The Act of Contrition is such a beautiful prayer usually said in the confessional before receiving absolution. It has taught me and continues to teach me what repentance is.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for
having offended you, and I detest
all my sins, because of Your just
punishments, but most of all because
they offend You, my God, who are
all-good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of
Your grace, to sin no more and to
avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
“O my God”
Repentance starts with focusing on Whom I’m deciding to turn to. It starts with God and an authentic movement in my heart of sorrow and contrition, recognizing Whom I have offended.
“I am heartily sorry for having offended you”
The word that always sticks out to me is “heartily.” It has to come from the core and depths of my heart! And I must recognize that I have offended the One who loves me as if I’m the only one to love. I have offended God Who is always faithful and always true to me but I still decided to offend Him.
“and I detest all my sins”
I’m reminded that to truly turn away from sin is to detest it. To hate it. I pray for the desire to revile my sins and feel disgusted by them.
“because of Your just punishments”
God is love, and love requires justice. That is why there has to be heaven and hell. It wouldn’t be love if I didn’t have the choice to choose not to love. The deathly consequences of sin is what I bring upon myself. I choose punishment and hell when I choose to sin. It shows I prefer something else than God, and anything else is death. Though, detesting sin because of His just punishments is imperfect contrition. It’s definitely a start, but I need to ask for the grace to have perfect contrition…
“but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all-good and deserving of all my love”
This is perfect contrition, to be truly sorry for my sins because they offend my God who is all-good and deserving of all my love. How can I lash out on the One who loves me the most? God truly doesn’t deserve my infidelity when He is so faithful.
“I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace”
I firmly resolve. This is a matter that I should not take lightly. My attitude should not be “I’ll see what happens,” but “I firmly resolve.” The fact is that I have cut myself off from life and love. I have died a spiritual death. The death of deaths. Jesus died for me, I can’t be mediocre with what this means for me and what God has made available, namely, eternal life. Though, everything is in vain if not done in His grace. I must be humble and admit that I cannot stand for one second if not with the help of His grace. I cannot do any good thing if I don’t allow Jesus to mercifully do it through me. I could “speak with the tongues of men and angels, but if I have not love, I gain nothing. I am but a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.” Meaningless. I need His grace. It’s His grace that must firm my resolve and act through me on the road to repentance and healing.
“to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.”
I must have the posture of St. Dominic Savio when he said “death rather than sin.” This is repentance: to have a total change in life, a complete turn around, from a sinner to a saint in the heart. With this line of the prayer, I must ask God to truly illumine my intellect to help me see how I fall so easily to sin so that I can have a battle plan in avoiding them. I must pray for the grace to nip sin in the bud rather than be foolish and dare to to wait for the temptation to fully mature by entertaining those incognito suggestions by the devil. Who am I to think I have the strength to go toe to toe with an ancient enemy who knows the inner workings of human nature; who is the father of lies and deceiver of hearts. I am nothing. I am weak, and my track record proves it. Only by the help of His grace and mercy, I need to avoid temptation even before it begins, and I must be scrupulous about it.
~~~
I really appreciate it when the priest gives me a difficult penance to do because I need to break out of the monotony of all my sins that has caused a hardened heart. I have realized that that first act of penance is but (and should be) the first act of many. It is only the beginning of the complete change in my life. It’s the first beginning of repentance. It’s scary to know that when I go to confession, the Lord is not asking me to “kind of” turn away from my sins, and only give Him back “some” of my heart. His love demands a complete turning away and a total surrender of my heart. My brokenness fears this because of my lack of faith. That if I give everything—truly everything to God—and if I choose to completely turn away from my sins with the help of His grace, then the doors of my heart would be truly open to His merciful healing presence, and my life would drastically change. Praise God though because I guess that’s the whole point.
“Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.” –Benedict XVI
May St. Gerard Majella, patron of a good confession, be and pray for us in that confessional.
St. Gerard, Patron of a Good Confession,
who gave courage to souls whom fear and shame had overcome;
who gave sorrow to their hearts,
resolution to their wills,
truth to their faltering lips;
help me to make a good Confession.
Enable me to know my sins,
to be truly sorry for them,
and to be firmly resolved,
with God’s grace, never to sin again.
Help me to confess my sins humbly and sincerely,
to confess them in the spirit of faith,
as confessing them to Our Lord Himself.
Stand by me in this Confession, O gentle Saint,
an angel of God sent to free me from sin.
Amen.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us!