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How many people desperately seek forgiveness for their sins! What a blessing that we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation. There are no words more beautiful than these: 'I absolve you of your sins - in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen'

Reconciliation: The Sacrament of Conversion

Jesus, the Divine Physician, knows our wants, needs and desires far better than we know them ourselves. He truly knows what is in our hearts. It is our innate need to unburden ourselves of the guilt of sin that He had in mind when he granted the Apostles and their successors the power to forgive sins in God’s Name in John 20:23. This way of forgiveness is normative, and it’s such a shame that millions of self-professed Christians, out of ignorance or willfullness, disavow God’s healing Sacrament of forgiveness for such a poor substitute as this and other similarly ineffective means. They seek certainty but find only vague comfort shifting for themselves like this, even when true reconciliation with God can be found - absolutely free! - at any Catholic Church.

I've known this guy for over 30 yrs and since I became Catholic he has jokingly called me little Mother Superior. We see each other every week but rarely get a chance to talk alone. One day we did, he started teasing about confession and before you know it, it turned into a serious discussion about confession. By the time we finished, he was almost in tears and wanting to know if he could go to confession w/o being Catholic. I had to tell him no, but that he could still make an inventory and tell it directly to God. But by then he understood the priest's role in confession and knew he was going for the 2nd best solution.

It isn't pride in the Church, or pride in MY Catholicism, I actually hurt that there are people out there who are suffering because they have no recourse to the Sacraments. This guy didn't even know what he was missing like the Pharisees he wasn't even looking or acknowledging his sin and he was missing out on God's Mercy. God gave an opportunity to plant a seed though.