transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit; and
why will you die, O house of Israel?"[18]

The Lord God, whom we have outraged by sin, knows no past. "I am who
am," is His name. In His holy sight, we who have sinned, and our
transgressions, are ever abominable, unless we make to ourselves a new
heart and a new spirit. "Be converted to Me, and I will be converted
to thee," are the words of Him who exercises on us His great mercy.

Holy Church, in her General Council assembled at Trent, defined this
contrition or repentance to be "a sorrow of mind, and a detestation of
sin committed, together with a determination of not sinning for the
future"--"_animi dolor, ac detestatio de peccato commisso, cum
proposito non peccandi de catero_."[19] Or, as the same Council says:
"Penitence was indeed at all times necessary for all men who had
defiled themselves with any mortal sin, in order to the obtaining
grace and justice, * * * that so, their perverseness being laid aside
and amended, they might, with hatred of sin and a pious grief of mind,
detest so great an offence of God."[20] And, as the Roman Catechism
explains, this means no mere feeling, but a genuine act of the will. A
mother may show more sensible signs of grief at the loss of her only
child than when sorrowing for sin, yet this is not in the least
inconsistent with the most perfect contrition or repentance.

There are times when the intense sorrow for sin arouses the whole
being of man: exciting not only the higher, but also the lower and
sensitive part of his nature. St. Mary Magdalen, David, and many other
great penitents, wept bitter tears of sorrow for their past wrongs.
This, though a heavenly favor, is no necessary part of repentance.
Indeed, it is possible to weep and to have sensible sorrow without