Pardon and Peace

By Alfred Wilson, C.P. The Sacrament of Penance is a proof of love, evidence—if it were needed—that Jesus is “yesterday, today and the same for ever,” still “the friend of publicans and sinners, who came not to call the just but sinners to repentance.” Sadly, this proof is too often ignored, the Sacrament itself too little understood, too little appreciated. In Pardon and Peace, Passionist Father Alfred Wilson addresses the roots of this problem, offering with candor and sympathy alike a complete and intensive consideration of the Sacrament, its formula and technique; the realities of mortal and venial sins; the role of conscience; the acts of attrition and of contrition; facts of scrupulosity and satisfaction; and, above all, the supreme grace of Confession—that it is Christ Himself who absolves sinners and restores them to the life of grace. Confession is simply a Hospital of Souls, where the Good Samaritan, through the instrumentality of priests, goes about binding up wounds and pouring in oil and wine: a hospital where the Divine Physician displays His healing art. ( Alfred Wilson, C.P.) First published in 1947, Pardon and Peace was immediately received as a brilliant guide to Confession. Among its devotees was Caryll Houselander, who described its author as magnificently understanding and its pages as an effective prescription for all souls—the oversensitive, the sensitive, the scrupulous, and the hardened—with the central emphasis on the tremendous love and mercy of God, the Divine Physician whose hands bring healing.    Alfred Wilson, C.P., was an English Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ and well-regarded spiritual author and confessor. Besides Pardon and Peace, he also wrote one of the earliest biographies of Blessed Dominic Barberi, the Passionist priest who received St. John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church. * * * Paperback: 288pp. ISBN: 978-1685954703