A Lay Cistercian Reflects on Mercy, Forgiveness, Confession, and Penance to grow in faith, love and service.
Going to Confession, for me, has always been like going to the dentist; you know you need it, but it is painful and often seems irrelevant. Why? I don't usually go around committing the "biggie" sins, called mortal, because they cause a break in the covenant relationship between God but also with the ecclesia (bodies of the faithful believers).I do fail at loving God with all my heart and soul almost every day.
God did not just instruct us about how to act as believers, as he certainly did in the Old Testament admonitions, but also shared our human struggles to SHOW us how to love fiercely. to receive life-giving grace so that we might not be led into temptation. The Lord's Prayer, often under-appreciated for its complexity of thoughts, comes from Jesus Himself, and sets the tone for trying to love God with all your mind, your heart and your strength (Deuteronomy 6 and Matthew 22:34). As a Lay Cistercian. I am seeking to grow deeper in Christ Jesus by looking at the Sacrament of Reconciliation, with its profound components of mercy, forgiveness, confession and penance as helps to sustain me to live in the midst of a secular world of temptation and missing the mark (sin).
This is a workbook to help you organize your spiritual life. The Rite of Reconciliation's four components (Mercy, Forgiveness, Confession and Penance) are essential to not only confessing your sins, but professing your need for Christ's redemptive grace each day.