Understanding Sin, Contrition, and Confession
This teaching explores the nature of sin, the importance of contrition, and how to properly prepare for the Sacrament of Confession. It explains the difference between original sin and personal sin, as well as mortal and venial sins, and how each affects our relationship with God, others, and ourselves. The talk emphasizes the role of true sorrow—both perfect and imperfect contrition—and clarifies that repentance is an act of the will, not just a feeling. It also provides practical guidance on examining one’s conscience, confessing sins clearly, and approaching confession with humility, honesty, and a desire for spiritual renewal.
MC: Adam Hohn
Parochial Vicar: Tyler Arens
Presenter: Michael Philpott
Deacon: Rick Freedberg
Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus
Jackson Michigan & Surrounding Area Catholic Parishes
Queen of the Miraculous Medal: https://queenschurch.com/
St John the Evangelist: https://saintjohnjackson.org/
St Mary Star of the Sea: https://stmaryjackson.com/
St Joseph Oratory: https://saintjohnjackson.org/new-here/st-joseph-the-worker-oratory/
Our Lady of Fatima: http://www.fatimaparish.net/
St Rita: http://www.stritacatholicparish.com/
St Catherine: https://stcatherinelaboureconcord.org/
Audio Trasnscription
Okay, so to lay the groundwork, we'll talk about sin for a little bit, then we'll talk about contrition, and how important that is as a preparation to engage in confession, and then we'll get into some practice. So first then, there's a lot of ways that you can divine and divide them up, but what are the two main concepts of sin, at the very beginning when we think about it, before we get there? What's the sin that we are baptized to help us with? Original sin, right? So as St. Paul says, sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin. And so death spread to all men, because all men sinned.
Right, so the overwhelming misery that we have that oppresses us and brings us that inclination to evil and death, right, cannot be understood apart from Adam's sin, and then its effects on us. This is the big, big difference between Christianity and every other religion, because God created us good, but we recognize the brokenness, and that there's a way back to how we were before, and even better, through Christ's redemption. No other faith has anything like that.
Most religions kind of go somewhere along the fact of, the spirit is good, the body is evil, and we need to escape the body, and no, the body is good, God created us, the soul is good, God created us, but there is something broken that needs to be fixed. Okay, and then actual sin is then the sins that we commit, right, through, you might remember this, thought, word, deed, or omission. Okay, so these are the things, right, these are the things we do or don't do.
Sometimes we forget that last one. The effects of sin, it breaks in disorders our relationship with God, with others, and with ourselves. So the world wants to tell us that things are only wrong if they hurt other people, but if it's not hurting anybody, it's okay.
But we forget about God, and we forget about ourselves often. So many of the things that we do wrong in life, right, are breaking that relationship, so that's why we owe God his honor, we owe others our love, and then our relationship to ourselves. Okay.
Okay, so conditions of sin, again, thought, word, deed, or omission, willful, we have to want to do it, and then it's contrary to the law of God. So easily said, ten commandments, that's the quickest way, but then also considering with Christ, and then the Church has elaborated in its teachings on faith and morals to help us understand the Ten Commandments, right? So, you know, thou shalt not kill, while we also understand that means thou shalt not get into a fistfight with anger in your heart, right? Okay, so now we're at, we said it earlier, divisions. Mortal and venial sins.
Okay, so mortal sin. Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law. It turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end, and his beatitude, so the vision of beauty.
By preferring an inferior good to him, right? Because as Aristotle tells us, we don't desire anything that isn't a good, right? But that original sin twists those goods, right? The devil whispers in our ear that things are good to do, but again, they actually harm and break the relationships in our lives. So, it removes us from the state of grace that we gained through baptism when we were washed of original sin, brought into the state of grace, brought back into a full relationship with God, and then when we commit mortal sin, it breaks that and takes it away, and as anybody who's ever committed a mortal sin knows, something in your heart's not right, you know? All of a sudden, you get angry more easily, you know? You just feel discontentment. You feel separated from others.
It's harder to engage. It's harder to open yourself. So, it's a very real thing, and it deeply affects us.
Okay, so more catechism stuff. What are the conditions for a mortal sin? Does anybody remember? This might be digging deep. Grave matter, intent, consent, right? So, grave matter, again, the easy way to think about that is Ten Commandments.
Gravity of sin can vary by circumstance. Sometimes, you know, again, you know, one of the classic examples is stealing is wrong, right? Okay, if it's a hungry orphan child in an alley, and they are otherwise going to starve, and they steal an apple, that's a big mitigation, okay? But even when it is real, so if I steal a candy bar from a store, that's wrong, and that's really wrong, but it's not as wrong as if I stole a car from an elderly person who needed that car in order to get to her doctor's appointments and live, right? So, the gravity increases based on those circumstances. Full knowledge.
