14 Reasons to Confess Your Sins to God through a Priest

The Sacrament of Reconciliation (also called Penance and Confession) is the source of many graces. The Catholic Catechism says, Only God forgives sins. Since He is the Son of God, Jesus says of Himself, ‘The Son of God has authority on earth to forgive sins’ and exercises this divine power: ‘Your sins are forgiven. Further, by virtue of this divine authority He gives this power to men to exercise in His name’ (CCC 1441).

1. John 20:21-23 says: As the Father has sent Me, so I send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain they are retained. Jesus told His apostles this during His first appearance to them after his Resurrection, connecting new life to the forgiveness of sins. Everything Jesus did had significance. When He breathed on them, He gave them a unique gift. The only other time that God breathed on anyone was when He breathed life into the first humans in Genesis 2:7.

2. James 5:16 says: Confess your sins to one another. He does not say to confess your sins to God alone. There is no one better to whom you can confess your sins than a priest because the Seal of Confession is absolute and unending. Priests have died to protect the Seal of Confession. (More HERE.) The priest acts as Christ Himself. It is as if you are speaking to Jesus Himself. The Catholic Catechism says the priest acts in persona Christi [in the person of Christ] (CCC 1548). This is why the priest says, I absolve you, not Jesus absolves you. (In Baptism, the priest says I baptize you, not Jesus baptizes you.)

7. Your brief time on earth is about saving your soul and helping others to save their souls. The Catholic Church is the only one that can bring you true peace after you have committed serious or habitual sins. Regular Confession of your sins to God through a priest is a great example that can help affect good for many generations or even until the end of time. It is an awesome responsibility to know this is true and to pass it on to the children and everyone around you, who then have a choice of passing it on to future generations. This is the power you have in your hands.

8. Regular Confession helps you improve your life and overcome tendencies to be impatient, angry, upset, impure, hurtful, vengeful, etc. Confession helps you to become better at forgiving, asking for forgiveness, and improving your relationships with others. You can offer up your confessions in order to intercede in obtaining graces for those in your family and others who do not practice their Catholic faith or for people who never worship God. The world today is so much in need of forgiveness because there are so many divisions, bitter disagreements, and hatred. If millions of Catholics went to Confession on a regular basis, many parts of the world could be totally improved and healed.

9. Confession gives you a chance to receive personal counsel from a priest to help combat specific bad habits and give you ideas to strengthen your will. Confession encourages honesty and accountability and it also increases your faith because, when you open yourself more fully to Christ, He rewards your humility with more faith in Him. Confession also increases your humility because it is hard to admit your weaknesses and faults. Regular confession also helps form your conscience (CCC, 1458). If you do not have a properly informed conscience, you will not know what is true or false, or if you are following societal pressures or rebellious attitudes popularized in the media or promoted by leaders at all levels and in many organizations.

10. Regular Confession, along with an examination of conscience, can help ensure that you have an informed conscience, which the Catholic faith requires in order to faithfully follow the perennial teachings of Jesus Christ, and not just your personal feelings and opinions. Some people say, Everything is subjective or your truth is not my truth. These statements themselves are false statements. They are illogical and absurd because truth is absolute and objective. Truth is not relative and changing. Truth is based on the Holy Scripture, the Catholic Magisterium, and Natural Law written in the human heart. It is universal and knowable. Truth judges you; you do not judge or decide what is truth. You can discover truth; you cannot make up truth.

11. Jesus told St. Faustina that Confession is a Fountain of Mercy: When you go to Confession, to this fountain of mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul… Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy… I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest… I Myself act in your soul. (Diary of St. Faustina, 1602.) NOTE ESPECIALLY: Jesus told St. Faustina that the first Sunday after Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday), on this special feast those who go to confession and receive Holy Communion, as prescribed, shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day are opened all the divine floodgates through which graces flow (669).

12. Jesus also told St. Faustina that the Greatest Miracles take place in Confession: Come with faith to the feet of My representative… [I]n the Tribunal of Mercy [the Sacrament of Reconciliation]… the greatest miracles take place and are incessantly repeated…. Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy! (Diary of St. Faustina,1448). Make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyze what sort of a priest it is that I am making use of; open your soul in Confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light (1725).

13. Confessing your sins to God through a priest is a radical act of rebellion against the immense evil in the world. Relativism, paganism, and growing secularization are challenging and undermining families including a lot of people who grew up in faithful Catholic households. By regular Confession and living the fullness of the Catholic faith, you can be part of the solution to fight against the errors and evils in the world. You can help defeat the untruths and deceptions of the secular culture when you learn and observe the historic teachings of the Catholic Church. Willful ignorance of the truths of your faith is a grave matter. There are serious consequences if you say you are Catholic and you believe in God, but do little to find out and follow what the Catholic faith teaches and requires.

14. Confessing your sins is also a great act of love for God and for those around you and a perfect way to prepare for your particular judgement by Jesus Christ when you enter into eternity. The Catholic faith is different from any other faith because regular Confession is a great help to become a saint, to be holy and loving, no matter where you are or what your job is. It calls every member to live by high standards that can improve your life and the lives of everyone around you. The Sacrament of Confession is a tremendous gift that no other faith offers.

NOTE: Confession can help you build up virtues to overcome your frailties, faults, or weaknesses.

     Here are some virtues to practice as explained by Ascension Press HERE.

