Choosing a Confessor and Making a General Confession

ON THE CHOICE OF A CONFESSOR, AND ON A GENERAL CONFESSION.

1. MANY reasons show the necessity and advantage of a director in the service of God. The conduct of a man's conscience is, of all things, the most difficult, as in it often the darkness is great and storms are violent and frequent; so that it requires an extraordinary light and strength. It is therefore, a high degree of presumption and pride for any man to confide in his own sufficiency herein, without seeking the assistance of the most skilful and experienced guide possible. “Rely not on thy own prudence, says the Holy Ghost,” Prov. ii. 5. He is called a fool, who trusts in his own heart. Prov. xxviii. 26. “For the way of fool is right in his eyes, but the wise man hearkens to counsel.” Prov. xii. 15. He then, who desires to serve God, ought to commit his soul to the conduct of one, who will direct him in the right paths of virtue, warn him of his dangers, caution him against the false roads, which he is to shun, spur him on, when he walks too slow, and holds him in if he should attempt to run beyond his strength.

   Again, no one can judge impartially and securely in his own case. Self-love, pride, and the whole brood of his passions will often disguise, smother, or misrepresent the truth to his eyes; and no degree of genius, learning, capacity, experience, or virtue, can ever secure a man from the imperceptible deceits of their prejudices. Hence, let a person be ever so enlightened, ever so fervent and perfect, if he trust in his own sufficiency, his virtue will be all built on pride and presumption, and the faster he runs, the faster he goes out of his way, like a traveller who has taken a wrong road. Hence the Wise-man lays down this rule: “Thou hast seen a man seem wise to himself; the fool has rather hopes than he.” Prov. xxvi. 12. Gerson commends this saying of an ancient solitary; “If you see any advancing well, but without a guide, though he should already have one foot in heaven, pull him back; for he cannot enter.”

2. It is only the grace of God, that must be our light and strength in the ways of virtue, in which we are not able to make one true step of ourselves; but, to root up the very seed of pride out of our hearts, God has annexed his grace to our obedience to the direction of others, and his providence has established this rule, that no one should be his own guide, as he hopes for his succours, but submit to the advice of an other in all difficulties; for humility and obedience are the two tests of virtue, the only security against illusion, and the means which draw down the benediction of heaven. Hence St. Augustin vehemently exhorts us to abhor the fatal temptation of following our own lights: “Let us beware, says he, of those most proud and most dangerous temptations, and rather remember that the apostle Paul, though converted and instructed by a voice yet was sent to a man Ananias; ‘Go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do.’ Acts ix. 7, and Cornelius the centurian, though an angel assured him his prayers were heard, yet was delivered to St. Peter to be instructed.” ¹ We see the most eminent saints, though the most enlightened by God, and the most learned doctors, distrusting their own sentiments, and consulting and following others. This is the surest proof of souls being governed by the spirit of God, which always inspires this diffidence in themselves. By this, they steer securely through the darkness and tempests, which hide our road from our own eyes; as Joas walked in the paths of justice for the first forty years, whilst he followed his good director Joiada, but miserably fell as soon he would be his own guide. 4 Kings xii. 2.

3. The first thing necessary in a spiritual life is to seek a good director, as Tobias thus advised his son for his journey: “Seek to thyself some faithful man who may go with thee.” Tob. v. 4. “If there be no comparison to a faithful friend, he who has found him has found a treasure.” Eccl. vi. 14, 15. What an incomparable blessing is a good spiritual guide; a man, to whom we may communicate all our interior? Almighty God is to be earnestly besought to conduct us to such a one, as he sent his angel before his people to protect them, and lead them into his promised land. Exod. xxiii. 20. He is to be chosen not by human affection, nor one likely to be indulgent to our passions, or to flatter our inclinations; but a man of learning, able to distinguish leprosy and leprosy. Secondly, a man of prudence not of this world, but of spiritual prudence, to understand a penitent's spiritual state, necessities, remedies, &c. Thirdly, a man of virtue, zeal, great humility and charity; also of experience of the heart of man, or knowledge of the variety of its passions, infirmities, and movements; and likewise of personal experience in the interior paths of prayer, without which he can never be qualified to instruct or direct safely others in them; consequently he must be himself a man of prayer, and enlightened from God by it; having hence the gift of the discretion of spirits to distinguish that of God and that of the world, and qualified to know what methods of prayer are most proper for each disposition, &c. St. Teresa in her own life, c. 5, and 13. Alvarez du Par, the devout abbess Gertrude, More, &c, furnish us with examples of how great a hindrance unqualified directors are, even to fervent souls, in their spiritual progress. The great Avila used to say, that not one out of a thousand; St. Francis of Sales said, not one out of ten thousand is truly qualified for this task, which would be dreaded even by the angels, and which St. Gregory calls the art of arts. But it is a great fault to be unreasonable in choosing a confessor, so as not to be content with such a choice as providence offers us; or with him it sends, if it allow us no choice, provided nothing essential be wanting. Nor is a choice to be made in such a manner as to include a tacit censure or contempt of other confessors. It is a lesson of the Holy Ghost; “subject not thy self to every man for sin.” Eccl. iv. 31. St. Basil observes, Reg. brev. 229, 12, 465, that we are to follow the rule in confessing our sins, which we practise in seeking remedies for our corporal wounds, viz. to discover them only to the skilful. Origen had inculcated the same important advice, which proves that there was a choice of many confessors in the third age of the church. Look about very diligently, to whom you ought to confess your sins; try first the physician, to whom you ought to lay open the cause of your disorder, that he know how to condole; that, if he, who has shown himself a learned and tender physician, shall give you any counsel, you execute it. Origen, Hom, 2, in Ps. 37, p. 295. But this care is not to be anxious, nor to exceed the bounds of order and reason. God will supply any minor defects, and be himself our guide in that director he has provided for us, if we are not wanting to ourselves,

