Examining our Relationship with Confession

Megan Cottam reviews Sophia Institute’s new book, Frequent Confession by Fr. Benedict Baur.

Since we are on the topic of confession, let me start with one of my own:

I thought I knew enough about the sacrament of Confession to reap the spiritual benefits it could provide my life. I returned to the sacrament in my college years, and that second “first” Confession was a powerful experience that had engraved its purpose on my soul. I would later be the head catechist for parish children and their parents journeying through this sacrament, responsible for engaging and inspiring them to seek out the beauty of this gift of our faith. As a current diocesan leader in sacramental formation, I cannot count the amount of trainings and presentations I have given on this theme. What was there left to learn?

It turns out, thanks to the wisdom of Fr. Benedict Baur, plenty!

Frequent Confession

If you have found yourself someone who attends reconciliation services during Lent and Advent, and occasionally you avail yourself of the sacrament a few times throughout the season of ordinary time, then Frequent Confession is the book to challenge you this Lent to go deeper.

Fr. Baur weaves deep theology with prayerful questions to help us all analyze our relationship with the sacrament itself. He walks us through the importance of making Confession a habitual practice, which bears fruit in a virtuous life. He has an impressive ability to couple logical argument with compelling witness.

The premise of the need for frequent Confession is explained through the lens of building our conscience. Fr. Baur explains:

We must avoid evil and do good. From this basic principle, with the help of experience and instruction and study, we build up gradually a system of morality, and what we call conscience develops; that is, we make individual judgments on the morality of our personal actions here and now and feel ourselves under obligation with regard to them. (51)

Our conscience functions as a muscle; when we give it practice and examination, it grows stronger, allowing us to discern right from wrong and live out the Christian virtues habitually. Yes, it is wonderful to know our faith. But what if acting out our faith could become a reflex of the heart? Frequent Confession provides us the training to hone our Christian skills by bringing intentionality into all we say and do.

In today’s world, we owe to our children the witness of the counter-cultural practice of examining our conscience regularly and growing our Christian virtues. There is deep power in having our children see us examine our conscience, seek guidance in the Lord for change, complete penance out of respect and sincerity for our sins, and strive to love our Lord with pure hearts.

Fr. Baur tells us that this is our goal of the sacrament of Confession: not guilt, punishment, or fear, but learning to embrace, experience, and give authentic love. He states:

It is this divine, holy, supernatural love, and it alone, that rises up to God with a holy audacity, with the simplicity of a child. (205)

This book is meant to be absorbed, chapter by chapter, prayerfully, until our small habits are guided by a penitential heart, always longing to seek to love God more fully, more authentically, and more consistently. Give yourself the gift of Frequent Confession, by Fr. Benedict Baur, today!

Ask for Frequent Confession at your local Catholic bookseller, or order online from Amazon.com or the publisher, Sophia Institute Press.

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