Confession has all too often been understood within a dynamic of payment due, penance to be done, and conditional forgiveness.
The contemplative tradition brings an alternative, transformative experience of confession; reimagining confession as an integral part of our journey into wholeness. Key to confession as part of the journey of spiritual transformation is noticing.
Sometimes that happens by being hit over the head with a ton of bricks.
But more often, it happens by noticing in the stillness how once again we have acted out of those old inadequate behavioral patterns; ones that are more interested in feeding the little, needy ego than in re-forming the ego into a strong and healthy center, marked by compassion and courage, integral to the spiritual heart.
This concept of confession is not reserved solely for the confessional booth or Sunday’s general confession or any other specific time. Rather, it is always present as we live through our days. With clear and courageous eyes, we notice how we fall short and where we are called to go—an ongoing examen that leads us forward.
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