true and full?
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I think that the disposition is that we are sorry for having offended God who loves us so much, for having committed an offense against Love and wanting to repair the damage and renew our loving relationship with God, rather than being sorry because we will be punished and want to be exempt from the pain and suffering due. It is a matter of being in love with God and not wanting to offend our Loved One any further.

In the first, the disposition is away from ourselves and towards God. In the second, the disposition is on ourselves and sees not much further than our own personal pain (or the avoidance thereof), unconcerned with the pain we have caused to God by our offense.

Here is a link to the Enchiridion of Indulgences issued by the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary.
 
Along these lines, what is “prayer for the Pope’s intention”?
 
Red_Wolf said:
Along these lines, what is “prayer for the Pope’s intention”?
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The Vatican website I believe publishes specific prayer intentions from the Holy Father for each month of the year. October’s general intention, for example, is ‘that the Christians who are in minority situations may have the strength and courage to live their faith and presevere in bearing witness to it’. And his missionary intention is ‘that World Missionary Day may be a propitious occasion for kindling an ever greater missionary awareness in every baptised person’.

Otherwise you can just make a general intention.

Traditionally this involves praying an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, simply prefacing it with ‘for the Holy Father and his intentions’, or else mentioning the specific month’s intentions if you know what they are.
 
on this site it says you can obtain plenary indulgence for reading holy scripture (the Bible I guess for 30 minuets or more). does that mean in public or at a mass or does it mean on your own even in your own home? as long as you meet the requirements of course.

ourladyswarriors.org/indulge/plenary.htm

reading of sacred scripture.
 
followerofGod said:
on this site it says you can obtain plenary indulgence for reading holy scripture (the Bible I guess for 30 minuets or more). does that mean in public or at a mass or does it mean on your own even in your own home? as long as you meet the requirements of course.

ourladyswarriors.org/indulge/plenary.htm

reading of sacred scripture.
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Doesn’t matter if it’s reading out loud in public (and very few occasions call for 30 minutes straight of reading from Scripture in public) or silently in your own home or elsewhere, as long as it’s for 30 minutes.
 
<<Mind you, partial indulgences are not to be sneezed at in the slightest (any lessening of purgatory is an excellent thing, right?)>>

It is a common misconception that indulgences are time out of purgatory.

They aren’t.
 
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