Contrition in the context of "Ordo salutis"

Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past or present wrongdoings, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.

In modern times, it is generally seen as involving a commitment to personal change and the resolve to live a more responsible and humane life. In other words, being sorry for one's misdeeds. It can also involve sorrow over a specific sin or series of sins that an individual feels guilt over, or conviction that they have committed. The practice of repentance plays an important role in the soteriological doctrines of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed, as well as an alternative name for the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession.

The word penance derives from Old French and Latin paenitentia, both of which derive from the same root meaning repentance, a sincere change of heart and feeling of remorse (contrition). Penance and repentance, similar in their derivation and original sense, have come to represent conflicting views of the essence of repentance, arising from the controversy in the Protestant Reformation as to the respective merits of "faith" and "good works".