[pascendi]

"I've got lots of time coming to me in Purgatory. Don't you?"

Probably.

"I'd rather get a plenary and take care of it all at once."

Not a bad idea. However, among other things, to be effective it requires one to be free from all attachment to venial sin.

[sinkspur]

However, among other things, to be effective it requires one to be free from all attachment to venial sin.

Actually, it doesn't. One only has to free of venial sin, which can be accomplished through the penitential rite at Mass.

While we're on this, what do I get if I spend an hour with a woman in a nursing home?

Or, does that not count? Do I have to say some prayer to get this plenary indulgence, or can I earn it through ministering to some of God's forgotten people?

[sinkspur]

I will continue in this vein in a future installment, but for now I would like to leave you with the fact that Holy Mother Church has given us many prayers, short ejaculations, and devotional acts that are attached to indulgences, and it is to our own loss if we do not make use of them.

So saying formulaic prayers is the only way I can gain an indulgence?

I get nothing for spending an hour listening to a lonely woman in a nursing home tell me about her life?

I get nothing for being a Big Brother to a fatherless kid?

Help me out here.