I know that I need to go to Confession.

      :cry:     :smile:                                "Thwarted again!  )=:"-- :devil2:

I don't like going to confession. I go every few months, but I have to psyche myself up a week or two in advance to prepare. I don't know why going to confession is such a chore. Usually after I go to confession, I think "well, that wasn't so bad at all!" And now I go to a Novus Ordo priest who gives very light penance (I think he's just grateful that someone goes to confession, which isn't all that often at that parish).

Last month I attended a breakfast for Catholics professionals (I'm not a professional, but anyone can attend), and I had some wonderful conversations with the Catholics who sat at the same table. One of them told us his story of how confession brought him back to the Catholic faith.

As a lapsed Catholic, he was with a friend who was a practicing Catholic, and this friend talked him into visiting Lourdes. After they toured through Lourdes, the friend wanted to go to confession there, even though confession was only offered until a certain time, it it was almost time for the priest to finish hearing confessions. So as this fellow waited outside the confessional (for those who spoke English), his friend came out of the confessional, and so did the priest. The priest asked him if he was waiting to go to confession, and fellow said "No," and he tried to explain that he didn't want to go to confession, but the priest insisted that he go to confession anyway. So he went into the confessional and told the priest that he hadn't been to confession for twenty years. He broke down in tears in the confessional, and all of his sins of tweny years were confessed. It was a profound experience, and it resulted in his return to the faith.

The other interesting part is that after this confession was over, the priest told this fellow that this was the confession that he had been waiting to hear all day, since he had a feeling that he was supposed to hear a confession of this type, which is why the priest insisted that the fellow go into the confessional. Maybe the priest was able to read souls, like St. Padre Pio.

Anyway, I thought it was a wonderful story. This fellow is now quite devout from what I can tell, even though he attends an NO parish.

Perfect acts of contrition are special.. Deo gratias.. but even when you try to make them regularly.. Confession.. there's nothing like a good confession.  

    :cry:     :smile:                                "Thwarted again!  )=:"-- :devil2:

:D

I'm wondering how people confess general character faults like selfishness, or impatience.  It would be hard to keep a "count" of how many times a person acts in a selfish manner or displayed a prideful attitude.

What are your opinions on confessing general character faults?

Marsha