Of Holy Confession.
Our Saviour hath left unto His Church the sacrament of penance or confession, to wash us from all our defilements, as often as we may have contracted them. Therefore, Philothea, never suffer your heart to remain long infected with sin, since you have so sure and easy a remedy. A soul that hath consented to sin ought to abhor itself, and purify itself as soon as may be, out of reverence for the divine Majesty, Who regardeth it. Alas! would it not be the height of folly to suffer ourselves to die of spiritual death, while we have in our hands so sovereign a remedy to heal us?
Confess yourself humbly and devoutly every eight days, and always, if possible, when you receive Communion, even though you have no mortal sin upon your conscience; for by confession you will not only receive absolution for the venial sins which you confess, but you will also receive great strength to avoid them in future, great light to discern them well, and abundant grace to repair all the harm they have done you. Moreover, you will practise the virtues of humility, obedience, simplicity, and charity, so that by this one act you will practise more virtues than by any other.
Always feel true sorrow for the sins which you confess, however small they may be, and be firmly resolved to amend your ways in future. Many, confessing venial sins through habit, and making them, as it were, the necessary seasoning of all their confessions, without giving any thought to amending their ways, remain burdened with them all their lives, and thereby lose many spiritual benefits and advantages. If, then, you confess that you have lied, even without harm to your neighbour, or that you have spoken some frivolous word, or played too much, repent of it, and firmly resolve to amend your ways. For it is an abuse to confess any kind of sin, whether mortal or venial, without wishing to be rid of it, since confession was instituted for that very purpose.
Our Saviour hath left unto His Church the sacrament of penance or confession, to wash us from all our defilements, as often as we may have contracted them. Therefore, Philothea, never suffer your heart to remain long infected with sin, since you have so sure and easy a remedy. A soul that hath consented to sin ought to abhor itself, and purify itself as soon as may be, out of reverence for the divine Majesty, Who regardeth it. Alas! would it not be the height of folly to suffer ourselves to die of spiritual death, while we have in our hands so sovereign a remedy to heal us?
Confess yourself humbly and devoutly every eight days, and always, if possible, when you receive Communion, even though you have no mortal sin upon your conscience; for by confession you will not only receive absolution for the venial sins which you confess, but you will also receive great strength to avoid them in future, great light to discern them well, and abundant grace to repair all the harm they have done you. Moreover, you will practise the virtues of humility, obedience, simplicity, and charity, so that by this one act you will practise more virtues than by any other.
Always feel true sorrow for the sins which you confess, however small they may be, and be firmly resolved to amend your ways in future. Many, confessing venial sins through habit, and making them, as it were, the necessary seasoning of all their confessions, without giving any thought to amending their ways, remain burdened with them all their lives, and thereby lose many spiritual benefits and advantages. If, then, you confess that you have lied, even without harm to your neighbour, or that you have spoken some frivolous word, or played too much, repent of it, and firmly resolve to amend your ways. For it is an abuse to confess any kind of sin, whether mortal or venial, without wishing to be rid of it, since confession was instituted for that very purpose.
Remove from your confession those unnecessary accusations which many make as a matter of habit: I have not loved God as I ought; I have not prayed with as much devotion as I ought; I have not loved my neighbour as I ought; I have not received the Sacraments with the reverence I ought, and the like. The reason is that, in saying this, you say nothing particular that can make your confessor know the state of your conscience; for all the saints in Heaven and all the men on earth could say the same things, if they were to confess. Examine, therefore, what particular motive you have for making such accusations; and when you have discovered it, accuse yourself of your fault simply and plainly. For example, you accuse yourself of not having loved your neighbour as you ought; perhaps this is because, having seen some very needy poor person whom you could easily have helped and relieved, you took no care of him. Well then, accuse yourself of this particular fault, and say: having seen a poor person in need, I did not help him as I could have done, through negligence, or hardness of heart, or contempt, according as you discover what motive gave rise to your fault. Likewise, do not accuse yourself of not having prayed to God with all the devotion you ought; but if you have had voluntary distractions, or have neglected to choose the proper place, time, and posture in order to say your prayers attentively, accuse yourself of this quite simply, according as you find that you have failed, without speaking of these generalities which neither help nor hinder in confession.
Do not content yourselves with telling your venial sins as to the deed alone, but accuse yourselves also of the motive that induced you to commit them. For example, do not content yourselves with saying that you told a lie without harming anyone; but say whether it was through vainglory, in order to win praise or excuse yourselves, or through foolish mirth, or obstinacy: if you sinned in the course of a game, say whether it was through desire of gain, or for the pleasure of conversation, and so of the rest. Say, moreover, whether you lingered long in your sin; for the length of time ordinarily increases the fault greatly, there being a great difference between a passing vanity, which will have crossed our mind for a quarter of an hour, and one in which our heart will have delighted for a day, two days, three days. We must therefore declare the deed, the motive, and the duration of our sins. This is not to say that one is always obliged to be so exact in declaring venial sins; one is not even absolutely bound to confess them; but those who would gladly purify their soul, in order to attain more perfectly to holy devotion, must be very careful to make known exactly to the spiritual physician all their wounds, even the smallest, that they may be healed of them all.
Do not fail to say what is necessary to make the nature of your offense well understood, such as the reason you had for becoming angry, or for showing yourself indulgent toward some vice. For example, a man who displeases me will say some slight jesting word to me; I shall take it amiss, and become angry. But if another, who was agreeable to me, had said as much or even more, I should have taken it well, and should not have been angry at all. I shall therefore say, in accusing myself, that I gave vent to words of bitterness, having taken amiss something that was said to me, not because of the words themselves, but because of the person who said them to me, and who was disagreeable to me; and if it is still necessary to specify the words, so as to make you understand me clearly, I think they should be told. For in thus accusing oneself simply, one lays bare not only the sins one has committed, but also one’s evil inclinations, habits, occasions, and other roots of sin; by which means the spiritual father may better judge the state of the heart he is treating, and the remedies to be applied thereto. Nevertheless, you must always keep those who have taken part in your sin from being exposed, as far as may be possible.
Beware of a number of sins that often live and reign in the conscience without our perceiving them. They are matter for confession, and care must be taken to rid oneself of them. To this end, read attentively Chapters VI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXXV and XXXVI of the third part, and Chapter VIII of the fourth.
Do not readily change your confessor; but, after having chosen one, continue to give him an account of your conscience on the appointed days, telling him simply and frankly of the sins you have committed; and from time to time, say once a month, or once every two months, make known to him the state of your inclinations, even when there has been no sin on your part—as, for instance, if you are troubled by sadness or grief, or inclined to joy or to the desire to amass wealth, and so forth.
Do not readily change your confessor; but, after having chosen one, continue to give him an account of your conscience on the appointed days, telling him simply and frankly of the sins you have committed; and from time to time, say once a month, or once every two months, make known to him the state of your inclinations, even when there has been no sin on your part—as, for instance, if you are troubled by sadness or grief, or inclined to joy or to the desire to amass wealth, and so forth.