What “GO TO CONFESSION!” produces

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I am inspired by your words about the importance of regular confession and preparing our soul for the end of our earthly pilgrimage, as well as your blunt Truthfulness about the pains and anguish of Hell. I am a High School Religion teacher at a Catholic High School in ___, and I am instilling this attitude in my students. We had a long conversation today with my class, many of whom are not so engaged in their faith as they ought to be, and broke down the myths that everyone goes to heaven, and that it is harder than I think. I even brought up that Purgatory is a time of suffering, not simply a waiting room. Many of them struggled to understand what even was a mortal sin. Much to my surprise, by the end of the class, I had an entire class of high schoolers begging me to set up time for confession for them with our chaplain, which he has graciously agreed to do so (a newly ordained priest.) I was shocked in 2019 to see such a desire from our young people and was almost brought to tears. I have you to thank for inspiring me to bring about this conversion in their hearts.

That makes my day.

GO TO CONFESSION!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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7 Comments

  1. brasscow says:

    People want the TRUTH. Children especially! Speak the truth and God will take care of everything else.

  2. CasaSanBruno says:

    Beautiful! The truth is convincing to those of good will. As our Lord said to Pilate “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” What a blessing those students heard Christ’s voice through a teacher who truly loves them.

  3. RosaryRose says:

    Praying for this teacher and the class! God please send many strong teachers in all walks of life. Thank you for the gifts of our great priests and teachers we have now.

  4. ChrisP says:

    That teacher is to be highly commended – they just helped more souls in one class than Fr James Martin SJ has in many years.

  5. Heartening news. One good teacher can make a difference.
    The entire world is once again missionary country.
    It is true what this teacher says about the abject ignorance of the Faith. Gosh, maybe 15 years ago I assisted in a parish catechism class. Out of the 30 kids, confirmation class, only two “agreed” that Jesus Christ is God. But they knew all about reincarnation. Just as few went to Sunday Mass, or knew it was a mortal sin not to go…and we had to explain that a mortal sin meant you had to go to confession.

    The next step after frequent confessions is assisting in examination of conscience. We need more education in this. A day is coming for the Illumination of Conscience predicted by many saints, a.k.a. The Warning. Those unprepared for seeing their souls in true relation to how God sees may die from shock of the revelation of hidden sins. Let’s not do that. Go to confession, and go with knowledge of self.

  6. Cafea Fruor says:

    This reminds me of when I was in Catholic high school some 20 years ago. Our chaplain heard confessions all day twice a week, and students could go during lunch, study hall, etc. He had to have help hearing all the confessions, and he said that there was at least one occasion when he and the other priests hearing confessions saw something like half the student body come in one week. The student body was around 1400. We also had adoration all day the same days as confession, and a bunch of kids took advantage of that as well, though not as many, since that took longer than confession. People tend to assume that the young aren’t interested in the faith, but they really are. They’re just not interested in wishy-washy faith.

  7. RichR says:

    We take our kids to Confession at least once a month. Every Sunday we ask who needs to go, and even if just one child says “Me”, my wife or I make the drive. The kids are not afraid of confessing because they are familiar with how it works and they appreciate what it does for their souls.

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