Quotes on Confession

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works."
--St. Augustine

Go to your confessor; open your heart to him; display to him all the recesses of your soul; take the advice that he will give you with the utmost humility and simplicity. For God, Who has an infinite love for obedience, frequently renders profitable the counsels we take from others, but especially from those who are the guides of our souls. --St. Francis de Sales

"In failing to confess, Lord, I would only hide You from myself, not myself from You." --Saint Augustine

"Confession is like a bridle that keeps the soul which reflects on it from committing sin, but anything left unconfessed we continue to do without fear as if in the dark." --Saint John Climacus

"A soul does not benefit from the sacrament of confession if it is not humble. Pride keeps it in darkness. The soul neither knows how, nor is it willing, to probe with precision the depths of its own misery. It puts on a mask and avoids everything that might bring it recovery." --Saint Faustina

"At the time of your examination(of sins) beware of the devil that ties your tongue." --Saint Josemaria Escriva

My daughter, just as you prepare in My presence, so also you make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyse what sort of a priest it is that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light. (1725) --St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul


"'You told me, Father, that after my past life it is still possible to become another St. Augustine. I don't doubt it, and today more than yesterday I want to try to prove it.' But you have to cut out sin courageously from the root, as the holy Bishop of Hippo did."
--Saint Josemaria Escriva

To do penance is to bewail the evil we have done, and to do no evil to bewail. --Pope St. Gregory the Great

In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance. --St. Thomas Aquinas

Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works. --St. Thomas Aquinas

Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin, all hope consists in confession; in confession there is a chance for mercy. --St. Isidore of Seville

The minister to whom confession is made is the delegate of Christ, Who is the Judge of the living and the dead.--St. Thomas Aquinas


Our Lord Himself I saw in this venerable Sacrament . . . I felt as if my chains fell, as those of St. Peter at the touch of the Divine messenger. My God, what new scenes for my soul!
--St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

A disobedient soul will win no victory, even if the Lord Jesus himself, in person, were to hear its confession. --St. Faustina

Tell souls where they are to look for solace; that is, in the Tribunal of Mercy. There the greatest miracles take place [and] are incessantly repeated. To avail oneself of this miracle, it is not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage or to carry out some external ceremony; it suffices to come with faith to the feet of My representative and to reveal to him one's misery, and the miracle of Divine Mercy will be fully demonstrated. Were a soul like a decaying corpse so that from a human standpoint, there would be no [hope of ] restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God. The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full. Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God's mercy! You will call out in vain, but it will be too late. (1448) --St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul

Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls. --St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul

A humble confession displeases Satan and, if he could, he would make you omit Holy Communion. --Imitation of Christ

Confession is an act of honesty and courage - an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God.
--Pope John Paul 2

"After confession," says St. Chrysostom, ”a crown is given to
penitents."

If you excuse yourself in confession, you shut up sin within your soul, and shut out pardon. “ --St. Augustine

The devil does not bring sinners to hell with their eyes open: he first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. Before we fall into sin, the enemy labours to blind us, that we may not see the evil we do and the ruin we bring upon ourselves by offending God. After we commit sin, he seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may conceal our guilt in confession. --St. Alphonsus Liguori

'The want of proper examination, true contrition, and a firm purpose of amendment, is the cause of bad confessions, and of the ruin of souls.' --St. Benedict Joseph Labre

Obedience to a confessor is the most acceptable offering which we can make to God, and the most secure way of doing the divine will.
--St. Alphonsus Liguori

"Not to follow the advice of our confessor is pride and a want of faith." --St. John of the Cross

"Strive always to confess your sins with a deep knowledge of your own wretchedness and with clarity and purity."
--St. John of the Cross

Just as an animal becomes a stronger beast of burden and more beautiful to behold the more often and better it is fed, so too confession - the more often it is used and the more carefully it is made as to both lesser and greater sins - conveys the soul increasingly forward and is so pleasing to God that it leads the soul to God's very heart. --Revelations of St. Bridget