Frequent Confession

By: Benedict Baur

BookNo.: r021

Asunto: highlights

Fecha: 27/06/11

• The child will fruitfully and happily receive the sacrament of Penance before First Communion if he is encouraged and gently led to do so by parents, priests, and teachers who have the right and duty to open to the child the sacramental channels of God's grace.
• If each child is prudently and suitably brought at the time of first Communion to an interior conviction that the greatest purity is required for worthy receiving the Eucharist, that conviction will stay with him throughout life and will foster a much greater esteem for and more frequent use of the sacrament of Reconciliation.
• Apart from the sacrament of Matrimony, Penance is the most personal of the sacraments. The personal dispositions of the penitent - his personal expression of sorrow, of accusation of sin, and of the desire to atone for it- are absolutely necessary for this sacrament.its efficacy depends essentially on our personal attitude to the sins we have committed and on our personal turning back to Christ and to God.
• Frequent Confession looks not only backward to what was, to our past failings; it looks forward also to the future.
• Twofold aim of frequent Confession : the purification of the soul from venial sin and, the confirmation of the will in its struggle to attain perfection and closer union with God.
• ... The penitent has got into the habit of confessing this or that venial sin without ever seriously thinking of striving energetically against it. No doubt he always has a general purpose of amendment or, at any rate, a purpose of amendment implicit in his contrition, and consequently his Confession is valid. But such confession can scarecely be very fruitful or help very much to build up and develop an interior life.
• People such as those of whom we are speaking should limit their purpose of amendment to very few points, often to one single failing ... A great deal depends on whether this purpose of amendment is well chosen and well formulated.
• Be careful too to have a positive purpose of amendment, that is, one that is directed to the practice of some particular virtue... We dont overcome faults by being constantly fighting against them but by keeping our gaze on what is good
• Our purpose of amendment need not be, indeed should not be changed in every Confession. ... As a rule, the same purpose of amendment should be retained and renewed in each Confession until such fault has been attacked and shaken (particular examination).
• Examination of conscience. When this examination of conscience is made regularly it is not very difficult; a person usually knows his customary faings, and so he discovers without much trouble whatever faults he may have committed in the course of the day. ... People who are genuinely trying to lead a holy life need in no way be petty in this self-examination. The act of contrition is much more important.
• Among the many feengs that assail the heart there is always one feeling that dominates, that gives the heart its direction, so to speak, and determines its mood.
• Our examination of conscience for frequent Confession need not extend to all our faults since our last confession. First and foremost we should consider the purpose of amendment made in our last Confession and the subject of our particular examination...
• Conscience is holy and always binding; yet at the same time it can be erroneous.
• One of the most excellent ways of avoiding the danger of sin and to gain strength to resist sin and to overcome it is frequent confession. If well made it will preserve us from the tepidity whic, slowly but surely, leads to serious sin. It will contimually give us new energy to strive after virtue and will bind our will ever more to all what is good, to Christ, to God and to his holy will.
• 'Be quite sure that this is one of the most important things in the spiritual life and that no spiritual practices, no matter what they are, can lead you to God until you have entirely purified yourself from deliberate venial sin'.
• With love of God and of Christ, there grows in us the love of our neighbour and the strength to be patient and forgiving, to put up with difficulties and to overcome ourselves.
• What our times need is new men, really Christian men; true interior perfect Christianswho with all their strength try to answer the call of the Lord: 'Be ye perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect' (Call to sanctity)
• Sins of omission: 'Tonight, at home in your house, when everybody has gone to sleep, go through all the rooms and imagine that all those sleepers are dead. What reproaches you would have to make to yourself: for deeds not done, for services not rendered, for words left unspoken, for kindness not shown'.
• In thease of frequent Confession the danger of routine will be warded off if we put the emphasis, not on confession, i.e. on the actual accusation of sinsbut rather fully and entirely on deepening and enlivening our contrition and on perfecting our purpose of amendment.
• Where there is venial sin the ardour and vigour of love can no longer develop.
• If our prayer does not make us daily more resigned to the will of God, more dettached from our own will, more submissive and patient, more obedient and humble, and more charitable, more tolerant and forgiving, more kindly and gracious towards others: then it is not true and genuine (effects of prayer).