In His Sacrifice on the Cross, Christ Himself offered the fullness of expiation and atonement for your sins.
However, you must be personally united with Christ in His work of salvation to participate in its fruits and effects in your soul and in your daily living. His sanctity and merits must be applied to you personally for reparation from your sins or to make reparation for the sins of others. In the Sacrifice of the Mass, we present to God the merit, satisfaction and reparation that Christ accomplished on the Cross, uniting to His work of charity and sacrifice ourselves and our own works. As the priest states at Mass, the Sacrifice is offered to God for persons “whose faith and devotion are known to [Him]”.
By your works of faith (faith operates through charity, as St. Paul says) and devotion, you dispose yourself to more intimately and abundantly participate and communicate in the fruits of Christ’s Sacrifice, and thereby make reparation for sin.
Concretely, what are the fundamental works of reparation that are most effective? Sacred Scripture authoritatively tells us:
Prayer
“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.” – James 5:15
Fasting
“Prayer is good with fasting and alms more than to lay up treasures of gold.” – Tobit 12:8
Almsgiving
“Thy prayers and thy alms are ascended for a memorial in the sight of God.” – Acts 10:4
Penance
“Do penance…for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…Save yourselves from this perverse generation.” – Acts 2:38,40
Charity
“Purifying your souls in the obedience of charity, with a brotherly love, from a sincere heart love one another earnestly…for charity covers a multitude of sins” – 1 Peter 1:22,4:8
What if you think that you cannot do these things, or that you cannot do them enough to offer adequate reparation for sins? You should have recourse to others to offer an abundance of those works of reparation. This is because the different members of the Body of Christ, the Church, depend upon one another in their spiritual needs, just as the different organs and parts of the body depend on one another for their specific functions contributing to the life and vitality of the whole. |
Those guys are awesome. We need more of them.
All very good suggestions. Personally I like to pray a full 15 decade Rosary and more when I can. Also frequent adoration when the time allows.