#catholiciscool

I’m really struggling to keep my mouth shut. I can see why people feel it is okay to cheat, lie, and steal. Pick a news story - Ashley Madison stories, any political/election story. We live in a society where anything goes. I feel blessed that I know people of many faiths - Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, Agnostic, Protestant, Methodist, Baptist, Non-denominational Christian. But we are different.

First, there are two things that will keep me Catholic - the Eucharist and history. One part of my history, which is in the Bible, is the act of Confession. Many people believe in Confession, but it takes a different form depending on your belief system. In the Catholic faith we confess our sins to a priest and then have Penance, an Act of Contrition that can include prayer but above all includes a change in behavior. 

The problem with society today is that we do something wrong and after confessing we feel we can do it again. The reason I like that we in the Catholic faith confess to a priest has many parts. First, you have to say it to someone out loud. God knows our sins. We do not need to vocalize it unless we are saying it to someone else because He already knows. Saying it to a priest, not just your best friend, takes a different form.

Second, the priest offers advice to avoid that sin. After many confessions and many moves, I have found a priest who is a great confessor. He gives me advice - great advice - on how to be a better person. He gives you an Act of Contrition which can vary from prayers to actions. For example, one time my penance was to practice being quiet. A lot of my sin stemmed from things that came out of my mouth (yelling, hurtful words, etc), so being quiet was indeed a penance and a difficult thing to do. 

Third, you can go to confession as much as you want. The church requires you to go at least once a year. I go once a month. To be honest, I had a 14-year gap between Confirmation and finally reaffirming my faith shortly before my marriage. I didn’t know a lot back then, and I hope I have learned a lot since then. Once a month allows me to remember specific things and make a good Confession. Can you imagine a whole year of every time you lost your temper, every lie, every bad thing you may have done to someone else? It is too much to remember. The Act of Contrition allows for sins you don’t remember, but still, at the end of our lives I picture Jesus with a big book about me. I want the good side to outweigh the bad side - by a lot. This includes what I confess. My punishment becomes less, but the effects of my sin do not disappear. (I will save my thoughts on heaven, hell, and purgatory for another time)

The Old Testament has 10 commandments. They are really good commandments, ideals to be a good person. In the New Testament Jesus makes everything new. He summarized the 10 into 2 - in short love God, love each other. The problem with people today is people love themselves, then other people, and maybe God, but not really. If we put God first, as in we try to emulate Jesus and how he treated others, then we will treat others right, too.

We teach our daughters that God comes first, others come second, and then everything else, to include ourselves. Before you do anything, if you honestly think What Would Jesus Do?, half the time you will probably not do it. And being forced to confess because you were found out is not confessing. It is being found out. Once saved, always saved, right? It doesn’t work that way. It is hard to be a good Christian. It is even harder to be a good Catholic. 

Nothing is worth doing if there isn’t some challenge. Just look at marriage, and raising children. Oh wait, you can get divorced, abort your child, pass your kids off to others so you do not need to parent. I know there are laws that allow these things, but if you look at the state of society, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.