The Twelve Steps and Lent: Step 5

Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

....and you wondered why I thought Lent was a good time to bring these things up???

I don't know what your own Lenten discipline is; one of mine is an annual confession to a priest. This is not the general "man, have I messed up and I'm sorry". This is making an appointment with a priest to sit down and lay it all out there. The response of the priest may also give you insight on how to get to the root of some of the errors and begin to turn your heart toward amends.

By making a sacramental confession we get two distinct benefits: 1) we have admitted to another person (the priest) the exact nature of our wrongs and 2) because the Reconciliation of a Penitent is a sacrament we have the benefit - then and there - to receive the forgiveness of the church and the grace to sustain us in our life of repentance and further reconciliation with ourselves and others.

If it would be too uncomfortable at this stage to go to your own priest, go to another one - in another diocese if need be - but lay your deeds and their accompanying guilt and shame on the table; speak those things you have never spoken out loud - begin to feel the freedom from the burden of them - AND receive the grace that accompanies the sacrament. What a win - win situation!