Remind me of repeated prayers

[NotWorthy]

I really don’t want to turn this into a discussion on reconciliation, but I would suggest that if you didn’t complete your assigned penance, then maybe you weren’t as contrite and/or repentant as you thought.

I would have to agree with this statement. And, even though the penitent may have been forgiven for his sins, the lack of a desire for penance seems to indicate the lack of remorse for his sins.

This would lead one to think the non-penitent sinner will soon resume his sinful ways. Although its true that he can go through the confession cycle all over again, but I find that the frequent confessors are usually the ones that are the most remorseful of their sins. The ones that feel little remorse, usually have little desire to go to confession. So the typical story of confession as a “get out of jail free” card for those who want to continue their sinful ways has little indication of being the case.

 

[Reuben_J]

I really don’t want to turn this into a discussion on reconciliation, but I would suggest that if you didn’t complete your assigned penance, then maybe you weren’t as contrite and/or repentant as you thought. To follow the idea I got from JimG, suppose Joe Q. Catholic goes to confession, but has already made up his mind that he doesn’t have to do the penance. I would think that his confession and subsequent absolution would not be valid because his heart isn’t right before God. The impression I got from JimG is that God has forgiven Joe, even though his heart wasn’t right, and now he has a venial sin for not doing the assigned penance. I’m not going to ask any more questions about this because it’s getting off topic.

(BTW - If anyone out there is named “Joe Q. Catholic”, I’m not talking about you in the above story.)

It is all about the heart, friend. The heart must be right to affect the forgiveness of sin. Solomon started off brightly but once his heart was swayed, even a Solomon could not be right with God. It is like that with the penitent and how he should approach the Sacrament. The only thing is that we have to have the Sacrament for the forgiveness of sin. Sure Jesus can forgive directly and we can go directly to him but that is not how he wanted it done. It is a mystery actually why it should be done through the Sacrament.

Like it was a mystery why he did not heal the blind man but put spittle on the mud and rubbed his eyes to be healed. It is not the spittle or the mud that healed the blind man but yet Jesus did that visible action. Sacrament is something like that. It is an outward sign of the grace given.

Therefore when we approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation our heart must be right. We are sorry and regret our sin. Then and only then the absolution by the priest will have its intended effect. **And if one comes for confession in that way, more likely one will say the penance properly **unless of course due to some unavoidable circumstances, perhaps an unexpected fire breaks out in the chapel and the penitent has to run for his dear life and thus unable to finish the given penance. Otherwise, how could one who comes with a genuine repented heart not finish the penance given to him? It does not make sense.

Penance like the Hail Mary as with all verbal recited prayer is a tool for meditation. While reciting it one meditates on the words spoken or thought out. Then it will become a meaningful prayer otherwise it will only just mud and spittle. Otherwise we don’t need recited prayer like that; we just can speak to God. But then again, there are many forms and types of prayers but always, the key is the heart. It must be right.

Hope that clears some of your questions.