Ego and Reconciliation

[Lady Love]

The ego is a curious thing. To me, when I witness/experience the ego, it reveals the wounds it is so desperately trying to hide and protect. Holding this attitude around the ego helps me to be compassionate when confronting it. Interestingly enough, the more we reveal our wounds (not the ego, in safe company), the more we heal and the more we heal, the less ego we have, and we return to our intended beauty.

This is why the sacrament of reconciliation is so important. It provides a safe and private environment to reveal our wounds and be healed. When our physical being is wounded we go to a doctor. When our souls are wounded we go to a priest (the presence of Jesus made manifest. Priests are vessels by which Jesus can minister His forgiveness).

Thoughts?

[Neofight]

Originally Posted by Lady Love

The ego is a curious thing. To me, when I witness/experience the ego, it reveals the wounds it is so desperately trying to hide and protect. Holding this attitude around the ego helps me to be compassionate when confronting it. Interestingly enough, the more we reveal our wounds (not the ego, in safe company), the more we heal and the more we heal, the less ego we have, and we return to our intended beauty.

This is why the sacrament of reconciliation is so important. It provides a safe and private environment to reveal our wounds and be healed. When our physical being is wounded we go to a doctor. When our souls are wounded we go to a priest (the presence of Jesus made manifest. Priests are vessels by which Jesus can minister His forgiveness).

Thoughts?

Ego does play a significant part, I believe (Heavy on the I, I do not claim to be an authority on canon law, I merely answering, humbly, the question: "Thoughts").

Sometimes I think that in the sacrament of reconciliation, ego should be checked at the door.

Reconciliation should be theocentric and not egocentric.

My spiritual healing is no doubt a benefit of reconciliation, but I don't enter into the sacrament looking primarily to be healed myself. To me, I am tending not to my wounds, but to the painful injuries I have inflicted on God through the alienation caused by of my sinfulness.

It is afterall, called reconciliation, because first and foremost we are reconciling a damaged relationship with God, and not looking for personal healing.

Similarly, I was once told by someone that the intent of a novena was to attempt to gain a plenary indulgence. I would say, along similar lines of my take on reconciliation, is that the intent of the novena is to give praise and glory to God, and if we gain a plenary indulgence, its just an added benefit.

[JimR-OCDS]

Good post.

The ego protects the true self from exposure which is suppressed in shame, and builds itself up with false images to do so.

One way to weaken the ego, is to live in the present.

The ego lives mostly in the past and the future.

In the past, it recalls the pain or joys that were experienced and attempts to use them to strengthen or build new masks.

In the future, the ego sees the image it wants to project and works on it.

In the present, there is little the ego can do except use what what was already built, but it's weak because the false images usually don't fit the circumstance your in at the moment anyway.

Also, being self aware of the present allows you to be aware of the ego and keep it in check.

What you learned from Confession about the ego, is true, and it happens because when your in the confessional, you're living in the present, probably more so the you do outside of it.



Jim

[Lady Love]

Originally Posted by Neofight

Reconciliation should be theocentric and not egocentric.

My spiritual healing is no doubt a benefit of reconciliation, but I don't enter into the sacrament looking primarily to be healed myself. To me, I am tending not to my wounds, but to the painful injuries I have inflicted on God through the alienation caused by of my sinfulness.

It is often our own wounds that drive us to wound someone else. If we do not tend to our own wounds we will find "not sinning" much harder. Also, when we wound someone else we ARE wounding our self.

Only hurt people hurt people~unknown

[Journey322]

Originally Posted by Lady Love

The ego is a curious thing. To me, when I witness/experience the ego, it reveals the wounds it is so desperately trying to hide and protect. Holding this attitude around the ego helps me to be compassionate when confronting it. Interestingly enough, the more we reveal our wounds (not the ego, in safe company), the more we heal and the more we heal, the less ego we have, and we return to our intended beauty.

This is why the sacrament of reconciliation is so important. It provides a safe and private environment to reveal our wounds and be healed. When our physical being is wounded we go to a doctor. When our souls are wounded we go to a priest (the presence of Jesus made manifest. Priests are vessels by which Jesus can minister His forgiveness).

Thoughts?

Well, my thoughts, as a non-Catholic, are that reconciliation doesn't sound all that private. I think you are right about us desiring to protect our egos, which is probably why I cringe at the thought of revealing such personal information to another human, even if he is a priest. Freaks me out a little.