I am in a bowling league and we had our final games in Vegas this past weekend. We had fun - the whole family took a drive across the desert and rented a house for the weekend. Now, you may think it odd that on the way to Vegas we listened to a CD on confession, but that is what we did. A friend who is part of my Cursillo 4th day meeting group gave me three CDs to listen to. I got something out of all three CDs, but the one that I wanted to share here was on confession.
It was a talk by Fr. Larry Richards. It starts with a focus on God’s love and forgiveness, but to understand forgiveness we must understand sin and our own sinfulness. He goes through a very challenging and engaging review of the 10 Commandments as an examination of conscience. Father gave me quite a bit to think about for my next confession.
The point that got me most was his discussion of the first commandment. For those who forgot, I have it here:
“‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. ” (my emphasis)
Fr. Larry was talking about how we focus on the rules, but it is all about our relationship with God. People don’t think about violating the First commandment, but it is most important. We are to put God FIRST. But we all fail. It got me thinking about how am I not putting God first in my life. If I can start each day asking how am I putting God first, and end each night evaluating how I did - I think I will be in a much better spot.
Fr. Larry has a site at www.thereasonforourhope.org. There is more on the site, but let me point out two directly related points of interest. You can buy the CD on the site for $7 or download the mp3 for $2 (specifically here). There is also a PDF “sin list” examination of conscience that is worth reading (click here).
