Call this an alphabetic lesson of sorts.

Let’s look as “C,” as in Confession.

A parish points out the other day that four “Cs” make for a good or bad one.

A good Confession is:

Concise. Confession with few words, just the words needed to say humbly what we have done or have failed to do, without any unnecessary elaboration or adornment.

Concrete. Confession without digression, without generalities. The penitent should humbly indicate his/her situation and also the time elapsed since the last Confession and the difficulties he/she finds in leading a Christian life. He/she declares his/her sins and the surrounding circumstances that have a bearing on the sins so that the confessor may judge in the Person of Christ; absolve in the Person of Christ; and heal in the Person of Christ.

Contrite. A Confession where we make ourselves understood declaring the precise nature of the sin, manifesting our sinfulness with the necessary modesty and delicacy.

Clear. A Confession where we make ourselves understood declaring the precise nature of the sin, manifesting our sinfulness with the necessary modesty and delicacy.

Complete. Confession should be integral, without leaving anything out through a false sense of shame so as not to appear bad in the eyes of the priest hearing the confession. All mortal sins must be confessed by number and kind.

Crucify the flesh.

Another lesson is with the letter “F.”

Over and over, we find, whether in Catholic writing or in supernatural reports, the tremendous importance of the first F:

FORGIVENESS.

Very crucial in our journey to Heaven.

It’s one of the keys Peter uses.

That means to:

FORGET.

It doesn’t work, when we say, “I can forgive but not forget.” If you say that, your heart has not purged. You have not truly forgiven.

Another “F”:

FAITH:

A wise woman from Ireland once tied this with a negative “F” word:

FEAR

If we have just eighty percent faith, we have twenty percent fear.

If we have just twenty percent faith, we have eighty percent fear.

If we have one hundred percent faith, we have no fear.

Fear—except for the holy fear of God—makes us incomplete. (Fear of God, on the other hand, is “the beginning of wisdom,” Proverbs 9:10).

Think of these “hidden virtues and hidden sins as you examine your conscience this critical season called LENT.

[See also: An examination of conscience]

[resources: Michael Brown online retreat]