John Paul II Speaks about Forgivness and Sin

God's salvific will, which is the splendor of His glory, is carried out in a preeminent way in the sacramental ministry of Reconciliation.

VIBRANT RENEWAL

The potential for an authentic and vibrant renewal of the whole Catholic Church through the more faithful use of the sacrament of Penance is immeasurable...

THE SHIPWRECK OF SIN

The Fathers and theologians have rightly called the sacrament of Penance ... a second plank after shipwreck .... second with respect to Baptism. Sin is the shipwreck from which Baptism and Penance save us.

SPURRING THE FAITHFUL

The sacrament of Penance contains in itself, precisely because it imparts or increases supernatural grace, the power of spurring the faithful to practice fervent charity, to perform the resulting good works and to accept devoutly the sorrows of life which also merit the remission of temporal punishment.

THE GIFT OF PEACE

By the very fact that it imparts or increases grace, the sacrament of Penance offers the gift of peace.

HIGHER PEACE

In the sacrament of Penance the faithful legitimately seek to begin that interior process which leads ... to the progressive conformity of their own psychological state with that higher peace which consists in compliance with God's will.

EXPECTED EFFECTS OF PENANCE

One of the effects of the Sacrament of Penance that the faithful can rightly expect and desire is to mitigate the impulses of passion, to correct intellectual or emotional defects..., to refine all our free action, as a result of restored and growing supernatural charity.

(Sources:Message to Cardinal William Baum, dated March 20,1998, and visit to San Antonio, Texas, September 13, 1987 ©1998 Presentation Ministries, Cincinnati, Ohio. Used by subscription paid by the Friends of the Good News. Visit their site, presentationministries.com

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