Blessed be God (Callan)/Devotions for Confession

O HOLY SPIRIT, Source of all light, Spirit of wisdom, of understanding, and of knowledge, come to my assistance and enable me to make a good confession. Enlighten me, and help me now to know my sins as one day I shall be forced to recognize them before Thy judgment-seat. Bring to my mind the evil which I have done and the good which I have neglected. Permit me not to be blinded by self-love. Grant me, moreover, heartfelt sorrow for my transgressions, and the grace of a sincere confession, so that I may be forgiven and admitted into Thy friendship.

When did you make your last confession? Did you have real sorrow for the sins then told? Did you conceal or forget any mortal sin? Have you performed your penance, and done as your confessor directed? Have you really tried to keep your good resolutions?

First Commandment: Have you doubted in matters of faith? consulted fortune-tellers? believed in dreams? made use of superstitious practices? gone to places of false worship? belonged to forbidden societies? read anti-Catholic books and papers? neglected your religious instruction? omitted religious duties through human respect? Have you murmured against God, or despaired of His mercy? Or have you rashly presumed on His goodness in committing sin? Have you neglected your daily prayers? been irreverent toward God, sacred persons, places, or things?

Second Commandment: Have you taken the name of God in vain? spoken disrespectfully of the saints or holy things? sworn falsely, rashly, ​or in slight and trivial matters? Have you cursed, blasphemed, or caused others to do so?

Third Commandment: Have you kept holy the Sunday and holydays by assisting at Mass with devotion? Have you performed or commanded unnecessary servile work? bought or sold without necessity, or in any other way profaned these days?

Fourth Commandment: Have you shown due honor and obedience to your parents, pastors, and other superiors? Have you been respectful to aged persons? Have you had proper care for your children and those dependent upon you, in particular as regards religious training and duties? Have you given them good example?

Fifth Commandment: Have you procured, desired, or hastened the death of any one? Have you been guilty of anger, hatred, quarreling, revenge? used provoking language, insulting words, ridicule? refused to speak to others? caused enmities? given scandal?

Sixth and Ninth Commandments: Have you been guilty of impurity or immodesty in thoughts, words, or actions? Have you put yourself in an occasion of sin by reading bad books, keeping bad company, attending immoral performances, and the like? Have you been an occasion of sin to others by your conversation, dress, actions?

Seventh and Tenth Commandments: Have you stolen or retained ill-gotten goods? cheated? refused to pay your just debts? damaged or wasted the property of others? accepted bribes? neglected to make restitution, or to help the ​poor? Have you coveted what belongs to others?

Eighth Commandment: Have you borne false witness for or against another? been guilty of detraction, flattery, hypocrisy, lying, rash judgment?

1. Have you observed the Sundays and holydays by hearing Mass and avoiding servile works?
2. Have you neglected prescribed fasts and abstinences without sufficient reason?
3. Have you confessed your mortal sins at least once a year?
4. Have you gone to Holy Communion during the Easter time?
5. Have you contributed according to your means to religion and the Church?
6. Have you married not in accordance with the laws of the Catholic Church, or aided others in doing so?

1. Have you been guilty of pride, vainglory, love of applause, contempt of others?
2. Have you been too eager in seeking the goods of this world, or had your heart set on them?
3. Have you violated the Sixth and Ninth Commandments in any way?
4. Have you been guilty of unreasonable anger, or disagreeableness of disposition?
5. Have you eaten or drunk to excess, or caused others to do so?

6. Have you rejoiced at the misfortune, or been grieved at the success of others?
7. Have you wasted time in idleness and self-indulgence? Have you neglected the duties of your state of life, or performed them remissly? Have you desired to commit sin, or gloried in sin committed?

1. Wilful murder. 2. The sim of Sodom. 3. Oppression of the poor. 4. Defrauding the laborer of his wages.

1. Presumption of God’s mercy. 2. Despair. 3. Impugning the known truth. 4. Envy at another’s spiritual good. 4. Obstinacy in sin. 6. Final impenitence.

1. By counsel. 2. By command. 3. By consent. 4. By provocation. 5. By praise or flattery. 6. By concealment. 7. By partaking. 8. By silence. 9. By defense of the ill done.

1. To admonish sinners. 2. To instruct the ignorant. 3. To counsel the doubtful. 4. To comfort the sorrowful. 5. To bear wrongs patiently. 6. To forgive all injuries. 7. To pray for the living and the dead.

1. To feed the hungry. 2. To give drink to the thirsty. 3. To clothe the naked. 4. To visit and ransom the captives. 4. To harbor the harborless. 6. To visit the sick. 7. To bury the dead.

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land.
3. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.
4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice; for they shall be filled.
5. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.
6. Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.
8. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

TO Thee, O God, the fount of mercy, I draw near, a sinner. From my uncleanness, therefore, deign Thou to cleanse me. Enlighten my blindness, O sun of justice; bind up my wounds, O eternal physician. Thou King of kings, clothe my nakedness; lead me back, good shepherd, to the fold from which I have strayed; Thou mediator between God and man, clear away my guilt. Have pity, O God, on my misery; grant indulgence to my crimes; restore me life for death, virtue for impiety, and to my obduracy apply Thy saving grace. O Thou most clement one, call me back fleeing from Thee, draw me when resisting, raise me when I fall, support me having risen, and lead me as I walk. Do not forget me when I forget Thee, nor turn Thou away when I forsake Thee; despise me not in the midst of my sins. By sinning I have offended Thee, my God, I have injured my neighbor, I have wounded myself. By my very weakness, O my God, have I sinned against Thee, the Father almighty; out of my ignorance, against Thee, the all wise Son; through my malice, against Thee, meek Spirit of God. Thus have I offended Thee, most excellent Trinity. Alas for my misery! How many and what great faults of divers kinds I have committed! I have abandoned Thee, O Lord; I have murmured against Thy goodness; and when confronted by base pleasure, or deterred by misfortune, I have preferred rather to lose Thee than to forego the things that allure, to offend Thee than to incur the things that I fear. O my God, how far I have ​gone astray in word and deed! I have sinned in secret and in public contumaciously. Hence, I beseech Thee that, because of my weakness, Thou wilt not regard my iniquity, but Thine own immense goodness, and, bestowing upon me sorrow for the past and care for the future, wilt mercifully forgive what I have done.

O MOST gracious Virgin Mary, beloved Mother of Jesus Christ my Redeemer, intercede for me with Him. Obtain for me the full remission of my sins, and perfect amendment of life, unto the salvation of my soul, and the glory of His Name. Amen.

I implore the same grace of thee, O my angel guardian; of you, my holy patrons, N. N.; of you, O holy Peter and holy Magdalen, and of all the saints of God. Intercede for me a sinner, repenting of my sins, and resolving to confess and amend them. Amen.

O MY God! I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.

BLESS me, Father, for I have sinned.

I confess to almighty God, and to you, Father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, deed and omission, through my fault.

It has been one week, (or, — weeks), since my last worthy confession. I accuse myself of having committed, during that time, the following sins:

For these, and for all the sins of which I have at any time been guilty, I humbly ask pardon of God, and absolution of you, Father, if you think me worthy.

I RETURN unto Thee, O Lord Jesus, and give Thee thanks that Thou hast been pleased to cleanse me from the foul leprosy of my sins. Blessed be Thy Name, O Lord, forever and ever. Truly Thou art a Saviour Who rejectest none that come unto Thee seriously desiring to repent, but receivest them into Thy favor, and numberest them with Thy children. I acknowledge and adore Thy mercy, and dedicate myself wholly to Thy service hereafter. Assist my weakness, and suffer me not again to fall into my past sins and to be separated from Thee; but so bind my heart and soul to Thee with the cords of Thy love, that I may say with the Apostle: “Who shall separate me from the love of Christ?”

MAY this, my confession, O Lord, by the merits of Blessed Mary ever virgin, Thy Mother, and of all the saints, be pleasing and acceptable in Thy sight. Let Thy goodness and mercy supply for whatever has been wanting in my contrition, and in the purity and integrity of my confession. Deign Thou mercifully to regard me perfectly and entirely absolved in heaven: Who livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen.

O ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, Who, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, hast vouchsafed once more to receive Thy prodigal child, after so many times going astray from Thee, and to admit me to this Sacrament of reconciliation; I give Thee thanks with all the powers of my soul for this and ah other mercies, graces, and blessings bestowed on me; and prostrating myself at Thy sacred feet, I offer myself to be henceforth forever Thine. Oh! let nothing in life or death ever separate me from Thee. I renounce with my whole soul all my treasons against Thee, and all the abominations and sins of my past life. I renew my promises made in Baptism, and from this moment I dedicate myself eternally to Thy love and service. Oh! grant that for the time to come I may abhor sin more than death itself, and avoid all such occasions and companies as have unhappily brought me to it. This I resolve to do, by the aid of Thy divine grace, without which I can do nothing. I beg Thy blessing upon these my resolutions, that they may not be ineffectual, like so many others I have formerly made; for, O Lord, without Thee I am nothing but misery and sin. Give me grace to be now and always a true penitent, through the same Jesus Christ Thy Son. Amen.