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Bishops Offer Ways to Reduce Time in Purgatory -
May 6th, 2012, 01:53 PM
[Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries: Bishops Offer Ways to Reduce Time in Purgatory ] "Dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics spiritual benefits in the form of indulgences, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife. The indulgence is a reminder of Rome's clout in mitigating the wages of sin. Martin Luther denounced the selling of them in 1517 igniting the Protestant Reformation. With a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated doctrines to explain. According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament. There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. Charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day. Getting Catholics back into confession was one of the motivations for reintroducing the indulgence. In a 2001 speech, Pope John Paul described the newly reborn tradition as "a happy incentive" for confession." Story
[quote=serpentdove;You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. Charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day. QUOTE]
Hi , are indulgences like fake money ?
Has anyone seen and held the paper they are written on ??
[Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries: Bishops Offer Ways to Reduce Time in Purgatory ] "Dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics spiritual benefits in the form of indulgences, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife. The indulgence is a reminder of Rome's clout in mitigating the wages of sin. Martin Luther denounced the selling of them in 1517 igniting the Protestant Reformation. With a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated doctrines to explain. According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament. There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. Charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day. Getting Catholics back into confession was one of the motivations for reintroducing the indulgence. In a 2001 speech, Pope John Paul described the newly reborn tradition as "a happy incentive" for confession." Story
Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Joh 4:23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
Decadence, false doctrine, idolatry and heresy. Yet to the believer absolution but to the seller condemnation.
True, if it is indeed sold. When indulgences were sold they became a trap and a quagmire. But indulgences have not been sold for hundreds of years! They are earned by spiritual works of piety. Pilgrimages, attendance at long series of special, non obligatory prayer services (novenas) etc.
If you have not gone on a pilgrimage, do so! I recommend it highly. Think of it as praying with your feet.
The church has learned that lesson. Hopefully at least. The sin of simony ( the selling of holy things) keeps cropping up. Not just in the Catholic church either. A few years ago there was a protestant tv evangelist who preached that unless his followers sent in a certain large sum of money God was going to "call him home'.
Indulgences are still here because although tricky to use, the logic behind them is sound. It is based on Jesus' promise to Peter that Jesus would back his decisions. "Who's sins you loose they are loose etc" It follows that the Pope and his assignees can remit time in Purgatory. The weakness in the logic is that we don't really know much about how Purgatorial purification actually works. It may not be measured in time at all. That it is is an assumption. Based on a simplistic view of purgatory as a prison. But theologians who have given it much study often have different ideas. Some have suggested it might be more like remedial education, or therapy in a very high class mental institution. The term might be measured in milestones met, or goals achieved, or insights reached, not in any way directly connected to "time". So the "days of purgatory remitted "might just be meaningless nonsense. However the spiritual exercises involved in "earning" the indulgence would not be meaningless. Those would benefit the soul and indeed reduce the insights needed to be gained or the goals achieved before the person could take up his full and rightful place doing the work The Lord has for us to do.
Remember Purgatory is a benefit or perc reserved for those who are saved. Those who are not saved have no access to purgatory. Think of the parable of the people invited to the wedding, some gladly accepted but had no appropriate clothes. Purgatory is the bath house and changing area for them to clean up and dress up nice so they can honor their host. I personally am looking forward to purgatory.
] "Dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics spiritual benefits in the form of indulgences, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife. The indulgence is a reminder of Rome's clout in mitigating the wages of sin. Martin Luther denounced the selling of them in 1517 igniting the Protestant Reformation. With a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated doctrines to explain. According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament. There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. Charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day. Getting Catholics back into confession was one of the motivations for reintroducing the indulgence. In a 2001 speech, Pope John Paul described the newly reborn tradition as "a happy incentive" for confession." 
What's new? 
~ J Vernon McGee Ro 3:23, 5:8, 6:23, 10:9, 10:13.
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