Mourning past sins?

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A lot of people are buzzing about a future event they call the illumination of conscience which is a mini life review for each person on earth at the same time. They cite the diary of St. Faustina among others. They claim that even those who are in the state of grace will see all their past sins and mourn. But then I saw this quote from St. Padre Pio:
"Any mental picture of your life that focuses on past sins is a lie and thus comes from the devil. Jesus loves you and has forgiven you your sins, so there is no room for a downcast spirit…”

So who’s right here? I’m confused.
 
A lot of people are buzzing about a future event they call the illumination of conscience which is a mini life review for each person on earth at the same time. They cite the diary of St. Faustina among others. They claim that even those who are in the state of grace will see all their past sins and mourn. But then I saw this quote from St. Padre Pio:
"Any mental picture of your life that focuses on past sins is a lie and thus comes from the devil. Jesus loves you and has forgiven you your sins, so there is no room for a downcast spirit…”

So who’s right here? I’m confused.
St Faustina’s writings are private revelations, and Padre Pio was just speaking as a private teacher and possibly as a mystic. There is no need to try to reconcile these two things. Neither of them are matters of faith. Not to sound crude, but Padre Pio was merely stating his own opinion — a well-informed opinion, to be sure, but he was not speaking with the ordinary infallibility of the magisterium.

I would welcome, with all my heart, an instant and simultaneous worldwide illumination of all souls — a “reality check” for all people who choose to live in sin, mortal sin, while numbing themselves down and lying to themselves, assuring themselves that their sins are not really sins, or that even if they are, God wouldn’t punish them for it with eternal damnation.

I detest my past sins, and I suppose you could say I “mourn” them, but I do not spend a whole lot of time thinking about them. We’re not supposed to. In that respect, Padre Pio is right.
 
But, the idea that we would see the sins we already confessed seems contrary to the teaching of the church. Right?

I thought that once we confess our sins God blots them out completely. Am I missing something?
 
But, the idea that we would see the sins we already confessed seems contrary to the teaching of the church. Right?

I thought that once we confess our sins God blots them out completely. Am I missing something?
I have no way to answer that. That’s way above my pay grade.

I have wondered, though, that if God does, indeed, forget our sins once we’ve repented of them, and as you put it, “blots them out”, what, then, about temporal punishment due to sin? What about all of the repented sins for which we haven’t done sufficient penance and satisfaction for in this life, and for which we have to suffer in purgatory? Seen that way, I have to question whether Almighty God truly “forgets” them or “blots them out” — obviously there is still some kind of “memory” or “record” of them, otherwise, how could temporal punishment be insufficient and in need to being inflicted, either in this life (through prayer, penance, sacrifice, and mortification) or in the next (purgatorial punishment)? To use a homely temporal example (my years as a financial accountant showing here…) is it kind of like having paid back the principal on a loan, but still having accrued interest that needs to be paid?

That, too, is way above my pay grade.
 
Do you have a reliable source for the Padre Pio quote?
There are many, many, many quotes dubiously attributed to that great saint.

However, if we assume that he or another holy person actually said this quote, it sounds like it is focusing on people who dwell on past sins they’ve already confessed and been forgiven for, in our daily lives, not on any sort of supernatural “illumination of conscience” event. We see on here people who can’t let their past sins go even after confession and absolution. They should follow the advice in the quote attributed to Padre Pio.

St. Faustina’s diary is approved private revelation, but we are not required to believe approved private revelations. Nevertheless, it is often thought that when we are judged by God after our death we will have some sort of a “mini life review” which may include us being sad for our sins. This idea is present in a lot of private revelations over the centuries, both approved and not approved. We do not know for sure if this will happen for us (or for some people and not for others) until we die.

With respect to the idea of a big moment at the Last Judgment when we all review our lives, we simply don’t know for sure if that will happen either. If Christ is right there running the show, obviously whatever happens won’t be “from the devil” at that time.
 
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St. Faustina’s diary is approved private revelation, but we are not required to believe approved private revelations. Nevertheless, it is often thought that when we are judged by God after our death we will have some sort of a “mini life review” which may include us being sad for our sins. This idea is present in a lot of private revelations over the centuries, both approved and not approved. We do not know for sure if this will happen for us (or for some people and not for others) until we die.
My understanding of this prophecy is that, out of the sheer mercy of Almighty God, the whole world will at some point get a kind of “conviction”, as the Protestants put it, and will for a brief instant see their sins precisely as they are — not as they would like for them to be.

I would welcome this with all the joy in my heart.
 
Well, that may be, but I tend to think that the possibility of me dying first and having my personal judgment day before God is greater than the possibility of me hanging around until Christ returns for the second time, just based on the odds of how many people throughout history have died rather than hung around till the end of the world already, and that “we do not know the day or the hour”.

Society these days is obsessed with end times speculation to an unhealthy degree. They could be spending that energy improving their relationship with God instead of fussing about some prophecy that they will most likely not even be around to experience.
 
I understand, or assumed, that in the Last Judgement, there would be a review on display for all to see of past sins. A mini-review then, I suppose?
 
The Benedictines have it, I think.


Rule of St Benedict: Chapter 4, "What are the Instruments of Good Works
In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
Then, one’s neighbor as oneself.
Then not to murder.
Not to commit adultery.
Not to steal.
Not to covet.
Not to bear false witness.
To honor all (1 Peter 2:17).
And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
To chastise the body.
Not to become attached to pleasures.
To love fasting.
To relieve the poor.
To clothe the naked.
To visit the sick.
To bury the dead.
To help in trouble.
To console the sorrowing.
To become a stranger to the world’s ways.
To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
Not to give way to anger.
Not to nurse a grudge.
Not to entertain deceit in one’s heart.
Not to give a false peace.
Not to forsake charity.
Not to swear, for fear of perjuring oneself.
To utter truth from heart and mouth.
Not to return evil for evil.
To do no wrong to anyone, and to bear patiently wrongs done to oneself.
To love one’s enemies.
Not to curse those who curse us, but rather to bless them.
To bear persecution for justice’s sake.
Not to be proud.
Not addicted to wine.
Not a great eater.
Not drowsy.
Not lazy.
Not a grumbler.
Not a detractor.
To put one’s hope in God.
To attribute to God, and not to self, whatever good one sees in oneself.
But to recognize always that the evil is one’s own doing, and to impute it to oneself.
To fear the Day of Judgment.
To be in dread of hell.
To desire eternal life with all the passion of the spirit.
To keep death daily before one’s eyes.
To keep constant guard over the actions of one’s life.
To know for certain that God sees one everywhere.
When evil thoughts come into one’s heart, to dash them against Christ immediately.
And to manifest them to one’s spiritual guardian.

To guard one’s tongue against evil and depraved speech.
Not to love much talking.
Not to speak useless words or words that move to laughter.
Not to love much or boisterous laughter.
To listen willingly to holy reading.
To devote oneself frequently to prayer.
Daily in one’s prayers, with tears and sighs, to confess one’s past sins to God, and to amend them for the future.
Not to fulfill the desires of the flesh; to hate one’s own will.
To obey in all things the commands of the Abbot or Abbess even though they (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord’s precept, “Do what they say, but not what they do.”
Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy, that one may be truly so called.
 
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Well, that may be, but I tend to think that the possibility of me dying first and having my personal judgment day before God is greater than the possibility of me hanging around until Christ returns for the second time, just based on the odds of how many people throughout history have died rather than hung around till the end of the world already, and that “we do not know the day or the hour”.

Society these days is obsessed with end times speculation to an unhealthy degree. They could be spending that energy improving their relationship with God instead of fussing about some prophecy that they will most likely not even be around to experience.
Did Faustina say that this worldwide illumination would take place just prior to the end times, or just at a random (in our eyes) moment in human history?

I may be showing my Baptist/fundamentalist cultural upbringing (I wasn’t raised in it, but I was raised with it all around me) in saying this, but I console myself with the thought that the Antichrist will have to come, and reign for three-and-a-half years, before the end, so obviously the “end times” are at least the better part of four years away, and probably far beyond that. That hasn’t happened yet.

I do strongly suspect that the coronavirus is one of the plagues prophesied in Revelation, possibly one of the seven seals being ripped off.
 
I thought that once we confess our sins God blots them out completely. Am I missing something?
When we confess our sins and they are forgiven, we are restored to a right relationship with God, but here on earth the consequences of our sin remain.

Consider, for example, what happens when we gossip about someone, After we confess that sin and receive God’s forgiveness, the person’s reputation is still harmed. What we said, we cannot unsay. In addition, there may be consequences of consequences. For example, the person may lose a job or a spouse because of what we said.

At the Final Judgment, we will see everything as it is. You might think that this will be a crushing humiliation, but don’t forget that God’s mercy is far greater than our sins. Right now, it is easier to see our faults and failings. It is difficult to believe that God can bring about good from our sins. On the Last Day, we will see God’s salvation plan in all its glory. Our sin, as bad as they are, will be seen in the context of God’s love, and we will rejoice and give thanks.
 
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Did Faustina say that this worldwide illumination would take place just prior to the end times, or just at a random (in our eyes) moment in human history?
What Faustina actually said in her diary, in other words the approved revelation, is:
Write this: before I come as the Just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort:

All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day.
That’s pretty much all the detail she goes into. I note that this is a small part of one page of a 400+ page book. I often wonder how many people read the other 400+ pages or do they just skip to this page and the other 20 or so pages where very brief references are made to Christ’s judgment.

The “Illumination of Conscience” in the sense of everybody seeing their sins is actually part of the Garabandal revelations and I have noticed many pages conflate the quote from St. Faustina with the Garabandal revelations. Obviously this is not a good thing as Garabandal is not approved and St. Faustina’s Diary is approved at the highest level. And, we can’t discuss Garabandal here.
 
I do strongly suspect that the coronavirus is one of the plagues prophesied in Revelation, possibly one of the seven seals being ripped off.
I don’t. The Spanish flu of 1918 was more broadly and routinely deadly. Plus, it happened during a World War that was followed not long after by another World War which made total war that included non-combatants routine, and then a Cold War that saw untold wealth spent on weapons terrible beyond telling or use while the needs of the poor were deemed something beyond addressing.

You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place. All these are the beginning of the labor pains.” Matt. 24:6-8

Here is the sign when things are really ramping up:
“Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name. And then many will be led into sin; they will betray and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and deceive many; and because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.”
(Matt 24:9-14)

Even with this is mind, what we have seen through the ages is great persecutions in isolated places, rather than in all the nations. I think this will come upon Christendom starting as the usual terrible things we have seen for centuries, but then spreading rather than subsiding in the isolated places where it comes. Indeed, Our Lord said as much:

But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In [those] days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be [also] at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.
Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
(Matt. 24:36-44)
 
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Honestly we have had so many plagues and disasters throughout human history (just look at the dozens of major plagues and disasters that hit Europe in the past) that people could have predicted the End Times many times over by now. Yet we’re still here.

It’ll happen when God wills and he’s not telling.
 
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Honestly we have had so many plagues and disasters throughout human history (just look at the dozens of major plagues and disasters that hit Europe in the past) that people could have predicted the End Times many times over by now. Yet we’re still here.

It’ll happen when God wills and he’s not telling.
On reading Matthew 24 and 25 together, we have to wonder if the trial for which we must prepare ourselves is the willingness to keep up not only with prayer and worship (which can be done in secret) but also with corporal and spiritual works of mercy, which must be done in public and by which we would be known as belonging to Christ. Are we willing to do this so ardently that we would do it even if doing charity in such a way becomes a death sentence? (And no, I don’t think it is beyond imagination that those who dare to reach out to help those that the Anti-Christ deemed worthy to be marginalized and destitute could be rounded up as rabble-rousers and enemies of his domination, that only the very few would dare to minister to Christ in the least ones at the risk of their own lives.)

"Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father." (Matt. 10:32-33)
and
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matt. 25:41-46)

Will we acknowledge and minister to Our Lord in His distress, or will we try to protect ourselves from the consequences of being known in public as one of those who believe in Him? That seems the most likely to me.
 
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The “Illumination of Conscience” in the sense of everybody seeing their sins is actually part of the Garabandal revelations and I have noticed many pages conflate the quote from St. Faustina with the Garabandal revelations. Obviously this is not a good thing as Garabandal is not approved and St. Faustina’s Diary is approved at the highest level. And, we can’t discuss Garabandal here.
Thank you for these good comments. It is entirely likely that I am conflating the two. Catholic prophecy is a sticky thicket indeed.
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HomeschoolDad:
I do strongly suspect that the coronavirus is one of the plagues prophesied in Revelation, possibly one of the seven seals being ripped off.
I don’t. The Spanish flu of 1918 was more broadly and routinely deadly. Plus, it happened during a World War that was followed not long after by another World War which made total war that included non-combatants routine , and then a Cold War that saw untold wealth spent on weapons terrible beyond telling or use while the needs of the poor were deemed something beyond addressing…
Thank you as well. Very good comments and pertinent Scriptural references.
 
Thank you as well. Very good comments and pertinent Scriptural references.
Love God, love neighbor, be willing to be hidden but don’t be afraid to be exposed.
Where can one go wrong with that? No surprise could ever harm us.

Now who is going to harm you if you are enthusiastic for what is good? But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you. Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.”
1 Pet. 3:13-17

I’ve heard a monk say that there is always a lot of question about what the oil in our lamps ought to be. He thought that if it is not prayer, prayer is definitely the way to have whatever it is, for by open-hearted prayer we will be open to the gifts God intends us to have and will also learn to disdain whatever is in the way of filling ourselves with that, and by that relationship God will not leave us wanting.
 
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