It is my privilege to spend many hours every week in the confessional. As I hear the low voices whispering the sins which are common to most of us, there’s always a temptation to try and be “original and creative” in giving advice and guidance. But the confessional is the place for the tried-and-true. Our Holy Mother the Church has been dispensing medicine for these two thousand years, and She knows what is best: the truth, spoken gently but clearly, and then the comforting and liberating words of absolution. The penitent doesn’t need or want the priest’s creativity; the penitent needs and wants Christ’s love and forgiveness. ~Fr. Christopher George Phillips, AtonementOnline
