I won't share my friend's name, because he shared this in private.
One day, when he was a young man, Carl (not his real name) had engaged in an activity which he knew would separate him from God. We won't go into that. Doesn't really matter. Only that he felt very very ashamed and disappointed in himself.
He went someplace to be alone, and began praying to the Lord for forgiveness. After about 10 minutes of heartfelt prayer, he had a mental image, very clear, of a single drop of blood falling gently through the clouds and hitting Carl on the forehead. The instant the blood hit him, he felt completely forgiven. He said it was dramatic. He felt clean all over.
Carl is a Catholic. So out of curiousity I asked him whether he had ever felt the same feeling after Confession to a priest. He said no, he had never felt that same feeling; he felt like it was a rote exercise.
By contrast, I've never had a blood drop image happen to me, but I have had a dramatically personal feeling of forgiveness after Confession. I wonder why the difference. My speculation is that it's not the circumstance. It's the strong feeling inside us to admit our wrong to our Lord that brings the feeling of being forgiven.
...or... greater than that....
that brings a real forgiveness communicated to us from Jesus to our hearts, so that we begin to believe.
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