If I Were a Saint
February 25, 2024
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
Lent is a great time of the year to go to Confession. In fact, one of the precepts of the Church is that we have to go to Confession at least once a year. Historically, this is known as the “Easter Obligation” and is it normally done during the season of Lent or Easter, both six weeks long. Failure to go to Confession at least once a year, if aware of a mortal sin, is itself a mortal sin. To that end, we host a penance service here every Lent. This year’s penance service will be on Tuesday, March 26 (Holy Week) at 6pm. There will be seven priests here to hear confessions.
Having said that, the Church has always recommended that people go to Confession monthly, even for the saints. Almost all the saints would all go to Confession monthly, a large percentage of them would go to Confession twice a month, or even weekly as I try to do. Modern saints did this too, St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Calcutta come to mind. I frequently tell people that monthly Confession for the rest of your life is one of the greatest things you can ever do, transforming your life and the lives of others because of you. I hope you’ll give it a try.
Now some people don’t know what to confess, even if their last Confession was years ago. Our “How to go to Confession” guide on the walls of the church, has an excellent examination of conscience guide in it. Pick it up, take it home, check all the lines that apply to you, then bring it with you when you go to Confession next and read off all those checked sins. With true contrition and purpose of amendment, the priest will absolve you and all your sins will be removed.
Yet despite looking at that guide, people still tell me that they’ve checked it out and still don’t know what to confess. They must be pretty holy. That’s when I say this: Christ calls us to be saints, (“so be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Mt 5:48) If the saints would go to Confession monthly or even more, what are they confessing? What are these people who are holier than you or I confessing so frequently? If you were a saint, what would you be bringing to Confession that you are not now realizing you’re at fault for? To answer that, it is important to remember our sins of omission. Those things that God wants us to think, say, and do that we don’t. In what ways have I not been a saint since my last confession?
Below, I’ve attached a great little examination of conscience of someone who will be declared a saint one day, Sister Lucia of Fatima fame. Her cousins, Francesco and Jacinta, are already canonized saints whose feast day we marked this past week. Here Sr. Lucia lays out the things that she would confess in her bi-monthly confessions in her 80’s & 90’s, and they are revealing.
I hope you’ll make an effort to go to Confession monthly, and strive to be saint, it’s not too late.
In Christ, I Love You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
November 20, 2023, by sd
Many think Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fátima fame was a saint. In that, we concur. But she wasn’t a born one, and it wasn’t automatic due to the apparitions of an angel in 1916, the Blessed Mother to her in 1917, and appearances of Mary and Jesus in years after.
But again: that didn’t mean she lived a pitch-pure life in the convent. We all have to work every moment for Heaven, often in “minor” imperfections we rarely consider.
And so it was, as the Blue Army reminds us, and as the well-known chronicler of Fatima, Father Robert Fox, first revealed (in a book entitled The Intimate Life of Sister Lucia), that the all-but-certain future saint named Lucia once listed the imperfections she needed to take to the confessional.
The list:
– Resentments which do not allow me to forget the defects of others.
– Faults against charity which these resentments lead me to.
– Egoism which leads me so many times to choose the best for myself.
– Self-love which leads me to have my view prevail.
– Excessive propensity to be grieved with trifles.
– To remain quiet many times in order not to have my opinion rejected with people who I know beforehand have to win the argument, even without good reason.
– Lack of respect and disdain for those who contradict me.
– Sadness and weariness produced by wounded self-love.
– Consenting to complaints of self-love.
– Concentrating on the faults of others without seeing my own.
– Curt replies to the Sisters.
– Not valuing the work of others.
– In my eyes I think my work better than others.
– To want others to esteem my work.
– Resistance to Grace.
– Distractions which diminish insights of faith and touches of grace.
– Curiosities.
– Useless words in moments of silence.
– Uncharitable thoughts and words.
– Omissions of charity.
– Carelessness in the practice of small sacrifices.
– Lack of patience in unforeseen events.
– Lack of an ability with others.
– Lack of respect for the opinion of others.
– Not valuing the others’ opinions.
– The difficulty in allowing others’ opinions to prevail.
– Allowing myself on many occasions to be very happy or very sad.
– Not being punctual enough.
– Not taking correction willingly.
– Unwillingly to assume my own feelings.
– Being rude to those who displease me.
– Failing of devotion in my spiritual duties and visits to the Blessed Sacrament.
– Failing to be diligent in obedience.
– Failing to be pleasant with others.
– Failing to use ejaculatory prayers during the day to maintain my union with God.
– Failing to visit the Blessed Sacrament in my free time.
