"Lent is a particularly appropriate time for awakening and educating the conscience. The Church reminds us precisely in this period of the inderogable necessity of sacramental Confession, so that we can all live the resurrection of Christ not only in the liturgy, but also in our own souls."
Confession makes us participate in the Passion of Christ and, by its merits, in his Resurrection. Each time we receive this sacrament with the proper dispositions, a rebirth to the life of grace takes place in our soul. The Blood of Christ, lovingly shed, purifies and sanctifies the soul, and by its virtue the sacrament confers grace - if it had been lost - or increases it, although in different degrees, according to the dispositions of the penitent. "The intensity of repentance is sometimes proportionate to a greater grace than that from which it fell by sin; sometimes equal; sometimes less. And for the same reason, the penitent rises at times with greater grace than he had before; at others, with equal grace; and at times, with less. And the same must be said of the virtues that depend on and follow grace "
In Confession, the soul receives greater enlightenment from God and an increase in its strength-particular graces to combat the inclinations confessed, to avoid the occasions of sinning, to avoid relapsing in the faults committed...-for its daily struggle. "See how good God is and how easily he forgives sins; not only does he return what is forgiven, but he also grants unexpected things " How many times have we received the greatest graces after a Confession, after having told the Lord that we have behaved badly with him! Jesus always gives good for evil, to encourage us to be faithful. The punishment we deserve for our sins - like that which the inhabitants of Nineveh deserved, which is narrated to us today in the First Reading of the Mass - is erased by God when he sees our repentance and our works of penance and atonement.
The sincere confession of our faults always leaves in the soul a great peace and joy. The sadness of sin or of the lack of correspondence to grace becomes joy. "Perhaps the moments of a sincere Confession are among the sweetest, most comforting and most decisive of life "
"Now you understand how much you have made Jesus suffer, and you are filled with sorrow: how easy to ask his forgiveness, and to mourn your past betrayals! You can't even fill your breast with the desire to make reparation!
"Good. But do not forget that the spirit of penance is principally in fulfilling, whatever the cost, the duty of every instant.
Hablar con Dios