Jordan Paul

Dear Friends,

The Psalm appointed for today’s Daily Office is Psalm 51, one of a handful of penitential psalms and one of the few penitential psalms pointed entirely inward. In it, the psalmist asks for his transgressions to be blotted out and for God to create for him a new, clean heart. He then admits that he was born a sinner.

If you’ve been consistently reading my Daily Bread reflections, or, frankly, if you’ve ever spent any time with me, you’ll know that I’m often drawn to the more penitential or somber aspects of Christianity: the 1662 confession, the Tridentine Confiteor, the Prayer of Humble Access, Our Lady of Sorrows, and the like. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, I also love Psalm 51.

But, like the prayers above, Psalm 51 is not entirely somber or even somber for its own sake. Rather, they all point toward God’s redeeming grace and forgiveness. In our own Anglican tradition, that forgiveness happens during Mass, when the priest pronounces forgiveness after the confession.

In what is perhaps a lesser known rite in the Episcopal Church, there is also private confession, called the Reconciliation of a Penitent. While the Anglican theology of Reconciliation differs from the more well known Sacrament of Penance in the Roman Catholic Church, the effect is the same: a clean heart, a cleared conscience, and forgiveness.

The Church teaches that sin “has power over us because we lose our liberty when our relationship with God is distorted.” The forgiveness pronounced during Mass is no less efficacious than the forgiveness pronounced during Reconciliation.

But, I’ve found that in making private confession, it’s much easier to reflect on the specific wrongs done rather than a general sense of possible things. With that reflection, I find it’s also easier to make specific changes. I think such reflection would serve the Church well.

In Christ,

—Jordan