{"id":2438,"date":"2008-09-24T14:57:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-24T14:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/09\/why-confession\/"},"modified":"2008-09-24T14:57:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-24T14:57:00","slug":"why-confession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/09\/why-confession.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Confession?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_5BV_YADVD7o\/SNqN5curTSI\/AAAAAAAAB2w\/iRc_TQFQnts\/s1600-h\/confession.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_5BV_YADVD7o\/SNqN5curTSI\/AAAAAAAAB2w\/iRc_TQFQnts\/s320\/confession.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"><\/a>Because the fast way to hell might be through a big, nasty, dirty and shocking mortal sin (with sudden death soon to follow) but the slow way is to take the \u2018broad way that leads to destruction.\u2019<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The road to hell is shoulder to shoulder with nice people who never do anything very bad, but also never do anything very good. Complacent, ordinary folks who say, \u201cYeh, well, I\u2019m only human. It\u2019s true I have some faults, but I\u2019m working on them. But I\u2019m not <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-style: italic\">really<\/span>\u00a0a sinner. I mean, I\u2019ve never <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold\">murdered<\/span> anyone! Chuckle chuckle.\u201d This road is a broad, nicely paved road with a very, very slight downward incline\u2013enough to keep us coasting, but not enough to notice that we\u2019re going downhill.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As long as we don\u2019t think we need God we\u2019re far from God. On the other hand, as soon as we even resolve to go to confession we\u2019ve taken the narrow side turning off the broad road. As soon as we step into the confessional and get on our knees we\u2019re back on track with God. It almost doesn\u2019t even matter what we confess. What matters is that our heart has turned back to God. We\u2019ve acknowledged our need of him. We\u2019ve therefore put ourselves back into his will.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Confession is actually a good, healthy and wholesome thing to do. It\u2019s healthy and wholesome like getting up early, getting some exercise, turning off the TV and eating our vegetables.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>What I can\u2019t understand is how anyone\u2013most of all Catholics\u2013can live without it. Along with the Eucharist, it\u2019s water for the thirsty, food for the hungry, light for the blind and fresh air for those who are locked in the dungeon of self and sin.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because the fast way to hell might be through a big, nasty, dirty and shocking mortal sin (with sudden death soon to follow) but the slow way is to take the \u2018broad way that leads to destruction.\u2019 The road to hell is shoulder to shoulder with nice people who never do anything very bad, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Confession?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Because the fast way to hell might be through a big, nasty, dirty and shocking mortal sin (with sudden death soon to follow) but the slow way is to take\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/09\/why-confession.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Confession?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Because the fast way to hell might be through a big, nasty, dirty and shocking mortal sin (with sudden death soon to follow) but the slow way is to take\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2008\/09\/why-confession.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-24T14:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_5BV_YADVD7o\/SNqN5curTSI\/AAAAAAAAB2w\/iRc_TQFQnts\/s320\/confession.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. 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