Start Advent with Confession!
(c)Mateo Ivankovic 2017 December 5, 2017 Dear Family of Mary! November 25, 2002 “Dear children! I call you also today to conversion. Open your heart to God, little children, through Holy Confession and prepare your soul so that little Jesus can be born anew in your heart. Permit Him to transform you and lead you on the way of peace and joy. Little children, decide for prayer. Especially now, in this time of grace, may your heart yearn for prayer. I am close to you and intercede before God for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Advent is a time of conversion. We turn our attention to the coming of Jesus as our Infant King. And our impulse is to prepare ourselves for His coming, through conversion. How can I make Jesus more the center of my life? How can I turn more and more to Him? In this message, Our Lady tells us to start with Confession. As I was praying about this, I turned to St. Faustina’s Diary and found this very helpful entry. It is about Confession. She wrote: Concerning Holy Confession. We should derive two kinds of profit from Holy Confession: 1. We come to confession to be healed; 2. We come to be educated-like a small child, our soul has constant need of education. 0 my Jesus, I understand these words to their very depths, and I know from my own experience that, on its own strength, the soul will not go far; it will exert itself greatly and will do nothing for the glory of God; it will err continually, because our mind is darkened and does not know how to discern its own affairs. I shall pay special attention to two things: firstly, I will choose, in making my confession, that which humiliates me most, even if it be a trifle, but something that costs me much, and for that reason I will tell it; secondly, I will practice contrition, not only during confession, but during every self-examination, and I will arouse within myself an act of perfect contrition, especially when I am going to bed. One more word: a soul which sincerely wants to advance in perfection must observe strictly the advice given by the spiritual director. There is as much holiness as there is dependence. (Diary 377) Don’t you love St. Faustina’s understanding of Confession? We come to Confession to be healed!! Do we actually believe this? We come to Confession to be healed. It is a miracle of love. Jesus removes the sins from our hearts. He removes the guilt and the shame. And He renovates our hearts with words of blessing and healing. He speaks words through the priest that will transform us, free us, change us! Confession is the Sacrament of healing! And Confession provides education. We have all heard of the “Teachable Moment”. When a child makes a mistake, the parent can use that mistake as a way to give the child the tools he or she needs to succeed next time. Well, in Confession the priest has us at a teachable moment. We have confessed our sins, our failings, and we are acutely aware that something needs to change. At that moment the priest may teach us something about the spiritual life that will help us going forward in life, and if he doesn’t, Jesus will. Jesus will speak to us somehow to take advantage of our teachable moment. We will learn about how much He loves us!! We will see how His love will make things different, if we accept it! So, Confession during Advent is fantastic!! Let’s go to Confession as much as we can before Christmas! We want to be healed and taught so that we can rush to the stable to adore our Lord with abandon!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2017 PS. Mike Nolan has produced two new CDs: “Oh Jesus, We Adore You!” (A collection of songs used for Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in Medjugorje. It is very prayerful and peaceful!) “The Mary TV Soundtrack!” (A joyful compilation of the music used on Mary TV! ) CDs are $15.00 each, and you can order them directly from Mike Nolan 574-335-9952 [email protected]