4. We are to look upon our confessor as our spiritual father, physician, judge, doctor, guide, and master, and as an angel deputed by God to conduct us to eternal life. We must lay open to him all our wounds and dangers; must ordinarily follow his resolutions in our scruples and doubts; must undertake nothing extraordinary, as in the choice of a state of life, in the practice of any extraordinary mortifications, &c., without his advice, if we hope to obtain God's benediction on our deliberations and endeavours. He will be best able to discover, if any thing of self-love, or self-will, or any human passion insinuate itself into our motives or desires. At least, by following direction we shall secure ourselves from all danger of illusion from them, and shall make to God the most agreeable sacrifice of our own judgment. It is a great happiness, if our confessor be one capable of directing us by his own experience in the interior paths and sentiments of a spirit of prayer and of other virtues. In this case, we may most profitably converse with him upon these subjects; but great care is to be taken, that such conversation never descend to the trifling circumstances of actions, or to a detail or history of them; which causes a loss of time, accustoms the heart to minutiæ or idle curiosity, and is apt to fill it with affections and attachments purely human. With persons of a different sex conversations must never be frequent or long on any account; nor with others, if there appear in them any danger of feeding a secret vanity or other passions.

   But our deference to the judgment of our confessor is to have its due bounds. In scruples we are entirely to acquiesce in it. In matters, which are more intricate and of greater consequence we ought to see how far we can safely rely upon it. For though it be a safe rule to the more ignorant, and to those who have not opportunities of better advice, or reasons not to depend upon it, yet it will not be always such to others, nor indeed to any, if it regard essentials, or if it flatter the penitent's passions. St. Teresa says she should not have been excused before God in following such directors as would tell her, that was no sin which was so, because the point was sufficiently clear in itself. c. 5. “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the pit.” Mat. xv. 14.

5. Though the choice of a confessor be free, yet it is an important advice not to change him for an other, unless upon sufficient reason and pure motives; also to adhere as much as possible to our ordinary confessor, to whom by this means the habitual state and circumstances of our souls will be better known, without which we lose all the advantage of direction; nor will confession be so strong a bridle or check to our passions. There will also be danger of making sacrilegious confessions, as the penitent's circumstances, temptations, and the danger of consent in them cannot be sufficiently known for the confessor to form a true judgment about them. This danger of sacrilege is much greater, if a penitent should seek new confessors on any extraordinary relapse; a base hypocrisy, and a practice severely condemned by divines.

6. A confession is to be reiterated, if it were invalid, which may happen many ways by any essential defect in the confessor, or in the penitent. In the confessor, if he really was no priest; or if a priest, but had not any jurisdiction to hear the penitent; either ordinary, by possessing some charge in the church, which makes him pastor of a certain flock, as that of rector of a parish; or delegate, granted him by an ordinary pastor, as the bishop. Although regulars, by grants of the Holy See, enjoy a privilege of jurisdiction, and exercise it over their own religious, yet they cannot exercise it in regard to any seculars, unless authorised for this purpose by the bishop, as the Council of Trent has decreed. Pope Benedict XIV. anno 1745, declares expressly, that in the English mission they must receive faculties from the bishop. But in case of a coloured title and public mistake, that a priest had jurisdiction, though he should want it, the church supplies him with it in favour of the faithful. The confession is also invalid, if the priest did not pronounce the sacramental form of absolution. If by some distraction or deafness he did not hear or understand some mortal sin, that was confessed; though in this case the penitent will be excused before God, if he never be conscious of such a defect having happened; yet, if at any time hereafter he become apprized of it, he is bound to confess that sin again, as it had not been duly subjected to the keys of the church.

