Confession Part 4

"Bless me Father for I have sinned.
My last confession was on the 18th or 19th of December 2005.
And since then these are my sins..."

It's 6 days to Easter and my soul is due for a bout of springcleaning.

Catholics are obligated to go for at least one confession a year, usually at the close of the Advent season just before Christmas. However we are also encouraged to "purge" during Lent - a period marked by sacrifices and the reflection of our sinfulness - and prepare for "new life" in synchronicity with the resurrection of Jesus during Easter. Essentially this means Confession is on the cards because it frees us from our bad needs, leaving anew our "interior self".

I'm always nervous about Confession. Not so much because of what I have to confess. I'm just not good at remembering the proper steps involved. Maybe because I am always self conscious about not being able to hear the priest's advice or the penance I'm supposed to do.

My last confession was done 3 minutes before the weekday 6pm Mass. I remember Father Andrew Volle sitting under the wall behind the altar, on which Christ on the Cross was hung. At that time, still weak from his hip replacement surgery (Father Volle is a very old priest, you see), his heavily French-accented voice was still soft. So if I'm not mistaken, penance was 2 Hail Mary's and 1 Our Father. If I was mistaken...oh dear.

I always forget the Act of Contrition. too. Yet it is the important prayer we say after confession, when the Priest prays over us to absolve our sins. It is not very long but the traditional language in which it is couched does make it tougher on the Small Sponge to retain.

The Act of Contrition is meant to be a sincere admission to the Lord of our sins - one that acknowledgesof how they hurt Him - plus a cry for His powerful grace to help us avoid sin. Even the near-occasion of it. Oh and it's also a promise to not sin again (i.e which means effort on our part is required.)

Anyway, to avoid having to keep checking About.com for the words to the Act, I'm going to plaster it here instead.

"Oh my God, I am deeply sorry for my sins. I detest my sins because of your just punishments. But most of all because they offend Thee, who art all-good and deserving of my love. I firmly resolve with Your Grace that I will sin no more and avoid the near occasion of sin."