So, you have to know that it's a grave matter, and that's why it's very important for us to develop our consciences well. And that's a lifelong struggle, and sometimes we can start to slip in it and start to think, you know, kind of normalize certain things, and then that's why it's important to always bring ourselves back, put ourselves in front of the Eucharist, you know, pray for a good conscience. And ask questions, if ever in doubt.
We'll get more to that later. And then complete consent. So, it's got to be very wrong, we have to know it's wrong, and we got to do it anyway.
But then the consent comes in, obviously, if you are from coercion, you know, or force, you're forced to do something, you know, then that is not in your consent, even though the matter itself might be grave, you know, if you were forced. If you were, you know, drugged or something like that, that's a mitigating aspect. Okay, another way to think about sins, you have the Ten Commandments, but another good way to think about it are the Capital Sins, or otherwise the Seven Deadly Sins.
They're called Capital Sins because they're like, capital comes from Latin, capo, head, right? And so, think of them as headings in a column, right? So, can anybody give a stab at remembering the Seven Deadly Sins? Greed, Pride, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, I think we got them all. Lust, okay. But, just to go into confession, for instance, and say, oh, I had lust in my heart.
But that's not an action, we gotta be a little bit more specific than that. But those are good guidelines to keep in your head when you're examining your conscience. And then there's venial sin, which is, I'm sorry? Venial sin, misdemeanor, right? So, charity is not erased from our heart in that, okay? It allows it to subsist.
It's not necessary to confess them per se. If you only have venial sin in your heart, that's why at Mass, we have the penitential rite, and then communion will heal that wound and that relationship. However, it's good to confess them as an act of devotion, and confession gives us the grace to avoid it in the future.
Okay, contrition, and I think in many ways, this is the most important part, okay? So, contrition is sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again. Now, there's two types of contrition, perfect contrition and imperfect contrition. Does anyone know what perfect contrition is? And not those.
Anyone? I'm going to guess. That's exactly it. You are sorry because you hurt God, that you recognize that God loved us above all else, and despite that, we've broken that relationship, and that is why I'm sorry.
That's the goal of contrition, is to have that, because that is why things are wrong. And so, that's what we would like to have in our hearts. And in fact, if you have perfect contrition, and you are sorry for your sins from perfect contrition, which includes a desire to confess your sins as soon as possible, that is considered, like, that will not be a problem if you were to die.
In fact, I know in Japan, you know, they had the Jesuit missionaries go there initially, and then Japan locked it down, locked down their country. They were trying to avoid Western influence, and they very much persecuted Christians. But there was a remnant of those who converted to the faith from when the Jesuits went there, and they maintained their Catholic community for generations before the country was able to open back up.
But they didn't have access to the sacraments, because they didn't have any priests. And so they relied on perfect contrition. And so they very much cultivated that aspect.
Now, imperfect contrition is, I don't want to go to hell. I feel really bad. I see the effects of sin.
I did that thing. I really hurt that person. Oh, I feel guilty, right? That's imperfect contrition.
That's enough. That's enough to have in your heart to then approach the sacrament of penance and receive forgiveness. So even though we strive to have that higher type of contrition of sorrow because we hurt God, it's not always easy to do, right? So imperfect contrition is fine.
It gets us to the confessional to seek the grace, to receive the grace, to get our sins forgiven, and to not sin again. So as I said before, it's mortal sins, absolutely necessary, venial sins, even they need to be repented of, repented of. And then an important thing to remember is that contrition is not a feeling.
Feelings are involved, but it's an act of will. So sometimes you may have experienced, I know I have, where sometimes you're just like, I just don't feel sorry. Like, I am sorry.
I know it's wrong, but I just don't feel it. And so should I go to confession? Yeah. So you may not feel it, but you have the act of will.
You recognize, again, that it fulfills those conditions of something that's wrong that needs to be confessed, that God wants you back into his love, okay? It's good to stir the feelings of contrition in our heart, but it's not necessary. So I wanted to bring that up just in case that's something that anybody was doubtful of, you know, never let just a pure emotion of any kind get in the way between you and getting the forgiveness and reconciliation with God that you need. Okay.
Confession preparation. Trying to get a little bit more practical. We'll probably move through this more quickly, and then we'll close.
