St Margaret of Cortona

As regards confession it would be much better to confine yourself to the accusation of, say, three faults, and turn the whole flood of your sorrow upon these. I fear you, like so many, lay too much stress on the accusation of sins, which in these frequent confessions, is the least important part of the Sacrament. To my mind the one thing which completely changes all our notions of confession is the thought that every absolution means an immense increase of sanctifying grace or holiness. Let that be your aim and not the mere pouring out of little faults, all of which, maybe, were washed away that morning by Holy Communion.

COMMENT: Once again we see that Fr Doyle was ahead of his time. There has been a debate about whether or not Ireland was afflicted with Jansenism in the early part of the 20^th Century. Whether it was full-blown Jansenism or not, there were at least widespread tinges of it which were manifested by excessive scrupulosity and an over-emphasis on judgement and considerably less emphasis on the mercy and love of God.

Fr Doyle’s words seem quite radical for their time. He is of course writing to somebody who is striving to live a holy life, so his advice may not apply completely to somebody who has been away from the sacraments for a long time. His advice seems very Ignatian – to focus only on key faults in an attempt to eradicate them. But as always, his emphasis is not on the sin but on the mercy of God and the grace which He longs to give us.

These thoughts are appropriate today on the feast of St Margaret of Cortona. This saint can be somewhat overlooked because today is also the feast of the Chair of St Peter.

St Margaret lived in the 13^th century and she seems to have been a promiscuous and rebellious teenager. She gave birth to a son but never married his father. After nine years the father of the child died, probably as a result of a murder. This shock helped bring about a conversion of life for Margaret. It wasn’t easy for her, and she had to fight valiantly against temptations to return to her former life. She became a Franciscan tertiary, and with the assistance of others who were drawn to her growing sanctity, she cared for the poor and established a hospital in Cortona.

We see the truth of Fr Doyle’s words in the life of St Margaret and indeed in the life of many saints – Confession and conversion are less about our accusation of sins, and more about God’s mercy and grace.