Spring cleaning for the soul

Following up on my SMART goals for LENT, I have finished the third book of my pile.

 How to make a Good Confession by John A. Kane

 

I weirdly love confession.

We go as a family during most months of the year on a First Saturday.

I love cleaning out my spiritual cupboards of all the c**p that accumulates there over time.

I know why, however, this book has sat only half-finished for almost an entire year on my bedside table: although in theory I know how great I feel afterwards, the work needed to get me through the cleaning process sometimes puts me off following through.

So, this Lent has been an awesome chance to clean out the spiritual cupboards and re-stock them with what I really need to be happy.

And that’s what it’s all about : being happy – eternally happy.

You hear people say, “I just want to be happy” meaning happiness here and now, and really not genuinely joy-filled unending happiness, but rather the sort of happiness that is a series of transient pleasures… the sort of happiness that does not last for eternity.

That’s why I love confession.  It reminds of the need I have for happiness in the truest sense.  For those parts that still are not truly happy, even when I might have everything I need and more, I am still unsatisfied.  I am still not deeply peaceful and happy.  This is the problem with sin, and why God in His great goodness has given us the cleaning tools we need to get rid of the junk and start truly living.

There are a lot of books with Examinations of Conscience – like a great checklist of how much stuff I need to clean out of my inner cupboard: but this one takes it a step further.  It is the best one I have come across so far.  If you have others you like, I would love to hear about them in the comments section.

The thing I love about this one is it takes sin to the real heart of things, like rather than just relating the Commandment “Thou shalt not kill” to, “Did I murder anyone since my last confession?” it also asks things like: “Am I cruel to animals? Do I put a damper on others’ joys by my negative attitude? When I had the opportunity, have I done nothing to prevent evil?”  And many other tools to help weed out all the self-justification for sin which is the nature of the human heart.

It certainly won’t do you any harm to read this, and you might even discover an inner peace you may have been missing for a long time.