Dear Missionary Disciples of Jesus Christ

(those who love Jesus by keeping his commandments and love His mission of salvation)

    Blessed and joyful new year to all! You are in my prayers.

    Thank you for all your prayers and for your gifts of food, gift certificates , money, and other items. Thank you so very much!

    Thank you to all who decorated the church and all liturgical ministers who participated in so many ways over Christmas. Thank you for giving so generously to our Outreach Giving Tree and for all the work put in by the organizers. We are still in the Christmas season, which ends this Sunday, January 11, the Baptism of the Lord. Many Blessings.

    With the start of our Archdiocese 200th Jubilee, please find the below explanation from the Catechism on Plenary Indulgences, and merit. 



 1471 The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance.

    What is an indulgence?

"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."⁸¹ "An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin."⁸² Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead.

1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.

2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.

Here is an analogy: say a child gets angry, takes a rock, and throws it through the neighbor's $10,000 stained glass windows. Later, the child feels remorse, and Dad takes the neighbor to apologize. The gracious neighbor forgives the child, but the cost… the boy cannot in any way pay for the window. So the Father has the son do the dishes for a week, and his Dad says one Our Father and one Hail Mary, then the Father pays for the window.

When God forgives us in the sacrament of Reconciliation, yes, our sins are forgiven, but what of the effects of those sins? How are they made right? Hence, indulgences as God can freely associate our actions with the work of His Grace!

Peace, Father Maassen