How to NOT Gain an Indulgence

When trying to gain indulgences, there are right ways of doing it. This mean ‘legally’ (that is to say; based on how indulgences are written) and also ‘in spirit’, (that is, the attitude we use to interpret and do indulgences), Here are some common mistakes I’ve seen, and even have done myself, that hinder our abilities to gain indulgences.

This is geared more towards gaining Plenary indulgences, although some of these also may apply to partial indulgences too.

Don’t forgo studying indulgences and answering indulgence questions, like ‘what, how, when, where, and why?’

The best way to be confident in your understanding of indulgences and how to do them is to look into the topic. Most of the basic information is readily available! To keep it simple, I will provide these links to the articles What is an Indulgence and How do I do an Indulgence - The Basics. These two articles can be found under the tabs on this website that go by the same name. Under those tabs are additional articles that explain other important aspects of indulgences.

For more official information I also have some resources that I would recommend.

1. Manuel of Indulgences – Book/PDF

2. INDULGENTIARUM DOCTRINA – Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI

3. Indulgences Paragraph 1471-1479 – The Catechism of the Catholic Church

All of this should provide you with the basic information that you need to do an indulgence, and give you extra answers as to the ‘hows’ and ‘whys.’

If this is your first time hearing about indulgences and you want just the bare minimum information for now; Here is the definition of an indulgence, how to do them, and where they go:

1. An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment for sins, whose guilt is forgiven, which a properly disposed member of the Christian faithful obtains under certain and clearly defined conditions through the intervention of the Church, which, as the minister of Redemption, dispenses and applies authoritatively the treasury of the expiatory works of Christ and the saints.

2. Partial indulgence – Contrite Heart and a Work. Plenary indulgence – Heart Detached from Sin, a Work, Communion, Confession, and Prayers for the Pope/s Intentions.

3. The faithful can obtain partial or plenary indulgences for themselves, or they can apply them to the dead. (Not to another living person)

Don’t assume that you gain every indulgence you do.

I believe this is one of the most common misconception about indulgences. A misconception that even well seasoned indulgence-getters can fall back into. (I say this because I feel like I, myself, have fallen into this trap on occasion). That misconception is that we often think that we are gaining every indulgence we attempt.

I think it’s very common to believe that, if we follow correct steps, we will get a correct result. And this is true! Let’s say we take a food recipe and we mix all the ingredients together perfectly. We time it just right and at the end we have a perfectly made dish! But in all honesty, how often does that actually happen (even when cooking)?

This is a similar idea to indulgences. Sometimes when cooking (or even often times) you may get a recipe wrong; like your milk is sour, or your heat was too high for cooking, or your noodles are undercooked. In in indulgences, how often are the ingredents not perfect? Is your heart is not detached from all sin (mortal and venial), you forget to pray for the Pope/s intentions, or your work isn’t done just right.

Some small changes don’t always hurt the dish or the indulgence… but sometimes some little changes affect the whole batch.

It’s also important to note that, luckily, an incomplete plenary indulgence still offers a partial indulgence if it’s not done exactly right. So don’t worry too much. It’s also important to note that, unlike a lot of occasions of cooking, there is always ‘two chefs in the kitchen,’ when it comes to indulgence. Christ is always present, helping us along in all things, including our attempts to gain indulgences. And many times, He is the only one who will ever fully know if everything we have done has been done correctly to gain an indulgence. We may never know. So how do we handle this uncertainty? We keep trying to the best of our abilities to do what we can and, above all, we always trust in God, who makes all things possible.

Don’t forget how beneficial all of the works and requirements are even without gaining an indulgence.

I want to make sure that we understand what benefits we would still gain if we don’t always gain the indulgences we desire.

Every indulgence requires a ‘Work.’ Indulgence Works are defined as prayers and practices of piety, charity and penance, that has been enriched by the Church with an attached indulgence. What adding an indulgence to these works does is that it makes these prayers and practices “doubly” impactful. But, what if an indulgence is not granted? These prayers and practices still offer their original benefits of piety, charity and penance.

Think of the indulgences that come from Adoration (Grant 7), pray for the Human Race (Grant 2), or Honor the Saints (Grant 21). All of these Works are natural (or shall we say ‘supernatural’) beneficial to those who do them. That is, even if an indulgence was never attached to these Grants, they would be edifying for any person, and the Church would still recommend them.

Going a step further, Sacramental Confession and receiving Communion (which usually happens when going to Mass) are requirements for an indulgence. These are incredibly nurturing to our souls, whether an indulgence is gained or not. Praying for the Pope/s intentions is still an honorable action without indulgences, since these intentions are often for the care of the world and the Church body. And I don’t think I need to defend the benefits and importance of having a desire to be detached from sin.

Don’t feel like you can’t do more then one indulgenced work…

... especially if you’re not sure about an indulgence work that you’re trying to do.

