ence every time they perform
the work. In the same way, by having this intention all those who are in
the habit of going to confession every two weeks are able to gain a
plenary indulgence when they fulfill the other prescribed conditions for
gaining a plenary indulgence, even when they do not know that they are
gaining the indulgence.

Since partial indulgences were formerly designated by specific amounts
of time, you sometimes see printed after a little prayer: An indulgence
of forty days, or, an indulgence of one hundred days, or of a year, etc.
What does that mean? Does it mean that a person who said that prayer
would get out of Purgatory forty days sooner than he would have if he
had not said it? No. I told you how the early Christians were obliged to
do public penance for their sins; to stand at the door of the church and
beg the prayers of those entering. Sometimes their penance lasted for
forty days, sometimes for one hundred days, and sometimes for a longer
period. By an indulgence of forty days the Church granted the remission
of as much of the temporal punishment as the early Christians would have
received for doing forty days' public penance. Just how much of the
temporal punishment God blotted out for forty days' public penance we do
not know; but whatever it was, God blotted out just the same for one who
gained an indulgence of forty days by saying a little prayer to which
the indulgence was attached. But why, you may wonder, did the early
Christians do such penances? Because in those days their faith was
stronger than ours, and they understood better than we do the malice of
sin and the punishment it deserves. Later the Christians grew more
careless about their religion and the service of God. The Church,
therefore, wishing to save its children, made it easier for them to do
penance. If it had continued to impose the public penances, many would
not have performed them, and thus would have lost their souls.

Lesson 22
ON THE HOLY EUCHARIST

238 Q. What is the Holy Eucharist?
A. The Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament which contains the body and
blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearances
of bread and wine.

When we say "contains," we mean the Sacrament which is the body and
blood, etc. The Holy Eucharist is the same living body of Our Lord which
He had upon earth; but it is in a new form, under the appearances of
bread and wine. Therefore Our Lord in the tabernacle can se