OF CONTRITION

HAVING by a diligent and prudent Examination of your Conscience, endeavoured to discover all the sins you have been guilty of since your last Confession, you may pass to the second part of your preparation for the Sacrament of Penance, by endeavouring to excite in your heart the deepest contrition.

This is not only the most difficult, but also the most essential requisite for a good Confession. It is a condition of reconciliation with God, from which nothing can dispense. Such circumstances as the loss of speech, or the want of a Clergyman, evidently dispense from the obligation of Confession. Sudden death, which often leaves no time for the performance of the penance enjoined, exempts from satisfaction, at least in this life. But nothing can dispense from contrition; without that, no sin ever was or ever will be pardoned; whereas, on the contrary, one sincere act of unfeigned contrition suffices to induce the Almighty to blot out the most grievous crimes.

Contrition, as the word imports, is a sorrow for sin, with which the heart is so deeply penetrated, as to be as it were broken; a sorrow, which necessarily includes a hatred and sincere detestation of sin. It proceeds from perfect love of God. It is the heartfelt regret of a child, who bitterly laments the misfortune of having offended a beloved parent, whose displeasure he fears more than death, and whom he loves infinitely more than life. Such was the sorrow of the prodigal son, when he exclaimed: O my Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, Luke xv. 18. An act of this kind of sorrow, properly called Contrition, justifies a sinner the instant it is produced; thus was Magdalen purified from all her sins, because her tears of contrition flowed from a heart penetrated with the most perfect charity. Contrition, nevertheless, however perfect it may be, does

not dispense with the obligation of recurring to the Sacrament of Penance, or ardently desiring to do so, if deprived of an opportunity.

The second kind of sorrow for sin is called Attrition, and is much inferior to Contrition, both in its causes and in its effects. It is the regret of a slave, who returns to a master whose chastisement he fears, or of a child, who regrets having forfeited a claim to the possessions of his father. It is generally produced either by a sense of the baseness of sin in itself, or, more commonly, by a fear of hell, or the loss of heaven. If attrition be accompanied by a hope of pardon, if it exclude the will of sinning again, it is an impulse of the Holy Ghost, and a gift of God, which disposes the sinner for the happiness of perfect reconciliation with God in the tribunal of penance.

Sorrow for sin, whether perfect or imperfect; that is, Contrition, or Attrition, must have the six following qualities: First, it must be interior; that is, it must dwell in the heart, not on the lips, and consist in an inward, sincere feeling of sorrow, not in empty expressions of regret, which, of themselves, are of no avail before Him who sees the heart. Witness Saul and David: the former, when reproached for his crimes by the Prophet, acknowledges his guilt with all the appearance of sorrow; nevertheless, he dies a reprobate. David is also reproached by God's prophet with far more grievous transgressions; he, in like manner, confesses his crimes, which are fully remitted by God. Whence this difference? From the difference between their sorrow;-that of Saul was merely exterior; that of David was interior, and therefore efficacious.

Secondly, Contrition must be supernatural; that is, produced by motives of faith; such as regret for having offended a God infinitely amiable, infinitely good to us; a God who alone can render us either eterually happy, or eternally miserable: motives which are merely natural or temporal, such as the loss of

health, fortune, reputation, or the shame and confu sion which sin entails, though they are ample subjects of bitter regret, are in themselves absolutely insufficient to recover God's friendship, as is proved in the case of Antiochus, who vainly implored pardon for his sins, because his sorrow for them, though very lively, was solely produced by the pangs with which the Almighty punished him.

Thirdly, Contrition must be sovereign; that is, it must be superior to, and greater than, every other sorrow; for, as we should prefer our salvation to all that is most dear to us on earth, not excepting our very life: consequently our sorrow for having offended God, and for having forfeited our right to the kingdom of heaven, should be greater than for any other loss whatsoever. By sovereign sorrow, however, is not meant sensible sorrow, such as would be felt for the loss of a parent, or a dear friend; the word sovereign here only signifies that we should consider sin the sovereign evil, that is, the first and greatest of all evils; for, though the loss of the friendship and goods of this world, in general, affects our senses much more than the loss of eternal goods, yet, in the bottom of our soul, our sorrow for having sinned must outweigh every other.

