Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Don't Be Fearful of Confession!

Santo Domingo. Confession of a woman.

Image via Wikipedia

Tribulation Times

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/august.asp?version=63&startmmdd=0101

August 31, 2011 

(Act 19:17-18) And this became known to all the Jews and the Gentiles that dwelt a Ephesus. And fear fell on them all: and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many of them that believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds

NCREGISTER: Vatican Publishes Confession and Spiritual Direction Manual for Priests

The Vatican has published an aid for confessors and spiritual directors, reflecting an urgent need for both priests and the faithful to rediscover the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Published by the Congregation for the Clergy, "The Priest, Minister of Divine Mercy — An Aid for Confessors and Spiritual Directors" is essentially a manual on how to be good confessors.

The 70 page document is a fruit of the Year for Priests during which the Holy Father urged priests to return to the confessional, both to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation but also as a place where the priest should "dwell" more often.
Pötting - parish church of the Holy Cross: Sta...

Image via Wikipedia

DOCUMENT LINK: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2011-08/08-13/sussidio_per_confessori_en.pdf

HEADLINE: Priest: I'll go to jail rather than bow to law on revealing confession

TRACT LINK: Don't Be Fearful of Confession! by the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P.

FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA OLRLConfession

"Confess your sins one to another."-St.  James 5;16. 

Confession is a great remedy for the soul.  It purifies it through the words of absolution, enlightens it through the good counsel received, strengthens it by the great graces received, humbles it by acknowledging to another man that we are sinners and gives peace to the soul being reconciled to God.  We didn't care to commit the sin, but now we are ashamed to confess it.  "God resists the proud but giveth grace to the humble."

Refusal of Confession. Oil on canvas. 48 × 59 ...

Image via Wikipedia


Confession has been in the Church from the beginning.  The second Sunday after Easter Our Lord appeared to the Apostles and gave them His mission to carry on.

He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.


(John 20:21-23)

Tangible evidence of this doctrine was brought forth in Rome when, in 1911, archaeologists unearthed a stone slab which read: "Here lies Blessed Peter, who absolved us, the elect, from sins confessed."

A beautiful story -- St Francis and the sinful woman:

St.  Francis de Sales was hearing confessions in his church at Annecy. Among other penitents who went to him was a woman who had led a very bad life, but who, touched by God's grace, made a good and sincere confession of all the evil she had done.  St.  Francis blessed God for her conversion and felt his soul full of happiness in giving her absolution.  When she received it she said to him: "My father, what do you think of me now since you have heard of all the crimes I have been guilty of?" "My child," he answered, "I now look upon you as a saint; let people say and think what they like, they may judge you as the Pharisee judged Mary Magdalen after her conversion, but you know what Jesus Christ thought of her and how he judged her.  Your past life now has no longer any existence.  I weep tears of joy because of your resurrection from the grave of sin to a life of grace.  The penitent was not only consoled by these words of St.  Francis, but when the devil came to try to make her fall into despair by thinking of her past iniquities, they enabled her to drive the temptation away.  -His Life: Jan.29, Stories from the Catechist.

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine

Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 30- "Concerning the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues"

7. Love, by reason of its nature, is resemblance to God, as far as that is possible for mortals; in its activity it is inebriation of the soul; and by its distinctive property it is a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, a sea of humility.


Prayer request?  Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com

This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.


Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.

Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please no anonymous comments. I require at least some way for people to address each other personally and courteously. Having some name or handle helps.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.