"I listened to an excellent young woman make her confession. She had sinned grievously. She was in tears; and tears of sympathy and pity ran down my cheeks also. But in her tears was for me a profound experience, which I shall never forget. I saw and felt the inner meaning and the true value in the Confessional, and more than ever I realized the sacredness of the human soul. When I left my study, I felt that I had passed through Gethsemane and, immediately afterward, ascended the Mount of Transfiguration. The anguish, remorse, contrition, the bitter tears and the relief and peace after the confession- all this led me into the depths of human experience.

Only the presence of the Infinite can account for what took place in my study on that morning years ago. The spot became holy ground. The fruits of the experience were the reconstruction of a human soul and a consequent blessing to the lives of others. On that morning I felt the mercy and forgiveness of God flowing through my human soul, and I could see its effect in the soul of the penitent; and the Confessional has meant something very sacred to me ever since." William S. Morgan.