How to Look Forward to Confession

Confession can feel uncomfortable, intimidating, and even burdensome. However, the sacrament of confession is one of the greatest gifts from God. How can we understand that better? Mike Gormley and Dave VanVickle explain the joy and goodness of confession. They share their own feelings about the sacrament and how they have worked to overcome sin in their own lives.

Snippet from the Show
If you truly understand confession, you will realize how freeing it is.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Paragraph 1422

"Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion."

CCC, Paragraph 1431

Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).

Tips from Mike and Dave

• Dave: Take a season of your life to get “good” at confession. Learn more about confession, self-knowledge, all of it. Make a habit of confession.
• Mike: Study grace. The better you understand grace, the better you can understand sin and repentance. This understanding will help you be more convicted to sin no more.