Before and After Confession. | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Before and After Confession. | Previous Challenge Entry
By ebot agborndip
05/15/09
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My brother sinner, this is the preparation you must undergo before you repent and go to confession. Know firstly that repentance, according to St. John, is a returning from the devil to God, which comes about through pain and ascesis. So you also, my beloved, if you wish to repent properly, must depart from the devil and from diabolical works and return to God and to the life proper to God. You must forsake sin, which is against nature, and return to virtue, which is according to nature. You must hate wickedness so much, that you say along with David: "Unrighteousness have I hated and abhorred" (Ps. 118:163), and instead, you must love the good and the commandments of the Lord so much, that you also say along with David: "But Thy law have I loved" (ibid.), and again: "Therefore have I loved Thy commandments more than gold and topaz" (Ps. 118:127). In brief, the Holy Spirit informs you through the wise Sirach what in fact true repentance is, saying: "Turn to the Lord and forsake your sins Return to the Most High, and turn away from iniquity, and hate abominations intensely" (Sir. 17:25-26).
Seondly, just as you would sit down and count your money after a certain business transaction, in like manner go to a particular place, my brother, especially at the beginning of the four fast periods of the year, sit down in that place of quietude, and bowing your head, examine your conscience, which Philo the Jew calls: "The testing of the conscience," and become: "Not a defender, but a judge of your sins. Consider, like Hezekiah, the whole span of your life in sorrow and bitterness of soul: "I will ponder all my years in the bitterness of my soul" (Is. 38:15). Consider also how many sins you committed in deed, word, and by coupling with thoughts, after you last confessed, counting the months, weeks, and days. Remember the people with whom you sinned and the places where you sinned, and diligently reflect upon these things in order to find every one of your sins.
After haven confess your sins,give thanks to God for having forgiven you once again and ask Him to give you the grace to go and sin no more for its only God who gives us the grace not to sin any more. If you recall some serious sin that you forgot to tell, rest assured that it has been forgiven with the others, but be sure to include it in your next Confession.

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