My one son had a bad habit of shoplifting. He would steal candy, gum or some small item from the store. Even when confronted about it, he would not ever admit he was doing something wrong. Of course, as mother I would chastise him, he went to confession, I even had a police officer speak to him about stealing. He persisted until he was caught by store security. A few weeks after the incident we were talking about God and sin and he asked if would be banned from Heaven because of stealing. We talked about sin and confessing our sins to God and the purpose of confession.
As a Catholic Confession is an important sacrament to me. It is a chance to relieve myself of the guilt which weighs me down, but also allows me to return to a life with Christ. The examination of conscience offers me a chance to see what areas of my life I need to work on to improve myself. There is such a wonderful release which comes after confession.
We have all seen the movies where the person goes into the confessional, blesses them self and recites "Father forgive me for I have sinned..." Confession is so much more than that. Confession is a cleansing of the soul, blessing of the soul and reuniting with Christ and unlike the movies depiction, "Father" refers to God the Father, not the Priest.
This is a brief description of how a Catholic confesses sin. Before confession, there is an examination of self or conscience. This is when one reflects on their life recent or distant and think about when they were not living a life according to God. The examination of conscience is a process of going through the 10 commandments and deciding if you have violated any of the commandments. These are the sins which need to confessed. There is a lot of literature which can be found in Catholic Churches or Catholic websites which aid in the examination of self and conscience. The penitent (person confessing sins) then says a prayer to prepare them self for confession.
Receive my confession, O most loving and gracious Lord Jesus Christ, only hope for the salvation of my soul. Grant to me true contrition of soul, so that day and night I may by penance make satisfaction for my many sins. Savior of the world, O goodJesus, Who gave Yourself to the death of the Cross to save sinners, look upon me, most wretched of all sinners; have pity on me, and give me the light to know my sins, true sorrow for them, and a firm purpose of never committing them again.
The Penitent then goes to the Priest to confess their sins. Most people are taught to begin with "Father forgive me for I have sinned. It has been ______ since my last confession." This is a good way to start, it begins the dialogue. One must know/remember that the Priest (Father) is only a mediary for the confession, he guides the penitent to confess the sins and to help the penitent to realize what leads them to their sin and assist them with not repeating the sins. The confession is being said for the "Father" - God! The Priest prays with the penitent, gives counsel and discusses penance to be served.
The penitent then prays the Act of Contrition.
O my God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good,
I have sinned against You, Whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us.
In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good,
I have sinned against You, Whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy.
There are many versions of this prayer, this is the version I use. The priest then offers to God a prayer for absolution of sin and then a blessing for the penitent. The penitent is then free to go and serve there penance.
We are so encumbered by our human selves that we forget God already knows are transgression, He knows if we are sorry, or not, for our sins. What He wants is for us to show Him we are willing to humble ourselves by confessing verbally with a member of our Church "Family" and are we obedient by fulfilling our penance. The opening of our souls and laying it bare at the feet of Christ who died for all of our sins is such a sweet release and allows us to walk hand in hand with Jesus. We can not do this when we are filled with sin because Christ is pure and he does not walk with sin. So, to walk with Jesus we must free our selves form sin. Confession!
God loves all of us and wants a relationship with us. He forgives (unlike us flawed humans) even the worst of sinners if they are truly contrite. God will always forgive us, and like a child being forgiven by their parent, there is a relief of guilt which comes from forgiveness. Forgiveness!
So what I told my son about his thieving was simple. I reminded him of God's love for all of us, and told him "If you are truly sorry for your sin, you confessed your sin, will avoid the sin and serve your penance, then God has forgiven you. He will not ever bar the gates of heaven from a true believer." He seemed relieved to know he was forgiven, not only by me, but by God as well.
A powerful reminder to me, how important it is for all of us to know we are flawed and we NEED forgiveness. Our humanity takes us away from Christ, yet, something as simple and difficult (humility and obedience) as confession can move us closer to God. The sweet release, the peace of soul which is offered when walking hand in hand with Christ.
Confession and Forgiveness! Great blessings from God!
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