Confession Guide

Confession, or the Sacrament of Penance, restores our friendship with God through sorrow for sins, honest confession to a priest, and absolution. It brings peace, serenity, and spiritual consolation. Jesus gave priests the power to forgive sins: "Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). This guide helps youth prepare, families support, and everyone grow closer to Christ the Good Shepherd.

1. Prepare Your Heart (Do This Before Confession)

  • Pray for help: Ask God for the gift of repentance and tears over sin. Say a simple prayer: "Jesus, help me see my sins and be truly sorry."

  • Examine your conscience: Think about your life using the 10 Commandments, Beatitudes, or daily actions.

  • Be sorry (contrition): How do you feel sorrow for your sins?

    • God: Did I pray? Miss Mass on Sunday? Use God's name carelessly?

    • Others: Hurt family/friends with words/actions? Lie, steal, cheat? Bully online? Be unkind to parents/siblings?

    • Self: Watch bad shows? Lustful thoughts? Waste time on screens? Eat/drink too much? Lazy with chores/homework?

    • Purity: Impure actions/thoughts? See or share bad images?

  • Reconcile with others: Forgive family/friends first (Matthew 5:23-24).

  • Fast or do a small good deed if needed to fight sin.

2. Go to Confession

  • Resurrection offers confession on Weekdays after the Daily Mass, Saturdays from 3:45pm to 4:45pm and First Fridays 5:15pm to 5:45pm.

  • Step in the Confessional (either kneel behind the screen or sit and face the priest).

  • Make the sign of the cross and then say: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been __ (weeks/months/years) since my last confession, and these are my sins.” If you are part of a class attending for the first time, say: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession, and these are my sins.”

  • Confess your sins clearly. When done, say “For all my sins I am heartfully sorry.”

  • The Priest helps you to understand God’s mercy and love, give your penance and will ask you to make an act of contrition. Say an Act of Contrition: “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishment: but most of all, because they offend Thee, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.”

  • Absolution: The Priest forgives in Jesus' name. The seal of confession is absolute - the priest never tells.

3. After Confession: Live in God's Grace

  • Thank Jesus! Feel his joy over the "lost sheep found" (Luke 15:32).

  • Do penance right away. Go to Holy Communion often.

  • Frequent confession builds strength against sin, especially for youth facing peer pressure or screens.

For Parents & Families

  • Guide a gentle examination of conscience at home; model regular confession.

  • Discuss chastity/media rules: Tech-free times, filters, talk openly about struggles.

  • Seek God’s grace during the seasons and especially when funerals or sickness happen: use these as moments for family reconciliation and prayer.

  • Pray together even with an Our Father in the morning or evening. God is always listening.

  • Go often—Jesus waits with love! Confession is a "spiritual resurrection" to new life and a true reminder of our baptism!

Resources

  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1468 - "The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship." Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation "is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation." Indeed the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true "spiritual resurrection," restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God.

  2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1454 - The reception of this sacrament ought to be prepared for by an examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. the passages best suited to this can be found in the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the apostolic Letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the apostolic teachings.

  3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1451 - Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is "sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again."

  4. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1452 - When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is called "perfect" (contrition of charity). Such contrition remits venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible.

  5. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1453 - The contrition called "imperfect" (or "attrition") is also a gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of sin's ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance.

  6. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1450 - "Penance requires . . . the sinner to endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction."