Part 1, Chapter 19
A special thanks to Fr. James Rafferty for his help with the post. His email to me helped me to be able to reflect and write this post. Many of his ideas contributed to this. So thank you Fr. James Rafferty!!!!!
Just 13 posts ago, that is back in Part 1, Chapter 6, I wrote on confess because that is what St. Francis De Sales wrote about. Now we have made it through the 10 meditations and we return to confession, but this time with a twist: (okay, he mentioned the twist before) General Confession. So, if we need overall information on confession, click on the link that goes back to that post. “Contrition and confession are in themselves so lovely and sweet-savored, that they efface the ugliness and disperse the ill savor of sin” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 29). At any confession though, any serious sins (mortal sins) must be confessed. This post will cover more about a general confession. Please read the whole post as it will cover a lot on the subject before discerning if God is calling us to make a general confession.
A General Confession is used at different times in one’s life. It should be something that is discerned about with either one’s spiritual director or confessor to determine if this is a good step for one to take. It would be good to sit down with a priest and discuss the idea outside of confession about doing a general confession. General confessions do not normally happen during the regular confession time as they take longer and need to go at a slower pace, so normally people will schedule something with the confessor outside of the regular confession times. A general confession can be suggested to someone who is going to be making a big step in their lives (I know before I was ordained a deacon, I made a general confession). Another example would be someone preparing for marriage might want to think about making one. It could also be that someone is looking to go deeper into their relationship with God (like finishing the meditations that we just did), and now wants to let go of some things.
A general confession is not intended to have us rehash sins; rather it looks at sinful patterns, roots of sins and looks to bring great healer to the one confessing. When preparing for a general confession, one should ask for the light of the Holy Spirit to help one be ready to confession what is needed. Remember, we are not confessing sins again that we have been forgiven for; rather we are going deeper into the healing process. A general confession looks at our attitude towards sins, pattern of sins, bad habits (vices), lies that we believe about ourselves, it is meant to go deeper than our usual confessions.
The best preparation, once it has been determined that we are indeed ready for a general confession, is to pray. This prayer preparation should take some time; it shouldn’t be something that we do hastily. Preparing with prayer may take a few days in which we spend a little bit of time each day on this. Either way, time should be spent in praying with the light of the Holy Spirit to shine in our hearts helping us to know what we should confess.
A general confession is about bringing healing. It is about shining the love of God ever deeper in our hearts. We should experience His love, mercy, healing, forgiveness and joy. Now that you have read this, ask the Holy Spirit if He wants you to take this step at this point in your life, and if the answer is yes, then visit with a priest to discern further how this is to be done.
PS. I seem to have more to say on this subject than our Saint, I guess that is why he is the SAINT!!!!