When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away [through my groaning all day long] . . . I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; then you forgave the guilt of my sin.

— Psalms 32:3, 5

Either before you arrive or as you wait for class to begin, find this short passage from Sacred Scripture in your Bible or through an online search. Reading it will prepare you for this week’s material.

—1 John 1:5–10

O God, author of every mercy and of all goodness, look graciously on the confession of our lowliness, that we, who are bowed down by our conscience, may always be lifted up by your mercy.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

As you watch the video lesson, refer to these key highlights. Feel free to use the space provided to take notes.

• The sacrament of confession is a powerful remedy against the devil’s blackmail.
• Confession also provides a way to receive spiritual counsel when you’re struggling with some particular problem or sin.
• It is necessary to confess all of the serious sins you’ve committed since your last confession.
• It is very fruitful to confess venial sins by making a regular confession because every venial sin involves some spiritual negligence.
• A great secret to growing in holiness is to realize, with St. Paul, that “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10).

Wisdom of the Saints

The greatest sinner would achieve great sanctity, if only they would trust in My mercy.

— St. Faustina Kowalska (Christ’s words to her, as recorded in her diary, Divine Mercy in my Soul)

Take a moment to go through these questions with the group. For larger classes, divide them up into partners. Answers are provided to assist you in leading discussion.

1. How does confession help us acknowledge and receive the power of God as a remedy for our weakness?

   Confessing our sins helps us recognize how much we need God’s help and that we will never be able to forgive our own sins, nor save ourselves. When we realize how weak we are, then we begin to rely on the power of God, which is far greater than our weakness and sinfulness.

2. What are the fruits of regular confession?

   Confession breaks the devil’s blackmail, where he tries to convince us that God will not forgive us, or that we do not deserve forgiveness. By confessing regularly, we will begin to recognize the obstacles in us to the healing and elevating power of God’s grace. As God removes those obstacles and heals our weaknesses, often one grows in peace, joy, knowledge, and virtue. Further, receiving wise counsel in confession is a great aid to living a Christian life, especially when one confronts habitual sin or other serious difficulties.

3. What happens when you let sins (even venial sins) build up?

   Venial sin involves a kind of negligence, a wavering of your focus on God. If you let venial sins build up, they tend to get slowly worse and worse, setting you up for a big fall into mortal sin (just as repeated bouts of even minor sicknesses without proper medicine can make you vulnerable to a deadly disease). Sin also produces moral blindness and moral numbness, making you immune to recognizing your sins.

4. How does frequent confession help develop a greater sensitivity to the joys of the life of grace?

   As you confess regularly, you will typically become more sensitive to the sins and imperfections in yourself, and also to the life of grace at work in you—a bit like someone who develops a fine taste for wine or a fine ear for music. This is especially the case as you grow in spiritual freedom, self-control, and virtue.

   Frequent confession also helps you grow in the virtue of hope, the theological virtue by which we trust in God’s help to attain to eternal life.

The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship. . . . For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation “is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation.” Indeed the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true “spiritual resurrection,” restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God.

— CCC 1468

Discuss these questions with the group, pair them with a partner, or ask them to meditate on their own.

1. In what ways do you fear making yourself vulnerable to God? Do you struggle to trust in his love and mercy? Why?

2. As you have grown in your relationship and friendship with God, how have you started to sense his goodness and love? Have you also started to see more clearly the evil of sin? How?

3. How do you see frequent confession benefiting a Christian more than just going once a year? How does making it a routine practice curb your sinful behavior and lead you to heaven?

After concluding your group discussion, return to watch the second video where converts to the Catholic faith discuss their conversion and how they live today as Catholics.

Rome to Home

We will never be holy enough not to need this sacramental purification: humble confession, made lovingly, gives rise to an ever more delicate purity in our service to God and the motivation that sustains it. . . . Those who make frequent use of Confession and do so desiring to make progress know that in this sacrament, together with God’s forgiveness and the grace of the Holy Spirit, they will receive a precious light for their journey towards perfection.

