Untitled - Saints' Books

INSTR. iv.] The Sacrament of Penance. 287
4. When the penitent asks, with a sincere desire of
amendment, for new remedies or means of freeing him
self from the sin;
5. If he come to confession, not to conform to any
pious custom already established, such as the practice
of going to the sacraments at Christmas, or any other
determinate festival;
not by the direction of a parent or
master, but through a desire infused by God of recover
ing the divine grace; particularly if the penitent has put
himself to great inconvenience in order to come to con
fession, by making a long journey; or if he has come
after a great struggle, or after doing great violence to
himself;
6. If he has been impelled to go to confession by
hearing a sermon, by the account of the sudden death
or some great calamity of another, or by any other
extraordinary spiritual motive;
7. If he confesses sins previously concealed through
shame;
8. If the penitent shows that by the admonition of
the confessor he has acquired new light, and a new
horror for his sins, and a new dread of the danger of
being lost;
9. Some theologians place among the extraordinary
signs of repentance a firm promise made by the peni
tent to practise the remedies prescribed by his con
fessor; but unless there is some other sign, the confessor
can seldom trust to such promises. For in order to
obtain absolution the more easily, penitents make many
promises that they are not firmly resolved to fulfil.
Whenever, then, there are such extraordinary signs, a
confessor may absolve a relapsing sinner; but he may
also defer absolution for some time, when he knows that
delay will be profitable to his- penitent. Some maintain
that it is not always expedient to defer the absolution of
a relapsing sinner who has the necessary dispositions;