Tag: Confession

Only Then

Every year since 9/11/2001, people have gathered at Ground Zero, in front of the Pentagon and in a remote area of Pennsylvania for somber and dramatic remembrances of their personal loss. A heartrending, personal loss brings them together. The more...

Everyday Dirt

One of my favorite weeks of the year right now is the residency week for a spiritual direction program I am in. This program requires me to travel each June to the St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville, North Carolina. The 2018 week was a...

Loving Anyone or Anything More than God

A little boy went camping with his parents for the first time. The family was at a national park in the mountains, and the boy was fascinated by everything he saw. One morning he went off exploring by himself, and came to an overlook set above a...

Our Transition from Pride to Humility

I know it couldn’t have happened, but imagine that the Pharisee in the famous Gospel parable had gone to confession. No doubt the exchange with his confessor would have gone something like this: Pharisee: Bless me, Father, for my wife, kids...

Secular Salvation

I know many people in today’s society who carry around grave burdens of guilt that often eat them alive. Throughout the first 60 years of the last century, the Catholic confessional stood tall, dark and a little mysterious. Still, millions of...

Ten Reasons For Not Going To Confession—And A Response

1. “I have nothing to confess.” Except for Jesus Christ and His Mother, no one—not even the saints—can truly make this claim. Scripture says that even the just person sins seven times a day (cf. Proverbs 24:16), and Jesus...

We Prefer Our Illusions

Outside Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, is the Mosque of the Ascension—a 900-year-old Crusader church built on the site at which Jesus is said to have ascended into Heaven. (The church was later turned into a mosque by the Moslems, who honored...

Loose Habits

Acid-tongue comedian George Carlin passed away in June of 2008. I never cared for his vulgarian brand of humor, especially his profane references for women who picket abortion clinics. Catholics have a much kinder brand of humor, one that is...