Day 29 and here we have it folks! The verse that answers the question…
“Why do I have to confess my sins to a person?” or “Why can’t I just confess to God in private?”
Well sure you can confess your sins in private… and we all should!
BUT>>>
I think I tell God I am sorry many times during the day… and how many times do I say
”God forgive me”
as I’m about to judge someone or gossip about someone!
I am sure that… there is something totally different that takes place when we confess our sins out loud to someone!
My experience is… that dark turns to light… that quite often I know something is wrong and I just keep doing it even when I have asked God for forgiveness and pray in repentance!
When I have to speak about it out loud and hear what it sounds like… something totally different happens! The truth is brought into the light!
And when I go forward I remember what was said… especially by the other person!
Sometimes we are so blinded by our sin that we don’t even see how it is hurting ourselves and others… and an objective person’s words can remove us from the snare of the evil one who has our mind in bondage!
As a crisis pregnancy counselor I can tell you that the minute a woman has a chance to hear what she is saying about the potential abortion she is ready to say yes to…
She often has a change of heart knowing that it is not really making sense…
I love that it says confess your sins and pray and be healed!
Truly the Sacrament of Confession and the Anointing of the Sick transfer grace for healing!
They make Jesus present in His Power to forgive and heal!
Confessing our sins takes great humility… but when we do so with a contrite heart, miracles of power and strength to transform us take place!
I’ve seen in my own life the Power of Confession!
And we know that it is Jesus doing the forgiving and healing through the Priest acting in persona Christi — the person of Christ.
As preparation for the Sacrament of Confession quite often I’ve told a close sister or brother in Christ my sin to be able to confess it more clearly when I am ready to go to the Sacrament–
A spiritual director is a great person to confide in — and how wonderful when you can receive spiritual direction from a Priest who can also hear your confession!
What a great gift this Holy Catholic Church that Jesus instituted… and this great Sacrament when he breathed on the apostles after rising from the dead and said,
Receive the Holy Spirit, whoever sins you forgive are forgiven and whoever sins you retain are retained.
Also when Jesus told Peter… “You are Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church… whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”
James tells us about the power of prayer and to seek it from a righteous person!
So there is something about the righteous person who prays…
Remember righteousness means acting in accordance with divine and moral law!
Someone following God whose life in is alignment with God and His laws…
He gives the example of Elijah and the power of his prayer to prevent rain and then to pray for rain… the rain in the end which caused the ground to produce fruit.
This is what we want — to seek holiness and ask the faithful to pray with and for us so that Jesus may produce in us good fruit…by sending the rain of His Spirit in power and by His grace!
SO this idea of asking others to pray for us is not a foreign concept… and it is one that leads us right to the throne of grace… and to find our Blessed Mother there kneeling before God on our behalf!
So if we believe in the word of God as inspired… then we must understand that to ask Mary the Mother of Jesus to pray for us is natural and good.
I just read the book… “Heaven is for Real”… written by a protestant pastor whose son at the age of three years old had an experience of heaven for three minutes…
Such an inspiring look into Heaven..
Anyway, the author said that he asked his son for his Catholic friends if he saw Mary in heaven…
The little boy answered… YES… he saw her kneeling before God’s throne,
and beside Jesus as He was seated at the right hand of the Father…
and…
he said she still loves Jesus like a mother loves her son!
So let us make sure that we are living in community, confessing our sins and asking for prayer as we reach out and pray for others!
Let us go to our heavenly mother and ask her to wrap us in her heavenly mantle of prayer and protection…
It takes great humility and she is the prime example!
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