A Topic of Moral Theology
The Reviviscence of Merits
The merits lost by mortal sin, and how they revive when a man is justified anew.
Also asked about as…
do merits come back after confession · regaining merit lost by mortal sin · revival of merits (ed.)
In the index as Contrition · Penance · Act of repenting · Penance as a sacrament · Revival · Reviviscence · Reviviscence of the sacraments · Spouses · Wife
In the manuals
Read the manuals side by side → — each work's whole treatment in its own column
Manual of Moral Theology (Manuale Theologiae Moralis)
Vol. II, Bk. III, Tr. V, Diss. I, Pt. III, Section V. On the Reviviscence of Merits, n. 286 — I. Works are distinguished into living, death-bearing, dead, and mortified. Living works are those which are done in the state of grace, and therefore proceed from a living principle, and merit eternal life. Those are ca… Read in context →
Synopsis of Moral and Pastoral Theology
Vol. I, Matrimony, and Holy Orders, On Penance (Volume I), Dogmatic Part — Chapter III: On the Sacrament of Penance Itself, nn. 191, 192 & 193 (3 passages — hover a number to read it)
Manuale Theologiae Moralis
Vol. III, Pt. II, Tr. V, Ch. I, Article V. On the Effects of the Sacrament of Penance, n. 337 — 337. 3. Through penance the reviviscence of merits is obtained. Theologians customarily distinguish four kinds of works: some are living works, namely, those which proceed from grace, the principle of spiritual life; oth… Read in context →
Summa Theologiae Moralis
Vol. III, Special Moral Theology: On…, Treatise: On Penance, Second Part: On the Effect…, Question Four: On the Restitution of Virtues and the Reviviscence of Merits, nn. ¶1, 466, 467, 468, 469 & 470 (23 passages — hover a number to read it)
Treated under the broader heading What Penance forgives — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology · Slater, Manual of Moral Theology · The Roman Catechism · Spirago — these works do not divide the matter as finely as we do here, so their treatment stands one heading up (ed.)