penance :

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penance

pe nuhns

  • n  remorse for your past conduct
  • n  a Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and atonement and absolution
  • n  voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing

  • Their faces were hidden by purple cloths, shrouds the purple of Christian penance.
  • But for John Paul, penance and absolution have very precise meanings.
  • The sacrament of penance, known more familiarly to Roman Catholics as "confession," has fallen on lean days.
Quotes

  • Pope Benedict XVI in Independent
    During the flight, he told reporters: "Today the greatest persecution of the church does not come from outside, but from the sin inside the church itself. The church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn on the...
  • Judith Regan in The State
    The men who lied and cheated and beat me - they were all there in the room,Regan writes about her face-to-face with Simpson. "And ...... Nicole and Ron were in my heart. And for them I wanted him to confess his sins, to do penance and to...
  • John Smoltz in USA Today
    This is nothing like any other year, period,Smoltz said. "There's nothing to describe or explain it. You really can't. If this is the penance of 14 straight years of winning, I guess we were due it."

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