144 THE MEANS OF GRACE 



For the valid reception of the Sacrament of Penance 

 contrition (whether perfect or imperfect) should be : 



a) Sincere or heart-felt, for else it would be sheer 

 hypocrisy. The quality of sincerity flows as a necessary 

 effect from the nature of contrition. 



b) Supernatural, both in its origin and in its motives. 

 True contrition owes its existence to divine grace and is 

 based upon reasons or motives supplied by supernatural 

 faith. 11 



c) Supreme or sovereign, not in intensity but appre- 

 ciatively, i. e., the penitent must detest sin as the greatest 

 of all evils and be ready to give up everything he has, 

 even life itself, rather than offend God. 12 Since contri- 

 tion is in the will, not in the emotions, it may happen that 

 the sorrow one feels at temporal misfortunes is both 

 affectively and intensively greater than that felt at sin 

 as a purely spiritual evil ; but this need not prevent 

 a man's contrition from being appreciatively supreme. 

 "If we may not succeed in rendering our contrition per- 

 fect," says the Roman Catechism, "it may nevertheless 

 be true and efficacious, for oftentimes things that 

 fall under the senses affect us more than spiritual 

 things, and hence some persons experience a greater 

 sense of grief for the loss of their children than for the 

 baseness of their sins." 13 Our sense of grief need not 



11 Cone. Trident., Sess. VI, can. catum patrare. Etenim conversio ad 

 3 (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 813). — Deum debet esse totalis, quum pec- 

 Cfr. Prop. Damnat. sub Innoc. XL, catum sit aversio totalis, sed non 

 prop. 57: "Probabile est, sufficere esset totalis, nisi esset summa, immo 

 attritionem naturalem tnodo hone- nulla foret, nam homo adhaereret 

 stam." (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. adhuc creaturae, quum earn adhuc 

 1207). Deo anteponeret." 



12 Cfr. J. P. Gury, Comp. Theol. 13 Cat. Rom., P. II, c. 5, qu. 28: 

 Mor., II, n. 328: "Summa, i. e., "Quamquam si id minus conscqui no- 

 ut peccator detestetur crimen suum bis liceat, ut perfecta sit, vera tamen 

 plus quam omne aliud malum, et ma- et efficax contritio esse potest. 

 lit omnia perdere et pati, quam pec- Saepe enim usu venit, ut quae sen- 



