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
To do penance is to bewail the evil we have done, and to do no evil to bewail. — Pope Gregory I
True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat. — F. H. Bradley
Any pain entailed in repentance will always be far less than the suffering required to satisfy justice for unresolved transgression. — D. Todd Christofferson
Repentance is the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of Him; and it consists in the mortification of the flesh and the renewing of the Spirit. — John Calvin
True repentance means making amends with the person when at all possible. — Lawana Blackwell
Whatever the cost of repentance, it is swallowed up in the joy of forgiveness. — D. Todd Christofferson
The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy. — William Hazlitt
Four marks of true repentance are: acknowledgement of wrong, willingness to confess it, willingness to abandon it, and willingness to make restitution. — Corrie Ten Boom
Repentance lifts a man up. Mourning knocks at heaven's gate. Holy humility opens it. — John Climacus
Repentance is more than just sorrow for the past; repentance is a change of mind and heart, a new life of denying self and serving the Savior as king in self's place. — J. I. Packer
Confession is an act of honesty and courage - an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God. — Pope John Paul II
Short Penance Quotes
Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven. — Pope Pius X
To remove untouchability is a penance that caste Hindus owe to Hinduism and to themselves. — Mahatma Gandhi
A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents. — H. L. Mencken
Tapas is not a penance, it's a mental training to develop will power — Baba Hari Dass
Chaos is the penance for leisure. — Amy Tan
It is penance to work, to give oneself to others, to endure the pinpricks of community living. — Dorothy Day
The man hath penance done, And penance more will do. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge
No penance can your hard heart find save such as you long since have taught me to endure — Murasaki Shikibu
There is no virtue in penance and fasting which waste the body; they are only fanatical and monkish. — Immanuel Kant
The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. — Mother Teresa
What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel of love, and an ocean of patience. — Saint Francis de Sales
Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for he who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be you, my God, for having created me. — Clare of Assisi
Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. — Anthony of Padua
Everyone may not be good, but there's always something good in everyone. Never judge anyone shortly because every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. — Oscar Wilde
Love God, serve God; everything is in that. — Clare of Assisi
The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers. — Maximilian Kolbe
Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul, except sin. God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry. — Saint Francis de Sales
The life of the body is the soul; the life of the soul is God. — Anthony of Padua
Biblical Quotes
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds — Paul the Apostle
The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. — Soren Kierkegaard
The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation. — Dwight L. Moody
I was once young and now I am old, but not once have I been witness to God's failure to supply my need when first I had given for the furtherance of His work. He has never failed in His promise, so I cannot fail in my service to Him. — William Carey
The biblical model is that God deliberately chooses imperfect vessels - those who have been wounded, those with physical or emotional limitations. Then he prepares them to serve and sends them out with their weakness still evident, so that his strength can be made perfect in that weakness. — Christine Caine
We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. — Oswald Chambers
Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist. — Oswald J. Smith
Ubuntu is not a biblical concept but an ancient African one. Nevertheless it falls back on one simple thing: that humans have been created for togetherness, and what drives us apart is greed, lust for power, and a sense of exclusion, but those are aberrations. — Allan Boesak
I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week. — John D. Rockefeller
Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. — John the Apostle
Catholic Saints Quotes
We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials. — Teresa of Avila
We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend upon material success . . . but on Jesus alone. — Frances Xavier Cabrini
It is a lesson we all need - to let alone the things that do not concern us. He has other ways for others to follow Him; all do not go by the same path. It is for each of us to learn the path by which He requires us to follow Him, and to follow Him in that path. — Katharine Drexel
How could I bear a crown of gold when the Lord bears a crown of thorns? And bears it for me! — Elizabeth of Hungary
Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent. — John of the Cross
I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself. — Elizabeth Ann Seton
Do not try to excuse your faults; try to correct them — John Bosco
Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of Grace. The gift of Grace increases as the struggle increases. — Rose of Lima
Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven. — Rose of Lima
There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us. — John Vianney
Motivational Quotes
You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. — C. S. Lewis
If I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard. — Madam C. J. Walker
I may not be a role model, but I most definitely could be motivation for a lot of people in the hoods. — Rick Ross
No Fear, No Hesitation, No Surprise, No Doubt — Miyamoto Musashi
I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them. — Madam C. J. Walker
For what it's worth, it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of and if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over. — F. Scott Fitzgerald
Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny. — Aristotle
Penitence Quotes
Christians aren't people who never sin or always do the right thing. We're people who live in continual repentance. — LeCrae
Would not love see returning penitence afar off, and fall on its neck and kiss it? — George Eliot
Patriotism means unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Christian churches and Christianity have nothing in common save in name: they are utterly hostile opposites. The churches are arrogance, violence, usurpation, rigidity, death; Christianity is humility, penitence, submissiveness, progress, life. — Leo Tolstoy
All the impressions which are made on us by Nature are designed to exercise our soul during its terms of penitence, to prompt us towards the eternal truths shown beneath a veil, and to lead us to recover what we have lost. — Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
Woman, thou shouldst ever be clothed in rags and in mourning, appearing only as a penitent, drowned in tears, and expiating thus the sin of having caused the fall of the human race. Woman thou art the gate of the devil. It is thou who hast corrupted those whom Satan dare not attack face to face. — Tertullian
Nevertheless, the liturgy of Ash Wednesday is not focussed on the sinfulness of the penitent but on the mercy of God. The question of sinfulness is raised precisely because this is a day of mercy, and the just do not need a savior. — Thomas Merton
All the tears of a penitent sinner, should he shed as many as there have fallen drops of rain, since the creation, to this day, cannot wash away one sin. The everLasting burnings in hell, cannot purify the flaming conscience, from the least sin. — John Flavel
Better make penitents by gentleness than hypocrites by severity. — Saint Francis de Sales
It's not my business to try and make God think like me... but to try, in prayer and penitence, to think like God. — Aiden Wilson Tozer
Repentance Quotes
Happiness is attained by three things: being patient when tested, being thankful when receiving a blessing, and being repentant upon sinning. — Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya
Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one's will to God in deep humility. — Charles Grandison Finney
If I repent now will God forgive me?
