Question on plenary indulgence

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It should be noted what praying for the Pope’s intentions means. Paul VI’s apsotolic constition gives the following:
n. 10—The condition of praying for the Supreme Pontiff’s intentions is fully satisfied by reciting one “Our Father” and one “Hail Mary”; nevertheless the individual faithful are free to recite any other prayer according to their own piety and devotion toward the Supreme Pontiff.
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Unfortunately, the document takes his intentions as already known, but there is sometimes confusion nowadays I’ve found as to what these are. The prior manual of indulgences defined them as simply the ends of the papacy:
The intentions for which the Holy Father, as a general rule, requires prayer to be offered are: For the exaltation of Holy Church; for the extirpation of schism and heresy; for peace and concord amongst Christian kings and princes; and for the propagation of the Catholic faith. With these general intentions it would be fitting and judicious to offer a further prayer for the welfare of the Sovereign Pontiff, and for his special intentions.
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These are no more than the very purposes of the papacy that are simply for the good of the Church, and since these never change, are therefore the intentions of the Pope even when there is no Pope (say, after a death but before the election of the successor)!

Apostolic Penitentiary:
Even though the Apostolic See is vacant, the conditions of praying for the intention of the Supreme Pontiff are fulfilled (by reciting once the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” once; nevertheless, the opportunity is also given to the individual faithful to recite another prayer which pleases them according to the piety and devotion of each one), even if he has fulfilled the duty of his life, since the ends of the Pope’s intention, the ends for which one must pray–undoubtedly the spiritual good of the whole Church – persist.
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In more modern lingo, I’ve seen these ends stated as follows: exaltation of Holy Church = freedom and well-being or renewal of the Church ; extirpation of heresy and schism = unity of Christians; peace and concord among kings and princes = peace among nations; and propagation of the Catholic faith = evagengilization of peoples.

These objective intentions also make indulgences still good and valid if, God forbid, a Pope should have bad subjective, personal, or special intentions.

The Raccolta also mentions the Pope’s special intentions, which are also recommended. The Pope publishing a special intention goes back to 1844 and was started in collaboration with the Apostleship of Prayer. The second Mission intention was added in 1929. These can be found here:
http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/the-popes-monthly-intention.cfm

I hope that helps!
 
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Thanks for the link. However, my eyes glazed over when I took a look at it.

I wonder if anyone can suggest a reading that is easier to understand?

@Tis_Bearself, do you have any reading suggestions?
 
adgloriam said:
What my OP was also about is actually “timor Domini” or “Fear of the Lord” since I feared, unnecessarily, that all the temporal punishment I had accumulated over my lifetime was too much to remit with indulgences, or that the many indulgences I obtained still left plenty of temporal punishment to be payed.

I am much more at ease now that I know this.
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I’m glad you’re at ease, but you may be looking at it slightly wrong.

I try to earn a plenary indulgence every day. In fact I may need to rush off here because I am hoping to get one this evening.

But St. Therese said that no matter how much we do, how many prayers and other things to tally up on our list (remember she was raised in the environment of Jansenism), it could never begin to make up for all the sins we commit, enough to keep us out of Purgatory.
She believed that the way to skip Purgatory was to give everything to others. All our prayers, our good works, our indulgences. And then throw ourselves on God’s mercy.

I give all mine to the Poor Souls via Mary. If I want one to go to a specific person I ask her to please give it to (Name) and I have on good authority she will honor the request, assuming that (Name) is in purgatory and can use it…if (Name) is already in either Heaven or Hell and can’t use it, then she will give it to (Secondary person I specify) or just to someone who Jesus thinks should have it.

Also, whether someone “gets out of purgatory” on a plenary, or whether the plenary is even done well enough for a 100% remission, is God’s call to make…he could give us a 1 percent or a 99 percent or a 100 percent, we don’t know…so many of us will get multiple indulgences and Masses and whatever for a person we really care about or are really worried about. The same way as how a priest I know told us he had been praying for the soul of his deceased father for 40 years, just in case. It’s not that Dad was such a bad sinner but you just want to make sure, espcially since God can backdate prayers…for all you know, Dad is already in heaven in earthly year 1990 because of the prayers you said for him in 2010…

Not to make you worry, indulgences are an act of confidence in God anyway, but just to explain why we might want to do more than one plenary for someone, or more than one along with other prayers.

I’ll admit I did a plenary or two for myself, but I don’t now, especially since the Divine Mercy promise of Jesus (not an indulgence, because indulgences come from the Church and the promise comes from Jesus) applies to me personally, so between that, the various promises of Mary, and St. Therese saying we give all to others and throw ourselves on Jesus’ mercy, I don’t worry about myself.
And I give all the plenaries to others.
 
