The End of Penitence

Pinufius: Poenitentiae plena et perfecta definitio est, ut peccata pro quibus poenitudinem gerimus, vel quibus nostra conscientia remordetur, nequaquam ulterius admittamus. Indicium vero satisfactionis et indulgentiae est affectus quoque eorum de nostris cordibus expulisse. Noverit enim unusquisque nec dum se peccatis pristinis absolutum, quamdiu sibi satisfactioni et gemitibus incubanti vel illorum quae egit vel similium criminum ante oculos imago praeluserit, eorumque non dicam oblectatio, sed vel recordatio infestaverit mentis arcana. Itaque tunc se is qui pro satisfactione pervigilat a criminibus absolutum, ac de praeteritis admissis veniam percepisse cognoscat, cum nequaquam cor suum eorumdem vitiorum illecebris senserit imaginatione perstringi. Quamobrem verissimus quidam examintor poenitentiae et indulgentiae in conscientia residet nostra, qui absolutionem reatus nostri ante cognitionis et judicii diem adhuc nobis in hac carne commorantibus detegit et finem satisfactionis ac remissionis gratiam pandit. Et ut haec eadem quae dicta sunt, signifcantius exprimantur, tum demum praeterita nobis vitiorum contagia remissa esse credenda sunt, cum fuerint de corde nostro praesentium voluptatum desideria pariter passionque depulsae. Sanctus Ioannes Cassianus, Collationes, Col XX

Pinufius: The full and perfect description of penitence is: for the sins we do penance, or for which our conscience is pricked, that we never again yield to those sins. The sign of satisfaction and pardon is for us to have expelled from our hearts any inclination for them. For anyone may know that he is not yet released from former sins, even while he is attending to satisfaction for them with groaning, as long as that which he has done either plays before the eyes or, if not with a delight of it but even a memory infests the innermost soul. Thus one who is on the watch to be sure that he is freed from sins and that he has obtained pardon for past errors may know that he has obtained it when he never feels his heart stirred by the allurements and imaginations of those vices. So the truest test of penitence and pardon resides in our own conscience, which even before the day of knowledge and judgment, while we are still in the flesh, reveals our acquittal from guilt and reveals the end of satisfaction and the grace of forgiveness. And these things said may be more significantly expressed by saying that should we should trust that the stains of past vices have been forgiven us when the desire for their pleasures together with the passion have been expelled from the heart. Saint John Cassian, Conferences, Conference 20