Penance is still a Catholic obligation

On the third day of June 2007, the Blessed George Preca will be declared a saint of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI. His contemporaries tell us that Dun Gorg believed in and practised the precept of penance.

According to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, penance is the movement of a "contrite heart" (Psalm 51:19) drawn by divine grace to respond to the merciful love of God.

This entails sorrow for and abhorrence of sins committed, a firm purpose not to sin again in the future and trust in the help of God. It is nourished by hope in divine mercy. (n.300).

Sacred Scripture and the Fathers of the Church insist above all on three forms of interior penance for the Christian: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others.

The Liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. Advent and Lent are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing such as charitable and missionary works. (Code of Canon Law 1434, 1438) Besides Advent and Lent, each Friday of the liturgical year invites every Catholic to practise penance in memory of the passion, death and burial of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

It is spiritually healthy to be reminded of the obligation of Friday penance. It may be fulfilled in one or more of the following ways:

• by abstaining from meat or some other food;

• by abstaining from alcoholic drink, smoking or some form of amusement;

• by making the special effort involved in family prayer, taking part in the Mass, visiting Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament or praying the Stations of the Cross;

• by fasting from all food for a longer period than usual and perhaps giving what is saved in this way to the needy at home and abroad;

• by making a special effort to help somebody who is poor, sick, old or lonely.

Let us ask Blessed George Preca to intercede for us in Heaven so that, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we can rediscover the beauty and importance of penance in our Christian living for the glory of God, our own salvation and that of others. Blessed George pray for us!