Irishmom, I use the USCCB site all the time. The print is small on the web, but if you read it on your phone, you can size it up, which I do.

Here is a good article discussing what we pray for when we pray for the Holy Father’s Intentions.
It does not, however, have the actual intentions.


To be very honest, I never bother to look at the actual intentions - sometimes the priest, especially at cathedrals like St. Patrick’s, will mention them - but it’s not necessary to know what they are to say the prayers.
I usually say Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be for the Holy Father’s Intentions

and then an extra Hail Mary for the person of the Holy Father and the Holy Father Emeritus so they are protected and blessed.
 
In case anyone needs the instructions on how to get a plenary indulgence for someone today, I re-post again the handy instructions from Fr. Richard Heilman (who just celebrated his 30th anniversary as a priest, yay!)
CONDITIONS

First, I have the conditions in place:
  1. I’m in a state of grace.
  2. I’ve gone to Confession within 20 days (before or after today).
  3. Going to Mass and receiving Communion today.
  4. I prayed an Our Father and a Hail Mary for the pope’s intentions.
  5. I have not let any sin(s) defeat me, by hanging on to it. In other words, at my last confession, I made my confession with a truly “contrite” spirit … meaning, I did NOT confess my sins, while saying to myself something like, “… even though I know I will do this again” or, “… even though I am confessing that I am angry with this person, I am not letting go of that anger.”
DOING THE WORK

Okay, now that the conditions (above) are in place … now I simply need to choose which of the four activities the Church allows on any given day for gaining a plenary indulgence. I call these the “Big Four:”

*Adoring the Blessed Sacrament for at least one half hour
*Devoutly reading Sacred Scripture for at least one half hour
*Devoutly performing the Stations of the Cross (only at approved Stations)
*Reciting the Rosary with members of the family, or in a church, oratory, religious community, or pious association

In order to gain a plenary indulgence today, I chose to pray the rosary before the Blessed Sacrament.
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If you want to do things other than the “Big Four”, here’s the Manual of Indulgences for 1999 that someone helpfully posted a little while ago. (Right after I bought the Kindle version 🙂


Corpus Christi is coming up - you can get one by participating in a Eucharistic Procession.

And the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul is also coming up - you can get one that day by devoutly using a rosary, crucifix or medal blessed by any bishop or by the Pope.

I am off now to go get ready for this evening’s church/ indulgence activity, so toodles…
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
it could never begin to make up for all the sins we commit
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Well, you know the figure of “perpetual debt” that some humans enter with loan sharks, banks, and that kind?? I don’t really believe Our Lord would subject us to that kind of negative conscience. Because we are to be joyful and not to live in anxiety.

Then, how could a murderer ever make up for the evil he committed? Our Lord will somehow make up for him, I don’t know how, but somehow. So that is throwing ourselves into God’s mercy, and I give up on anything else because, in fact, I can’t make up for all the consequences of my sins.

Perhaps, evoking the recent example of @Spyridon, finding a way to keep myself from sinning is hard enough.

I find myself at a point in life where I myself need mercy and healing. I tried very hard to follow “the law” to “the letter” and it was to no avail. So I put my conscience at ease (trying yet, to fulfill the best I can) and perhaps find a way for myself in this life. I saw all those who followed little to no devotion doing alright, and I am not doing alright. And that is why I see no point in letting my conscience haunt me by way of devotion, because in my immediate daily life I find it out of my grasp to survive.

I tried the best I could following through with devotion. And what I found after lengthy prayer was the quasi complete inability to pray. I read some reputed theologians regarding the specificity of this situation, and I have not the slightest idea of what life holds for me.

And that is why I say my conscience is at ease. Because back when I could pray I must have done something right and I don’t want that, at least, taken from me.
 
I’m sorry you are having trouble.
If you are having a problem with sin right now, then you should focus on that.

Might I suggest praying for the Holy Spirit to come to you and heal you?
I know you said you can’t pray, but it just takes like a 5 second thought to say “Come Holy Spirit”, and that’s all you need to say.
I can pray for you too.
God bless
 
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Well, actually, it is as simple as that. God hears our simple, imperfect prayers.

