Confession Paperback – April 1, 1985

This book was recommended to me by a holy priest. It is written beautifully! It explains the relationship between Jesus and humanity in relation to the sacrament of confession in a way I never thought of before. It so illustrates the love of Jesus for us in our state of sin and makes wanting to be reconciled a joy. I haven't finished the book, but willingly will start it over. You will want to get one for all your friends and family. It isn't a quick read, but a very productive one.

If you don't know much about Adrienne Von Speyr, she is a Swiss mystic, wife, mother and doctor. She also was a convert to the Catholic faith and spiritual child of Haans von Balthazar. She suffered intensely in her adult life and experienced the passion of Christ during the Triduum. She is the only mystic that I know of that experiences the decent into hell on Holy Saturday.Her book, Confession, is about living the confessional attitude and the different experiences of and attitude people have towards Confession. "God stands before God in the attitude that is fitting for God. Analogously, we can designate this as the attitude of confession, since it is the attitude in which God shows himself as he is. .... When the Son institutes confession at Easter, he does so to bring this divine attitude closer to human beings, to mediate to them part of the trinitarian life." - pg. 21It is absolutely the BEST book I have ever read about confession - and about living the sacrament continually, not just in the confessional, and how we are all called to live this openness and truthfulness. Even if you are not Catholic, the book addresses this confessional attitude as part of the human condition. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, and especially to Christians.

Adrienne Von Speyr was a convert to Catholicism, a mystic, a consecrated lay woman, and a spiritual directee of the prominent 20th century theologian Father Hans Urs Von Balthasar. Her many books resulted from the conversations between the two of them on various mysteries of the Faith, the sacraments, prayer, etc, and Von Balthasar stated that Von Speyer's insights were important as a kind of source material and inspiration aiding his own theological work."Confession" isn't a book to inform people of facts about the Sacrament of Reconciliation nor an academic theological work, but will interest Catholics who want to dig deeper in exploring this Sacrament. Von Speyr was really fascinated with confession and the book consists of her prayerful and intellectual reflections and intuitions about its nature, its ecclesial dimensions, its relationship to the Passion of Christ, its fruitful practice both from the point of view of the priest and various types of penitents (single, married, priests, active and contemplative religious etc). There are some original and suprising and interesting thoughts here, without being heterodox. One of the things that intrigued me was the final section, of her imaginative comparisons of how various Saints (Francis of Assisi, Therese of Lisieux, etc) confessed, and this kind of thing can help the reader by providing edifying models of how to make a good confession. The reader encounters a vision of sacramental Reconciliation as something originating in a definite and living way in the life of Jesus and always an enounter with His passion, death, and resurrection, Confession as something truly integral to the fullness of Christian life and the Communion of Saints. This is a book that can make people really want to confess regularly, and feel more prepared to do so with understanding and grow in Christ. And that is a great benefit.

She has left us an in depth revelation of confessing our sin in the Church to a priest. As the Church marches on ever more deeply into her decline, the confessionals remain empty. A few of them have a priest within.

Brilliant mystic makes Christian love and Confession very understandable.

This is a "must read" for every penitent willing to understand better the act and the attitude of Confession. Extraordinary for novices and seminarians, for priests and religious, for committed lay men and women.

I did not care for this book. I bought it because it was recommended when I asked a priest some questions about "General Confession". It's very theoretical and not so practical for my taste (and I generally like theory).

Very good.