t any time there should be danger of your making a bad
confession to your own confessor--on account of some feeling of false
shame--then go to any confessor you please; for it is a thousand times
better to seek another confessor than run the risk of making a
sacrilegious confession.

Never be so much attached to any one confessor that you would remain
away from the Sacraments a long time rather than go to another in his
absence.

You should not consider the person in the confessional, but the power he
exercises. You should be anxious concerning only this fact: Is there a
priest there who was sent by Our Lord? Is there a minister of Christ
there who has power to pardon my sins? If so, I will humbly go to him,
no matter who he is or what his dispositions.

*229 Q. How should we end our confession?
A. We should end our confession by saying, "I also accuse myself of all
the sins of my past life," telling, if we choose, one or several of our
past sins.

*230 Q. What should we do while the priest is giving us absolution?
A. While the priest is giving us absolution, we should from our heart
renew the Act of Contrition.

All, especially children, should know this act well before going to
confession.

Lesson 21
ON INDULGENCES

231 Q. What is an indulgence?
A. An indulgence is the remission in whole or in part of the temporal
punishment due to sin.

I have explained before what the temporal punishment is; namely, the
debt which we owe to God after He has forgiven our sins, and which we
must pay in order that satisfaction be made. It is, as I said, the value
of the watch we must return after we have been pardoned for the act of
stealing. I said this punishment must be blotted out by our penance.
Now, the Church gives us an easy means of so doing, by granting us
indulgences. She helps us by giving us a share in the merits of the
Blessed Virgin and of the saints. All this we have explained when
speaking in the Creed of the communion of saints.

*232 Q. Is an indulgence a pardon of sin, or a license to commit sin?
A. An indulgence is not a pardon of sin, nor a license to commit sin,
and one who is in a state of mortal sin cannot gain an indulgence.

If you are in a state of mortal sin you lose the merit of any good works
you perform. God promises to reward us for good works, and if we are in
the state of grace when we do the good works, God will keep His promise
and give us the reward; but if we are in mortal sin