Church Fathers, Day 239: St. Augustine says to know God, confess your sins

To know God, confess your sins

Why do we confess our sins when God knows them already? St. Augustine tells us that we can’t hide our sins from God, but not confessing them will hide God from us.

Lord, the depths of a man’s conscience are bare to your eyes. What in me could be hidden from you, even if I were unwilling to confess it to you? By not confessing I would hide you from myself, not myself from you.

For when I am wicked, to confess to you is nothing but to be dissatisfied with myself. But when I am really devout, it is nothing but not to attribute it to myself, because you, Lord, bless the righteous, but first you justify the ungodly.

So my confession in your sight is made to you silently, and yet not silently. In sound it is silent, but in love it shouts out loud.

–St. Augustine, Confessions, 10.2

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I hold back from confessing some of my sins, as though I could hide them from God?

CLOSING PRAYER

Sovereign and almighty Lord, forgive all my sins in your abundant and unsearchable good­ness, through the grace, mercy, and love of your only-begotten Son.

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