So, in general, approach it like it's the last one that you're ever going to have, every time. So we want to enliven the contrition in our hearts, ask for God's mercy, ask for enlightenment to know our sins, ask for the grace to hate sin, ask for the grace of contrition, of perfect contrition, right? So these are prayers. So when you go in, you're getting ready to go to confession, pray for these things, right? Even before you get to the examination of conscience.
Pray for these things, get yourself in the right state of mind, put your heart in the right place, and then go into an examination of conscience. I wanted to print out an examination of conscience, but there's a lot of examples, and some of them are much longer than would fit on a half page. Plenty of resources out there, but if you haven't in a while, it's a good idea to get a good print in one as a refresher.
Sometimes we can fall into routine with kind of just kind of like, okay, did I do this? Okay, all right, I'm good to go. And that's okay sometimes, but go find yourself a good print out copy and go through it the next time you go to confession here in Lent. Just be real thorough about it.
It's just a good exercise to do. So at a minimum, we need to identify all of our unforgiven mortal sins. And remember that each instance of a mortal sin is a unique, serious offense against God.
And that's why if you have a mortal sin, you should confess how many times. And I know sometimes I can feel burdensome or like, now are we getting the checklist territory? It is necessary to do it to the best of your ability, right? Get as close as you can. Confessing venial sins is good too, right? For again, we receive grace to avoid them in the future, but again, you don't necessarily need to go into how many times and all of that.
You can keep the venial sins simpler. The method, 10 commandments is a good baseline. Again, the capital sins.
It's important not to forget the laws of the church, right? So go to confession once a year, receive communion once a year during Easter time, all those types of things. So if you find a good examination of conscience, it should have those on there as well. Remember going to mass every week on Sunday, that is a requirement of the church.
That is somewhere in great matter if we do not fulfill that obligation. And then include any circumstances that may affect the sin's gravity. Be considerate of all the people in line behind you, right? So try not to be in there for a half an hour, right? So that's why it's important.
Again, the examination of conscience can help us be efficient. The priests will appreciate that as well. They have a lot of people that they need to talk to on Saturday mornings and afternoons.
But put in as much detail as you need to, right? In order to, you know, sometimes it's not just the sin. Sometimes there's a whole story behind it. If you need to tell the story, tell the story, okay? Question, do I write them down when I do an examination of conscience? Different thoughts about that.
I'd recommend if you do, write them in code just in case you drop it. Because you do want to maintain the, you know, just as a priest has the seal of confession where he cannot speak of what is given in the confessional. It's this kind of same thing with you, trying to keep that between you, God, and the priest as the intermediary.
One thing in modern times, there is, I know there's some discussion in priest circles about phones in confessionals. Some people use their phones to maybe put down their stuff. Phones are little listening devices in our pockets.
So probably best to keep them out of the confessional. We don't know where society is going and all this kind of thing. You know, it's not a rule, but something to think about.
Okay, in the sacrament of penance, this will be really quick, because we all know this. We all should know this. I go into the confessional.
I sit in the chair. I kneel at the kneeler. Whatever your flavor is.
Make the sign of the cross. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been X amount of times since my last confession.
I've stirred contrition in my heart. I've done an examination of conscience. And now I can very simply and plainly list out my sins.
It's always easier than we think it is before we go in. Include those important circumstances. Ask for guidance if you need to.
It's not spiritual direction, but if you need guidance, if you need to, if your conscience, I'm not sure, I'm trying to form my conscience, ask the priest. He'll give you the guidance that you need. Listen to the priest's advice.
Don't be afraid of it. Receive and remember the acts of penance that the priest gives you. Doing penance is a necessary part of the sacrament.
It's actually the final step. So it's, even though you do receive absolution, it's sort of kind of contingent upon you doing the penance. So make sure that you do that before you go through communion.
And then, so hopefully the priest gives you one that is easy to do in that time. I remember when I was a kid, you know, you're doing confessing kid stuff. It's like, I want you to do something nice for your brother and sister.
And it's like, man, I only got a couple hours to figure something out before the end of the day and tomorrow's Sunday. So then you say your act of contrition includes, the act of contrition includes all of those elements of contrition that we discussed. Mean every word when you say it.
Receive the absolution and thank the priest. It's quite a calling that they have to hear all of our dirty laundry every week. So say thank you.
Post confession, do your penance immediately. And then spend some time, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer, ask for perseverance, right? So that you don't have to come back again, even though you know you will. And then praise, praise the Lord for bringing us back into this relationship, for having redeemed us on the cross and given us new life and resurrection.
All right, final note, this is a side thing. If you have never done a general confession, it's something to think about. I've done one once, and it was 25 years ago.
