Penance...repetitious Prayer

[P3chrmd]

A fellow catholic is trying to understand what the point of saying the Our Fathers and Hail Marys after confession are...why we have to say them a certin amount of times and the point? Need help explaining...here is some of what I posted when he asked about what the whole point of doing ANYTHING after confession was...

[quote]I understand it as penance...meaning

we have been absolved of our sins...BUT...the consequences of our sins are still there!

Lets say...I throw a rock and break a window. I can ask God to forgive me, and he will, I can ask the owner of the window to forgive me, and they can! BUT...it still dosen't change that the window was broken!!!!

When we sin, it effects EVERYONE in our christian community (and we don't think about that lots of times)...a ripple effect if you will.

So the penance the priest gives us...sometimes prayers...sometimes as much as a community service is an act of reparation for the consequences of our sins...if you will.[/quote]

[StColette]

The purpose of the penance is to keep the person from committing sin in the future and to remind him of the seriousness of sin and how it offends God, neighbor and himself. I believe the amount of prayers or type of penance say or do depends upon the seriousness of your sins.

We are forgive by God when we Confess our sins and are truly sorry for them and are absolved by the priest. The penance that we do teaches us to refrain from committing that sin again.

Some Catholics have problems with saying the Hail Mary or prayers to Saints as part of their penance but those prayers are enlisting the aid of our Holy Mother and the Saints. With their prayers, since they are not weighed down by sin, we have a greater chance of overcoming sin. For example, If I had a friend who was a recovering alcoholic, I would not drink around them because it could cause them to fall. By my looking after the other person's well being I'm keeping them from committing a big mistake. The prayers of Mary and the Saints do the same for us. They help to keep us strong and focused and away from sin.

God Bless,
Jennie