One of the most neglected and powerful gifts that God has graciously made available to every Catholic man is the Sacrament of Penance. In the Sacrament of Penance, a Catholic man can instantly be relieved of the many venial and mortal sins he has committed and be forgiven by Jesus Christ, Who forgives a man through his Catholic priest. If every Catholic man understood the grave danger he is in due to his sin and how powerful and easy it is to be forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance, men would shout with thanks and praise to God and endure long waits in Confession lines.
Every Catholic man is in a life and death battle against Sin
Every Catholic man has inherited a desire to commit sins which can separate him from God. A man’s sins vary in type and severity; all sins damage a man’s union with God but mortal sin causes a man to fall from God’s grace on earth and to lose Heaven and gain Hell if he dies guilty of mortal sin.
God offers great blessings in the Sacrament of Penance
God created every man out of love and desires that all men reject sin and draw close to Him. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty Father, came to earth as the Savior of man to reveal that God desires to forgive men of their sins and He died on the Cross so that every man might be forgiven. In His Infinite Mercy, God has graciously granted Catholic men the great blessing to be completely forgiven of their sins in the Sacrament of Penance.
The 5 Steps of the Sacrament of Penance
To receive the blessings of the Sacrament of Penance, a man must proceed through five basic steps: a man must come to understand what sin which can be thought of as Christ’s “performance standards”; a man must rigorously measure himself against Christ’s “performance standards” through an examination of conscience to identify his sins; a man must personally confess his sins to one of Christ’s priests in the Sacrament of Penance and be forgiven; a man must make reparation for his sins when possible; and a man must go back out into the world of the spiritual combat and battle falling back into sin.