Penance

repentance of sins
(Redirected from Penitence)

Penance or penitence is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Christian Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in Lutheran non-sacramental confession. Penance and repentance, similar in their derivation and original sense, have come to symbolize conflicting views of the essence of repentance, arising from the controversy as to the respective merits of "faith" and "good works".

Quotes

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  • The law can never save us; and he is nearest to the forgiveness of the gospel who, with a contrite heart, discerns most clearly and feels most profoundly that perfection of the Divine statute which impeaches and condemns him.
    • William Adams, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 448.
  • Christian penitence is something more than a thought or an emotion or a tear; it is action.
    • William Adams, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 448.
  • Know what your sin is and confess it; but do not imagine that you have approved yourself a penitent by confessing sin in the abstract.
    • Theodore L. Cuyler, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 449.
  • We hear the wail of the remorseful winds
    In their strange penance. And this wretched orb
    Knows not the taste of rest; a maniac world,
    Homeless and sobbing through the deep she goes.
  • Prostrate, dear Jesus, at Thy feet,
    A guilty rebel lies;
    And upwards, to Thy mercy-seat,
    Presumes to lift his eyes.
    • Samuel Stennett, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 448.
  • My only crime was being a man and living in the world of men, and you don't have to do special penance for that. The crime and the penance, in that case, coincide perfectly. They are identical.
  • One should never spurn a penitent criminal: in his despair he may become twice as much a criminal as before.

See also

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