St. Augustine Confessions Essay

A Confession refers to the free acknowledgment, before God, of the truth, one knows about oneself. But, at the same time, it is the truth one knows about God. To confess, then, is to praise and glorify God; “it is an exercise in self- knowledge and true humility in the atmosphere of grace and reconciliation”. According to Misericordiae Vultus: Mercy Without Repentance’, ‘mercy has no meaning without a consciousness of sin and of God’s judgment.’Saint Augustine Confessions and The new Testament both agree with this. Saint Augustine believes that if we do not acknowledge and recognize our sins they would not be forgiven. The New testament also shows that our fate will be determined by our actions. In order for our sins to be forgiven, we need …show more content…
The main conflict through Sint Augustine life was Sex and Carnal Love. Augustine says, “my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in him but in myself and his other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.” Later on the book, Saint Augustine repents of his sins and is forgiven by God. In chapter five, Saint Augustine says, “Those who preach and teach mercy without repentance are deceivers.” What this mean is that those who are seeking for forgiveness, but still are not repenting of their sins will not be forgiven by God.In addition, Augustine says “Tremble and sin no more, and this moved me deeply, my God because now I had learned to tremble for my past so that in future I might sin no more”. Augustine also believes that confession is God’s way for humanity to learn. God wants us to recognize our sins and to learn from our mistakes. This way our sins will be forgiven. Finally in book Ten, Saint Augustine says, “there is something of man that the very spirit of man that is in him does not know.” This means that although we may forget to tell the priest a sin we committed, God knows that we recognized our fault and he forgives