Divine Mercy Indulgence, 7 Ideas

The Sunday Guide from April and me this Divine Mercy Sunday tells you how to get the Divine Mercy Indulgence.

It also gives these seven ways to promote confession:

1. Go regularly yourself. Our examples evangelize more than we know.

2. Bring your family — children, grandchildren or close nephews and nieces. Children need to go to confession, too. Many families make confession an outing, followed up with ice cream or coffee. Our website provides an examination of conscience for children. Click “Resources,” then “Confessional Guides.”

3. Mention it. There’s no reason we can’t tell people that we have gone to confession. Since confession is a significant event in our lives, it’s an appropriate answer to the question, “What did you do last weekend?”

4. Learn, and spread the knowledge. To find the Register’s own reader-friendly “How and Why to Go to Confession” guide at our website, click “Resources,” then “How to Be a Catholic Guides.”

5. Follow the Pope. Someone asked Pope Benedict XVI why we should go to confession regularly if we always seem to be confessing the same sins anyway. He answered, “It is true: Our sins are always the same, but we clean our homes, our rooms, at least once a week, even if the dirt is always the same; in order to live in cleanliness, in order to start again. Otherwise, the dirt might not be seen, but it builds up. Something similar can be said about the soul, for me myself. …. Confession is only necessary in the case of a serious sin, but it is very helpful to confess regularly in order to foster the cleanliness and beauty of the soul and to mature day by day in life.”

6. Children: Use your power. Children have led their families into all sorts of healthy practices, from recycling to quitting smoking. Many parents rediscover confession through their children.

7. Mention it as a kind of “excuse.” If someone invited you on a walk through mud, you’d say, “No thanks, I don’t want to have to clean my shoes and clothes.” When someone begins to engage in denigrating gossip or wants you to watch an objectionable movie, etc., you have the same answer: “No thanks. I would to have to figure out how to get to confession again before my regularly scheduled time!”