Sacrament of Penance?

Question

I know the 5 components of the Sacrament of Penance are
conversion
penance
confession
forgiveness
reconcilation
How would I explain how each are significant?

Answer 1

(I'm taking this from the point of view of the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation [aka Penance], but with a little tweeking, these steps apply to a broader population.)

conversion - this is where a person owns up to his or her actions. No more excuses, no ifs/ands/buts, but a simple "yes, I did this."

penance - The person realizes, knows, and acknowledges that his or her actions where wrong, hurtful, and not condusive to a loving relationship with God. The person then regrets the actions and feels sorry.

confession - The person (who can now be called a penantant) now takes full accountibility for his or her actions and feelings and tells them to God. For humans, it is often cleansing to vocalize this, so in the Catholic Church, the priest is the appointed representative of God for this task. This gives the penantant a "sounding board" of sorts. He or she goes to the priest and either face to face or in a confessional, confesses - gives voice to - the sin, which releases energy.

(Have you ever had a secret that was eating you up inside until you told someone, anyone, and suddenly the pressure was off? It's kinda like that.)

forgiveness - Forgiveness is one of the great gifts of God. God alone forgives, not the priest, and the forgiveness is automatic to those who truly repent and ask for it. At this point in the sacrament, the priest speaks the words of absolution, but he is only acting as God's mouthpiece.

reconcilation - For some people, this is the hardest part. They have confessed and God has forgiven them, but now they have to ACCEPT God's love, mercy, and forgiveness. They also must promise to do their very best not to sin again (at least, not to repeat that same sin) and, where possible, they must do what they can to set right the situation. Sometimes that requires action, sometimes prayer. But it is a joyful thing because it celebrates that God's love is beyond all evil.

Answer 2

conversion ... without a firm intention to mend our ways, and a real possibility of achieving same, forgiveness is (usually) not possible.

penance ... Jesus did the heavy lifting here, by his life, death, and resurrection. Any penance we perform simply proves we have an earnest heart.

confession ... sins need to be identified before any other part of the process may proceed.

Confessing directly to God with perfect contrition, accompanied by true repentance, can get the job done, but is diffficult to truly achieve.

Confessing to a priest, through the sacrament of reconciliation provides for a more lenient, lower standard of contrition, that still gets the job done, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ, the Church, and the saints, to provide what is lacking in the individual penitent (within church-established limits).

forgiveness ... God has always been willing to forgive (set aside and overlook) sins, provided the sinner is truly contrite (sorry) and truly repentant (willing to change, or convert) and has at least a remote possibility of doing so.

Until Jesus destroyed Satan's power over mankind, forgiveness of sins was unavailable, because slavery under Satan meant that true repentance could never happen.

reconcilation ... once all that is necessary for sins to be forgiven has been accomplished, the rift of sins that separates us from God ceases to exist. We are then truly reunited with him, and are once again temples of the holy spirit, creatures of grace, and real beneficiaries of his peace.

Answer 3

I would have used the words the gift of repentance... it starts with a work of grace from God not man

conversion a change of attitude

penance what does penance have to do with penance? lets change it... sin must be paid for and recognized that Jesus paid the penalty

confession 1 John 1 9 , we agree with God we have sined

forgiveness we trust and hope in God for forgiveness based on Jesus work and God's character

reconcilation we believe in restoration as the father runs to the prodigal son, God is willing to take us back and rekoice over it


Theer are also false repentance... even Corithians says there is a repentance that leads to death and a repentance that leads to life... Judas had the wrong kind, Peter had the right kind

Answer 4

According to my Catholic views on the sacrament of penance is that i believe God is good, merciful, loving, forgiving. I remember the day after Divine Mercy Sunday. It was Monday morning and i was overwhelmed with guilt and sin. I just couldn't get over it. So i went into the confessional room with the priest i know well. First i did the usual stuff like bless me father for i have sinned. Then told the priest of my sins like taking advantage of my mom. And as soon i was about say my act of contrition, i was bursting with tears of sorrow and the priest was very kind and understanding. So he said, "It's alright Alan, God loves you." Then after that, i felt relieved and listened to my favorite church hymn, Amazing Grace, my chains are gone performed by Chris Tomlin.

Answer 5

Hi, I hope this will be of help, the first actual state to partake of confession is Contrition for having offended God.
then the actual Confessing of our personal sins, and by this we receive Gods Forgiveness and we are Reconciled to Him again.
the next is the receiving of a form of Penance, and the final stage is our promise and commitment to turn away from these sins in the future ( Conversion.)

Answer 6

conversion you might say I'm catholic so what do I convert from ? we are all still sinners and it is these sins of deed or thought that we need to convert from confession is the method of releasing our faults nature teaches us that talking about our problems is the first step to healing. penance is what we do to help make up for any harm we might have done if you bump into someone and knock them down you help them up then comes the great part you say I'm sorry they say that's OK don't you feel better after hearing those words of forgiveness all this to reconcile with God to do our part to make up for what we have done against him because to be without him I don't even want to go there