Plenary indulgence question

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erine

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Just a technical question. For a plenary indulgence, one must do the act/prayer, go to confession & receive communion, and be detached from sin. I tried to donthat today by reciting the rosary @ church after mass, and going to confession & getting the Eucharist. I then realize that I could get a plenary indulgence tomorrow by reciting a certain prayer for a saint’s cord that I wear. I haven’t and don’t intend to sin and need confession by tomorrow, so assuming I don’t need confession tomorrow, how can I try ton gain the indulgence? Does the confession from today count for it too?

I want to try to get an indulgence and apply it to the Holy souls in purgatory. Thanks for helping me!
 
From catholic.com/tracts/myths-about-indulgences
“To gain a plenary indulgence you must perform the act with a contrite heart, plus you must go to confession (one confession may suffice for several plenary indulgences), receive Holy Communion, and pray for the pope’s intentions. (An Our Father and a Hail Mary said for the pope’s intentions are sufficient, although you are free to substitute other prayers of your own choice.) The final condition is that you must be free from all attachment to sin, including venial sin.”
 
Thanks! And I almost forgot the prayers for the Holy Father; thanks!
 
erine said:
Just a technical question. For a plenary indulgence, one must do the act/prayer, go to confession & receive communion, and be detached from sin. I tried to donthat today by reciting the rosary @ church after mass, and going to confession & getting the Eucharist. I then realize that I could get a plenary indulgence tomorrow by reciting a certain prayer for a saint’s cord that I wear. I haven’t and don’t intend to sin and need confession by tomorrow, so assuming I don’t need confession tomorrow, how can I try ton gain the indulgence? Does the confession from today count for it too?

I want to try to get an indulgence and apply it to the Holy souls in purgatory. Thanks for helping me!
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Also 30 minutes of Eucharistic Adoration, or 5 decades of the Rosary (with meditation on the mysteries, in a Church, group … several people), or Stations of the Cross (canonically erected in a Church).

Reverently reading the Bible is an indulgenced act which may be obtained any day.

30.1 A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who read the Sacred Scriptures as spiritual reading, from a text approved by competent authority and with the reverance due to the divine work, for at least half an hour; if the time is less, the indulgence will be partial.
30.2 If for some good reason a person in unable to read the Sacred Scriptures, a plenary or partial indulgence is granted, as above, if the text of Sacred Scripture is listened to while another person is reading or if it is heard by means of a video or audio recording.

1999 Enchiridion Indulgentiarum

For Plenary, from Norm 20:
  • Prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff. The condition of praying for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff is fully satisfied by reciting one Our Father and one Hail Mary; nevertheless, each one is free to recite any other prayer according to his piety and devotion.
  • Eucharistic Communion.
  • Sacramental confession. A single sacramental confession suffices for gaining several plenary indulgences *
  • Communion must be received and prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff must be recited for the gaining of each plenary indulgence. (It is fitting to do this on the same day as the indulgenced act.)
  • Absence of all attachment to sin, even venial sin. If the latter disposition is in any way less than perfect or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be partial only, saving the provisions given in Norms 24 and 25.
  • according to a dubium, it spans about 20 days before of after to act.
Norm 24 is that confessors can commute the work or conditions to favor those with legitimate impediment.
Norm 25 is that Hierarchs and local ordinaries can grant permission over whom they exercise legitimate authority, where it is impossible or very difficult to receive Communion or confession, to gain a plenary withot those conditions, if they have contrition, and intention to receive them as soon as possible.
 
Also, for the plenary, the prayers must be vocal prayer, not mental prayer. (The stations of the cross do not require this, and perhaps some others.) That means it may be audible at least to you (it could be a whisper). This form of prayer, with some physical component, is superior. See Catechism

I. VOCAL PRAYER
2700 Through his Word, God speaks to man. By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh. Yet it is most important that the heart should be present to him to whom we are speaking in prayer: "Whether or not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of words, but on the fervor of our souls."2
2701 Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life. To his disciples, drawn by their Master’s silent prayer, Jesus teaches a vocal prayer, the Our Father. He not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer, from exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of Gesthemani.3
2702 The need to involve the senses in interior prayer corresponds to a requirement of our human nature. We are body and spirit, and we experience the need to translate our feelings externally. We must pray with our whole being to give all power possible to our supplication.
2703 This need also corresponds to a divine requirement. God seeks worshippers in Spirit and in Truth, and consequently living prayer that rises from the depths of the soul. He also wants the external expression that associates the body with interior prayer, for it renders him that perfect homage which is his due.
2704 Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups. Even interior prayer, however, cannot neglect vocal prayer. Prayer is internalized to the extent that we become aware of him "to whom we speak;"4 Thus vocal prayer becomes an initial form of contemplative prayer.
 
Just to clarify…the rosary, even if I pray it by myself, prayed in a church w the usual requirements = plenary indulgence?

And it doesn’t count if I pray it silently?
 
erine said:
Just to clarify…the rosary, even if I pray it by myself, prayed in a church w the usual requirements = plenary indulgence?

And it doesn’t count if I pray it silently?
Click to expand...
Yes, it is a plenary indulgence.
 
erine said:
Just to clarify…the rosary, even if I pray it by myself, prayed in a church w the usual requirements = plenary indulgence?

And it doesn’t count if I pray it silently?
Click to expand...
In the Manual of Indulgences (USCCB 2005), the requirements for the plenary indulgence of the Marian rosary use the words “recite” and “vocal prayer”. Recite is audible according to the dictionary.

In the general norms we see that the deaf and mute are not bound to this in public or private (N26 below) [emphasis mine]. They are very specific here to detail the requirement of recitation, with an grant for the deaf and mute to “recite the prayers mentally”.

N22. An indulgence attached to a prayer can be acquired by reciting the prayer in any language, provided that the translation is approved by the competent ecclesiastical authority.
N23. To gain an indulgence it is sufficient to recite the prayer alternately with a companion or to follow it mentally while it is being recited by another.
N26. Both the deaf and the mute can gain indulgences attached to public prayers if, together with the other faithful praying in the same place, they devoutly raise their mind and affections to God; regarding private prayers it is sufficient for them to recite the prayers mentally or express them with signs, or simply to read them without pronouncing the words.

You might have noticed from the Catechism that the emphasis is on the perfect form of prayer, 2703 states that “He also wants the external expression that associates the body with interior prayer, for it renders him that perfect homage which is his due.”

In a plenary indulgence we strive for a perfect expression, falling short we have a partial indulgence.
 
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