As I understand it, and will gratefully accept authoritatively-sourced correction, one must actually intend to gain an indulgence. This can be done in a general way (a morning offering is one) and is not required before each act or prayer to which an indulgence is attached.

The use of "days", "quarantines", etc. under the system in use before Pope Paul VI blew up the Enchridion in the 1960s and "democratized" indulgences referred to the level of satisfaction a prayer or act would gain, from the Treasury of the Church and the Merits of the Saints and Martyrs, expressed in terms of the old penances required of the early Christians - which were much, much more severe than anything ever given today to penitents.

In other words, a 300 days' indulgence, if worthily obtained (and we can never be sure of that) would mean that the penitent obtained a reduction in temporal and/or Purgatorial punishment equal to what a penitent who had undergone (usually) much more severe penance for 300 days under the rules of the Ancient Church and, probably, up through the Middle Ages.

That does not mean that the penitent, or any particular soul in Purgatory, would receive, God permitting, a "300 day reduction" in his sentence but rather that the satisfaction obtained would equal the amount of satisfaction an early Christian merited under earlier rules of the Church.

There is no authoritative teaching by the Church as to what the temporal and/or Purgatorial penalties truly are as this is a matter reserved strictly to God's own judgment and justice. Some writers explain that devout souls may have actually obtained their desire to "do their Purgatory" while in this world (I know of one amazing Dominican nun who actually did so) but it appears that the general consensus of orthodox spiritual authors accepts the view that all but true Saints can spend a very, very long time, even perhaps millennia, in Purgatory. At Fatima, Our Lady told Lucy that a teenage friend of hers would be in Purgatory until the end of time. And there is no record that Our Lady ever indicated that that sentence was ever mitigated even though many Masses and prayers were offered worldwide for the young woman's soul.

Nevertheless, any devout Catholic who prays the Stations of the Cross, the Rosary, reads Scripture piously, practices mental prayer and forgives all his transgressors will, in all likelihood, be judged with greater leniency than one who ignores, or is lax in the practice of gaining, indulgences.

The practice is ancient and entirely efficacious. And yet so many Catholics have let it slip from their lives or, as you point out, never heard of it but by grace and good fortune.

Thanks for the info and the link, you rock!!  :dancing-banana:

I tend to be confused by anything that previous to V2 didn't need explaining. I assume people back in the day were taught about this and understood what small notations or now obscure references mean because they had a good education. Coming to it from "slightly less than completely blind" makes it difficult to decipher and I have to google a lot of stuff and end up with a confusing array of information. The differences between a catholic definition and the Merriam-Webster definition is pretty wide sometimes.

.

The Raccolta will answer all your questions, in regards to how
the Church traditions have used indulgences.  The thing it won't
help with is how to understand that in terms of being in the post-
conciliar age.  

There are three ways of looking at it, and in my opinion the middle
way is the best.  IMHO.

1)  Just stick with the traditional rules and you can't go wrong.

2)  Consider the authority of the changes made under Paul VI, but
do not partake in erroneous interpretations.

3)  Throw out all of Tradition like the baby with the bathwater.


1)  might be okay with sedevacantists, for example, or schismatics
or rigorists, but when you consider that it omits any clarification
that could come from the recent changes, you might not be okay
with it.

2)  this is the one I recommend.

3)  like everything else NovusOrdo, it's at best a grab-bag fraught
with who-knows-what.  There might be scorpions or snakes in the
"grab bag!"  

Regarding 2), here are a couple of things to consider:  

~  There is no 'time' in Purgatory, as we know it.  For us, time is a
very predictable and constant thing, and no one is able to 'travel'
back, or forward in time.  We're all stuck in the present moment.  
But in Purgatory, souls are also stuck in the present moment of
that situation, and just as we can't help ourselves get out of our
time slot, so too souls in Purgatory can't get out of theirs.  They
do, however, rely on our help.  They can't help themselves, but
we can help them.  This is supported by all of Tradition and the
very real personal experiences of the saints.  The many stories
of how St. Padre Pio had personal friendships with the souls in
Purgatory are most edifying.  To him, they were like his old pals
from childhood stopping by for a friendly visit, on their way to
heaven, to say "thank you" to Padre Pio for all his help.   The
changes of Paul VI were made before Padre Pio died, and he did
not have any criticism to say about them.  

~  The new "rules" under Paul VI can be seen to give us a little
better understanding of the way indulgences help the Holy Souls.
We in this age have very little idea of what penances used to be
like in the early Church, as Anthony Benedict, above, explained
very well.  So this new, simplified version might help us to see
that there are two broad categories of indulgences, partial and
plenary.  A plenary indulgence is a little bit like winning the lottery,
especially if it is granted at the moment of death, when everyone
needs it the most.  

~  A "quarantine" referred to a 40-day period, is similar to how
much penance one person would endure practicing the laws of
fast and abstinence for one whole Lent.  

~  "Days in purgatory" is a misnomer.  There are no sunsets or
sunrises in Purgatory.  There are no timepieces, like watches.  
And there are no Swiss watchmakers in Purgatory, because they
all go to hell.  Just kidding.  But seriously, when you read those
300 days, or 5 years, and such indulgences after various prayers,
it can all be rather confusing, considering how those were developed
over centuries when the very penances to which they refer were
undergoing changes in practice.  That is, a 300 day penance in
1172 would not have much to do with a 300 day penance in 1490,
and it would have NOTHING to do with a 300 day penance today,
because THERE AREN'T ANY 300 DAY PENANCES ANY MORE.  But
maybe there should be!!  HAHAHAHA  But seriously, we really do
need to do more penance.  Consider the Angel of Portugal at the
apparitions in Fatima: "PENANCE!  PENANCE!  PENANCE!"
He could hardly have been more specific.  

~  There is one prayer that garners special attention.  It's the Angel
of God prayer, which is easy to learn even in Latin.  If you learn to
say this prayer, and do so every day for the rest of your life, you can
earn a plenary indulgence at the moment of death.  You can spend
years thinking about that concept and never quite get to the bottom
of it.  The prayer goes like this (directed to your guardian angel):  

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
to whom God's love commits me here,
ever this day (or night) be at my side,
to light, to guard, to rule and guide.  Amen.  


Latin:  
Angele Dei qui custos es mei, me tibi commissum pietate superna
hodie (hoc nocte), illumina, custodi, rege et guberna.  Amen.  


(notice:  custos = guarddian;  custodi = to guard)

The point of learning the Latin prayer is that you're all the more likely
to say it every day if you know it in both English and Latin.  If anyone
can put in here this prayer in other languages that would be great.  I
would like to see it in German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Polish,
Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Farsi, Armenian,
Swahili, Creole, Nahuatl, Sioux, Apache, or whatever else have you.