Flower of Devotion

Once upon a time the Lord Jesus said to St. Bridget:
Confession is of great benefit to man, whose soul was created by My Divinity and lives forever. Through sincere confession the soul draws nearer and nearer to God. The more often and with care a man confesses his greatest and most minor sins, the more his soul is pleasing to God; so much so that, in the end, confession brings it into the Heart of God. Confession is also useful to the soul of man because of good works which have died because of sins. For good works, deprived of life by mortal sin, are dead in the sight of God. God cannot be pleased with anything that a sinful man does; if he has not previously corrected the error, either by a perfect will or by a penitential act. If, however, a man has deprived his good works by committing a mortal sin, but then makes a good confession, in which he confesses what he has done, and at the same time has the will to correct himself and to avoid sin; It’s soon through confession. and through the virtue of humility these good works will revive in him and help him to salvation. If a man dies in mortal sin without going to confession, his good works, which do not die with him or cannot be destroyed with him, cannot merit his salvation, but they help him to the extent that he will be punished more leniently. And at the same time, they will help others to salvation if they are done with good intentions and to the glory of God. If, on the other hand, a man has done them for the honour of the world and for his own benefit, such works will be of no use to him after death, because he has already received the reward for them during his life from the world for which he performed them.