In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If we carefully read the text of Daniel chapter 4 verse 24, the Lord says there:
"by upright actions break with your sins, break with your crimes by showing mercy to the poor,
and so live long and peacefully." and in Tobit chapter 4 verse 10 it says: " For
almsgiving delivers from death and saves people from passing down to darkness.”
Also the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1471 says: "The doctrine and practice of
indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance."
But what are indulgences? To understand what they are, we must distinguish in all sin
the guilt and the temporal penance due for sins. Guilt, or sin itself, is forgiven by confession
or by sincere repentance, through the sacrament of reconciliation especially if there is perfect
contrition or perfect repentance. But, once the sin or offense committed against God has been
forgiven, the temporal penance due for sin remains active and needs to be removed, that is, the debt
that we have with God and with others, due to the emptiness or gap that sin has left in our soul.
This debt or temporal penance is removed by our good works,
prayers and voluntary penances. Hence after confession a penance is imposed.
In the early Church great public penances were imposed. Currently in the Church there is an
infinite treasury of merits obtained by our Lord Jesus Christ, by our mother the Virgin Mary and
the saints; and from this treasury, the Church can offer to "fill up" the emptiness or debt owed
by our sins. To achieve this, the forgiveness of sins is mandatory as an indispensable condition.
For this reason, it is always required, before receiving indulgences, to confess through the
sacrament of reconciliation, receive communion and pray for the Pope, as general conditions.
Indulgences can be partial or plenary,
depending on whether part or all of the debt owed for sins is removed.
Plenary indulgences can be applied to oneself or to souls in purgatory.
Currently, the Church allows only one plenary indulgence to be earned per day.
As we explained before, once our sins have been forgiven through the sacrament of reconciliation,
the debt or temporal penance of the sins committed is still active, which must be purified,
healed or removed in purgatory. If a plenary indulgence is achieved, it means that all
the debts due for our sins are removed and with a totally clean soul, we can go directly to heaven.
How do we get the Plenary Indulgences? First, by making a good confession and asking the priest
on the last day of our life to give us the apostolic blessing
to which is attached a plenary indulgence.
We can apply to ourselves the plenary indulgence,
even if there is no priest, giving to ourselves the apostolic blessing, if we are truly sorry for
our sins, and asking for the grace of the plenary indulgence. The only condition set by Pope Saint
Paul VI is provided that during one's life one had the habit of praying some prayers. And also
Pope Saint Paul VI recommended that a cross or a crucifix be used to give oneself the blessing.
With all certainty, God will take care of us in those last moments
and will grant us the grace of having a priest to prepare us for the journey after we die.
This has been able to be verified by many of our priests. There were very clear cases in which the
patient had been dying for several days or weeks. And the same day that the priest arrived at his
town, away from the parish, that same day, after receiving absolution and the anointing
of the sick with the apostolic blessing, he died a few hours later with great peace.
In this sense, it is very important that the family members do not neglect,
out of fear, to call the priest when the sick person is seriously ill,
to give him the last sacraments and this person can die in peace.
And don't forget to pray for the dying man the divine mercy chaplet.
First, you pray the Our Father, The Hail Mary and The Apostles' Creed.
Then, on the beads of the Our Father of the rosary, it is said:
Eternal Father, I offer You the body, blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. And on the Hail Mary
beads it is said: For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Jesus has promised immense graces. He said to Saint Faustina Kowalska on December 11th, 1936:
"At the hour of death I will defend as My Glory every soul that prays this chaplet and, if others
pray it near the dying person, they will obtain the same forgiveness for the dying person. When
the chaplet of the divine mercy is prayed for a dying person, the anger of God is appeased and the
inscrutable mercy envelops the soul and the bowels of My mercy are moved by the painful Passion."
We have talked about the plenary indulgence applied to oneself and especially receiving
it at the moment of death in order to go directly to heaven. When a loved one dies
or if we want to help a person who already died what we can do is offer masses, sacrifices and
good works for that person to relieve him in purgatory, where we all must go, except
for the holy ones or those who get in the last moment absolution and the plenary indulgence.
We can apply a plenary indulgence only to other persons who are dead,
which God gives us through the merits of Jesus Christ and the intercession of the Church.
It can be achieved in the easiest way, so normally in two days the soul of our loved one
would be in heaven, although the person should have spent 40 years in purgatory for his sins.
In the Manual of indulgences or Enchiridion Indulgentiarum , established after the magisterial
Apostolic Constitution of Pope Saint Paul VI Indulgentiarum doctrina or doctrine on indulgences
of January 1st, 1967, it is said that a plenary indulgence can be obtained if the person who is
going to earn the plenary indulgences for the deceased has met all the following conditions:
And what is the corresponding work? what do you need to do to earn the
plenary indulgence for the deceased? You will need to do one of the following conditions:
Now, it is practically impossible that we do not have any affection for venial sins,
in other words having a hundred percent clean soul is humanly impossible.
So if we cannot earn the plenary indulgence in one day,
perhaps we can earn it in two days. But it is something really amazing to think that in two
days we can take our loved one or the person we want to help to heaven. Every effort is worth it!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.