Last week, in the first of two lessons from the Baltimore Catechism No. 2 discussing Confession, we took a big-picture view of this central action of the Sacrament of Penance. This week, we learn how to make a good Confession.
A good Confession is less about following a series of steps (though the lesson outlines those) than it is about approaching the sacrament with humility. Calling to mind the date of our last Confession, and telling it to the priest, helps both him and us to judge whether we have made use of the sacrament as often as we should. Throughout our Confession, we need to confess our sins fully and completely and be honest with our confessor if he asks us for further details, so that he can provide not only absolution but advice to help us avoid the same sins in the future.
After he has given us our penance, and before he gives us absolution, the priest will ask us to make an Act of Contrition. In it, we not only acknowledge our sorrow for the sins that we have confessed, but we express our desire never to sin again, and to take advantage of the sacrament if we do fall.
Often, especially if it has been a long time since our last Confession, we leave the confessional with a sense of relief. Most of that relief, of course, is the grace of the sacrament working within us, but there is also the very human experience of relief that comes from acknowledging that we aren't perfect and that we have work to do in our moral and spiritual lives.
Lesson Twentieth from the Confirmation Catechism has 7 questions. Note that the lesson begins with Question 224, continuing with the numbering from Lesson Nineteenth.
There is no parallel lesson this week in the First Communion Catechism. The lessons in the First Communion Catechism will return next week, when we discuss indulgences.
Check out this week's lesson, and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or ask them in the Catholicism Forum!
Previous Lessons in Sunday School:- Welcome to Sunday School!
- On God and His Perfections
- On the Unity and Trinity of God
- On Creation
- On Our First Parents and the Fall
- On Sin and Its Kinds
- On the Incarnation and Redemption
- On Our Lord's Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension
- On the Holy Ghost and His Descent Upon the Apostles
- On the Effects of the Redemption
- On the Church
- On the Attributes and Marks of the Church
- On the Sacraments in General
- On Baptism
- On Confirmation
- On the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Ghost
- On the Sacrament of Penance
- On Contrition
- On Confession
I’m a little confused about the Act of Contrition. When I was younger (I’m in my 40’s), we were taught to say an Act of Contrition before confessing our sins. My children have been taught to say it afterwards. Did the order change?
Deborah, I’m 41, and I was taught to say the Act of Contrition at the end, before receiving absolution. The text of the Baltimore Catechism that I’m using is from the early 1900’s, and it has the Act of Contrition at the end. Every reference work I have (many going back to the 1930’s) that discusses Confession places the Act of Contrition at the end.
Now, when we were taught how to go to Confession (I made my first Confession in 1976), we were taught to make an Act of Contrition as part of our examination of conscience before entering the confessional. Is it possible that that is what you’re thinking of?
Scott,
I vividly remember being asked by the pastor of our church to say an Act of Contrition right after saying “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned…” As an adult, I have not been corrected by my pastor for saying it out of order. Perhaps because I get almost as emotional receiving this Sacrament as I do the Eucharist.
Thank you for the clarification.