No, but if God forgives you, you will repent. — Rabia Basri
God always forgives when you are totally repentant and you desire to change. He forgives... and He never gets tired of forgiving. Never. You may get tired asking. I hope not. He never, never tires of forgiving. Never. — Mother Angelica
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. — Mary Oliver
Never lose hope. Stay close to Allah and when you mess up, go back to Him. Never, ever stop going back to Him. Repent often. Cry to Allah. And hold on tight-with your life-to His remembrance and to prayer. If you do this, you may get wet, but insha Allah never drown in this ocean of dunya. — Yasmin Mogahed
I believe that a great number of people are going to die and go to hell because they’re counting on their religiosity in the church instead of their relationship with Jesus to get them to heaven. They give lip service to repentance and faith, but they’ve never been born again. — Adrian Rogers
The difference between true and false repentance lies in this: the man who truly repents cries out against his heart; but the other, as Eve, against the serpent, or something else. — John Bunyan
Legalistic remorse says, "I broke God's rules," while real repentance says, "I broke God's heart." — Timothy Keller
Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven. There are others: innocence, but that is for little children; penance, but we are afraid of it; generous endurance of trials of life, but when they come we weep and ask to be. The surest, easiest, shortest way is the Eucharist. — Pope Pius X
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
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
If you have the courage to imitate Mary Magdalene in her sins, have the courage to imitate her penance! — Pio of Pietrelcina
I avoid that bleak first hour of the working day during which my still sluggish senses and body make every chore a penance. I find that in arriving later, the work which I do perform is of a much higher quality. — John Kennedy Toole
Since the Fall, man had accepted labor as a penance and for its power to work redemption. It was not a law of nature which forced man to work, but the effect of a curse. — Michel Foucault
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
Obedience is a penance of reason, and, on that account, a sacrifice more acceptable than all corporal penances and mortifications. — John of the Cross
If there is any justice in this world, to be a White Sox fan frees a man from any other form of penance. — Bill Veeck
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
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
The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy. — Mother Teresa
People sometimes ask me if it is a sin in the Church of Emacs to use vi. Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. So happy hacking. — Richard Stallman
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. — Saint Ignatius
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
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
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
I am inclined to believe that one who is a coward will be born after death as an insect or a worm, that there is no salvation for a coward even after millions of years of penance. — Swami Vivekananda
When it was over, she gathered him in her arms. And told him the terrible irony of her life. That she had wanted to be dead all those years while her brother had been alive. That had been her sin. And this was her penance. Wanting to live when everyone else seemed dead. — Melina Marchetta
He who confesses magic or sorcery shall do penance for the time of murder, and shall be treated in the same manner as he who convicts himself of this sin. — Saint Basil
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
When white men were willing to put their own offspring in the kitchen and corn field and allowed them to be sold into bondage as slaves and degraded them as another man's slave, the retribution of wrath was hanging over this country and the South paid penance in four years of bloody war. — Rebecca Latimer Felton
Let it be known that this is the true Church, in which there is confession and penance and which takes a health-promoting care of the sins and wounds to which the weak flesh is subject. — Lactantius
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
Repentance grows as faith grows. Do not make any mistake about it; repentance is not a thing of days and weeks, a temporary penance to be got over as fast as possible! No; it is the grace of a lifetime, like faith itself. God's little children repent, and so do the young men and the fathers. Repentance is the inseparable companion of faith. — Charles Spurgeon
I have traveled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. — Henry David Thoreau
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
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
Many do not advance in Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end. — Brother Lawrence
Oh, what peril attaches to sin willfully committed! For it is so difficult for man to bring himself to penance, and without penitence guilt remains and will ever remain, so long as man retains unchanged the will to sin, or is intent upon committing it. — Catherine of Genoa
Golf - a young man's vice and an old man's penance. — Irvin S. Cobb
The Raven's house is built with reeds, — Sing woe, and alas is me! And the Raven's couch is spread with weeds, High on the hollow tree; And the Raven himself, telling his beads In penance for his past misdeeds, Upon the top I see. — Thomas D
In Conclusion
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