Motive
It is the motive for repentance (rather than the intensity of feeling) that distinguishes the two forms of contrition, and it is possible for perfect and imperfect contrition to be experienced simultaneously.
According to Catholic teaching, perfect contrition removes the guilt and eternal punishment due to mortal sin, even before the sinner has received absolution in the sacrament of penance. However, a Catholic is still bound, under Church law, to confess grave sins at the first opportunity.
Read more about this topic: Perfect Contrition
Famous quotes containing the word motive:
“This part of being a man, changing the way we parent, happens only when we want it to. It changes because we are determined for it to change; and the motive for changing often comes out of wanting to be the kind of parent we didn’t have.”
—Augustus Y. Napier (20th century)
“That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and extract a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. Most begin to veer and tack as soon as the wind changes from aft, and as within the tropics it does not blow from all points of the compass, there are some harbors which they can never reach.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)