At Our Lady of Victory in Paris Texas, parishioners can gain Plenary Indulgences, which remove the temporal punishment of sin.
The Church prescribes four primary Indulgences for the Lenten Season. On Fridays, the Prayer Before the Cross gains a Plenary Indulgence.
The Stations of the Cross.
Each Friday evening during Lent, parishioners of Our Lady of Victory gather to take part in this devotion. Making the Stations of the Cross along with the three conditions can lead to a plenary indulgence.
The official Church’s Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, or Manual of Indulgences, Fourth Edition, says:
The basic way is that the faithful “personally make the pious Way of the Cross.”
The manual prescribes that this “pious exercise must be made before stations of the Way of the Cross legitimately erected”. Our Lady of Victory does this by “representing the 14 stations of Jerusalem.”
We follow the prescribed method with the Deacon leading and his party (progressing) from one station to the next while we follow the “14 devotional readings and vocal prayers.”
Reciting the Rosary
“Devoutly recite the Marian Rosary in a church or oratory, or in a family, a religious community, or an association of the faithful, and in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose,” states the manual of the basic ways.
The first three are most applicable for everyone for Lent: in a church, or an oratory, or in a family. The manual also reminds us that the five-decade rosary is sufficient but all five decades have to be done without interruption.
After daily Mass, you should stay as one of the attendees may lead the Rosary spontaneously.
Eucharistic Adoration
“Visit the Blessed Sacrament for adoration lasting at least a half hour.”
Reading or listening to Sacred Scriptures
“Read the Sacred Scriptures as spiritual reading, from a text approved by a competent authority, and with the reverence due to the divine word, for at least a half an hour; if the time is less, the indulgence will be partial.” Or if you’re unable to read it, you can listen to it being read.”
Three Necessary Conditions
Conditions exist for receiving a plenary indulgence for doing any of the prescribed works. Each aids our Lenten journey. The manual insists we must “have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin.”
• Sacramentally confess our sins
• Receive Holy Communion.
• Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. One Our Father and one Hail Mary fully satisfies this.
The Church says we must take Holy Communion and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father for each Plenary Indulgence we wish to gain. One sacramental confession does suffice for gaining several plenary indulgences.
Yet “it is, however, fitting that Communion be received and the prayer for the intention of the Holy Father be said on the same day the work is performed.”
The manual also reminds, one must be baptized and in the state of grace at the time to receive an indulgence and our “interior disposition (should remain with) complete detachment from sin, even venial sin.” Otherwise, the indulgence becomes partial, not plenary.
We do not receive indulgences unintentionally or by accident. We must, at the minimum, have a general intention to gain the indulgence.
The Church does not leave out those who cannot fulfill all the conditions. The manual has answers and aids. “For the sake of those legitimately impeded, confessors can commute both the work prescribed and the conditions required (except, obviously, detachment from even venial sin).”
Prayer Before the Cross
The faithful can receive a partial indulgence if they recite the prayer after Communion before a crucifix.
On the Fridays of Lent, the indulgence is a plenary indulgence
Grant 8 § 1, 2º in the
Manual of Indulgences
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus,
while before Thy face I humbly kneel and,
with burning soul,
pray and beseech Thee
to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments
of faith, hope and charity;
true contrition for my sins,
and a firm purpose of amendment.
While I contemplate,
with great love and tender pity,
Thy five most precious wounds,
pondering over them within me
and calling to mind the words which David,
Thy prophet, said of Thee, my Jesus:
They have pierced My hands and My feet,
they have numbered all My bones.”
Amen.