penance

IPA: pˈɛnʌns

A voluntary self-imposed punishment for a sinful act or wrongdoing. It may be intended to serve as reparation for the act.
A sacrament in some Christian churches.
Any instrument of self-punishment.
(obsolete) repentance
(obsolete) pain; sorrow; suffering

Examples of "penance" in Sentences

In what he calls his "penance," the congressman has now written 10,000 letters to the families of fallen servicemen and women.
And her penance is merciless: she must find a way to lure her former socialite friends into the tofu tenement she has been reduced to.
In response to the Grand Jury report, some suggested that as an expression of penance Penn State should forfeit its last home game against Nebraska.
And, while the word "penance" does not appear in the 1611 Bible, in deference to the Puritans, neither does the word "tyrant", in deference to the king.
"_I say to you_, says our Saviour, _there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance; more than upon ninety-nine just, who need not penance_, [5] and so the state of redemption is a hundred times better than that of innocence.
Pereira (Portuguese), and Wuyka (Polish), we find in Matthew 3: 2, and thirty-four other places, instead of "repent ye" the words, "do penance," while in Matthew 3: 8, and some twenty other places, the word that should be translated "repentance," is rendered _penance.