If you are able to spend time on CAF, you are capable of simple prayer.
 
adgloriam said:
tried the best I could following through with devotion. And what I found after lengthy prayer was the quasi complete inability to pray. I read some reputed theologians regarding the specificity of this situation, and I have not the slightest idea of what life holds for me.
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Pope Francis has been pretty explicit in his teaching that the Christian life is less about lengthy prayer, elaborate ritual, and sacrifice than it is about being merciful, loving, and walking humbly with your God.

That’s not to say that ritual, sacrifice, and long prayers are bad or should be shunned or anything like that - they are all good, useful things which Our Lord made use of in his life. But it’s also necessary to keep in mind that sacrifice, ritual, lengthy prayer can end up unnecessarily burdening people or causing them to become spiritually dry. The Pharisees are the prototypical example of this - they became so obsessed with the Law and its elaborate ceremonial that they missed the forest for the trees - or as Our Lord called it, they “strained out gnats so as to swallow camels.”

It’s a constant danger for Catholic Christians to fall to the spirit of the Pharisees, and I’ve personally been afflicted by it many times in my spiritual life.
 
Spyridon said:
But it’s also necessary to keep in mind that sacrifice, ritual, lengthy prayer can end up unnecessarily burdening people or causing them to become spiritually dry.
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On the other hand, for some of us it’s a blessing.
if I hadn’t been praying for an hour or so a day for a year, and going to Mass daily where possible, I would have been in much worse shape when my husband decided to drop dead all of a sudden on our porch.
Given that I hadn’t been praying very much for a very long time before I decided to start doing so, I feel like the Holy Spirit called me to do that in order to maybe prepare me for what was to come.

Some people in my situation would go to a grief group or a therapist - both options are fine if that’s what helps a person, but I do not think those would help me for various reasons.
I go pray instead. That helps.
I would rather just tell God, Mary and the saints than tell a group of strangers or tell a therapist whom I would have to pay for an hour’s time.

I’m the kind of person who is drawn to prayer and ritual. It just feels right. Maybe for someone else it feels dry or burdensome.
 
Thank you @Spyridon I have become focused in placing emphasis on this:
Spyridon said:
Pope Francis has been pretty explicit in his teaching that the Christian life is less about lengthy prayer, elaborate ritual, and sacrifice than it is about being merciful, loving, and walking humbly with your God.
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I simply can’t muster praying a rosary without free time and stability in my life. Both work and uncertainty have have overwhelmed me for a prolonged time.

The 2 articles CCC2728 and CCC2731 hint at what happened to me. But these exact symptoms, falling from continued prayer into inability to pray indicate a broader context with several factors.

So this one time I lay of the burden (and perhaps for the first time in my life simply say: I can’t.)

[And so I focus on charity and simple works of mercy instead. That is all I can muster.]
 
adgloriam said:
What exactly does a plenary indulgence remit if I practice it with the intention of remitting the temporal punishment of my own sins already confessed and forgiven?
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Temporal Punishment applies to ALL committed sin; even sins Confessed and forgiven. WHY is this? An in depth explanation cannot be crammed into CAF’s allotted space.

It is GOD who personally attaches a MUST be repaid penalty to every sin; BECAUSE EVERY SIN HAS A “PUBLIC NATURE”; meaning it effects others; those aware of the sin; partners in sin; the Church; and the community; even the world as our SINS affect and SET the accepted morality. Legislated abortion and Gay “marriage” for example; BOTH are direct attacks on God’s Sovereignty; GOD’S exclusive RIGHT to tell us; HIS Created humanity what is moral and what is immortal. Our actions and life-choices DO have consequences.

Because God alone attaches the penalty; and GOD alone keeps track of payments {partial or full—Indulgences} one can never be COMPLETELY sure of how much of this debt is repaid. The conditions for Indulgences are very specific and must be met fully and accurately

Our charity, good good works, prayers and specific and full compliance to DEMANDS of Indulgences are ways to repay the “TP” while on earth.

Because a Souls MUST literally be “perfect” to enter into the Beatific Vision {heaven}; Baptized Souls that die without ANY unforgiven; unconfessed Mortal sins CAN BE “perfected” in Purgatory and upon full repayment; attain heaven.

A Plenary Indulgence FULLY and accurately fulfilled remits ALL of the accrued TP up to THAT point on one’s life

Souls with unforgiven; unremitted Mortal sins are self-condemned to hell.

I pray this helps you,
Patrick
 
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@Genesis315 @PJM thank you both for your elaborate and knowledgeable answers. I will write a short response when I get the time, should I deem a response strictly necessary. In the meanwhile, I will with full attention reared your helpful contributions, rest assured I give them my best attention and will take some time to meditate on them.

Thank you and God bless.
 
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