Confession is such a difficult discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners.
God has given us our brothers and sisters to stand in Christ's stead and make God's prescence and forgiveness real to us.
Today we take far too lightly our offenses to the love of God. If we had only a tinge of the sense of revulsion that God feels toward sin, we would be moved to holier living.
"For a good confession, three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin."
St Luguori
Fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God.
Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sin of a brother.
The discipline of confession brings and end to pretense.
