Confession.
HOW TO MAKE A GOOD CONFESSION.
“This sacrament owes its institution to the singular goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.”— Catechism of Council of Trent.
SPIRITUAL writers — men of great learning, piety, and experience — recommend us to prepare for each confession as if it were the last opportunity we would have of approaching the holy Sacrament of Penance. “ This reflection ” says St. Alphonsus, “ will induce you to discharge every part of your duty, both as to the examination of your conscience, your sorrow for your sins, your firm purpose of amending your life, and the sincerity of your confession, in the most perfect possible manner.”
There is scarcely any duty of greater importance in religion, than to receive the Sacrament of Penance with the necessary dispositions. Penance is as indispensable for those who have fallen into sin after baptism, as baptism itself is for those who have never been baptized. It is a second plank after the shipwreck of sin, without which the sinner must inevitably perish. But then it is to be observed, that this sacrament must be received with the necessary dispositions. The cleansing of the baptismal robe, and restoring it to its original purity, is not to be effected without much labour and application. It would be absurd to imagine that the justice of God, which could not be satisfied but by the sufferings of Jesus Christ, and which, notwithstanding these sufferings, doth still condemn to eternal torments the unrepenting sinner — it would be absurd, indeed, to imagine, that his justice should now be appeased by
