The present volume is one of Adrienne Speyr’s most central works. It is not a merely practical or devotional guide to confessing one’s sins, but a devotionally saturated theology of confession. One of the key insights of the book is that confession, both as a sacrament and as an attitude, is a way of participating in Christological and Trinitarian reality: Just as the Cross is the primordial confession of the world’s sin, sacramental confession represents a way of following the crucified Lord, and so of sharing in his all-encompassing redemptive act.
FOREWORD BY HANS URS VON BALTHASAR
1. INTRODUCTION: THE SEARCH FOR CONFESSION
2. CONFESSION IN THE LIFE OF THE LORD
Trinitarian Foundation
The Confessional Position of the Son
The Incarnation
Immaculata, Conception, and Birth
Childhood
Baptism in the Jordan
The Temptation
His Public Life
Desert and Mount of Olives
3. THE CONFESSION ON THE CROSS
Passion
Holy Saturday
Easter
4. THE FOUNDING OF CONFESSION
Its Institution
Binding and Loosing
Its Prehistory in the Life of the Lord
Childhood
Entrance into Public life
The Miracles. Jesus’ Preaching
The Passion
From Easter to Pentecost
5. THE CHURCH AND CONFESSION
Bride and Confession
Confession within the Framework of the Sacraments
Original Sin — Confession — Church
6. THE PENITENT
False Extremes
The Proper Relationship to Confession
Belief in the Efficacy of Confession
7. TYPES OF CONFESSION
The Confession of Conversion
General Confession
The Devotional Confession
The Confession of Priests
The Confession of Religious
The Confession of Contemplatives
The Confession of Active Religious
The Confession of Married Persons
8. THE ACT OF CONFESSION
The Legacy of the Lord
Preparation
Contrition
Resolution
Confession
Exhortation
Absolution
The Performance of Penance
9. LIVING FROM THE GRACE OF CONFESSION
The New Man
Confession and Daily Life
Confession and Mission
Confession and Prayer
10. THE OFFICE OF CONFESSOR
Preparation
Hearing Confession
The Exhortation
Spiritual Direction
The Prayers of Confession
After Confession
Bound Sin
The Seal of Confession
11. THE CONFESSION OF THE SAINTS
Francis
Little Thérèse
Aloysius
The Mother of God