Last week I spent most of my time in Scripture, learning to slow down and actually sit with it instead of skimming it. This week I want to turn to something different: the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist.

I’ll admit, confession is the one I’d rather put off. Not because I doubt it works, but because it asks me to name the actual thing, not a softened version of it. Scripture doesn’t really let me hide there either. First John says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not forgive us once we’ve explained ourselves well enough. Just confess, honestly, and he does the rest.

So today isn’t much of a lesson. It’s a question I’m sitting with before the week gets going. What’s the one detail I usually leave out when I examine my conscience, the part I round off or skip past without quite admitting it? I don’t need a full answer today. Just noticing it feels like enough of a start.

Today’s Bible Study

Psalm 51 is where I go when I don’t feel like praying but need to. David wrote it right after Nathan called out exactly what he’d done, no vague language, no spin. The line that gets me every time is verse ten. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. He isn’t asking to feel a little better about himself. He’s asking to be remade. That’s a different kind of honesty than just feeling bad, and it’s the same honesty confession asks for, named centuries before confession as I know it existed.

Recommended Reading

Scott Hahn’s The Lamb’s Supper is the book that first made the Mass make sense to me as something bigger than routine. I’m planning to reread part of it this week as I sit with the Eucharist, and if you’ve never picked it up, it’s worth starting there.