Contrition

Contrition or sorrow for sin, is a hatred of sin and a true grief of the soul for having offended God, with a firm purpose of sinning no more The sorrow we should have for our sins should be interior, supernatural, universal and sovereign When I say that our sorrow should be interior, I mean that it should be from the heart and not merely from the lips When I say that our sorrow should be supernatural, I mean that it should be prompted by the grace of God and excited by motives which spring from the faith and by merely natural motives When I say that our sorrow should be universal, I mean that we should be sorry for our mortal sin without exception When I say that our sorrow should be sovereign, I mean that we should grieve more for having offended God than for any other evil that can befall us We should be sorry for our sins, because sin is the greatest of evils and an offense against God our Creator, Preserver and Redeemer and because it shuts us out of heaven and condemns us to the eternal pains of hell There are 2 kinds of contrition: perfect contrition and imperfect contrition Perfect contrition is that which fills us with sorrow and hatred for our sin, because it offends God, who is infinitely good in Himself and worthy of all love Imperfect Contrition is that by which we what offends God because we lose heaven and deserve hell or because sin is so hateful in itself Imperfect contrition is sufficient for a worthy confession but we should endeavor to have perfect contrition By a firm purpose of sinning no more mean a fixed resolve not only to avoid all mortal sin, but also its near occasions By the near occasion of sin I mean all the persons, places and things that may lead us into sin