Fourthly, Contrition must be universal; that is, it must extend to every sin you have committed. Thus, to cherish the least attachment to any of your sins, though you should feel the sincerest regret for all the rest, would render you incapable of pardon. For, as St. Gregory says, what will it avail a sinner, to regret the sin of anger, if he be intent on revenge?Of what use will it be to you, to regret and renounce lies, injustice, or any other crime, if you persevere in uncharitable dislike to your neighbour, or do not detest from your heart your proud and imperious conduct towards others? In such cases, your contrition would not suffice, because it would not be universal.

Fifthy, Contrition must be accompanied with a firm

resolution of never deliberately relapsing into sin. This resolution should be sincere; that is, it should include a firm determination to avoid carefully not only sin but every occasion of sin. It should be an absolute resolution, not the conditional resolution of those who say, they would sin again if there were no hell. It must be courageous; that is, it must lead the sinner to burst all sinful engagements or attachments, however strong they may be. It must be universal; that is, your resolution must not be confined to any particular sin, but must extend to all the faults you may have been in the habit of committing, or may be exposed to commit hereafter. Lastly, It must be efficacious, constant, and founded, not on a presumptuous confidence in our own strength, but on an humble dependence and firm reliance on the assistance of God. This description of resolution, so very different from the vague purposes of amendment, which satisfy too many in preparing for confession, is so indispensably necessary to true contrition, that the sorrow which does not include it, cannot be any thing better than gross illusion or hypocrisy.

The sixth and last quality of Contrition is, a willing ness and determination to accept and perform any penance which may be imposed in the tribunal of Confession, to repair, to the best of your power, the injuries done your neighbour in his property or reputation, and also to suffer in the spirit of penance the painful consequences which often follow from sin. This was the disposition of the prodigal son, when he willingly consented to be ranked among the servants of his father; and also of Zacheus, who resolved to give half his goods to the poor, and to return four tines as much to those whom he had wronged.

Such should be the qualities of true Contrition, that excellent disposition of heart, which St. Cyprian esteems' the best sacrifice a mortal creature can offer to his Creator." "That disposition which," St. Ambrose says, "opens heaven, closes hell, cures all the

diseases of the soul, repairs all spiritual ruin, and serves as a sponge to efface all iniquities." That disposition, which is so pleasing, so acceptable to God, that he never has rejected, nor ever will reject a contrite heart; a disposition which may be conceived and produced in a moment; for neither the shortness of time, nor the extremity of the last hour, hinders the pardon of a penitent sinner. Finally, Contrition is so profitable, that it not only obtains pardon for all past offences, but gains a future crown of eternal glory. This indispensable disposition for a good Confession, must be a special gift from God, his powerful grace alone can penetrate the soul with that sincere sorrow, which, as St. Augustine says "so changes the heart, as to embitter those things which once appeared sweet, and to change into subjects of real anguish, torment, and affliction, those objects which heretofore delighted the sinner."

The first step you should take, for acquiring true Contrition, is to beg of God most earnestly to dispose your heart for conceiving that lively and sincere sorrow he requires from you. "Those only," says St. Ambrose, on whom Jesus deigns to look, can detest their sins." Peter denies his Divine Master, and weeps not, because the Lord had not looked on him-he repeats his ungrateful denial, nor does he yet weep, because the penetrating glance of Jesus had not pierced his soul. But Peter a third time denies his Lord; Jesus then looks on him, and immediately this penitent Apostle weeps most bitterly. Do you then earnestly beseech of Jesus to look on you, to dispose your heart for conceiving all the sorrow required from you, and to give you himself, that precious gift of sincere Contrition, which you cannot procure of yourself, which he alone can bestow, and without which you can never be ab solved.