What sins should we confess? Before God we should plead guilty of all sins, even of those which we do not at the time realise and know, as we do in the Fifth Petition of the Lord's Prayer and in General Confession. For there is not a single commandment of God which we do not transgress daily. And David prays: "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults." (Ps 19:12) And when we have offended and grieved our neighbour, we should confess our sins to him and ask his pardon before we go to Confession. He who is not willing to do this, thereby clearly shows that before God also he does not truly repent of his sin. What does the Saviour say? "Go your way; first be reconciled to your brother!" (Matt. 5:24) But possibly we know and feel in our heart some particular sin which above others weighs upon our heart and burdens our conscience. Then it is very good, wholesome, and beneficial to go to Private Confession, that is, to go to our confessor alone, and privately to tell him our sins, get spiritual advice and consolation from him, and to receive absolution for just these particular sins. This greatly strengthens and comforts our faith. It is to be regretted that Private Confession, where absolution is spoken to each person individually, has fallen into such disuse. For the sake of our infirmity it is better for every one of us to hear the word spoken to him: "Your sins are forgiven you"(Matt. 9:2; Luke 7:48), though it is true that in the absolution spoken in the General Confession essentially the same is given.