The Priest at Prayer for August 13, Confession for the Priest

The Fourth Part - Some Means of Perseverence

Confession for the Priest

First Meditation - The Need of Frequent Confession

I. All praise to Thee, dear Lord, Author of the Sacra­ments, for having bestowed on me, Thy most unworthy servant, so many graces and favours through the Sacra­ment of Penance!

Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis. How sweet and tender Thy words of pardon ring in my ears: pardon for my hideous sins, a pardon so often and so abundantly flowing from Thy divine lips!

Thanks to this pardon I can face my own conscience without nightmarish fears, without a sense of unbearable loathing for the blackness and filth of the vile offences I have committed against Thee, and without having my heart torn to shreds by the thorns of remorse.

Thanks to this Sacrament, I have learned to know myself a little, having been constrained to probe so frequently into the tortuous, obscure, labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and thus I have succeeded in determining the substance, shape, and form of my duties in life. Sacramental con­fession has become for me the chief spur goading me along the path of virtue without deviating to the right or left; it has been, humanly speaking, a divine and human bridle, wrought of divine faith and lawful human respect, drawing me back with shame from life's miry swamps, reminding me that I should have to confess the evil which I was about to perpetrate.

Thou well knowest, O God, and I know too, that when in the vertigo of passions carrying me to the edge of the precipice, without this leash I would have thrown myself headlong into the abyss, never perhaps to rise again; this Thou knowest, and I know it, too.

And is it possible, dear Lord, for Christians, let alone Thy priests, to consider this Sacrament of Divine Pity something tyrannical and unworthy of our human
dignity? Could the Goodness of God invent anything more concise, less arduous, more ennobling to the heart of man, and within easier reach of all, whereby man must lift himself up, spontaneously regenerate himself, so to speak, without the application of exterior forces?

Heaven and earth bless the Lord, for He is the Father of all mercies!

II. These two concluding meditations are the most important in the whole book. For if they really convince me and make me determined to show practical devotion to the Sacrament of Penance they will profit me as much as all the other meditations combined.

I have to confess my sins very often. Why say, I have to? I certainly have the right, the supreme privilege, of confessing frequently, every week or more often still; approaching the arms and feet of my heavenly Father, like a poor prodigal. And my Father wishes me to do this, He requires it of me:

Canon 906: Each and everyone of the faithful of either sex has the obligation, from the time he attains the use of reason, to confess all his sins truthfully at least once a year, that is to say, all his mortal sins which have not yet been properly con­fessed and directly remitted by absolution.

What shame and sorrow for the Church, and what ignominy for the priest, if the latter should even fail to confess his sins once a year! Is it possible to visualise such a terrible case?

Canon 125: The Ordinary must take care that the clergy go frequently to Confession.

What does" frequently" mean? Would you call three-monthly or even monthly confession frequent? Any Christian in the world would say no. Confession is frequent when made once a week or at least once a every two weeks.

And remember your obligation sub gravi to administer the Sacraments in the state of grace, and the admonition given in the Missal under the heading Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae. In a prefatory paragraph it says:

"The priest about to say Mass having, if neces­sary, made his sacramental confession. . ."

And Canon Law defines this obligation more explicitly:

Canon 807: The priest who should find himself in mortal sin shall not dare to say Holy Mass with­out previous sacramental confession, no matter how contrite he may be over his sins.

You see? In order not to fall into grievous sin, or in order to rise again after having fallen, you must go to confession frequently, even twice a week or more, if needs be, so as not to sink into the deepest and most terrible profanations.

III. There are obstacles in the way of frequent con­fession, occasionally obstacles that would seem insur­mountable: either physical, such as the isolation of your parish, the rough roads and long distances to reach the neighbouring parish, your age and state of health; or moral obstacles, which are no less painful: the lack of a good confessor, a man of virtue and sound common­ sense, in whom you can have confidence.

