Important Confession Reminders from Father Carota

In a very important blog post below Father Carota makes a crucuial point that we all need to take to heart when making our confession.  He says that the majority of the confessions he hears are sacrilegious mostly because he rarely hears true contrition for the sins being confessed.  Let us all pray for true contrition.  God will not ignore such an important plea because he wants us to be with him in heaven!

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http://www.traditionalcatholicpriest.com/2015/05/26/worthy-traditional-catholic-confession/

Worthy Traditional Catholic Confession

Posted on May 26, 2015

Probably, after we die, and if we make it to heaven, we will be thankful mostly for these two Sacraments, Holy Communion and Confession.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass gives us the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus into our souls by means of Holy Communion.  He gives us the strength and graces to do God’s will and to avoid offending Him.

Holy Confession has the double effect of giving us supernatural graces to avoid sinning and the opportunity to be forgiven, if, by such a disgrace, we may have committed a MORTAL SIN,  which merits damnation.  (Confession also forgives us of our venial sins too.)

We will be forever thankful in heaven to Jesus for dying on the cross to forgive us our sins in Holy Confession.  There we will truly understand the great great gift our Confessions were when we see the JUST REWARD OF ANY MORTAL SIN; ETERNAL DAMNATION TO HELL and HOW THE CONFESSING OF OUR SINS SAVED US FROM THIS TERRIBLE ETERNAL DESTINY.

We will also be extremely thankful to the priests, (if they make it to heaven), through whom Jesus pardoned our sins.  Without these priests there would have been no absolution and a sure place in hell for all eternity.  Every time you go to confession, thank God and the priest with all your heart.

But without certain conditions, our Confessions are literally SACRILEGIOUS.  I might even say that MOST CONFESSIONS today are SACRILEGIOUS.  I say this because they lack these elements.

1. TRUE SORROW FOR HAVING COMMITTED THE SINS THAT ARE BEING CONFESSED.  In hearing confessions, I rarely hear true sorrow for the sins.  The person knows he needs to go to confession and to get forgiven.  The usual reason for this is; that he feels that if he dies he could go to hell; or he knows he cannot receive communion until he has confessed.  So he confesses his sin, but without true sorrow for having broken God’s laws and offending God and others by his sin.
2. A FIRM RESOLUTION WITH THE HELP OF GOD’S GRACE TO NEVER REPEAT THIS SIN OR ANY OTHER SIN AGAIN IN YOUR LIFE.  Again what I experience are many people confessing over and over the same Mortal Sin.  This is an abuse of the Holy Sacrament of Confession and does not work.  At the very least, there has to be some improvement in how many times this sin is being committed, (and what really confession is about), or completely stopping this sin before and after you walk out of the confessional.  If you are truly sorry for your venial and mortal sins, I highly advise having stopped the mortal sin for a while BEFORE going to confession.  If we are not sorry for our sins confess and we keep on sinning, it is like smashing someone in the face, apologizing and going right back to smashing them in the face over and over again.  Every sin we do crucifies Jesus Christ on the Cross.  Do we want to do it over and over again and keep on asking Him to forgive us?
3. DO PENANCE AND MAKE RESTITUTION.  There is always some penance given in Holy confession.  Be sure to do it as soon as possible.  If you have confessed stealing something, restore it to the person you stole it from.  (If what you have done is grave and could put you in the danger of going to jail, you do not have to do this, but you have to make up for it by donating money to the church or to a poor person).  Go and apologize to the person you offended.  Correct the wrong you did.
4. FROM NOW ON, AVOID WHAT EVER WILL LEAD TO SINNING.  If looking at pornography on your smart phone is leading you to sin, you have to get rid of it and get a phone that just calls and texts.  If ‘friends or family’, (I call them devils), lead you to sin, you have to stop being with them.  A huge one is boyfriend, girlfriend doing sexual things together.  In order to go to confession, they need to not touch each other period.  But they do not want to do this, and yet keep coming to confess the same sin over and over again.  That is why God put family around us, so that in company of good people, we are not going to fall into shameful sins.  We are extremely weak.  Let us not fool ourselves that we can be near PEOPLE PLACES OR THINGS that have lead us to sin in the past and that they are not going to have the same effect again.

If you happen to be stuck in what is called ‘Habitual Sin’, are truly sorry, and really want to stop sinning, I want to STRONGLY advise you to go to confession every time that it is offered, (In our parish that means 4 times a week), and to go to daily Latin Mass.  I am not saying this so you can keep on sinning.  NO this is so you can stop sinning.  You say, I made it to confession with out sinning mortally this day, then the next two days, until you are free from the grave possibility of falling into sin again.

A great help is to run to Jesus and Mary at the slightest thought or temptation to sin.  Pray a Hail Mary.  Pray the St. Michael’s Prayer.  Then run away from what ever is causing the temptation.  Avoid thoughts, actions, people and things that lead you to fall, right away.

We are so blessed to be traditional Catholics and to be able to go to daily Holy Latin Mass and to Confession often, so as to avoid offending God and going to hell for EVER.