Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise V. On Penance › Dissertation II. On the Sacrament of Penance › Part I. On the Sacrament of Penance Considered in Itself

Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Section III. On the Effects of the Sacrament of Penance

357.

The effects of the sacrament of Penance are:

  1. Sanctifying grace, whether first grace, or, if the penitent is already in the state of grace, second grace.

  2. Sacramental grace. This consists in the fact that the sanctifying grace which the sacrament of Penance confers gives a right to actual graces by which past sins are entirely taken away and future sins are guarded against.

  3. Remission of eternal punishment and the reviviscence of merits.

  4. Remission of temporal punishment, proportioned to the disposition of the penitent;1 likewise by the power of sacramental satisfaction.

  5. Peace and serenity of conscience, according to these words of the Council of Trent: "Indeed the reality and effect of this sacrament, so far as its force and efficacy are concerned, is reconciliation with God, which sometimes, in devout men who receive this sacrament with devotion, is wont to be followed by peace and serenity of conscience with vehement consolation of spirit."2

1 Cf. Council of Trent, Session 14, chapter 2.

2 Session 14, chapter 3.

What Penance forgives