Such a beautiful, consoling, and instructive book about the Sacrament of Penance, will change your perspective forever on going to Confession!
Chapter 1, “The Sacrament of Penance the Special Sacrament of the Compassion of Jesus” focuses primarily on how this sacrament manifests to us the special tenderness of the love of Our Lord, and how it “draws us to itself by the effusion of special gifts of grace.” We are told how in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ draws us upwards to Himself, whereas in the Sacrament of Penance He stoops down to listen to us, and to open His Sacred Heart to us in the midst of our sins and in the hour of our greatest miseries. It evokes thoughts of the Good Shepherd seeking after the lost sheep.
Then the author presents some of the reasons why we should approach Confession with love rather than with any fear or anxiety. He also contrasts Baptism with this sacrament and later goes on to say, “He [Our Lord] desires to forgive us more than we desire to be forgiven. He loves us even more than we love ourselves [that must be a lot!]. He thirsts for our salvation more than we desired to be saved; and it is in and through and by the Sacrament of Penance that He unfolds to us the full tenderness and compassion of His Sacred Heart in the midst of our miseries and sins."
Chapter 2, “The Sacrament of Penance as a Means of Self-Knowledge” quotes from various saints and outlines how this sacrament is the means of self-knowledge. This is also a very interesting and very enlightening chapter!
Chapter 3 is about how this sacrament is a means of perfecting our contrition – which is obviously worthwhile doing, so this is invaluable information! The author explains “at the outset of our conversion or life of penance, our sins, though they be so many, all seem as one. They are all mingled in confusion, and they conceal each other and themselves by their multitude and their complication… It is only gradually that we begin to see the multitude of our sins, and then they seem to us to surpass all number. As we draw near to them, they disengage themselves and stand out one by one; and what we once thought from a distance to be but one separates itself into an infinity of particles. So our sins stand out, each one, in its distinctness of kind, of number, and of circumstance.”
“And as this process is advancing, so also our sorrow is increasing.”
“The Sacrament of Penance the Sacrament of Reparation” logically follows as the next chapter. An explanation of the penance imposed on us in our absolution is presented, but it also sets before us “what ought to be the life-long fruit of this Sacrament. It teaches that all the life of those who have been absolved, ought to be spent in satisfaction for the past” which is surely a most useful truth to have deeply impressed permanently in our minds!
We are enlightened as to what this spirit of reparation consists, and then shown how it is infused and perfected in the Sacrament of Penance.
A firm admonition that we “need to be indignant with ourselves for our habitual inclination to self, for the love and worship of our own will, for our waste of life and time and the natural powers which God has given us, for the neglect of our visitations and opportunities, of graces and of sacraments” will surely ‘cut to the quick’ of every reader of these words of utmost veracity.
Finally, the chapter on Penance being the “Sacrament of Perseverance” emphasises the great utility of frequent and fervent Confession as we are reminded of Our Divine Lord’s words, “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved” [St. Matthew, x, 22], which is also to say, “and no other shall.” He declared this truth again, thus “No man, putting his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God” [St. Luke ix, 62] and again, “Remember Lot’s wife” [St. Luke xvii, 32].
The entire book, though quite short, is one that will prove of great value to us all in our efforts to work out our salvation!
Love of Jesus to Penitents is available in the True Restoration Store.
