Completion of the Sacrament of Confession: Making Satisfaction for Our Sins

This penance, in view of the infinite merits of Jesus Christ applied to the penitent soul, has a special power to remit the temporal punishment due for sin.

While the satisfaction imposed by the confessor serves as a remedy for the sinner’s weakness and a safeguard for the future, it is also salutary as a compensation and chastisement for past sins. It shows the firm purpose of the truly contrite soul who, after confessing the sins on his conscience, has the firm desire to mend his ways, not to fall again, and to avoid the occasions of sin and use the adequate means of practicing virtue.

These are the three parts or the three acts of the penitent: contrition, confession, satisfaction. They manifest his dispositions and make it possible for the priest to forgive his sins.