— Pope St. John Paul II, Address to a conference of the Apostolic Penitentiary, March 17, 2004, no. 4

Mortal Sin: A grave offense against the law of God that kills the divine life (charity/ love) in the soul of the sinner, thus driving out sanctifying grace. It constitutes a turn away from God, loving something created more than doing what God asks of us. For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must be present: it must involve something serious (grave matter), you must have full knowledge that the act is wrong, and you must give free consent of your will.
Venial Sin: An act that fails to observe the necessary rule or order in lesser matters but that does not destroy the divine life of charity in the soul. Venial sins can be pardoned even without sacramental confession, but it is strongly recommended to confess them on a regular basis.

Examination of Conscience: Prayerful and careful inquiry within oneself to assess how one has sinned, and therefore what one should confess. This term can also refer to a document listing common sins or posing questions, typically used by someone in preparing to go to confession.

Original Sin: The sin by which the first human beings disobeyed the commandment of God, choosing to follow their own will rather than God’s. In addition, this term describes the fallen state of human nature that affects every person born into the world.

God’s Word

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD always;
but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

— Proverbs 28:13–14

Leader: Our Help is in the name of the Lord.
Response: Who made heaven and earth.

All make the sign of the cross.

This serves as a review of the material that your students can read after each class, but it may be helpful for you to read as well. Consider reading it before each class to better prepare you for group discussion.

The Power of Forgiveness

Going to confession, especially for a new Catholic, can seem intimidating. But you shouldn’t be worried: it’s easier than it seems, and it’s one of the most fruitful spiritual practices you can adopt.

The view from the other side of the confessional—from the priest’s side—is actually quite consoling. The first thing you hear, often in very beautiful ways, is the repentance of those confessing their sins (the penitents). They’re in the confessional because they desire to be restored to communion with God. You hear not only their regret and sorrow for their sins but also their great love for God and their desire to please him. You hear people trying to grow in holiness. They may struggle. They may faceserious setbacks. Yet they still want to be closer to God, and they return to the sacrament to start again, to place their lives once more in God’s merciful hands.

Along with celebrating the Eucharist, hearing confessions is among the greatest privileges of a priest. He becomes a witness to the way God is at work within someone’s soul. He has the opportunity to encourage them in their living of the Christian life. The priest gets to see something few others will ever witness: how a person is transformed as he receives the forgiveness of Christ through the priest’s words of absolution.

The sacrament of confession is the normal means by which sins committed after baptism are forgiven. Jesus knew that we needed this sacrament. It is the perfect remedy to defeat the blackmail of the devil, who tries to trick us into thinking that we cannot escape our sins. He tells us we cannot go back to our heavenly Father and admit to him what we have done and ultimately be forgiven. This is simply a lie from the father of lies.

The way to break the power of this devilish blackmail is to bring our sins into the light, to expose his threats to the light of Christ, and thus to receive God’s mercy. If you repent, God will always forgive your sins. And this pardon from your Father in heaven will render the devil powerless over you.

Confession is also important for us as human beings. We need to bring our sins out into the light for our own sake so that we ourselves can come to grips with them. Not in order to feel depressed about how sinful we are; the point is, rather, to confront just how much we stand in need of God. We will never be able to save ourselves. (If we ignore our sins, we might begin to think we could.) Yet, as St. Paul says, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). His point is that when we think we can stand on our own, we are deluding ourselves, but when we realize how weak we are, then we begin to rely on the power of Christ—and this power is far, far greater than our weakness. “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:9).

This is why we should rejoice when we discover a new imperfection in ourselves. That sounds very strange, even paradoxical, but it’s true. The reason is that because of the effects of original sin and of our own personal sins, we each have many imperfections and faults hiding within us. We should notbe discouraged to discover them but rather grateful to God because this is a sign that God is beginning the process of uprooting them. When they remain hidden, they remain more powerful over us. When we know they exist, we can begin to fight against them and be on guard against another fall. When you discover a new fault, ask God for the grace to remove it.

This is a marvelous fruit of regular confession. The more we confess, the more we will recognize how much we need God’s help, and the more we will profit from that help in our daily lives. This is because God desires (very much more than we do!) to give us the help of his grace. It is, rather, our sins and vices that block the action of his grace in our lives. When we confess regularly, he rips up those obstacles, and the typical result is growth in peace, joy, knowledge, and virtue.

