Lighten Your Heart

During the Lenten season, we focus on our lives and then it should encourage us to celebrate the sacrament of confession. So here is a little guide on how to make a great confession. Pray and ask God to guide you. A daily examination of conscience is a wonderful tool to help us bring those things that we are really sorry for to God.

One of the things that I often recommend during Confession is to, at the end of the day, ask God how the day went. Think of the good things that we have done and give thanks to God for those wonderful little times. Also, think of the times in the day in which we could have done better, or even did something that we really should not have done and ask for the strength to change how we do that the next time we are in that situation. He is a merciful God and wants us to be forgiven.

As a priest over 12 years and after hearing thousands of confessions, I know that there are no new sins under the sun. While we should be embarrassed that we have sinned, you should not feel embarrassed to tell the priest the sin.  It does not make me think any less of people because they have a specific sin that may be bad.  In fact, I am more often humbled by someone who comes in and says that while they are struggling with a sin, they are doing better.

Another thing that we need to remember, is to leave the “buts” out of it!- as it was said when I was young, “number and kind” of sins. When we confess our sins, they should be specific but not qualified “I hit my sister twice” not “I hit my sister twice because she was mean to me, or she hit me first.” When we are sorry and are asking for forgiveness, we do not need to create a defense or make excuses, just ask for forgiveness and it will be given. Remember Adam blamed Eve, whom God put there, for his sin and Eve blamed the serpent.  It is very easy to blame others for our sins, but we need to take responsibility for them.  In the confessional I sometimes hear the sins that other people do around the one in the confessional.  While in some circumstances it can give a background or a struggle that is going on in someone’s life, this is usually a justification for the sin.

Sometimes we feel that because we are confessing the same things pretty much every time we go to confession, then we are failing. The point is, if we have a habit of a particular or multiple particular sins, then it/they are something that we need to keep being focused on and use confession as the reset. Confession is not complicated and the more we practice it, the easier it gets.  A friend of mine calls the confessional a “sin bin” so drop them off and leave them …forever. Remember the most important thing, a good confession lightens our heart so we can receive God.

God bless,
Fr. Ken