But a general confession is some, it's an act, it's a devotional thing. Very often it's something you would do on a retreat, right? It's not something that you do walking on a Saturday again. And that is a confession of your whole life, or since the last time that you had a general confession.
So even the sins that you've been to confession for, you've been forgiven. That's why it's a devotional thing. But sometimes it can be a really good, like, just cleaning out, right? Maybe hitting some circumstances that you've reflected on since then.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but you may not know that it is such a thing to do. So something to think about if it's of interest. Okay, so we'll close with a prayer.
So on the tables is a prayer before confession. I thought this would be a good thing. This is the prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas before confession.
And that's kind of the older style, with the thees and the thous. So I thought it was a good way to close out and put our hearts in a place where we find a relationship with God. Okay, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
To thee, O God, the fount of mercy I draw near, a sinner. From my uncleanness, therefore, deign thou to cleanse me. Enlighten my blindness, O Son of Justice.
Bind up my wounds, O Eternal Physician. Thou King of Kings, clothe my nakedness. Lead me back, good Shepherd, to the field from which I have strayed.
Thou Mediator between God and man, clear away my guilt. Have pity, O God, on my misery. Grant indulgence to my crimes.
Restore my life for death, virtue for impiety. And to my stubbornness, apply thy saving grace. O thou most clement one, call me back from fleeing from thee.
Draw me when resisting, raise me when I fall. Support me, having risen, and lead me as I walk. Do not forget me when I forget thee, nor turn thou away when I forsake thee.
Despise me not in the midst of my sins. By sinning, I have offended thee, my God. I have injured my neighbor.
I have wounded myself. By my very weakness, O my God, have I sinned against thee, the Father Almighty. Out of my ignorance against thee, the all-wise Son, through my malice against thee, meek Spirit of God, thus have I offended thee, most excellent Trinity.
Alas for my misery! How many and what great faults of diverse kinds have I committed? I have abandoned thee, O Lord. I have murmured against thy goodness. And when confronted by base pleasure or deterred by misfortune, I have preferred, rather than to lose thee, than to forego the things that allure, to offend thee than to incur the things that I fear.
O my God, how far I have gone astray in word and deed. I have sinned in secret and in public with stubborn defiance. Hence, I beseech thee that because of my weakness, thou wilt not regard my iniquity, but thine own immense goodness.
And bestowing upon me sorrow for the past and care for the future, wilt mercifully forgive what I have done. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
And then there's another handout on there. It's just a quick summary of some of the points from the talk. If you have something that might be useful the next time you go to confession, feel free to take it with you.
Awesome. Round of applause for Michael. A couple of things.
One that many men, I don't think, realize is the church asks that all people over the age of reason, that they go to confession at least once a year if they're aware of any mortal sin. So minimum precept of the church, at least annually. I recommend a little bit more frequently.
You guys are probably a lot better than I am, but I find that I need to go to confession probably monthly, maybe sometimes more often. Cool thing, there is a sheet on your table, and it has the penance services and the weekly confession times for the parishes around here. So this past Thursday night, I went to confession with my two elder sons.
We went to Our Lady of Fatima for the penance service. I think there were eight priests, and I think each one of them only needed to hear like three people's confessions, maybe four. It was not wildly attended.
It was not like a packed house at Our Lady of Fatima. It's an amazing, amazing grace that God has given us this sacrament, and I think a lot of people are just afraid to go to it. There is a penance service today at 10 a.m. upstairs.
So it's 7.38. So in two and a half hours, there's going to be a penance service upstairs, which means that there's going to be a minimum of six or seven priests, maybe more, hearing confessions for as long as it takes. And then there are penance services on the 19th, the 23rd, and the 24th, if you like many options for hearing for different priests, and then the regular confession schedule. So that's on your table.
If it's not on your table, it's on a table near you so you can get it. We're going to take a couple minutes for people to refill coffee and get more bagels or donuts, and then we're going to have some discussion back at the tables. I forgot to ask about announcements.
And so Mark has some announcements. We're going to do those, and we'll see if there are others. Just real quick, two things.
One is you've all heard about the rosary ministry. We're doing that again today at 9.30. You can still do that and get back here because they're doing confessions from 10 to noon. So if you don't miss, you can do both.
Something really cool last two weeks ago when we did the rosary, because again, it's the second and fourth Saturday of the month. Most of you guys know Brandon and Mike. Would you guys stand up for a moment? Go ahead, stand up.
Stand up. You know why we stand up? Because I'll be starting to talk. Okay, but we were doing the rosary.
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