confession and forgiveness

stumbled upon an interesting article on the net the other day.
Where’s the forgiveness? at getreligion.org made for excellent reading. here's the two most significant lines:

When I confess my sins to my pastor, he forgives me in Christ’s stead. Other churches have variations on this, but in the whole “confession and absolution” structure, the emphasis is on forgiveness.

and

In traditional churches, the practice of private confession and absolution reminds the penitent how sin separates the believer from God and how merciful God is to forgive us — it isn’t supposed to make us feel better about our sin.

my personal experience with confession has been wonderful.

when i commit a sin and someone says to me "it's ok", they don't really mean my actions were correct, they mean i should not loose heart

the whole point of confession is that we recognise what we've done and ask pardon.

and in a valid, sacramental confession, one can be sure of forgiveness as instituted by jesus christ himself (gospel of st. john, 20:22-23)

sure, talking about one's mistakes helps, because we feel bad about our mistakes and in general, it helps to talk about anything that we feel bad about. but that's not the whole point of confession. neither is it the main point.

the main thing is forgiveness, and the return to a state of grace and communion with god

and these are the most wonderful words i've ever heard:

GOD THE FATHER OF MERCIES,

THROUGH THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF HIS SON,

HAS RECONCILED THE WORLD TO HIMSELF,

AND SENT THE HOLY SPIRIT AMONG US

FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH,

MAY GOD GIVE YOU PARDON AND PEACE,

I ABSOLVE YOU OF YOUR SINS,

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER,

AND OF THE SON,

AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

GO IN PEACE.