Shownotes
Feedback from other episodes
- A listener introduces Jeff to a saint in his “spiritual posse”—St. René Goupil
Intro to this episode’s topic—cleaning up your past and offering it to the Lord (6:00)
- We are created in the image and likeness of God
- We have will, intellect, capacity to love
- God is omniscient and omnipresent. He is yesterday, today, and tomorrow
- We, on the other hand, are limited by the constraint of being in one place at one time
- Often we dwell in our past, and focus on our past failures, regrets, and missed opportunities
- We can learn from yesterday and be encouraged by what has happened yesterday, but Satan is always looking to use yesterday as a mallet to beat us down—our shame, regrets, memories of sin
What Sins in Our Past Do We Need to Clean Out? (12:00)
- Pope Pius XII “The Sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.”
- We need to determine what is and isn’t sin in our past
- What things in our past keep us in shackles?
- (14:25) Shame?
- When something that was meant to be kept private was made public
- Maybe it’s something we did; maybe it was something others did to us
- (16:25) Regret keeps you in a loser’s mode
- (18:20) Unforgiveness
- (14:25) Shame?
Scriptures to help us move away from the past and look towards the future with hope (21:20)
- Philippians 3:13-14
- Jeremiah 29:11
Clean Out These 5 Rooms of Your Heart (23:30):
- Living room—Examine your relationships and your speech.
- Family room—Look at your entertainment and media consumption. What do you do for entertainment? Am I being healthy?
- Bedroom—Are you living chastely, whether single or married? If married, do you need to forgive something that's happened in the past between you and your spouse?
- Kitchen—What do you eat and drink? Are you being temperate? Are you experiencing gluttony? Are you being moderate with your alcohol consumption?
- Hall Closet—The sins you’ve hidden away in the dark. No one else knows, and you’ve never dealt with it.
Basic Elements of a Good Confession
- Don’t be afraid of going to confession—sometimes it helps to go behind the screen
- The priest cannot talk about anything you confess. It’s completely private
- CCC 1431—Repentance….
- Exodus 20
- Reflect on basic Christian virtues
- Place yourself in front of the Holy Spirit
Mechanics of Confession (33:10)
- “Bless me father…”
- Confess any mortal sins and number of times. Then confess any venial sins.
- Make an act of contrition- “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because of thy just punishment, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love.”
- The priest will give you absolution and a penance to help you heal.
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