• Author: Benedict Baur
  • Full Title: Frequent Confession
  • Tags: #Inbox #books

Highlights

1 The Meaning and Purpose of Frequent Confession

  • What we have in mind is the frequent and regular confession of a person who in general does not commit mortal sin but, rather, lives a life of union with God and is bound to Him by love. Such a person may, nevertheless, be guilty of many disloyalties and failings. He may have various weaknesses and bad habits and perverse inclinations, and he may have to struggle hard with his inordinate desires and his self-love. (Location 92)
  • For the council says: “Venial sins, which do not separate man from God and into which we frequently fall, are rightly and with profit accused in Confession, as is the practice of pious Christians.” (Location 109)
  • The “profit” of the confession of venial sins comes, above all else, from the fact that when we go to Confession, we receive a sacrament. (Location 112)
  • It should be noted, too, that it is not upon the sins committed themselves that the action of the sacrament falls but, rather, upon our interior aversion of heart from sin; it is this that the power of the sacrament takes hold of, as it were, and elevates in order to unite us to God through grace. (Location 116)
  • when venial sins are forgiven in Confession, a greater part of the temporal punishment due to them is forgiven than would be outside the sacrament with the same sentiments of contrition. (Location 125)
  • Moreover, the confession of venial sins gives the soul an interior freshness, a new aspiration and impetus toward self-surrender to God and toward the cultivation of the supernatural life: results that are not usually produced at all when venial sin is forgiven outside Confession. (Location 129)
  • our examination of conscience and especially our acts of contrition, of purpose of amendment, and of resolution to atone and do penance are much more carefully made when we go to Confession than is the case in the extrasacramental forgiveness of venial sin, (Location 131)
  • know quite well what an effort it needs to formulate properly the accusation of our sins for the priest and how intent we must be to elicit a good act of contrition and a purpose of amendment and to form the intention to do our penance and atone for our sins. We must consciously and of set purpose apply ourselves to making these acts well. (Location 134)
  • 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. (Location 141)
  • This aim is ordinarily pursued by weekly or fortnightly Confession or by Confession every three or four weeks. (Location 193)
  • It follows from all the above that frequent Confession presupposes and demands an earnest striving after purity of soul and virtue and after union with God and with Christ, i.e., a real interior life. (Location 199)

2 The Practice of Frequent Confession

  • As we advance in the spiritual life, fully deliberate venial sins become less and less frequent, and, as a rule, we fall into scarcely anything more than what are called sins of frailty. (Location 257)
  • Whatever faults we tell in Confession, these we must have firmly made up our minds to overcome. Consequently, our purpose of amendment is a point of central importance in the practice of frequent Confession. (Location 263)
  • Many who practice frequent Confession make the great mistake of having no real purpose of amendment regarding many of the sins they confess. (Location 282)
  • it is an abuse to confess a sin in Confession unless one’s mind is made up to avoid it in future or at least to strive earnestly against it. (Location 283)
  • The penitent has got into the habit of confessing this or that venial sin without ever seriously thinking of striving energetically against it. (Location 287)
  • In view of all this, holy souls who are advancing in the spiritual life should not confess in their frequent Confessions any failings or unfaithfulness or sins of frailty that they are not fully resolved to avoid or at least to strive against. (Location 292)
  • These advanced souls must be careful, too, to have a positive purpose of amendment, i.e., one that is directed to the practice of some particular virtue. We do not overcome small faults and weaknesses by being continually busied about them and fighting against them but, rather, by keeping our gaze directed on what is positively good and holy and consciously striving after that. (Location 299)
  • And love for God implies love for one’s neighbor: a tolerant, forgiving love that tries to help and serve others and make life pleasant for them. (Location 303)
  • Certain exterior failings, such as curiosity of the eyes or breaches of silence or uncharitable conversation, must be fought by a special purpose of amendment against them until the contrary habit has been developed. (Location 330)
  • The important thing for us is not so much that we never again fall into any faults but, rather, that we never become indifferent and careless about our faults and failings or about their roots and causes, (Location 340)
  • Sins alone can be matter for Confession, and only sins that have been committed after Baptism. What is not a sin cannot be matter for Confession. (Location 346)
  • The number and the aggravating circumstances of venial sins need not be confessed, but it is a good thing, in the case of our more serious and deeply rooted faults, to make such a reckoning about them and to include it in our accusation. (Location 350)
  • But really indeliberate and involuntary distractions in prayer, manifestations of impatience, uncharitable thoughts and feelings, aversions, rash judgments, and such things, insofar as they are really indeliberate and involuntary, are not matter for Confession. (Location 356)
  • The Confession can be made to center on one definite fault that has occurred since the previous Confession, taking a form something like this: “I have deliberately judged and spoken uncharitably. During my whole past life, I have sinned much against fraternal charity in thought and in word by uncharitable judgments, and I now accuse myself of all these sins of my whole life. I accuse myself also of all the other sins and faults of which I have been guilty before God.” (Location 384)
  • second method of confessing is to make the accusation center on one of the Commandments or on some inordinate passion or practice or inclination: on some one particular point that at the moment is important for the interior life. Then we can proceed something like this: “I am easily irritated. I lose my temper quickly with other people over various things. I talk and criticize and allow aversions and bad humor to develop in me. I accuse myself also of having sinned often in this way in my past life. And I accuse myself of all the other sins and failings of which I have been guilty before God.” (Location 390)
  • The Church makes daily examination of conscience obligatory for clerics and religious16 and expressly rejects the tenet of Molinos that “not to be able to reflect on one’s own defects is a grace from God.” (Location 417)
  • particular virtue that one wishes to acquire. In selecting faults for attack, we ought to begin with exterior faults by which those around us are annoyed or irritated. Then we can proceed to interior faults: our own faults of character, the weak points in our makeup. (Location 437)
  • the so-called habitual examination of conscience is to be recommended: this is a quick look at our interior state, often repeated; a glance to see what feeling or inclination of heart is predominant at the moment. Among the many feelings that crowd the human heart and assail it, there is always one feeling that dominates, that gives the heart its direction, so to speak, and determines its mood. (Location 447)
  • In the “habitual” examination of conscience, we ask ourselves: “Where is my heart?” And thus, often during the day, we uncover the disposition and inclination of our heart at the moment and so penetrate to its central core, from which our various words and deeds and activities issue. (Location 457)
  • “if a person knows that he has not committed any mortal sin since his last Confession, he is not strictly obliged to examine his conscience at all; it suffices that he just finds sufficient matter for absolution.” (Location 477)