What's the difference: Penance and Indulgences?

[Contrabass101]

I was wondering if someone could tell me a bit about these two concepts.

What are they? What is the difference? What are their purposes? When did they enter Catholic Theology and why (e.g. to settle discussion/heresy XYZ)?

Also, I am having a hard time grasping especially the idea of indulgences, so it would be nice to have a very concrete example.

Links are also welcome, but please no books - I’m on a low budget right now

Thanks in advance,
CB

 

[jmcrae]

Penance is any action that we do to grow in holiness - reading the Bible, praying various different kinds of prayers, etc., especially those that are directly related to Christ’s death on the Cross, and God’s forgiveness of our sins (for example, the seven penitential Psalms, the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, the Litany of the Sacred Heart, and so on).

Indulgences are the remittance of the temporal punishment for sin (which is Purgatory) that are attached to various different kinds of penances and pious actions. For example, reading the Bible for a half hour a day remits in full the temporal punishments, if you intend to receive the Indulgence, if you also receive Holy Communion the same day, you have recently been to Confession (“recently” is not defined) and you pray the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for the intentions of the Pope. If you did all these things, you would be credited with a Plenary Indulgence, which remits all of the “time” in Purgatory that you would have had to suffer, up to that moment in time - and if you die, then you would go directly to Heaven, assuming that you were also detached from all concupiscience - that is, your love for God was greater than your love for any other thing, including other human beings.

 

[TheDoctor]

Indulgences are a very confusing item, especially during these times when they do not get spoken of as often as then should.

This website contains a list of indulgences to give you an idea of the types of things jmcrae was talking about.:
ourladyswarriors.org/indulge/plenary.htm and this site give some info on the norms:
ourladyswarriors.org/indulge/norms.htm

P.S. - To jmcrae - Great explanation but I have one comment: while it is fitting and better for communion and prayers for the Holy Father to be done on the same day, I don’t believe it is a strict requirement. See Item 27 on the Norms.

 

[Genesis315]

They are very interrelated. In the early Church, when a penance may have taken years to complete, the practice of indulgences amounted simply to a lessening of the penance for good behavior (we see this in Scripture when St. Paul pardons the incestuous man).

Penances were given at that time with the intention of making full satisfaction (fulfilling all of the temporal punishment due.)However, if someone died before they finished the penance, the remaining satisfaction would extend into the afterlife and take place in the process of Purgatory.

It naturally followed then, that if the satisfaction extended into the afterlife, and the indulgence remitted the satisfaction needed, then the indulgence also extended into the afterlife.

Today, the intention of penance is more to demonstrate contrition and to turn the penitent back to God (usually through prayer) and sometimes it is for retribution (return the money you stole, etc.), but we are still generally encouraged to make satisfaction (which includes bearing the trials and sufferings of life, etc.)

It also bears noting that the power of an indulgence comes from the fact that we are all one Body, and therefore one member can satisfy the debts of another–indulgences therefore draw on the superabundant merits of the whole Body of Christ (you, me, all the saints, etc.)