Some indulgences are very well outlined, and they plainly say things like, ‘you have to do action A, at location B, and conclude with prayer C’. But there are other indulgences that have very… minimal information. They leave a lot of room for questions. So what if we aren’t confident in the perimeters of an indulgence.

Some people who I’ve seen try to answer this question have a more, shall we say, ‘charitable’ approach. They may give advice such as: ‘God sees what your doing and will surely honor you with the indulgence you’re trying for.’ I appreciate the sentiment of this advice, but I would actually offer different advice. I would recommend the “better safe then sorry” route.

That is, after you have done your research, if you are still confused about a Grant, I would say to either:

1. Avoid doing that Grant until you get a better understanding. Instead opt do a grant you know.

OR

2. Do another Grant, in addition to the first, which you do understanding.

Let’s look at an example: Grant 29, For the Faithful Departed is a very popular plenary indulgence that may people often try to gain when November comes. But every year there are so many questions! “Must I do all 8 days?”, “Who can I gain this indulgence for?”, “What counts as a ‘cemetery’?” Now, certainly, it is great that these questions are being asked and answered. But for some people, they have spent several days of November trying gain these plenary indulgences, but they have misunderstood the conditions and have spent a lot of time doing the indulgence wrong. The Church says that these attempts do not go to waist, but they ARE reduced to a partial indulgence. So, in order to gain a plenary indulgence, it may have been better to consider doing a different &/or a second indulgence work. For example, going to adoration for a half an hour is another Grants that can be done every day of the year, it can be offered for the departed, and it has more information and guidelines.

Don’t attempt to dictate to who/where your indulgence goes to.

I mention this specifically because of yearly questions I see for the November indulgences that are dedicated for the faithful departed. Every year many people try to gain these desired indulgences because they want to help a departed loved one. This is admirable, but unfortunately if their desire is to strong it can also leads to problems. The problem is that there is an underlying assumption that if you attempt to gain an indulgence for a specific person, then that person is automatically the recipient of that indulgence. Or sometimes people think that they have to somehow ‘personalize’ how they do indulgences so that that their loved one can specifically receives their indulgence.

One example I know of was this: one person mentioned that they didn’t do most of the 8 days of the November indulgences, except for the days that they could visit the specific grave of their loved one.

Another occasion I know of was when someone had 3 departed loved ones on their mind and they wanted to offer indulgences for all of them. They made a list and placed each name on 2 days of the Octave so that each person would supposedly gain at least 2 plenary indulgences.

A last occasion I know of is of someone who lived to far away from where their loved one was buried, so they thought is would be more appropriate to only gazed at a picture of their cemetery marker in the hopes that it would count as ‘visiting a cemetery.’

I do understand... we really love our loved ones, and we desire to help them. But actions like those given in these examples are not going to help. And here is why:

• No one in purgatory needs repeated plenary indulgences applied to them. That is to say: Plenary indulgences cover ALL temporal punishment (which is basically what keeps a soul in purgatory). Since souls in purgatory can no longer sin they can’t accumulate any more temporal punishment, so once all their punishment is forgiven (through one plenary indulgence), there is no need for any another indulgence to be applied.

• Our loved one may not be in purgatory at all. That is to say: once a soul enters heaven or hell they no longer have temporal punishment that needs to be forgiven. Unless we receive some sort of divine revelation, we never truly know where the souls of our loved ones are. Certainly they may be in purgatory. But if they aren’t in purgatory then we may be passionately directing our indulgences to someone who can’t receive it (while other brothers and sisters who we may have never met in this life are still suffering in purgatory).

• We ultimately have no say to whom our indulgences, which we offer for the souls in purgatory, go to. That is to say: The ultimate decider of our indulgences is Christ. Certainly we can pray that Christ applies our indulgences to our loved ones. There’s no rules against that. But I often think about this concept the same way I think about birthday presents. Many people have confidence that they will receive a present on their birthday, but the truth is they are not their own present giver. They need to rely on someone else who will give them presents. In a similar way we may be confident that our indulgences are being used, and likely used for our departed loved ones… but here, we are not the director of our 'presents.' Christ is, and so we give our trust (and our gained indulgences) to Him.

Don’t underestimate the benefits of indulgences. (the process and result)

We have already talked about how indulgence conditions and works are beneficial, even if you don’t get an indulgence. But now let’s consider how beneficial they are if you DO get an indulgence. Indulgences, although they are not directly or ‘legally’ linked to our time in purgatory, still do affect our time in purgatory. Purgatory itself is a great gift from God, but it is often considered not to be the most pleasant. Some saints have had visions of souls saying that they would rather experience extensive earthly suffering rather then one day in purgatory. Personally, I believe this is from two things: 1) These souls are acutely aware of how good God is, and 2) they are acutely aware of the pain of their separated state from Him. In other words, they have the greatest of desires to be with our most magnificent God, but they’re aware of how perfect they need to become to be with God in heaven. This separation becomes a great source of holy suffering.