There is no denying that such obstacles do exist, and Thou, Lord, who knowest and weighest these obstacles at their true value, art moved to pity for those poor priests who for Thy sake and in order to obey their Prelates deprive themselves of facilities which the laity themselves enjoy in abundant measure, the facilities to receive Thy forgiveness in the sacred Tribunal. Therefore in this, as in many other matters, we might apply the literal interpretation of the psalm as contained in the Vulgate:

Propter verba labiorum tuorum ego custodivi vias duras. . . .

But I must not exaggerate the difficulties and obstacles. If a medical doctor told me to go to him once a week or even more frequently, and promised me a definite cure on condition that I followed his orders, would bad roads or long journeys or any amount of expense and trouble stop me from going to him?

Then, for the sake of spiritual healing, Lord, I shall overcome just as great difficulties; because life has taught me that the only treatment which cures or arrests the course of moral disease is the Sacrament of Penance; and if, unfortunately, I do not dispose of a prudent, understand­ing and virtuous confessor, I shall kneel before any priest, however unworthy and incompetent I may feel him to be. A loving trust in Thee, dear Lord, will enable me to do this. But besides, the efficacy of this spiritual treatment does not depend on the good or bad qualities of the minister of the Sacrament; it is Thou, Lord, who bestowest forgiveness through him.

IV. Will-power is not enough to make me approach the confessor every week or as often as I need him. It is to be feared that my confessions are ineffective through lack of serious preparation. The day I go to confession I shall devote my morning meditation to preparing for it.

Here are the three main points I shall consider:
First: Examination of conscience. I shall delve cour­ageously into my conscience, not sparing its most rugged or boggy patches, asking God for strength and light to arrive at a clear-cut knowledge of the quality, kind, and number of my mortal sins, or, if I have no mortal sins, to discover three or four venial sins which expose me to the greatest dangers.

Second: Contrition. In order to excite myself to sincere sorrow for having offended God my Redeemer, for having repaid Him with so much ingratitude, and transgressed His precepts, I shall dwell upon the most persuasive and impressive motives of faith, and I shall detest my wrong-doing wholeheartedly.

Third: Purpose of amendment. I shall resolve, no matter what the cost, to correct all my seriously sinful lapses, and, if I have only venial sins, at least that which does me the most damage, and to promise their amend­ment specifically until my next confession.

If only I had taken my shortcomings one by one and combated each one with resoluteness and energy after each confession, how many of them would have been rooted out by now!

Above all and however much trouble it may entail, I shall resolve to cut out the voluntary proximate occa­sions of sin. If the occasion is not voluntary, if it is inevitable (and I shall not allow myself to be deceived easily on this point), I shall make it a remote occasion. This I shall resolve to do even if it should be as painful to me as cutting off my right hand or foot, or plucking out an eye. And I shall put my resolution into practice as soon as I have got up from confession, if I had not already done so before confession - which would be the best thing to do - or if a prudent confessor does not oblige me to take these measures before returning for absolution.

Dear Lord and God, I really do wish to save my soul, I do want to walk the road to heaven, even if I have to go all alone or eyeless or without hands and feet.

Resolutions
1. As often as I confess my sins I shall do so making an effort to reap all the fruits of the Sacrament, con­sidering my preparation for confession the most serious and profoundest act of my religious and moral life. I can make a good Communion without much reflexion, but I cannot confess properly without a complete renewal of my innermost mind:

Cor mundum crea in me Deus, et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis.

2. I shall go to confession invariably once a week­ or more if the need arises - with a fixed and well ­chosen confessor, or, if I have no choice, with anyone available. God, Who sees my good will, is pledged to make up for the shortcomings of His minister. All my other acts of piety and self-denial must give place to this great and fundamental act of frequent confession.

Convinced that in the fulfilment of these two resol­utions lies the surest sign of my predestination, I trust, O God and Father of the predestined, that Thou wilt not refuse me the strength of will required to carry them out faithfully.
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!