the Catholic version of seeing Dr. Phil

As someone with a psychology background, I love listening to how Dr. Phil doles out no-nonsense advice to people, often in a very short “quick fix” approach. For example, someone will have a problem, and then Dr. Phil gives that person advice that only takes five minutes to dispense, but still makes a whole lot of sense! Of course, more serious and pressing problems might require much more than five minutes to sort out, but any advice is better than none! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could also experience that kind of counsel from a knowledgeable person without having to go see Dr. Phil? Wouldn’t it be great if we could have free access to such help? Well, this kind of free counselling already exists for Catholics. It’s called confession.

When we go to confession, yes we confess our sins, but once that’s done, the priest considers what was just confessed and will offer his advice on how to best deal with the problems in one’s life. On numerous occasions, I have gone to confession seeking counsel on various concerns in my own life. Frustrations, temptations, bad habits… the priest is definitely one of the best resources, freely accessible, to go to for help. That is certainly why Christ instituted this sacrament – he wants us to come back to him, in good times and in bad.