"We are as sick as our sins."

After 22 years as a parish priest, I'm convinced that the twelve-step groups got it right.
To become spiritually healthy we need truth-telling in our lives.
The Sacrament of Penance is a way to tell the truth to ourselves God doesn't need it to forgive us.

But I think I'm like most people in that, unless I tell the truth about myself to someone else, I can't be confident that I'm really telling it to myself.
Confession isn't magic; it's hard work, made even harder when we don't have the information we need—or have bad information.

I've been asked a lot of questions about this sacrament. Many of you may have some of your own. If so, either e-mail me at rcummins@sttheresechesva.org or right a comment on this blog.
Here’s one question I hear frequently:

What's the right name for this? I used to go (or not go) to "confession." Then it was "penance;" and now I hear "reconciliation."

We call things by names that make sense to us.
The sacrament always involves three elements: the confession of one's sin, reconciliation with God and the Church community through absolution, and the doing of some action (prayer or deed) to repair the damage sin causes.
Since naming one's sin out loud is the most emotionally charged part, "confession" was the name most people used in the past, and many still do.
When the ritual was reformed forty years ago at Vatican Council II, Church leaders tried to get people to use what was always its formal name: "penance."
And more recently, in order to stress its effects, sometimes people now say "reconciliation" ("with God and one another" understood).
It doesn't matter what you call it; all the names are correct.