   Confession is invalid through defects in the penitent; First, according to some, if he lay under any excommunication at the time of his absolution, and was not previously absolved from that censure. Secondly, if the penitent had not faith in the mysteries of one God, the author of our supernatural good, and reward; of three equal and co-eternal persons, and of the incarnation of the son of God; or if he were ignorant of any of these truths, even by an inculpable ignorance or forgetfulness of his catechism. Thirdly, if he were guilty of a considerable negligence in the examination of his conscience; of a want of sufficient contrition and true purpose of sinning no more and of satisfying for his sins; or of concealing any mortal sin or considerable aggravating circumstances in his confession, either directly, wilfully, or out of sloth or negligence. If the omission was inculpable, his confession was entire in the sight of God, and the absolution from all his sins, known and unknown, valid and full; but if this sin occur afterwards to his memory, he lies under an obligation of submitting it to the tribunal of the church, and this before he can receive the blessed eucharist; which requires greater purity of conscience than the other sacraments, for which being already in the state of grace is esteemed sufficient. In all these cases, the confessions made were null, and are to be entirely repeated though if the confession be made to the same confessor soon after, so that he remembers in general the other sins confessed, it is sufficient to repeat the confession of those, that were before mentioned, in general terms. A general confession of a person's whole life is necessary and of precept in any of the aforesaid cases, or in a prudent rational danger of them, or at least a confession from the time, in which there has been that danger of them, or such a one as may supply the essential defects, which are apprehended. And as an examination or contrition cannot but have been generally wanting in those, who have lived remiss and slothful in their preparation for this sacrament, or habitually careless of prayer or other spiritual duties, or in an habitual criminal ignorance of any parts of the catechism or christian duties, or of the duties of their calling, or in a habit of any mortal sin, into which they frequently and easily relapsed after their confessions, to all such a careful general confession is necessary to secure their salvation. It is true, that a subsequent good confession may restore a man to the state of grace, who is not conscious to himself of any former defects; but it cannot when he has reason to know them, because he is then bound to repair them.

7. When there is no precept or necessity of a general confession, it is sometimes very advisable; as to every man once in his life after he is grown up, to remedy any past neglects, to take a review of his whole life, and to bewail all his crimes in the bitterness of his soul, and sometimes also the better to receive proper directions for the best method of repairing past losses, and serving God perfectly for the time to come. It is then proper, when a man first converts himself to fervour in the service of God. We read in St. Ouen's life of St. Eligius of Noyon, that, being come to man's age he made a confession of his whole life before a priest. It is often proper, when persons enter upon a state of life, to prepare them for it by putting them in the disposition of a new life, and of fervour. A confessor will also prudently allow it to those, who desire it in a spirit of compunction to bewail their sins at the sight of a mispent life, and to animate themselves with vigour now to begin a new one. But it is by no means to be permitted to those, who are scrupulous in their confessions, or who are for making them over and over again; for this would but increase their uneasiness, and bewilder their imagination. A general confession therefore is to be recommended only with prudence, and upon mature deliberation. It is to be very diligently made, as a concern, upon which a man's salvation mainly depends. A retreat for a few days is very proper for it, in which the mind, being free from other thoughts, may be more attentive to this, and which will furnish leisure for fervent prayer, pious meditation, a careful examination, tears of compunction, good resolutions, &c. We see this practice of general confessions recommended to us by the examples of St. Eligius, St. Tillo, king Pepin, St. Anselm, l. 3, ep. 66.

8. It is a most advantageous practice, after this careful general confession, to make every year a retreat and an annual confession, to discover by a stricter search any neglects, sprouting passions, or omissions of duties; to be careful about them, and repair any sloth in the ordinary frequenting of the sacraments by a diligent annual confession. St. Charles Borromeo employed every year two or three weeks in a retreat to prepare himself for such an annual confession, which he made with the greatest compunction for the slightest venial sins of frailty, after spending on the day of that confession eight hours on his knees to beg of God a true contrition and repentance. Cannot we allow for this examination, seven or eight, or at least three or four days? Every thing in nature falls to decay by degrees, unless continually renewed. Our best resolutions are insensibly impaired, and passions, once cut off, sprout up again, unless we watch over ourselves and renew in our souls the spirit of virtue. This indeed we endeavour to do in our evening examinations and in our ordinary confessions; but in these many things often escape us, which a narrower inspection into our hearts will discover to us, as daily experience shows. General confessions save many souls, which without them would have perished, whereof the life of St. Vincent Paul furnishes us with many examples, which may be read on this subject, 19th July. How many carry a secret sting in their consciences, which they feel, though they do not distinctly discern its cause? A general confession will show it, pluck it out, appease all the troubles of their burthened mind, and give them a peace, which in their present state they do not know.

   We find the practice of general confessions recommended by the tradition of the church in all ages, as we see expressly from Socrates and Sozomen, supra, and by the examples of saints and holy men, as of St. Eligius of Noyon, St. Tillo, king Pepin, apud Hincm. ad Capit. Car. Mag. St. Anselm, l. 3, ep. 66, the statutes of the Carthusians, p. 2, c. 11.

1. Caveamus tales tentationes superbissimas & periculosissimas, &c. St. Augustin, Præf. l. de doctr. christ. t. 3.