Add This Book to Your Family’s Confession Prep

Lindsay Schlegel delights in a new children’s book from Scott Hahn and Emily Stimpson Chapman that explains why we need Confession.  

Lord, Have Mercy

by Scott Hahn and Emily Stimpson Chapman

Publisher: Emmaus Road

It might seem silly to take a defense of a sacrament scribed by a prominent Biblical scholar and translate it into a rhyming book for children, but that is exactly what Scott Hahn and Emily Stimpson Chapman have done in their latest book, Lord, Have Mercy. And it works.   

Hahn and Chapman have teamed up before, in Mary, Mother of All and The Supper of the Lamb. (These adapt material from Hahn’s books for adults, Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God and The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth, respectively.) 

Artwork by Tricia Dugat, founder of Providential Co., adds depth and beauty to each of the three books in the series.  

Initially I had it in my mind that this was a book about Confession and thought it would be great to read with my first-grader, who is in his first of two years of sacrament preparation at our parish. Having read the other books in the series, I should not have been surprised that the book is much more than that. Yes, it is a sound resource to prepare for first Confession. But it will be a profound read for every Confession thereafter as well.  

From One Garden … 

Beginning in the Garden of Eden, Lord, Have Mercy explains not just what Confession is, but more importantly, why we need it. Adam and Eve sinned when they ate the fruit and again when they attempted to hide from the Lord. The authors make an explicit connection to the contemporary reader in the last few pages, but even five pages into the story, we can see ourselves:  

The lie Satan told had planted a seed, 
which lodged in their souls and grew like a weed. 
The seed was the fear that God would not heal: 
His grace was too weak; His love was not real.  

For young ones, appreciating the gravity of the pride in Adam and Eve’s eating a piece of fruit they weren’t supposed to can be tough. It might seem too abstract — no one gets in that much trouble for taking an extra cookie at snack time. But the real sin was believing God was too weak to heal, that His love was insufficient. Satan has kept this narrative up for centuries:  

No matter the sin, he counseled the same: 
“It’s safer to run and not take the blame. 
Deny and accuse, elude and evade,  
but never confess to those you’ve betrayed.” 

A child may need help in understanding what “elude” and “evade” mean, but most kids can relate to wanting to hide when being called out for an error in judgment. On the page opposite this stanza, we see an image of the newborn Christ, vulnerable and yet “Stronger than Adam and wiser than Eve, / He came to defeat the one who deceived.” Makes you want to stand up and cheer, doesn’t it? 

… to Another 

The narrative takes us into the Garden of Gethsemane, and illustrates in a powerful (but kid-friendly) way, how the story of Christ’s victory is our victory too. We will need to contend with Satan throughout our lives, but the victory — praise God! — is already won.   

In my work as a children’s book editor, I read a lot of manuscripts that rhyme. Most often, my counsel is that the rhyme isn’t needed, and that in fact the text would read more freely without such constraints. That’s not the case here. This rhyme helps make the material not only accessible but approachable for a young audience, which is its own kind of triumph.  

What works so well about this book and the two prior books in the series is that Hahn and Chapman do not shy away from spiritual realities. The material is never watered down. Hahn and Chapman present not their ideas or personal opinions, but the truths of our Catholic faith. Those truths are meant for everyone, for all the baptized, for every child of God.   

With books like these to nourish them, the next generation will be well prepared to rejoice in Christ’s victory as their own.  

For even more on Confession from Scott Hahn, check out Lord, Have Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession. 

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Copyright 2025 Lindsay Schlegel
Images: Canva