Penance Quotes

• In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Spiritual, Men, Medicine

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• To do penance is to bewail the evil we have done, and to do no evil to bewail.

  Pope Gregory I

  Evil, Saint, Done

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• True penance consists in regretting without ceasing the faults of the past, and in firmly resolving to never again commit that which is so deplorable.

  Bernard of Clairvaux

  Regret, Past, Saint

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• We must suffer. Our five sense are dulled by inordinate pleasure. Penance makes them keen, gives them back their natural vitality, and more. Penance clears the eye of conscience and of reason. It helps think clearly, judge sanely. It strengthens the action of our will.

  Thomas Merton

  Eye, Thinking, Giving

  "Thoughts in Solitude". Book by Thomas Merton, 1956.

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• Everyone has a need to do penance. It's a basic need, like washing. It's about harmony, an absolutely essential inner balance. It's the balance we call morality.

  Jo Nesbo

  Balance, Essentials, Needs

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• The best penance is to have patience with the sorrows God permits. A very good penance is to dedicate oneself to fulfill the duties of everyday with exactitude and to study and work with all our strength.

  Peter Damian

  Sorrow, Everyday, Study

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• Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Mean, Omission, Catholic

  Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (2000). “The Aquinas Catechism: A Simple Explanation of the Catholic Faith by the Church's Greatest Theologian”, p.86, Sophia Institute Press

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• Living well has something to do with the spirituality of wholeheartedness, of seeing life more as a grace than as a penance, as time to be lived with eager expectation of its goodness, not in dread of its challenges.

  Joan D. Chittister

  Expectations, Grace, Challenges

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• God prefers your health, and your obedience, to your penance.

  Teresa of Avila

  Positive, Obedience

  Saint Teresa (of Avila) (1951). “The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus”

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• The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness.

  Ignatius of Loyola

  Pain, Suffering, Doe

  Saint Ignatius of Loyola (2012). “The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola”, p.40, Courier Corporation

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• Chaos is the penance for leisure.

  Amy Tan

  Leisure, Chaos

  Amy Tan (2001). “The Bonesetter's Daughter”, p.17, Penguin

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• And the only thing to do with a sin is to confess, do penance and then, after some kind of decent interval, ask for forgiveness.

  Joseph J. Ellis

  Kind, Sin, Asking For Forgiveness

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• If you have the courage to imitate Mary Magdalene in her sins, have the courage to imitate her penance!

  Pio of Pietrelcina

  Sin, Mary, Ifs

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• Let us read the lives of the saints; let us consider the penances which they performed, and blush to be so effeminate and so fearful of mortifying our flesh.

  Alphonsus Liguori

  Attachment, Saint, Flesh

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• Penance to be sure must be used as a tool, in due times and places, as need may be. If the flesh, being too strong, kicks against the spirit, penance takes the rod of discipline, and fast, and the cilice of many buds, and mighty vigils; and places burdens enough on the flesh, that it may be more subdued. But if the body is weak, fallen into illness, the rule of discretion does not approve of such a method.

  St. Catherine of Siena

  Strong, Attachment, Discipline

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• We have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are.

  Mother Teresa

  Giving, Littles, Calcutta

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• It is penance to work, to give oneself to others, to endure the pinpricks of community living.

  Dorothy Day

  Peace, Community Living, Giving

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• The man hath penance done, And penance more will do.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Men, Done, He Man

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1857). “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, p.37

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• No penance can your hard heart find save such as you long since have taught me to endure

  Murasaki Shikibu

  Heart, Long, Taught

  Murasaki Shikibu (2011). “The Tale of Genji”, p.506, Tuttle Publishing

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• There is no virtue in penance and fasting which waste the body; they are only fanatical and monkish.

  Immanuel Kant

  Waste, Fasting, Body

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• Penance is the willingness to undergo hardships for the achievement of a good purpose. I was willing. But when hardships came I found myself lifted above them. Instead of hardship, I found a wonderful sense of peace and joy and conviction that I was following God's will. Blessings instead of hardships are showered upon me.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Blessing, Achievement, Joy

  Peace Pilgrim (1992). “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words”, p.30, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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• No penance serves to renew them, no massive transfusions of trust. Why not even revenge can undo them, so twisted these vows and so crushed.

  Leonard Cohen

  Revenge, Why Not, Twisted

  Song: Humbled In Love, Album: Recent Songs, 1979

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• Getting to know ourselves and learning to control ourselves are the two great tasks of life. Don't make up strange and exotic 'penances.' Simply say no to yourself once a day, and you will be on the road to sanctity for the rest of your life.

  Joan D. Chittister

  Two, Rest Of Your Life, Tasks

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• We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortification are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is God’s arrival that is the important event.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Christian, Weed, Mean

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• Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.

  Pope Francis

  Hurt, Giving Up, Real

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