Late summer is a good time to review all of the activities that we have engaged in since Memorial Day.

⇒ Vacation? (Check.)

⇒ Fourth of July? (Check.)

⇒ Kids’ swimming lessons? (Check.)

⇒ Summer beach reading and those outdoor fix-ups we’ve been promising to get to for months? (Check, check and double check.)

Since there is still time to take care of summer activities, let me suggest one more … a summer confession. This may not have appeared on everyone’s list, but really, it should.

We need to be honest. The frequency and devotion to confession have waned since the Second Vatican Council.

Many of us, of a certain age, recall getting in line on Saturday afternoon with, at least in my parish, three or four priests hearing confessions continually.

Some say that approach got too routine. Some have noted a loss of the sense of sin both in society and in the practice of the faith. Some have told us that priests de-emphasized confession as a part of the spiritual life in our teaching and our preaching.

For whatever reason, a tragedy has occurred. Today, fewer and fewer people confess, and those confessions are less frequent.

In my experience as a pastor, many people fall into one of two categories. Either they have not been to confession for quite some time or they confess at Christmas and Easter.

Obviously Advent and Lent are prime moments for our reflection on our sins and our preparation for the celebrations to come. But power of the forgiveness of sins that Christ entrusted to the Church through the ministry of priests is a great gift that merits frequent use and reception.

Of course it is possible to make confession somewhat of an accounting exercise. (I did this so many times and that a few times as well, Father.)  However, the essence of the sacrament of reconciliation is so much deeper.

To know and follow Christ is the basic struggle of our existence. And it is a struggle. But God gives us the grace as well as the support and truth that He conveys to us through the teaching of His Church.

Still, we all fall short. We give in to the elements of brokenness that are left in our nature from the original sin passed on to us from our first parents. We struggle to overcome moments of selfishness, of anger, of pride, of lust, of vengeance … we all know the list!

In receiving the sacrament of confession, before the priest acting in the person of Christ, we not only name our faults and failures but also we turn over our will to Christ.

We become one with all of those whom we read about in the Gospels who heard those words with meaning for all eternity, “Your sins are forgiven.” We embrace again our path of walking with Christ.

Last year, in my parish, we celebrated the sacrament of reconciliation with the parish school children regularly. The week after one such celebration, in religion class we talked about what they felt after finishing.

Instead of comments like, “Well, I was very nervous.” or “I couldn’t think of anything to say,” one after another spoke of how free and cleansed they felt when it was over.

A summer confession has a particular meaning. If we haven’t been to the sacrament in a long time, that alone is a great reason to go.

But because it is outside of the “expected moments” of the year, it becomes an even more personal embrace of the meaning and value of confession.

And parents, think of taking the kids with you during the summer. They will notice and remember!

The summer is not over yet. It’s not too late!