Good morning!

It’s drizzling here in London this morning and my hot coffee is the perfect treat!

A few weeks ago I went to confession and how nice it was to hear the words

“You are forgiven, go in peace”.

Now mass had just started and as I knelt down everybody was reciting with the priest

“Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea MAXIMA culpa” with some beating their breasts for special effects!

My spirit was deeply troubled! I’d just heard “you are firgiven” and now I was supposed to shout “mea culpa” (latin for “I am guilty”).

When we are forgiven God wishes to wash away our guilt and shame so we should be shouting “mea free, mea free, mea maxima free”!

It’s also true that because of our broken spirits we are not 100% guilty of much of the sin we do commit!

Through no fault of our own we were born with a certain brokeness that theologians call ‘consupiscence’ and the traumas and wounds of life can add to the damage!

The result is that we behave in a broken way in spite of our best efforts!

God isn’t accusing us and pointing the finger in blame. He is convicting us and reaching out His hand in mercy!

And after confession He knows that we’ll mess up again because without an extraordinary grace whereby He makes us instant saints, we are incapable of otherwise!

Jesus desires us to walk in freedom and trust and not in scruples and fear!

Life with Jesus isn’t supposed to be like a giant buzzing wire game where if you lose concentration for one second the raging fires of hell are ready to consume you as demons with pokers dance in victory!

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!😂😂😂😂😂

No, life with Jesus is to be peaceful! We are on a journey of healing and holiness, we are loved witout measure and as long as we do our best we have absolutely nothing to fear!

So today, stop beating ourselves up for what is not our fault and let us rejoice in the fact that “mea forgiven, mea forgiven, mea maxima forgiven”.

Bless your day

Michael