Editing Contrition (section)

==== Universal ====
True contrition must extend to, at the very least, all mortal sins committed, and not just a select convenient few.<ref name="Luche 1898"/> This doctrine is intimately bound up with the Catholic teaching concerning grace and repentance. There is no forgiveness without sorrow of soul, and forgiveness is always accompanied by God's grace; grace cannot coexist with sin; and, as a consequence, one sin cannot be forgiven while another remains for which there is no repentance.

The prophet Joel urged men to turn to God with their whole heart (Joel 2:12–19). and Christ tells the doctor of the law that we must love God with our whole mind, our whole strength (Luke 10:27). Ezekiel insists that a man must "turn from his evil ways" if he wish to live (Ezekiel 33:11).

The Scholastics inquired into this question when they asked whether or not there must be a special act of contrition for every serious sin, and whether, in order to be forgiven, one must remember at the moment all grievous transgressions. To both questions they answered in the negative, judging that an act of [[sorrow (emotion)|sorrow]] which implicitly included all one's sins would be sufficient.