QUOTATION: We Must All Repent of Abortion

We need to see abortion not just as somebody else’s sin but our sin. Even if we have never participated in an abortion, we must ask forgiveness for it. It is easy to blame abortion on those who do it and support it. But we must blame ourselves as well. This is spiritual dynamic that has to undergird all of our other activities to abolish abortion. First and foremost we are called to repent, to take responsibility for the innocent blood that has been shed, and then to intervene to save the helpless.

--Fr. Frank Pavone, Abolishing Abortion

QUOTATION: Beginning the Fight Against Abortion

We begin our repentance by renouncing our cowardice, by regretting our silence, by rejecting our fear of risk and loss, our skewed priorities and attachments. Indeed, the fight against abortion does not start in the political arena or in abortion clinics. The obstacles to a culture of life, and the enemies arrayed against it, are not primarily the massive funding of Planned Parenthood or the pervasive bias in the secular media. The biggest obstacles are inside of us. They are the lies we tell ourselves, the fears to which we willingly submit, and the pretense of ignorance about what we really have to do next.

--Fr. Frank Pavone, Abolishing Abortion

QUOTATION: Abolishing Abortion

Many friends ask me, “What is our first spiritual duty regarding the abortion issue?” They think I am going to answer, “prayer.”  But actually, the answer is repentance. The first step in abolishing abortion is to examine our own hearts and to repent of the role we each have played in allowing this holocaust to happen.

--Fr. Frank Pavone, Abolishing Abortion

QUOTATION: It is Difficult to Repent at Death

It is necessary to die hating sin and loving God beyond all things ; but how can he hate forbidden pleasures, who, until that time, has loved them, so much? and how can he love God beyond all things, who, until that time, has loved the creature more than God ?

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death

QUOTATION: Repent While You Can

Never suffer sin to remain upon you; let it not grow old in you; wipe it off while it is fresh, else it will stain; let it not get ingrained; let it not eat its way in, and rust in you. It is of a consuming nature; it is like a canker; it will eat your flesh. I say, beware, my brethren, of suffering sin in yourselves, and this for a great many reasons. First, if for no other than this, you will forget you have committed it, and never repent of it at all. Repent of it while you know it; let it not be wiped from your memory without being first wiped away from your soul. What may be the state of our souls from the accumulating arrears of the past! Alas! what difficulties we have involved ourselves in, without knowing it.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, “Transgressions and Infirmities”, Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. 5

QUOTATION: God's Pardon

God has promised men pardon if they are penitent, but not if they procrastinate.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul, 1949

QUOTATION: Saying Sorry

The best way of saying sorry is to do the opposite action.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Where There is Love, There is God, Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., Ed

QUOTATION: Correction

It is human to fall but angelic to rise again. There is much more virtue in repairing a fault committed than in never needing correction.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: Unrepented Sin

A sin not quickly repented of is both a sin and a cause of sin.

--Pope St. Gregory I

QUOTATION: The Futility of Putting Off Repentance

Men have not enough horror for sin, and when they commit it, they have not sufficient courage to do penance for it as they should. They  hope, and they say: " When I get sick, I will go to confession. I will make a good act of contrition, and secure my salvation that way. " No, no! Illusion! Our Lord has promised to come to us like a thief. He will laugh at us, and frustrate all our plans.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Repentance

A first path of repentance is the condemnation of your own sins: be the first to admit your sins and you will be justified. For this reason, too, the prophet wrote: I said: I will accuse myself of my sins to the Lord and you forgave the weakness of my heart. Therefore, you too should condemn your own sins; that will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for a man who condemns his own sins is slower to commit them again. Rouse your conscience to accuse you within your own house, lest it become your accuser before the judgment seat of the Lord.

-- St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Tomorrow May Not come

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Repentance

No one is as good and kind as the Lord is; but He does not forgive one who does not repent.

--St. Mark the Ascetic

QUOTATION: Shame

Be ashamed when you sin, not when you repent.

--St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Repentance

The problem is not that we are sinners, the problem is not repenting of sin, not being ashamed of what we have done.

--Pope Francis

QUOTATION: Repentance

It is so hard to admit that one is a sinner; it is so hard to climb the hill of Calvary and kneel beneath a cross and ask for pardon, forgiveness. Certainly it is hard.

But it is harder to hang there.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Post-Abortive Women

I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance.

The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.

--Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 99

QUOTATION: Severe Self-Judgement

There are, again, some who think that it is penitence to abstain from the heavenly sacraments. These are too cruel judges of themselves, who prescribe a penalty for themselves but refuse the remedy, who ought to be mourning over their self-imposed penalty, because it deprives them of heavenly grace.

--St. Ambrose of Milan, On Repentance, Book 2

QUOTATION: Presumption of God's Mercy

Others think that licence is granted them to sin, because the hope of penitence is before them, whereas penitence is the remedy, not an incentive to sin. For the salve is necessary for the wound, not the wound for the salve, since a salve is sought because of the wound, the wound is not wished for on account of the salve. The hope which is put off to a future season is but feeble, for every season is uncertain, and hope does not outlive all time.

--St. Ambrose of Milan, On Repentence, Book 2

QUOTATION: Repentance

People cannot come to true and genuine repentance until they realize that sin is contrary to the ethical norm written in their inmost being.

--Pope John Paul II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia