General Confession
from A Mission Handbook
A general confession is a repetition of the confessions of your whole life or of a certain part of it.
"A general confession", says St. Francis de Sales, "is for the majority of Christians a necessary means of salvation. It gives us a more complete knowledge of ourselves; it fills us with a wholesome shame at the sight of our sins; it relieves our mind of much anxiety and gives peace to our conscience; it excites in us good resolutions; it shows us God's wonderful patience and mercy towards us; it enables our confessor to direct us more safely; and, finally, it so dilates our heart, that we are ever after able to make our confession with greater confidence."
The inestimable advantages of a general confession are best appreciated at the hour of death, that dreadful moment, on which a whole eternity depends, — when the soul is about to be summoned before the tribunal of the Supreme Judge. Let us hearken to our divine Redeemer's warning: "Watch ye and be ye ready, for . . . the Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not, and at an hour that he knoweth not" (Mat. 24, 42 44 50).
A man came one day to a priest to make a general confession. He said: "Am I not to die? After a life like mine I cannot die in peace, unless I make a general confession. If I put it off till my last illness, I shall hardly be able to make it at all. My bodily pains, my worldly affairs and the thoughts of my family will so distract me, that I shall scarcely be able to think of my soul. I must therefore make a good general confession while I have the time and the ability to do so."
If then, dear Christian, you find that a general confession is not only useful, but even necessary, do not put it off. Make it at once and make it well. When you lie down tonight think that this night may be your last, and say to yourself: "Were I now on my deathbed, what would I wish to have done?" Do not let the devil deceive you with the vain pretext that you have no time, that it is too difficult for you now to make a general confession, or that you will be better able to do so later. All such pretexts and delays only endanger your eternal salvation.
For whom is a General Confession necessary?
It is necessary for all adults who have never been to confession, and for all those whose confessions are sacrilegious.
He who has never made a good confession, must make a confession of his whole life.
He who has made sacrilegious confessions during only a part of his life, must confess since his last good confession.
1. He makes a bad confession who, through fear, shame or malice, willfully conceals or essentially misrepresents a mortal sin, or the number of his mortal sins.
2. He who, through sheer carelessness in his examen of conscience, omitted a mortal sin, or who purposely confessed any of his mortal sins in such a way as not to be understood by the confessor; he who chooses a confessor because he is deaf, or does not understand his language, and therefore cannot properly question him and give him the necessary admonitions.
3. He who will not give up the immediate occasion of sin.
4. He makes a bad confession who confesses his sins without supernatural sorrow, or without the firm purpose of avoiding sin and the proximate occasion of sin.
5. He makes a bad confession who does not sincerely intend to restore, as far as possible, the property or good name of his neighbor.
6. He who will not be reconciled with his enemy and sincerely forgive him.
7. He makes a bad confession who does not renounce forbidden secret societies, and he who is ignorant of the principal mysteries of faith, or who, through his fault, knows little or nothing of the Commandments of God and of the Church, the nature of the Sacraments he receives, and the necessary duties of his state of life.
All these classes of penitents are unworthy of absolution. If they receive absolution, it is worthless and sacrilegious in the sight of God. They are bound, under pain of eternal damnation, to make all such confessions over again.
For whom is a General Confession useful?
1 It is useful for such as wish to begin a new life, and to serve God more faithfully and fervently. Experience teaches that many Christians, after a good general confession, lead fervent and virtuous lives.
2. It is very useful for those who are about to marry, or to enter the religious or the ecclesiastical state, or to assume an important office, or to undertake a dangerous journey.
3. It is useful for all who wish to make a serious preparation for death.
A general confession is one of the best means of securing peace of conscience and preparing for a happy eternity. Many good Christians make every year a review or general confession. It makes them more humble, and preserves them from falling again and again into the same sins.
Those who are unreasonably scrupulous should not make a general confession without the express sanction of their confessor. They should obey him like good children and make frequent acts of contrition, and refrain from excessive examination of their conscience.
