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rosetta_stone
Guest
is their a time limit on when a penance has to be completed?
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LilyM
Guest
Not normally. Although failure to complete a penance without good reason is in itself a sin, so it seems that if you didn’t complete your last penance by the time of your next confession you’d have to confess it.
Unless it’s a penance that, say, takes two months to complete and you go back to confession less than two months after it’s assigned.
The moral is do your penance ASAP.
Unless it’s a penance that, say, takes two months to complete and you go back to confession less than two months after it’s assigned.
The moral is do your penance ASAP.
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rosetta_stone
Guest
Ok i got a penance long ago to do something nice for my brother and
I remember telling him he could have a couple old sports magazines i got. I just feel like that wasn’t enough and I’m sure i have done other nice things for him. For example at Christmas my Dad didn’t give my brother any money and i offered him half of what i got so i’m assuming i’m fine.
On another occasion i was given the penance of praying certain prayers and i couldn’t remember all the words to the prayer. So I think ended up praying it later at some point(don’t remember was several years ago)
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LilyM
Guest
That’s OK, the sin would be if you deliberately decided not to do your penance at all, or if you left it so long that it got time for your next confession and you still hadn’t done it (assuming it was something that was quick to do).
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caleb83
Guest
Hey can I jump in here and ask a question? You said that you have to deliberatly fail to do penance and so that is a sin, but is the absolution during confession contingent on that?
From the CCC I see that satisfaction is a necessary element, but would abolution itself not take, so to speak, if someone subsequently failed to intend to do the penance?
From the CCC I see that satisfaction is a necessary element, but would abolution itself not take, so to speak, if someone subsequently failed to intend to do the penance?
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LilyM
Guest
Well, the failure to do the penance would be a fresh sin, which could be grave depending on the circumstances.
I think it might speak to the sincerity of your initial confession if you were to confess, all the while intending to commit a fresh grave sin in the future. Remember a genuine purpose of amendment (ie the desire at least to avoid all grave sin in the future) is a necessary component of a valid confession, and planning to commit futher grave sin suggests the absence of this and would probably invalidate the absolution.
Of course none of the above applies if you form the intent to not do the penance AFTER confession and absolution.
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caleb83
Guest
In old old days, it is said that people are in a penitent state, and this lasts for a period, and that during that period they could not join in the Eucharistic celebration. I would think that if a person quit doing what is required in that penetant state, there is no absolution. Especially if absolution is only granted after the end of the state. Rather than intention, and **when **a person formed intention, one could judge intention from the act itself. Is there anything like that now? I am thinking of **having **to do something like face the justice of the state or else there is no absolution for sins that are crimes (when it is appropriate, anyway)
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LilyM
Guest
And? One can’t judge intention from actions either. A person might go through what penance has been imposed for whatever period of time, and yet still have every intention of going straight back to the same sin after the penance is performed and absolution granted.
This attitude betrays that there is no intent at all to amend their life, which would invalidate the absolution, obviously, but the priest could still mistakenly grant absolution since he isn’t a mind reader. Priest figured out after a while that these sort of penances were no guarantee either of genuine contrition or valid absolution, which is one reason they were done away with
And it’s never been an option to require a penitent to ‘face the justice of the state’. The priest is not a policeman or sherrif, and a confessional is anything but a state court of law. And a priest has never been permitted to require a person to betray themselves to any third party.
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