The Sacraments of the Catholic Church
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Confession
A Sacrament of Initiation
One of the sacraments of initiation in the Catholic Church
is the sacrament of confession. Before the practice of the
individual confession we now have, people used to perform
public acts of confession. However, in the history of the
Catholic Church, the Irish monks started to make confession
individually to a priest in the monastery. This started
the tradition of making confession individually. And thus,
confessionals were built in such a way as to help those
who wish to go to confession to enter into an atmosphere
of individual silence and recollection and thereby
reconcile himself with God by confessing his sins to
the priest.
With the advent of Vatican II, the sacrament of confession
and reconciliation was restored to its original social
dimension. Thus, they restored liturgies which helped people
prepare themselves spiritually to be aware of their sins,
feel sorrow for them, and eventually ask forgiveness from
the Lord. The priest gives a general absolution in these
cases. However, for sins that are grievous and serious,
the Catholic is required to seek the confessional and
confess individually his sins to the priest. And there
are sins that are not automatically absolved.
Making Good Confessions
Although the act of going to confession may place us in
a state of grace, that is not always the case. Going to
confession is not a matter of just saying a list of the
sins we have committed. Rather, it involves real sorrow
for one's sins and the intention to restore oneself and be
reconciled with the Lord and with the Church. If this would
be the attitude we take in going to confession, then we will
make a good confession. Making a good confession is very
necessary if we would really want to be purified from our
sins and be placed in a state of grace before God. We must
be careful to avoid those occasions when we are tempted to
confess our sins just for the sake of making a confession
and for doing an obligation without really putting it to
heart. Only when we dispose ourselves to make a good confession
do we really grow deeper in our trust for God and in our
desire to grow in holiness together with the Church. So
the preparatory thing to do before going to confession is
to pray that we may be really be sorry for our sins and pray
for a genuine sorrow for them so that when we confess our
sins we may be placed rightly in a humble state before
God and His Church.
What Basic Steps Must I Make in Going to Confession?
If one has not gone to confession for a long time, then here
is a simple guide to help us in doing so:
- Make an examination of conscience. Examine your
relationships - with the Church, with your family,
with your co-workers, and with yourself. Or we can
purchase a guide to help us examine ourselves before
going to confession. One may also find something
online in relation to this. We can use the search
engines.
- Let us approach the confessional in a continued
attitude of prayer and humility and wait for our
turn as we line up for the priest in the confessional.
- Inside the confessional, we can begin with:
"Bless me Father for I have sinned. My last confession
was last __________. These are the sins I currently
committed against the Lord: __________."
It is impossible to remember everything that we have
prepared when making the examination of conscience.
Usually the ones we remember are the more serious sins
and the ones we have forgotten are the less serious ones.
So let us not worry if we are not able to confess
everything we have promised to confess when we have
have made the personal examination of conscience.
- Let us wait for the spiritual words of the
priest and the penance he will give for our confession.
Then when we receive his absolution, let us thank God
that He has restored us to Himself through the Sacrament
of Confession and go back to our pew to perform the acts
of penance given to us by the priest.
How Many Times Must I Confess?
Although a Catholic is required to confess only at least
once a year, an ideal number of going to confession is to
approach the sacrament at least once a month. This ensures
our relationship with God will be always in good standing
and so also with our relationship with the Church. If
once a month is not possible given our professional working
schedule, then at least more than once a year would be good.
Advent and Lent is also a good time to go to confession
more frequently. Let us not wait until we have committed a
grievous and a very serious sin before going to confession.
Sometimes, confessing even little or venial sins is very
good to the soul. It is very good because the resulting
grace of God that will be given will not only be for ourselves
but for the benefit of the Christian community. If the light
of Christ is in our mind, our heart, our soul and in our entire
being, then imagine how our other Christian brothers and
sisters will be inspired by our very witness. They will be
drawn and inspired by our spirit because we have received
God's pardon and mercy.
So, confession is not really an individual or a journey
meant for us alone. It involves also the entire Catholic
Church. By our going to confession, we strengthen not only
ourselves by receiving God's mercy but we in turn strengthen
the institution of the sacrament of Confession and Reconciliation
by our practice of reconciling ourselves with God and with our
brothers and sisters.
Dennis-Emmanuel Cabrera - December 26, 2004
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