New Year’s Spiritual Resolutions - Part III (Confession)

“In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance.”--St. Thomas Aquinas

The sacrament of Confession is an extremely important and underutilized sacrament. It is extremely important because we know that we are sinners - that we miss the mark at times. We need a do over, a new start with God and with each other. The sacrament of confession is indeed the medicine we need in this fallen world to continually repair our relationship with God and others. We receive the forgiveness of Original Sin in baptism and all personal sins when we are baptized as an adult, but the effects of Original Sin are still present - concupiscence. Concupiscence means we still struggle with the temptations to sin and weakness in resisting sin. It is the reality we experience when our disorder passions lead us to do acts that our intellect forbids.

Read More