When I was growing up going to Saturday night mass was a weekly event. I remember going through the same ritual prayers' week after week, kneeling and standing several times in a service, and the priest giving a reading out of one of the Gospels. No Bibles were in the pews, and I never saw people bringing a Bible. I would daydream throughout the service and couldn't wait to leave.
When I was eight a traumatic experience happened that I will never forget. I was at the age where you had to have your first confession to the priest. Anxiety and fear riddled me in the weeks leading up to this event. I absolutely dreaded doing this to the point of feeling sick. I did not want to do this but knew I had to. The day finally came, and I remember making up things to confess. I just wanted to get out of there. When I finished, they told me to go say the Hail Mary prayer several times and then I would be forgiven. I went out of the confessional and faked that I was saying the prayer. I never went to a confessional again.
Looking back, it makes me feel sad that this little girl had to be put through something that man's religious system created. Even then, I knew something wasn't right. I see now that growing up in this church definitely rooted in me the belief that God was distant, unapproachable, and to be greatly feared.
There is only one mediator between man and God and that is Jesus. What a relief it was to learn that I did not need to keep confessing my sins. There is only one confession (agreement) that God desires and it is that we need Him; to stop trusting our dead works for salvation and righteousness and to believe in His One work at the cross for our redemption.
Jesus has cleansed us from ALL unrighteousness. We need not carry the burden of continual confessing. He remembers our sins no more and is always elevating the new creation that we are.
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