     Here are some virtues especially for students as explained by the Dominican Sisters in Ann Arbor: Courtesy, Generosity, Gratitude, Kindness, Obedience, Responsibility, Trustworthiness, Prudence, Docility, Foresight, Fortitude, Industriousness, Magnanimity, Magnificence, Patience, Perseverance, Temperance, Honesty, Humility, Meekness, Moderation, Modesty, Orderliness, Self-control, Justice, Affability, Courtesy, Generosity, Gratitude, Kindness, Loyalty, Obedience Patriotism Prayerfulness Religion Respect Responsibility Sincerity Trustworthiness Prudence Circumspection, Docility, Foresight, Fortitude, Industriousness, Magnanimity, Magnificence, Patience, Perseverance, Temperance, Honesty, Humility, Meekness, Moderation, Modesty, Orderliness, Self-control.

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MORE INFO ON ST. FAUSTINA AT: https://www.radiantmagazine.com/2019/02/18/my-friend-st-faustina/ AND https://www.saint-faustina.org/diary-full-text/
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ACT OF CONTRITION: O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen. MORE AT: https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray-act-of-contrition/

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MOST SOULS GO TO PURGATORY since most people are not perfect as Jesus told us in Mt. 5:48. Jesus also said: Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Mt.7:13-14). It is NOT helpful to say or imply that people go directly to heaven, as our clergy have taught us. It is EXTREMELY HELPFUL to ask everyone to pray for the soul of every deceased person. They will be very grateful to us.

Medjugorje visionary Mirjana Dragicevic Soldo asked Our Lady about eternity… She writes in her book, My Heart Will Triumph: I asked her once where most people go when they die. She said that most go to Purgatory before ultimately passing through to Heaven. The next greatest number go to Hell, and few go directly to Heaven (P.151).

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WHEN SHOULD YOU CALL A PRIEST TO ADMINISTER THE LAST RITES? It is advisable to not wait for the last days to call a priest to administer this sacrament because the priest may be otherwise delayed. One may also receive this sacrament prior to a surgery or during any serious illness. But, for those in danger of death, do not wait until the person can no longer speak, think clearly, or swallow…. READ MORE HERE.

APOSTOLIC PARDON BRINGS TOTAL FORGIVENESS BEFORE DEATH. Learn about an indulgence for the remission of temporal punishment due to sin given to a dying person who is in the state of grace, but Fr. John Trigilio said recently on EWTN that it is necessary to have NO attachments to sin which is difficult. SEE: https://www.ncregister.com/features/apostolic-pardon-brings-total-forgiveness-before-death

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PRESUMPTION IS NOT TAUGHT BY THE BIBLE by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR: There is a whole lot of what we call presumption in the U.S. and in the European countries right now. People say: I will do pretty good, I will not particularly pray, I will not read the Bible, I will not go to church, I will not follow the Commandments, but I will not hurt anybody. That does not get you into the Kingdom of God. It will get you into the Humane Society and that is a different ball of wax.

     We MUST follow the Commandments, we must follow the Gospels. Jesus says: Be ready…. Do not be too sure that you are ready…. You may have a kind of peaceful conscience. It may be asleep, but wake it up…. It means that we must take His teachings very seriously.

     You say: I am a lot better person than a lot of other people around. You may have received much more…. Jesus says: From those to whom much is given, much is expected (Lk. 12:48). Do not look around at somebody else and say: I am doing better than they are. You do not know what they had….

     To those who think they are saved because they heard the Word of God and believed in Jesus, St. Paul says everyone shall be judged according to his deeds (Rom. 2:6). Jesus says: If you love Me, keep My Commandments… (Jn. 15:9). You cannot take one verse out of the Bible and forget all the other verses.

     This particular point of view that you are saved no matter what you do was not embraced by some of the Protestant reformers… including John Wesley, or any of the Anglicans, or even Calvin. This particular point of view that once you believed you were saved no matter what you do, was a very, very novel idea. Nobody in Christian history ever said anything like that before the 16th century. Nobody! It is at odds with many, many Scripture texts.

     It is extremely important for each of us to work to be saved… to receive a favorable judgment from God… Jesus saves us, but we have to do our little part. If you feel you have not been doing your part… if you have been away from God, read the Gospels, begin to pray, think about going to church, think about praying every day, think about doing good things for the poor, for the sick, for the needy. St. Paul says: In doing good, do not grow tired… (Gal. 6:9). And then have confidence.

     Saint Paul also says so beautifully: I am sure that neither Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).
–Sunday Best with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, EWTN Archives, Rebroadcast Feb. 1, 2026.

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SHOCKED AND AMAZED: These are two of the emotions many people will feel when they enter into eternity and find out that Jesus, Lord of lords and King of kings, was really present in the Holy Eucharist at every Catholic Mass and in Catholic churches for the entire time they were on earth. The presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is real and is not temporary; It does not end when the Mass ends. Jesus remains in the Holy Eucharist (and in each particle) and for this reason, Jesus is reserved in each tabernacle in Catholic churches so that anyone may walk into a Catholic church and visit Jesus. This is why many people experience a special presence of God when they enter a Catholic church. You can love and adore Jesus there in a profound way, unlike any other place in the world. Adoration of the Holy Eucharist prolongs and intensifies what has taken place at each Mass. (Please read and meditate on: John 6:51-58).