Twelve Steps for Catholics ~ part 9

Sacrament

of

Penance
and
The Twelve Steps

of

A.A.

Often others ask us why we go to Confession when we can just have a casual chat with God. Sometimes that is a hard one for us to explain. Listen to what the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions has to say about this:

"At this stage, the difficulties of trying to deal rightly with God by ourselves are twofold. Though we may at first be startled to realize that God knows all about us, we are apt to get used to that quite quickly. Somehow, being alone with God doesn't seem as embarrassing as facing up to another person. Until we actually sit down and talk aloud about what we have so long hidden, our willingness to clean house is still largely theoretical. When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God.

The second difficulty is this: what comes to us alone may be garbled by our own rationalization and wishful thinking.

...Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous. How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was all too plain that they were sorely mistaken. Lacking both practice and humility, they had deluded themselves and were able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God has told them. It is worth noting that people of very high spiritual development almost always insist on checking with friends or spiritual adviser the guidance they feel they have received from God." page 60

If you are ever charged with a crime, try telling the judge that you are going right home to sit in a corner and tell God and society how sorry you are. Trust me, you will not get a "get out of jail free card or $200.00 for passing go." The Church gets it, society gets it, the founders of AA get it, and the counselors and psychologists who suck up our money get it. How come so many Catholics don't get it?