
St. Peter Damian, Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Dear Family of Mary!
Friday, August 6, 1982 (Feast of the Transfiguration) A response to questions which were asked concerning Confession:
“One must invite people to go to Confession each month, especially the first Saturday. Here I have not spoken about it yet. I have invited people to frequent Confession. I will give you yet some concrete messages for our time. Be patient because the time has not yet come. Do what I have told you. They are numerous who do not observe it. Monthly Confession will be a remedy for the Church in the West. One must convey this message to the West.”
Fr. Leon speaks about the 5 Stones of Our Lady – the Fifth Stone – Confession:
The last stone is Holy Confession. Our Lady says: “Got to Confession at least once a month. Make a sincere and humble confession of all our sins. If the West went to Confession at least once a month, whole regions of the West would be converted.”
Now, to confess your sins, I have a little formula that will help you. All you have to do is remember these three words and you will know how to confess. The sentence is: CONFESS YOUR SINS. And by emphasizing each word you will see.
1. Confess. It has to be a confession. If you come and say “Father, maybe I did this, maybe I did that.” The priest may be thinking: “Maybe I absolve you, maybe I don’t.”
2. Confess YOUR sins. They must be yours. “Father, my husband makes me so mad. He’s such an idiot. I think he does it deliberately. Still he is not as bad as my daughter-in-law. Oh, I don’t like her. I don’t like the way she is raising my grandkids. Still she’s a saint compared to my pastor. He’s doing all these old-fashioned things; I don’t like it.” OK. You only confess other people’s sins, I am happy to absolve them, but you can go to hell…Remember, confess YOUR OWN sins. Life is too short.
3. Confess your SINS. Do not confess emotions, feelings, sentiments. Confess sins. “Father, my brother is an addict, and I didn’t give him any money. Now I feel so bad.” Father says, “You did the right thing.” “I know but I feel so bad.” “Well you did the right thing.” “I know, but I still feel so bad.” “Well you need therapy.” Do not confess feelings.
Resist the temptation to tell stories. (I’m saying this on behalf of all the priests.) “Father, last Tuesday, no I tell a lie, it was Bingo night, I remember. The doorbell rang and I went to look through the peep hole, and it was my friend, Betty. And I was so frightened I went out my back door, and put on my brown shoes, not my black ones, then I leapt over the hedge into the alleyway. And in the meanwhile, Betty ran around back, and she caught me, and she said, ‘Oh Mildred, you are wearing your brown shoes, not your black shoes.'” You know while you do all this, the poor priest is there thinking, why are you telling me this, was it a fashion faux pas? Just confess your sins. You don’t have to tell the whole story.
And one last thing. I want you to remember that confession is not just the forgiveness of sins, it is God giving us His grace, to change us. It is really like a spiritual ATM Machine. What if an ATM was just throwing out all this money? And you can take as much as you can carry. If you knew this how often would you go? How many would go every day? A few honest people. Everyone would go every day!! If you would do this for rotten treasure, how much more would you go for treasure in heaven, where thieves cannot break in and steal, and moths cannot destroy.
So, remember that in Confession God gives us the grace to change our lives. Don’t be afraid of Confession. The priests do not care about your sins. We don’t remember you. We don’t look at you and think, “Oh your dirty past, I know what you have been up to.” No, we do not. I’ll tell you the truth, when someone confesses their sins, I think how holy they are. When someone comes in and tells me how holy they are, it makes me sad. Then you are closed to grace. And people do that. They tell you “I’m amazing!!” Don’t do that. Just confess your sins humbly.
If you find it hard to confess it is probably because you are not going often enough. If I go skiing every 7 years, am I going to be a world class skier? No! If you don’t confess your sins regularly, you are not going to be good at confessing. But don’t be afraid of it. And do not worry about what the priest thinks. We do not care. And besides all of you go to the next parish to confess, right? I know. I was a pastor once.
These are the Five Stones:
Pray with the Heart. Pray the Rosary from the Heart.
Holy Mass. Prepare for it and make a thanksgiving. Receive Christ in a state of grace.
Holy Bible. Read it every day.
Fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. Pray for the grace to be able to fast. And in case you are wondering, she means 24 hours – all of Wednesday, all of Friday. Bread. People ask me can I have raisins on it, or oatmeal. Bread (which is not cake) and water (which is not vodka or gin).
Confession. At least once a month, or if you need to go more often, then more often. Humbly confess all your sins.
These are the Five Stones. The are Our Lady’s simple way of converting us. And actually, if you look in the Catechism, in the section on conversion, you will see the Five Stones listed there. But she said this before the Catechism was written. Our Lady has a very simple way to lead us to Jesus. Don’t think of it as boring or difficult. Do it! Do it while you have the time. Because we don’t know how much time is left to us. I’m not talking about the apocalypse; I just mean that you might be crossing a road and be knocked down and die. It could be the end of the world for us personally any day, today. It could be my last day. But live in such a way that you are ready to go. Whenever that moment might be. Then you might find that you are living without worrying about anything anymore.
God bless you. God love you.
(https://marytv.tv/fruit-of-medjugorje/ Fruit show 355)
July 2, 2007 “Dear children! In the great love of God, I come to you today to lead you on the way of humility and meekness. The first station on that way, my children, is confession. Reject your arrogance and kneel down before my Son. Comprehend, my children, that you have nothing and you can do nothing. The only thing that you have and that you possess is sin… Be cleansed and accept meekness and humility. My Son could have won with strength, but He chose meekness, humility and love. Follow my Son and give me your hands so that, together, we may climb the mountain* and win. Thank you.”
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2020