189 Q. How do you know that the priest has the power of absolving from the sins committed after Baptism?  A. I know that the priest has the power of absolving from sins committed after Baptism, because Jesus Christ granted that power to the priests of His Church when He said:  “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.  Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

Every Christian knows Our Lord Himself had power to forgive sins:—­(1) because He was God, and (2) because He often did forgive them while on earth, and proved that He did by performing some miracle; as, for example (Mark 2; John 5), when He cured the poor men who had been sick and suffering for many years, He said to them, “Thy sins are forgiven thee; arise, take up thy bed, and walk,” and the men did so.  Since Our Lord had the power Himself, He could give it to His Apostles if He wished, and He did give it to them and their successors.  For if He did not, how could we and all others who, after Baptism, have fallen into sin be cleansed from it?  This Sacrament of Penance was for all time, and so He left the power with His Church, which is to last as long as there is a living human being upon the earth.  Our Lord promised to His Apostles before His death this power to forgive sins (Matt. 18:18), and He gave it to them after His resurrection (John 20:23), when He appeared to them and breathed on them, and said:  “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

190 Q. How do the priests of the Church exercise the power of forgiving sins?  A. The priests of the Church exercise the power of forgiving sins by hearing the confession of sins, and granting pardon for them as ministers of God and in His name.

The power to forgive sins implies the obligation of going to confession; because, as most sins are secret, how could the Apostles know what sins to forgive and what sins to retain—­that is, not to forgive—­unless they were told by the sinner what sins he had committed?  They could not see into his heart as God can, and know his sins; and so if the sinner wished his sins forgiven, he had to confess them to the Apostles or their successors.  Therefore, since we have the Sacrament of Penance, we must also have confession.

191 Q. What must we do to receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily?  A. To receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily we must do five things: 

(1) We must examine our conscience. (2) We must have sorrow for our sins. (3) We must make a firm resolution never more to offend God. (4) We must confess our sins to the priest. (5) We must accept the penance which the priest gives us.

When we are about to go to confession the first thing we should do is to pray to the Holy Ghost to give us light to know and remember all our sins; to fully understand how displeasing they are to God, and to have a great sorrow for them, which includes the resolution of never committing them again.  The next thing we should do is: