Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32

Even though we are called to be one with Christ we have our moments of weaknesses that weakens that unity through failures to love and sin. Fortunately God is forgiving and merciful and he doesn’t stop loving us when we fail. Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation God forgives our sin when we confess and reconciles them to Him and the broader community.

By being remorseful and sorrowful about the sins that we have done we can experience the forgiveness and healing that only God can give us and also restore the relationship that we have with God once more.

The sacrament can be done repeatedly throughout life and we as Catholics are encouraged to frequently receive this sacrament. As a minimum we must confess our sins when we ourselves are conscious of mortal sins before we receive Holy Communion. Furthermore a precept of the Church says that we must at least once confess our sins throughout the year and that is during the Easter season.

This Sacrament is done repeatedly throughout our life and we are encouraged to frequently receive this Sacrament. At a bare minimum we must confess our sins when we are conscious of it before we receive Holy Communion. Additionally the Church says that we must at least confess our sins once during the entire year and it is recommended to do so during the Easter season.

There are many blessings in frequent confession (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 1425-1498). Among such blessings are the following:

• It restores divine life to those who have lost it through mortal sin.
• It increases grace and one’s capacity for grace and helps one to grow in maturity of our faith.
• It brings order and peace into one’s life by causing one to pause at regular intervals and ask oneself the all important question: Where am I in my relationship with God?
• It improves personal relations with others by making one aware of attitudes and actions that cause pain to others.
• It motivates one to practice the basic virtues: faith, hope, charity, humility, self denial, repentance, detachment from the pagan ways of modern life.
• Making a good confession entails contrition (sincere sorrow for offending God), confession of sin (confronting our sinfulness in an honest manner) and satisfaction (making amends by following the priest’s advice and doing the penance he imposes). A good confession requires preparation by prayer, examining the conscience and the making the resolve not to sin again.