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The two most vital actions that we will do on earth, the 2 most straight associated to our everlasting salvation are these: receiving the Holy Eucharist and receiving the Sacrament of Confession. Our everlasting salvation will depend on our preparation, disposition, and reception of those sacraments. This being the case, we should always make a concerted effort not solely to obtain these continuously, but additionally to consistently enhance our reception of them. The extra we study Confession, the higher the chances are that we will make a very good one and enhance our reception of this monumental sacrament.
The abundance of graces (or lack thereof) will depend on our personal inside disposition of their reception. The fault is rarely within the sacrament itself however within the recipient. May we try ardently for larger openness to God’s infinite ocean of graces and mercy!
So, allow us to begin our exploration of the ten C’s of creating a very good confession…
1. CLARITY (BEING CLEAR): An evident signal of the Holy Spirit at work is readability, clearness, and transparency. On the opposite, the satan can usually be detected by confusion, ambiguity, and uncertainty. As Jesus stated, “Let your speech be sure, sure, or no, no.”
2. CONCISE: Confessions needn’t be lengthy and drawn out. In truth, many confuse confession with mere dialog, religious course, and religious counselling. True, at occasions, counselling and training can play a job in confession—however solely in a secondary style. The essence of the sacrament lies in merely stating our sins. In the outdated sequence Dragnet, Joe Friday would state: “Just the information ma’am, simply the information.” In a parallel sense, in confession it needs to be the next: “Just the sins ma’am, simply the sins.” Don’t beat across the bush; be fast and to the purpose.
3. CONCRETE: Another important high quality for a very good sacramental confession is to be concrete, not imprecise or summary. For instance, an individual that confesses, “I’m typically a nasty particular person,” or “I’m not as saintly as I needs to be”—properly, welcome to the membership! Everyone on this planet (besides Jesus and Mary) must admit this! So be concrete in your confessions, confessing the sinful ideas, phrases, or actions and any strictly related surrounding info, akin to intention and circumstances.
4. COMPLETE: The Church states in Canon Law and within the Catechism that all mortal sins—in species (kind) and quantity—should be specified. For instance, if one purposely misses Holy Mass on Sunday, then the variety of occasions needs to be specified. This is what we imply by full!
5. CONTRITE: For a sacramental Confession to be reliable and efficacious, there should be true contrition of the guts. In different phrases, we should be sorry and keen to surrender and keep away from the sin sooner or later. Saint Augustine states that we’re all beggars earlier than the Lord. Like Bartimaeus, the blind beggar from Mark 10, we should always humbly beg for the grace of true contrition of coronary heart as a way to make legitimate confessions.
6. CONVICTION: We should be permeated with the utmost belief and conviction that the Lord actually loves us, needs the very best for us, and may help us be free of sin. His mercy and love are actually extra highly effective than our sin, and should any ideas in any other case be condemned.
7. CORRECTION: Related to contrition is correction. We should be prepared and keen, with the assistance of God’s infinite graces, to right our unhealthy habits, to take the mandatory steps for correction, and to keep away from any particular person, place, factor, or circumstance that may simply lead again into that lure of sin. In the phrases of Jesus, sin is religious slavery. He got here to set us captives free in order that we will actually expertise the freedom of being little children of God.
8. COMPENSATION: We will all doubtless acknowledge this step: you need to perform your penance given by the priest! If we’ve broken somebody’s property or their good identify, then there needs to be some type of compensation carried out. This falls underneath the cardinal advantage of justice, or giving to every his due. Another instance could be that if a person steals an apple, then he ought to return and pay for the apple. By this act, he practices retribution, paying again what he had taken unjustly. Although we will by no means “pay God again” for the offenses dedicated towards Him, we will, by way of our penance, present Him a small act of restitution.
9. CONVERSION: One of probably the most efficacious fruits of Confession is conversion, turning away from sin and in the direction of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. An genuine change of coronary heart, renunciation of evil, and conversion from sin to advantage will depend on the grace of God and our correspondence with that grace. Confession is really an encounter with Jesus, who’s God, and that He, the Divine Physician, is the one one who can actually heal our souls. In numerous passages within the Gospel, we ponder Jesus therapeutic and reforming not solely sinners, however large sinners! St. Mary Magdalene had seven devils inside her; Jesus not solely healed her, however she was remodeled into an awesome saint!
10. CONFIDENCE: One of probably the most salient teachings in St. Faustina’s Diary of Mercy in My Soul is that Jesus insists on all, particularly probably the most hardened sinners, to have limitless confidence in His infinite and inexhaustible mercy. The best sinner can change into the best saint—underneath one situation: TRUST, TRUST, TRUST within the Mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the portray of the Image of Divine Mercy, Jesus insisted that the phrases “Jesus, I belief in You” be written on the portray itself. As we method the Sacrament of Confession, often known as the Sacrament of God’s Mercy, allow us to method not with partial belief however an infinite and limitless belief. The abundance of grace we obtain shall be in proportion to our belief within the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We invite all of us sinners, striving to develop in holiness by way of frequenting the Sacrament of Confession, to overview these ten ideas. If executed constantly earlier than approaching the confessional, then the fruits of the sacrament will abound! May Our Lady of Mercy pray for us!
Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash
