Frequent Confession is Essential for the Soul

David Martin | The Daily Knight

Parable of the Pharisee and Publican

In the wake of Modernist innovation and the new Mass of Vatican II, countless errors have crept into the Church including the presumptuous error that venial sins needn’t be confessed.  

For instance, the Sacrament of Penance is now called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is an error since it implies that one doesn’t need the sacrament if he is already reconciled to God. This indeed is an untruth because any sin is an offense to God and needs to be confessed.  Christ didn’t institute the Sacrament of Penance just for mortal sins but to provide us with a regular means of cleansing ourselves of venial sins so that we can move forward with more liberty toward the sight of God.

Concealing Venial Sins Leads to Greater Sins

A deliberate attempt to not confess venial sins to a priest could lead to mortal sin and in some cases it could even be a mortal sin if the penitent is cognizant of the seriousness of the sins he is concealing. Failing to confess venial sins over a long period allows many sins to gather in the soul so that the devil can feed on them and grow strong thereby, thus availing him the power to even move that soul completely out of grace – into mortal sin. Therefore, venial sins should be confessed if one still has memory of them. 

St. John Vianney emphasized frequent confession for purification, healing, and spiritual growth. He famously said: “Frequent confession is the cause of great good to the soul, because it purifies it, heals it, and confirms it in the service of God.”

Habitually not confessing smaller sins ultimately leads to greater sins. It’s like a person who habitually takes a nickel or quarter from someone’s drawer so that soon he is taking a dollar or ten and eventually robbing people right and left. Unconfessed venial sins feed on themselves.

St. Padre Pio said,

“Confession is the soul’s bath. Even a clean and unoccupied room gathers dust; return after a week and you will see that it needs dusting again.”

How much more should we frequently dust off our souls with regular confession?

That God abhors the least trace of sin on our souls is evident by the vision of St. Magdalen de Pazzi in which she was shown the terrible torments that the souls in Purgatory undergo for not having properly atoned for their sins through penance and confession. After the terrible ordeal of viewing these souls, She tells God: “Ah! I now see; you wished to give me the knowledge of your infinite sanctity, and to make me detest more and more the least stain of sin, which is so abominable in your eyes.” (From Purgatory Explained, by Fr. Schouppe)

Contrition is Not a Form of Being Scrupulous

Hence, even the slightest vestige of sin remaining on our souls after death will prevent us from entering the Kingdom of Heaven, therefore the modernist argument that confessing venial sins makes one scrupulous holds no water. Scrupulosity is a vain and unwarranted fear, for instance, ‘My kneeling for Communion makes me vain and selfish because I’m drawing attention to myself and might cause the person behind me to trip.’ Such scruples should be chased from a person’s mind lest his scrupulosity grow worse.

What is prevalent throughout the modern church is the error that venial sins are just little spots on our souls that don’t amount to much. While venial sins do not kill the supernatural life of the soul as do mortal sins (1 John 5:16) both are acts of rebellion with the major difference being that mortal sins are given full consent of the will while venial sins are not. But venial sins can be very serious.

A mortal sin can be compared to a man who crashes his car against an oak tree and is killed. We might see this as a mortal accident. A venial sin can be compared to a man who crashes his car where it doesn’t kill him but nonetheless lands him in the hospital with multiple injuries and his leg in a sling for three months. We might see this as a venial accident. Though the man is still alive his condition nevertheless is very serious.

Examples of mortal sins would be fornication, being divorced and remarried, or using God’s name to protest Christ as Luther did. Examples of venial sins would be lax or worldly living, curt remarks, unkind wishes for someone, or telling little ‘white lies’ to fool someone or to get a promotion. Such sins should immediately be confessed to a priest.

In speaking of unconfessed venial sins that send souls to Purgatory, St. John Vianney said:

“How dearly shall we pay for all those faults that we look upon as nothing at all, like those little lies that we tell to amuse ourselves, those little scandals, the despising of the graces which God gives us at every moment.”

St. Peter Damien tells us that his sister remained several years in Purgatory because she had listened to an evil song with some “little pleasure” (Sermon on Purgatory, St. John Vianney).  

Modernists Scorn Frequent Confession

Even so, many of today’s clergy dismiss the need for frequent confession. One priest recently told the congregation that frequent confession makes one a Pharisee, which echoes what many priests are saying today. This is absurd since we are called to live lives of penance and to make frequent examination of conscience. Without quite realizing it, the priest was accusing the humble publican in St. Luke of being a pompous Pharisee.  

Jesus gives us the parable of the Pharisee and publican in chapter 18 of St. Luke.

“Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee standing prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice in a week: I give tithes of all that I possess.

“And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven; but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner.

“I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other: because everyone that exalts himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbles himself, shall be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14)

According to our modernist clergy, the publican behaved like a Pharisee. They see contrite humility as an abomination as did Martin Luther who said that contrition is “a sacrilege.” It is any wonder that St. Padre Pio said “Martin Luther is in Hell?” 1

1. That Luther’s anti-Church protest landed him in Hell should be obvious by the fact that he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.