This is where the benefits of indulgences come into play. As mentioned about, the works and conditions that are usually linked to indulgences already have a positive effect on our souls, while we are still alive, in a way that we likely won’t need so much of the purification that comes with purgatory once we die. This happens even if we never gain an indulgence, but only do the edifying work.

But by gaining an indulgence, these actions works two-fold (if it’s a partial indulgence) or work completely (if it’s a plenary indulgence). I can not begin to describe the accounts where there are souls (living or departed) who have seen the joys of heaven, but what I can say is that it would not be to our benefit to underestimate that joy. And so I can said in the same way that we shouldn't underestimate the effects of gained indulgences, which are designed to advance us to heaven!

Don’t assume that indulgence regulations are ‘looser’ then what they say, or ‘stricter’ then what they say.

I mentioned this point lightly earlier when I mentioned how sometimes the rules and regulations of indulgences aren’t clear. When indulgences are not spelled out clearly most people will lean one of these two ways: They will act as if the rules they do know are very strict or that they are very loose.

An example of being very strict would be like this; When I was first studying the November Octave indulgence, which is for the poor souls in purgatory, one claim I found was that this time of year was the only time indulgences could be offered for the souls in purgatory. This was claimed because it was written within the guidelines of this indulgence but it was not explicitly written in other indulgences. So that person thought this was the most appropriate interpretation. BUT, this is not true. Every indulgence, of every kind, and at any time can be offered for the poor souls in purgatory.

An example of being to loose would be like this; When I was first studying titular feast indulgences (found under Pious Visits) one claim I found was that if you did not know the right feast day of a titular, that you could just choose a day that seems the most appropriate and surely Christ will honor your efforts. This, however, is not true (that is, we are not at liberties to guess on the feast day). Each church has a specific titular, and a specific feast that they have assigned to celebrate. These two pieces of information are decided from when a church is first build/established and this indulgence can only be done on that respective day.

So you can see that being too strict or too loose can cause problems. Now, if you do make this mistake, it could be that the indulgence you’re trying for will still provide a partial indulgence. But it also could be the case that being too far off base would provide no indulgence at all.

Don’t assume that all the information you hear about an indulgence is correct.

Per the examples I mentioned above, you are able to see how some advice that is given about indulgences is either ‘too strict’ or ‘too loose.’ What these two examples have in common is that they both are objectively wrong. It may surprise you further to learn that these two pieces of advice were given by people who took efforts to study and/or promote indulgences. One piece of advice was given by a priest, and both were given by people who were studied and trying to create awareness specifically for the grants they were giving advice about. These two types of sources (studies and/or ecclesiastic) would normally be considered trustworthy sources, but this is not always the case when it comes to indulgences.

The point I want to emphasis is that any and all information you come across regarding indulgences should be questioned, even if it seems right. Any information you encounter about indulgences that does not have the attached approval of the Pope or Apostolic See should be questioned, even if it seems official. If you encounter information that was endorsed before the year 1967 that should not be considered to be active information.

Lastly, I would recommend that it is always better to get multiple sources of advice if possible, to keep an open mind about information you already know even if you believe to be true, and to act on the best knowledge you have available.

Don’t do indulgences superstitiously…

That is, don’t just go through the motions, like it’s a transaction. I am guilty of this at times and it happens the most when I’m distracted or I get overly used to the works. I forget where my heart is at. Is it near or far from loving God and loving our neighbor? If you’re like myself, you may need to remind yourself; Don’t let the motions or distractions tug your heart away from Christ and his gifts. You can’t gain an indulgence without building your relationship with Christ, because He is that power behind indulgences. An indulgence will always be lacking if you try to do it by simply going through the motions, with little-to-no care for God in the process.

Don’t promote indulgences by oversimplifying them.

This is perhaps the oldest and well know issue regarding indulgences. In the past, during the protestant reformation, one of the claims that was made against the Catholic Church was exactly this problem. Back in that time a supposed saying that was used to promote some indulgences was: "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs." The person accredited with saying this quote supposedly denied that he ever said it, but it is a prominent example of how indulgences can be oversimplified and even abused. I myself was surprised to find that, in excitement, even I have occasionally taken on this attitude. The attitude that says “Indulgences are easy! All you have to do is this, this, and this.”

It’s not bad to be excited, but we must be very careful if we promote indulgences to make sure that we don’t represent them badly or offend the people we are talking to. One quote I have come across which would work better is one that Padre Pio said about the rosary. He said "Pray the Rosary frequently, it costs so little and is worth so much." If we do promote indulgences, we should try to say it in a way like this, rather then something like: ‘They are just so easy...’

'Gain Indulgences frequently, they costs so little and are worth so much.'

And there we have it! Several ways of how NOT to gain an indulgence. I hope you have found them helpful, and if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me here or on my Facebook/Meta Page “Catholic Indulgence Information.”