More Sunday Thoughts About Perfect Contrition to Start the Week Off Right

We didn't have time to dig deeper into the practice of "perfect contrition" last Sunday. Our emphasis then was on devotion to Our Lord's Precious Blood. But since perfect contrition remains a wonderful, albeit relatively neglected, practice within our Holy Faith, let's take some time this Sunday to understand it better.

Laced throughout the following reflections by Rev. J. Von Den Driesch, which come from his little book Perfect Contrition, we find this from 1 John 4:19: Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us. It perfectly captures the reality of and the reason for our learning about and practicing - daily - perfect contrition. We don't even have to know that the ability to sincerely make an Act of Perfect Contrition will immediately result in forgiveness of our sin or sins (which it does, although we still do need to get to confession as soon as feasible). We just have to take the time to remind ourselves what God has done for us. Now let's focus on Father's words, as accurate and moving a description of that as I've read:

When you as well as the whole human race were lost through original sin, God gave His Only-Begotten Son, and He, your Savior, redeemed you by His cruel death on the Cross. He thought of you with heartfelt love when He suffered the terrible agony in the Garden of Olives, the bloody scourging and crowning with thorns, and when He carried his heavy Cross up the long, bitter way of Calvary, and when He shed His blood in unutterable torments on the Cross – He was ever thinking of you with heartfelt love as if you were the only human being on earth. And what follows from this? ‘Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us.’ God has drawn you to Himself by Baptism, the first great grace of your life, by the Church whose child you then became. Others are obliged to take trouble and pains to find the truth Faith; God in His infinite love gave it to you in infancy. God has drawn you to Himself, and is ever drawing you by the Sacraments which you have received, by the numberless interior and exterior graces wherewith He daily overwhelms you, yes, you are, as it were, swimming in a sea of the bounty and love of God! And He will finally crown His love by taking you to Himself in heaven, and making you eternally happy. What do you owe Him in return? Love for love. ‘Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us.'

Now ask yourself the great question: ‘What return have I made to God for His love and goodness?’ Answer: ‘I have repaid Him with ingratitude and sin!’ And are you sorry for this ingratitude? ‘Yes, certainly.’ Surely you will make amends for your past ingratitude by greater love towards your great and loving Benefactor? ‘Yes.’ Then you have perfect contrition, sorrow arising from the love of God. This repentance, this sorrow, from love of God, is called Perfect Contrition.

Imagine "swimming in a sea of the bounty and love of God"! But wait, we don't have to only imagine this: It's simply and profoundly true - if we practice our Catholic Faith. Doing so brings us graces daily and abundantly: when we pray, when we study our Holy Faith, when we take a few moments in silence to meditate, when we attend Mass, when we receive Holy Communion; when you briefly, silently, and sincerely tell God that you love Him from time to time throughout the day, when you say a kind word to your neighbor or lend a helping hand; even when you bite your tongue and stop yourself from responding in a harsh or nasty way to your spouse, children, friends, neighbor, co-worker, or a stranger, biting your tongue most especially when they've said something unkind or done something that's hurt you in some fashion.

Think about whether you've done or refrained from doing any of these. You can probably come up with an even longer list of thoughts, words, and actions that would provide Our Lord with the opportunity to send His graces to you throughout the day. The idea that He desires to shower us with His grace such that we are "swimming in a sea of the bounty and love of God" simply overwhelms and inspires us to return His love for us with our love for Him. And for those times when we are less than loving, when we sin, when, for whatever reason, we have pushed Him away and shut the door to His gracious love, we have this act of perfect contrition that immediately reopens the door.

I don't know about you, but I find this wondrous. Being introduced - or in my case re-introduced - to perfect contrition by Father's beautiful words has been the highlight of my week. Can you think of a better way to start the week off right?