✨ Show Notes
🎙️ Intro
Welcome to VirTrue, where we work together to turn away from vice and adopt the virtuous life we are all called to.
I’m your host, Jethro Higgins.
Today’s virtue is Confession (Confessio)
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🌿 Virtue Description: Confession
Confession is more than admitting you did something wrong. It’s hope in action.It’s saying, “I believe God’s mercy is bigger than my mess.”
As a sub-virtue of Hope, Confession gives you the courage to face your faults because you believe God still wants to heal you. It’s the virtue that says, “I am not defined by my worst day.”
Last week, we explored Contrition. This week, we look at what that sorrow leads us to:A bold, trusting step toward healing.
St. Thomas Aquinas writes:
“The virtue of penance consists chiefly in grief of heart, and secondarily in its outward manifestation. The former consists in a turning to God, and consequently in a turning away from those things which are contrary to God.”Summa Theologica II-II, Q84, A1
Confession is that outward manifestation. It’s the step you take because you’re turning back toward God.
Confession builds:
* Humility: You name your fault and take ownership.
* Clarity: You recognize what’s keeping you from God.
* Moral strength: You choose grace over guilt and healing over hiding.
Over time, this virtue doesn’t just change your prayer life. It changes how you show up in your family, friendships, and daily decisions. It helps you live in constant hope—hope that says, “God is not finished with me yet.”
⚠️ Vice of Deficiency: Despair
DefinitionDespair is the belief that your sins are too big for God’s mercy. It shuts the door on forgiveness and says, “There’s no hope for someone like me.”
Why it fitsConfession is about moving toward God. Despair convinces you it’s not even worth trying.It doesn’t just silence confession—it steals your will to be healed.
St. Thomas Aquinas puts it simply:
“Despair consists in a man ceasing to hope for a share of God’s goodness... It is contrary to the mercy of God.”Summa Theologica II-II, Q20, A1
DescriptionDespair wraps you in shame and says you’re beyond help. It might look like hiding, avoiding church, or refusing to forgive yourself. But at its core, it’s a rejection of God’s promise to restore you.
It’s one of the sins against the Holy Spirit—not because God won’t forgive, but because you won’t ask.
🔥 Vice of Excess: Presumption
DefinitionPresumption expects forgiveness without sorrow. It assumes God will just “get it” and doesn’t feel the need to truly repent.
Why it fitsPresumption distorts God’s mercy. It treats it like a loophole instead of a lifeline.It’s the soul saying, “God will forgive me anyway, so I don’t need to change.”
DescriptionPresumption often sounds like:
* “Everyone sins.”
* “God understands.”
* “It’s not that big of a deal.”
It avoids self-examination and treats confession like a routine instead of a relationship.St. Paul warned about this attitude in Romans 6:1:
“Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means.”
Presumption forgets that grace isn’t automatic. It’s a gift meant to transform you.
🪞 My Life
I struggled with the deficiency side of this virtue. I didn’t doubt God could forgive me—I doubted whether I was ready to receive it.
I avoided confession. I feared the shame. I’d go when required, but not because my heart longed for reconciliation.
But during my senior year, something changed.God pulled me deeper into prayer and relationship.Confession wasn’t a task anymore—it was a homecoming.And I’ve never gone back to despair.
Today, my kids ask to go to confession. They see it as hope, not humiliation.And that’s a gift we can give those we love: the example of a heart willing to be restored.
🧎 The Confiteor
I confess to almighty God,and to you, my brothers and sisters,that I have greatly sinnedin my thoughts and in my words,in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do,through my fault, through my fault,through my most grievous fault.Therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,all the Angels and Saints,and you, my brothers and sisters,to pray for me to the Lord our God.
🌍 The Secular Perspective
Modern culture echoes presumption. You’ve heard it before:
* “I can go straight to God.”
* “I don’t need a priest.”
* “It’s just a man-made ritual.”
* “Only Jesus mediates.”
But Jesus said, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.”And, “Confess your sins to one another.”
Confession isn’t optional—it’s personal.
Our culture tries to rebrand guilt as trauma or shame as control.But that twinge in your conscience? That’s grace calling.That’s the Holy Spirit saying, “Come home.”
🌟 Example Saint: St. Augustine of Hippo
Lived: 354–430 ADFrom: Thagaste, North Africa (modern-day Algeria)
Why Augustine fits this virtue:Augustine is the patron saint of the honest confession. His Confessions laid bare his sins, his pride, and his long journey home. He never tried to justify himself—he just opened his heart to God.
* Radical Conversion: “Late have I loved you... You were within me, but I was outside.”
* Hope in Mercy: After years of running, he believed in mercy stronger than shame.
* Ongoing Contrition: Even as bishop, Augustine confessed daily.
* Moral Clarity: His honesty became the roadmap for millions.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”Confessions, Book 1
💬 Tell Me What You Think
What’s your experience of this virtue?Have you wrestled with presumption or despair?Drop a comment or message me. Your story may shape a future episode.
✝️ Act of Confession
O my God,I stand before You in truth.I confess my faults not to justify myself,but to open my soul to Your mercy.I trust that You are faithful to forgive.Let this confession be the beginning of renewal,not the end of regret.Restore what sin has wounded.Make me new in Your love.Amen.
🙏 Closing Prayer
Lord, bless us with faith, hope, love, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice.Help us to flee from sin and avoid all temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.Protect us with a spiritual hedge—above, below, beside, within, and all around—sealed by the blood of Your Son.Help us to keep You in everything we think, say, and do.Amen.
🕊️ Go out and fill the world with virtue. Deus vult!
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