In my travels and discussions with Catholic moms across the country, one question I see frequently is, "What are indulgences? How can I teach my kids about them when I don’t understand them myself?" I am not a theologian, but will try to give a simplified explanation of what they are and how they work. There are two times when we can endure suffering, one is after death in Purgatory, the other is during earthly life. Indulgences are granted by the Church to the faithful as a way for us to make amends for punishment due to our sins. A great example from The Catholic Answers tract on Indulgences is helpful here: If a teenager stays out past curfew deliberately, then arrives home very sorry and penitent, the parents may forgive the teen, but he will still be punished for his actions. When we go to confession, we are given absolution and forgiven our sins, but there still remains punishment due for them. This is the purpose of indulgences. The indulgences that the Church grants to the faithful serve to make up for the punishment due to our sins after they have been forgiven in a sacramental confession.

Hundreds of years ago the Church would impose harsh punishments like wearing a hair shirt for 50 days, crawling on the knees to a nearby shrine, etc. When the Church instituted the act of indulgences, which are prayers, prayerful devotions and good works, they took the place of these harsh physical punishments. We should be very thankful that the Church instituted indulgences, or perhaps we’d all be wearing hair shirts still today! Scripturally, the power for the Church to grant indulgences can be seen in the reference to the judicial authority of the Church in Matt. 16: 19, which we studied earlier in the section regarding papal authority.

There are two types of indulgences which the Church grants: partial and plenary (full). A partial indulgence will remove some of the punishment due to our sins, while a plenary indulgence will literally wipe our slate clean’ by removing all punishment due to our sins to date. Many standard prayers have partial indulgences attached: the Hail Mary, the Holy Rosary, Consecration to the Sacred Heart, and simply saying the name of Jesus are examples. Many prayer books will state at the end of the prayer in italics or parenthesis whether the prayer has a partial or plenary indulgence. Older prayer books may say "indulgence of 500 days", "7 Years Indulgence" etc. by using a specific time. These indulgences were revised in 1967 by Pope Paul VI and no longer have a specific time attached, but would simply be considered partial indulgences.

If we wish to gain the indulgence attached to a prayer or devotion, there are three conditions which must be met:

1) We must have the intention of gaining the indulgence. We can do this simply by saying a prayer every morning before we start out day:

"Oh Jesus, I wish to gain every indulgence and merit I can today and to offer them for the intentions of Your Sacred Heart."

2) We should be in a state of grace when the actions are performed.

In order to gain the Plenary Indulgence, there are two further general conditions which must be met:

1) Go to confession and receive Holy Communion.

2) We should add prayers on behalf of the Pope’s intentions - this can be simply saying an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.

So now that we have a better grasp on why the Church grants indulgences to the faithful, it should be an inspiration to us to make a more conscious effort to gain all of the indulgences we can. The Church grants indulgences by giving them the power to remove the punishment due to our sins both in this life and the hereafter. We should all be anxious to gain partial and plenary indulgences to remove these punishments due to our sins.

The concept of indulgences is a difficult one to explain to children. One way is by using the teenage/curfew story mentioned earlier. Another helpful analogy to explain indulgences was provided to me by another mom:

When you are baptized and become a child of God, your soul becomes clean and spotless, like a white board. When you sin, it’s like hammering nails into your white board. When you go to confession, it’s like pulling out the nails. But even after the nails have been removed, what still remains? Holes, right? Indulgences help to fill in the holes.

This is a simplified way to explain indulgences to younger children. One time when I used it was when we were becoming lax in using the Sign of the Cross before grace. In our haste, we were often just jumping right into the prayer and neglecting the Sign of the Cross, which is an indulgenced prayerful action. I used this analogy to explain why we needed to be more careful in saying our grace, and how important and powerful the Sign of the Cross is. Do not expect your child to develop a full understanding of the power of indulgences on the level that you have acquired, just help them get the idea that indulgenced prayers are important, and include prayers you know to be indulgenced in your daily family prayers.

To find out a complete listing of indulgenced prayers and devotions, the Church has them listed in a work entitled, The Enchiridion of Indulgences.