Regular confession has a further benefit: in living out the Christian life, it’s a great help to have wise counsel, especially when you’re struggling with habitual sin. If there is a knot you find difficult to untie in your life, bring it to the sacrament of confession. Priests are there precisely to help you with this. You are not burdening a priest when you ask him to hear your confession. That’s why Christ instituted the priesthood! It gives us the opportunity to be ministers of Christ’s grace by coming regularly to this great sacrament.

Let’s offer some further tips for making a good confession. It is absolutely necessary when you confess that you acknowledge all of the serious sins you’ve committed since your last confession (or, if it’s your first confession after baptism, since your baptism). Hiding grave sins from the priest actually invalidates your confession because you cannot be forgiven unless you completely renounce your sins.

If you realize after leaving the confessional that you forgot to confess something, don’t worry: it was really forgiven. As long as you intended to confess everything, it is all forgiven, even what you forget. So, in that case, simply confess it at your next opportunity.

In addition to grave or serious sins (which must be included in order to make a valid confession), it is very spiritually useful to confess even light or venial sins. Don’t wait until (God forbid) you commit a mortal sin to go to confession! Every venial sin involves a kind of negligence, a wavering of your focus on God, who is your supreme good, and whom you shouldlove above all things. If you let venial sins build up, they tend to get slowly worse and worse—and they set you up for a big fall into mortal sin.

Sin also produces moral blindness and moral numbness. The more you sin, the more you will fail to recognize the sins you commit. Instead of this deadening effect of sin, you want to become more morally alive. That means growing more sensitive to the evil of sin and thus feeling more acutely an aversion to sin. It’s a bit like someone who develops a fine taste for wine or a fine ear for classical music. As your perceptions become sharper, you become better able to experience the full truth of those realities. This increase in spiritual perception will not come all at once; it will increase over time as you grow in your spiritual life.

More importantly, the more you taste the delights of life with God, the more sensitive you will become to the sins and imperfections in yourself. This might sound intimidating or dreadful, but it’s actually a good thing! You will also discover that, in this process, God progressively frees you to grow even more in spiritual freedom, self-control, and in his peace and love.

Frequent confession also helps you grow in the virtue of hope. As you know, hope is the theological virtue by which we trust in God’s help to attain to the greatest good: eternal life with God in heaven. With each confession, we renew our trust in God’s power to save us and draw us to himself.

How frequently should you go to confession? If you have fallen into grave sin, you shouldn’t let even a day go by! But apart from this, it has long been a traditional Catholic practice to go every one or two weeks. In general, this is a good goal. For someone who wants to grow spiritually, I would recommend that you go at least once per month. Don’t let it become months, and certainly not years (as a bare minimum, the Church obliges every Catholic to go at least once per year).

Finally, how should you prepare to make a good confession? Begin by examining your conscience. (A printed “examination of conscience” can help with this by prompting you to think about common areas where one may have fallen.) Before you go into the confessional, spend some time praying to God, asking him to help you make a good confession, to come to know your sins, and to trust more and more in the power of his mercy…and grace. Ask him for the grace of repentance: to be sincerely sorry for your sins and to have a firm purpose not to commit them again.

When you enter the confessional, make the sign of the cross. Then say, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” and tell how long it has been since your last confession. Don’t worry if you’re nervous, or if you forget the exact words you’re supposed to say. Feel free to tell the priest that you are new to confession. He will gladly guide you.

Next, confess your sins (all mortal sins since your last confession, or that you forgot in previous confessions, giving the nature of the sin and the number of each as best as possible, and then any venial sins). When you’ve finished, it is traditional to conclude by saying, “I am sorry for these, and for all the sins of my past life.” This is a signal to the priest that you have said all of your sins.

After you leave the confessional, give thanks to God for the sacrament you have received and promptly do the penance the priest assigned you.

One last piece of advice: tell your friends about what a great gift this sacrament is. Far too few of the faithful take advantage of the mercy of God awaiting them in the confessional. Tell other people about this good news. God will reward you!

Hahn, Scott. Lord, Have Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession. New York: Doubleday, 2004.