nctradcathHave you thought of making a true devotion consecration to Our Lady by St. Louis De Montfort as a way of naturally keeping the vow for weekly confession? A person who was truly devoted to Our Lady under the rubric of St. Louis De Montfort would be driven to weekly confession.
Yes, I have considered that consecration, but never in terms of "keeping the vow for weekly confession." It would certainly be one more reason to consider taking that big step.
Being "forced" by your own vow to humbly go to confession, especially when you might feel particularity weary, humiliated, or ashamed should really help in so many powerful ways.
I think weekly confession, regardless of your own particular inclinations, is such a powerful pillar of the spiritual life to build on. Many of us I think have to fight a spirit of luke warmness setting in where we tend to lose our fervor of prayer life and the fervor we should have in all other aspects of our spiritual life. (In this modern world with so many of its material distractions the mind/spirit can become so easily dissipated. One of the easiest things to put off then is confession!) When that luke warmness sets in we are moving incrementally to a blindness and or greater rationalization of our little and later bigger sins/faults.
I am up in years. I know I must waste no more time and feel quite bad for all the time I have already wasted. Time is too valuable, far too valuable to waste. I certainly can't presume on my eternal salvation. I must work it out in fear and trembling.
I don't want to be one of that immense number that end up being eternally lost and at the same time I realize that the more I have been given -- and I have been given a tremendous amount of blessings and talents in life -- the more I will be held accountable for. That thought can be a dreadful one when we realize how short we have all fallen of the mark. It is easy to look at the great sinner and say, "Ah, but for the grace of God go I" than it is to look at a saint and say, "Ah, but for my lack of cooperation with God's grace go I." I want to grow in virtue and not remain sluggish in petty vices which like as St. John of the Cross teaches us: a string around the bird can hold it back from flying free just as surely as a heavy chain can.
That is all why I look very forward to making this solemn vow under the guidance of my priest/confessor/spiritual director before the altar of God. May I humbly pray that God give me the strength, desire, light, and courage to carry out what I believe to be the right thing for me to do.