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Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:

• Penance (Continued)
  • 1. Contrition
  • 2. The Object of Contrition
  • 3. Degrees of Contrition
  • 4. The Time or Season of Contrition
  • 5. The Effect of Contrition
  • 6. Confession
  • 7. The Nature of Confession
  • 8. The Minister of Confession
  • 9. The Quality of Confession
  • 10. The Effect of Confession
  • 11. The Seal of Confession
  • 12. Satisfaction
  • 13. Possibility of Satisfaction
  • 14. The Quality of Satisfaction
  • 15. Means of Making Satisfaction
  • 16. Those Who Have the Virtue of Penance
  • 17. The Power of the Keys
  • 18. The Effect of the Keys
  • 19. The Minister of the Keys
  • 20. Use of the Power of the Keys
  • 21. Excommunication
  • 22. Persons Concerned in Excommunication
  • 23. Dealing With Excommunicated Persons
  • 24. Absolution From Excommunication
  • 25. Indulgences
  • 26. The Granting of Indulgences
  • 27. The Gaining of Indulgences
  • 28. Public Penance
• Extreme Unction
• Order (Holy Orders)
• Matrimony
• The General Resurrection
• The Last Things
• Appendix I (The Innocents in Limbo)
• Appendix II (Two Notes on Purgatory)

10. The Effect of Confession

1. Confession is a part of the sacrament ofpenance, and therefore shares the effect of the sacrament itself;it delivers the penitent from sin when it is made with perfectcontrition and with the qualities mentioned above, that is, when itis humble, sincere, and entire. If confession is made withimperfect, but supernatural, contrition, it does not deliver thepenitent from sin, but disposes him proximately for the absolutionwhich removes his sins.

2. Confession with absolution takes away the guilt ofmortal sins and the eternal punishment that is due to them; it alsolessens, in greater or smaller degree, the temporal punishment owedto forgiven mortal sins and to venial sins.

3. The power of forgiving sins, imparted by Christ to hispriests, is called "the power of the keys." For thesacrament of penance, rightly received, opens the gate of heaven tothe forgiven sinner. Hence we rightly speak of penance as the keyor keys to heaven, and of the power of conferring this sacrament asthe power of the keys.

4. We hope for forgiveness through Christ. By confessing,we submit ourselves to the power of the keys which has its efficacyfrom the Passion of Christ. Hence, an effect of confession is therenewed hope of heaven.

5. A man must confess all mortal sins that he rememberscommitting. If there be other mortal sins not remembered, theyshould be included in a general way in the confession, by use ofsome such phrase as, "For these sins that I have confessed,and for any others that I may have committed, I am sorry, and seekabsolution from them all."

"A man should keep himself down, and not busy himself in mirabilibus super se."
St Philip Neri

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"Men should often renew their good resolutions, and not lose heart because they are tempted against them."
St Philip Neri

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"If, devout soul, it is your will to please God and live a life of serenity in this world, unite yourself always and in all things to the divine will. Reflect that all the sins of your past wicked life happened because you wandered from the path of God's will. For the future, embrace God's good pleasure and say to him in every happening: "Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight." "
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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