It might feel awkward to tell our sins to a priest. But the priest’s role is to act on behalf of Jesus, who desires more than anything to forgive us and offer us mercy. Priests hear so many confessions that you’ll never surprise or scandalize the priest. Priests are also bound by the sacrament to never reveal or even act on any knowledge they hear in confession.

Jesus wants us to experience confessing our sins to Him through His priest who, in the Sacrament of Penance, exercises the power of forgiveness that Christ gave the Church. He wants us to hear from another person that we are loved, that we are not bad, that we are forgiven. And He wants us to experience mercy and hear the words of absolution, of forgiveness, that restore us to life in Christ.

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