Confession

The Sacrament of Confession is the only other Sacrament besides the Eucharist which should be regularly received. There should then be no doubt that it is important for a Catholic striving to grow closer to God to understand how to approach the sacrament properly, so that he can make a good confession.

The Sacrament of Confession, like all Sacraments, was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ. We can find evidence of this in the Gospel of John where St. John accounts, “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.” (Jn 20:22-23)

A similar version of this can be found in the Gospel of Luke as well. Because Jesus gave the authority to forgive sins in His name to the Apostles, only the Apostles, and those to whom they pass the authority on can forgive sins by acting In Persona Christi, in the personhood of Christ.

For a confession to be valid, there must be contrition present in the penitent. There are two kinds of contrition, perfect and imperfect. Perfect contrition is achieved through confessing our sins specifically out of our love for God, and not for other motives we may have.

Imperfect contrition is feeling sorrow for our sins not out of love for God, but out of fear of eternal consequence or regret caused by the temporal consequence of sin. While we may not have perfect contrition when we approach the Sacrament of Confession, we must firmly resolve to avoid committing the sins we confess again in the future. While perfect contrition isn’t required for a valid confession, we should always strive for it.

The priest (to whom the power to forgive sins in the person of Christ has been delegated) needs to know the penitent’s sins in order to forgive them; after all, how can he forgive something if he doesn’t know what he is forgiving? 

Confession is the only sacrament in which the one in which the sacrament is conferred (in this case, the penitent sinner) begins the rite. While the priest may give a piece of advice beforehand, the penitent is supposed to begin by saying, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” After this, while it is customary for the penitent to say something to the effect of “Bless/forgive me Father, for I have sinned, it has been X amount of time since my last confession…” etc. this is neither mandatory nor in the official rite of confession at all. The penitent may express the sorrow they have for their sins or say something signifying their need for God’s mercy as well. After this, the penitent begins by listing their sins in kind and number.

After the penitent is finished, the priest may ask for clarification of some of the sins, and can offer advice and counsel, then give the obligatory penance. The penance commonly given nowadays is just a few prayers, but in the past, it was intended to be something difficult and uncomfortable, which helps teach us not to commit the same sins again. 

The penitent will then say an Act of Contrition, which serves to reaffirm the penitent’s resolve to not sin again, and encourages perfect contrition for having sinned against Him, “Whom we should love above all things.” We firmly intend to do better, and Confession is finished when the priest says the words of Absolution, saying “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” With this, we are freed from our sins and called to sin no more.