St. Volodymyr's Parish

The Sacrament of Penance, which involves confessing your sins to a priest, is dying out in Britain. Few people come to confess their sins and, while all churches advertise times of Confession, it may soon be the case that, as in other countries, they may stop bothering if no-one comes, writes Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith in The Catholic Herald.

So, when people give up Confession what replaces it? I take it as read that people keep on sinning. What changes is that they get their absolution elsewhere. Either they absolve themselves, telling themselves that God has forgiven them, or they persuade themselves that their sins are not sins after all. The falling off in Confession goes hand in hand with a falling off in the sense of sin.

Some may think that a good thing. I do not. It is healthy to have a realistic sense of one’s own sinfulness. We need to acknowledge the truth about ourselves: that we need God’s help, His grace, if we are to be saved. Our sins stand between us and God. Without true repentance for sin, there can be no spiritual progress.

So that is the first step in preparing to go to Confession. You go because you need to go, because you are a sinner, and because you wish to grow closer to God. One should put oneself into this frame of mind: you approach Confession as a humble petitioner, coming to Him who has all the graces and gifts that you so sorely need.

The next step is to consider that God, the fount of all grace, is generous in His gifts. He wants to give us His grace, even though we may not deserve it. The best way to appreciate this is to remember that Jesus never turned anyone away. Neither will He turn us away. So we approach the sacrament with confidence in God.

But what should one say as one confesses one’s sins? After these generalities, what particularities? At this point one should not slide into the composition of a list, the so-called "laundry list”. Rather, one should think of the goodness of God as it has been manifested to us personally, through our baptism, and in all the years since then.

That was the moment when He chose us to be His adopted children. We can compose a laundry list of our blessings and then ask ourselves how we have responded to His loving adoption.

FULL STORY How to make your best Confession ever (Catholic Herald)

source: CathNews