One of the most important ways to avail ourselves of God's mercy is through the Sacrament of Penance, or Confession. When we go to Confession, we need to have contrition, or “sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again.” (CCC, 1451 )

It can be easy to think that sorrow for our sins should lead to shame or embarassment, but true sorrow for our sins is not a morbid guilt.

As 2 Corinthians 7:10 states: "For godly sorrow produces a salutary repentance without regret, but the worldly sorrow produces death." This understanding of contrition is different both from a morbid guilt and an excessive anxiety, and self-focus over every action is often scrupulosity.

Contrition, or sorrow over sin, looks like a genuine sadness that we have done something that separates us from God who loves us infinitely, and in doing so we have harmed God, ourselves and our neighbor. We want to bring that to the Lord seeking to be back in relationship with him without any hindrances. In a similar way to when we hurt our spouse or parent, we know that when we have harmed that relationship, we desire a concrete way to "make things right again."

The Lord knows our human nature, and knows that we desire to be in right relationship with him, and he gives us ways to enter back into relationship with him, not through excessive guilt or an anxious and self-focused way of going over our actions again and again, but through genuine sorrow for ways we have hurt him, and bringing that sorrow to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. During this Easter season, we want to bring our rightly ordered sorrow over our sin to the feet of our Divine Master, who loves us and desires us to be in relationship with him!