Encouragement for Confession

[RCA]

Hi everyone

Does anyone know any quotations which might help encourage a friend of mine to go to confession - for example Saints or bible quotations.

As many as possible please ,

Thanks,
RCA

 

[Joannm]

Hi everyone

Does anyone know any quotations which might help encourage a friend of mine to go to confession - for example Saints or bible quotations.

As many as possible please ,

Thanks,
RCA

We can quote all we want, I have found that the best way to get people to go to confession is by personal witness. When they hear how much going to confession has helped you, how it changed a loved one’s life, how a hardened sinner came to know Jesus by accepting His forgiveness. The best witness is from someone who had not been to confession in years and then came back to the sacrament.

If you must give written evidence I would select passages from Faustina’s Diary on confession. I found them quite beautiful.

 

[japhy]

Claude Newman

Claude was a convicted criminal in jail when he received visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He converted to Catholicism while awaiting execution. Here’s an excerpt:

Several weeks passed, and it came time when Father O’Leary was going to give instructions about the Sacrament of Confession. The Sisters too sat in on the class. The priest said to the prisoners, “Okay, boys, today I’m going to teach you about the Sacrament of Confession.”

Claude said, “Oh, I know about that!”

“The Lady told me,” said Claude, “that when we go to confession we are kneeling down not before a priest, but we’re kneeling down by the Cross of Her Son. And that when we are truly sorry for our sins, and we confess our sins, the Blood He shed flows down over us and washes us free from all sins.”

 

[RCA]

Thanks

 

[PhilotheaZ]

From St. John (Jean) Vianney, the Curé of Ars (a French parish priest in the 1800’s, patron of parish priests, who spent long hours every day hearing confessions) :

"When we go to confession, we ought to understand what we are going to do. It might be said that we are going to unfasten Our Lord from the Cross. When you have made a good confession, you have chained up the devil. The sins that we conceal will all come to light.

“In order to conceal our sins effectually, we must confess them thoroughly. Our faults are like a grain of sand beside the great mountain of the mercies of the good God.”

For more of his profound words, read his “Catechism on Confession” at catholicforum.com/saints/stj18019.htm .