The Need For Penance

In the recent movie, Our Lady of Fatima, we hear Mary talk about the need for penance. She says that “God is much offended”. In Her final message, Mary said,  “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” (1917)

Can you imagine how much God is offended now?

In Our Lady of Lourdes, Mary’s clear message was the need for penance. Not just for ourselves, but for all sinners. (1858)

But as human beings, we don’t like penance. Sometimes we don’t even realize – we need penance. It seems so old-fashioned, so “out of style”. But it’s not. Better to do penance now, then suffer later!

And we may suffer now more than we realize, for sin creates distance between us and God, and creates guilt-whether we realize it or not.

And that is why Repentance & Penance are so very important. They brings us back to God and free us from guilt, but we need both!

Repentance is simply a sincere regret for sin and a willingness to change. And penance is simply “any act or set of actions done out of repentance for sins”. It could be prayer, selfless acts, fasting…

Jesus did indeed already pay the price for our sins, without His Great Sacrifice, we could not enter Heaven. However, Repentance and Penance are still required.

But one thing we all need to realize? We all sin. Repentance and Penance are truly gifts. Gifts that free us from guilt and brings us closer to God once again. Something we all want, so thank you Jesus for providing us a way and thank you Mary for always pointing the way to your Son 🙂