and if you go into it, Our Lord’s words will come true, and you will fall miserably.  Take away the cause, take away the occasion, and then the sin will cease of itself.  Let us suppose the plaster in your house fell down, and you found that it fell because there was a leak in the water-pipe above, and the water coming through wet the plaster and made it fall.  What is the first thing your father would do in that case?  Why, get a plumber and stop up the leak in the pipe before putting up the plaster again.  Would it not be foolish to engage a plasterer to repair the ceiling while the pipe was still leaking?  Everyone would say that man must be out of his mind:  the plaster will fall down as often as he puts it up, and it matters not either how well he puts it up.  If he wants it to stay up, he must first mend the pipe—­take away the cause of its falling.  Now the occasion of sin is like the leak in the pipe—­in the case of sin, it will very likely cause you to fall every time.  Stop up the leak, take away the occasion, and then you will not fall into sin—­at least not so frequently.

“The persons” are generally bad companions, and though they may not be bad when alone, they are bad when with us, and thus we become also bad companions for them, and occasions of sin.

“The places.”  Liquor saloons, low theaters, dance halls, and all places where we may see or hear anything against faith or morals.

“Things.”  Bad books, pictures, and the like.

Lesson 19 ON CONFESSION

208 Q. What is Confession?  A. Confession is the telling of our sins to a duly authorized priest, for the purpose of obtaining forgiveness.

“Duly authorized”—­one sent by the bishop of the diocese in which you are.

“Forgiveness.”  You might tell a priest all your sins while in ordinary conversation with him, but that would not be confession, because you would not be telling them to have them pardoned.  If a person has lost the use of his speech, he can make his confession by writing his sins on a paper and giving it to the priest in the confessional.  If the priest returns the paper the penitent must be careful to destroy it afterwards.  Also, if you have a poor memory you may write down the sins you wish to confess, and read them from the paper in the confessional; then you also must be careful to destroy the paper after confession.  If a person whose language the priest does not understand is dying, or is obliged to make his yearly confession, he must tell what he can by signs, show that he is sorry for his sins, and thus receive absolution.  In a word, the priest would act with him as he would with one who had lost the use of his speech and power to write.

209 Q. What sins are we bound to confess?  A. We are bound to confess all our mortal sins, but it is well also to confess our venial sins.

“Bound”—­obliged in such a way that our confession would be bad if we did not tell them.