Is this not something that keeps Catholics up at night?
Why, just today, I was trying to figure out whether saying the Angelus at noon would get me 1,000 days, or, if I waited five minutes and combined the Angelus with the Memorare, if I couldn't squeeze another 500 days out of it.
We need to know these things.
Why, just today, I was trying to figure out whether saying the Angelus at noon would get me 1,000 days, or, if I waited five minutes and combined the Angelus with the Memorare, if I couldn't squeeze another 500 days out of it.
We need to know these things.
According to the
norms (norm 5) all indulgences are either partial or plenary. So you don't have to be concerned about counting canonical days of penance.
sinkspur I admire you very much and find myself agreeing with you most of the time. This time, however, you are being obstinate without reason. While I agree with you that there are more important things that can be, and often are, discussed here. This teaching is not something to be scorned.
If, by gaining indulgences for the souls in Purgatory, I can help one soul gain the Beatific Vision just 1 minute earlier than she would have I have won a great victory, because that soul is giving glory to God in the most sublime way possible.
I am created to glorify God. We both will agree, that the saints in heaven glorify the Lord more perfectly than we do here on earth, because we are still beset by and attached to sin. That soul/saint now gives glory to God perfectly while I here on earth am not able to.
I am not in any way saying do not do the corporal works of mercy and instead gain indulgences for the souls in purgatory. That would be neglecting Jesus' direct command to "love others even as I have loved you." Listening to an old woman in a nursing home, being a Big Brother, babysitting so a couple can have some non-children time together, giving praise unexpectedly to someone doing a thankless job, etc, all are ways of visibly showing Christ's love to fallen humanity. Being the Body of Christ on earth, His hands to the world, is why we are still here, one way how we glorify Him here.
Both giving glory to Him here on earth by serving His creation (submit yourselves to one another) and helping others to give perfected glory to Him in heaven is what we are called to do.