The Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession

Today we have a guest post by Joy Davis:

As Catholics, we have the privilege of receiving the forgiveness of God, gained for us by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Although this sacrament is strictly required for the confession of serious, or mortal sin, “confession ofeveryday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church.” (CCC 1458) This confession of less serious sins helps us to grow in the spiritual life and become holier, more merciful people.

Some people ask how often they must confess their sins to a priest. The Church asks that we confess our serious sins at least oncea year – but rather than looking at confession as a “duty” to beperformed annually, a change in our way of thinking may help usto look at this sacrament as a great gift to be received frequently. When we come to appreciate the love and mercy of God poured out to us in this great sacrament, we will find ourselves longing to receive the grace more often. Many teachers of the spirituallife and spiritual directors recommend frequent confession – at least monthly – for those who are trying to grow spiritually. Since the Second Vatican Council reminds us that we are ALL calledto holiness that means we ALL should be taking another look at frequent reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
If it’s been a while since you last received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and you are wondering where to begin, here are afew reminders to help you:

• Remember that the priest is there in the person of Christ– he is full of joy that you have come to celebrate the sacrament, regardless of how long you have been away.
• When you enter the confessional, make the Sign of theCross, and tell the priest how long it has been since yourlast confession. If you can’t remember, just tell him that. He won’t be upset with you.
• Confess your sins to the priest. After you confess your sins, the priest will often give you some counsel, and ask you to pray a penance after you leave the confessional. The penance may consist of a prayer, work of mercy, or other sacrifice.
• The priest will then ask you to say an Act of Contrition. This is simply a prayer expressing your sorrow for your sins and your intention to not commit them again, with the help of God. One Act of Contrition is:

My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosingto do wrong, and failing to do good, I have sinned against you, whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. OurSavior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In His name, my God, have mercy.  Amen.

• After this, the priest will pray the beautiful words of Absolution of sin, and you will be reconciled to God, theChurch, and your brothers and sisters.

This Advent there are many opportunities to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation in our parishes.  In addition to the usual schedule, there are additional penance services scheduled for our parishes.  And of course, you can always call the office and make an appointment with one of our priests.

Benedict XVI’s Homily at the Vigil for All Nascent Human Life

On the Vigil for the First Sunday of Advent last night in Rome, the Holy Father called the Church to pray for all the unborn.  His homily was beautiful.   Read the full text translated by Vatican Radio.

The part that jumped out at me was :

“Man has an unmistakable originality compared to all other living beings that inhabit the earth. He presents himself as a unique and singular entity, endowed with intelligence and free will, as well as being composed of a material reality. He lives simultaneously and inseparably in the spiritual dimension and the corporal dimension. This is also suggested in the text of the First letter to the Thessalonians which was just proclaimed: “May the God of peace himself – St. Paul writes – make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ “(5:23). Therefore, we are spirit, soul and body. We are part of this world, tied to the possibilities and limits of our material condition, at the same time we are open to an infinite horizon, able to converse with God and to welcome Him in us. We operate in earthly realities and through them we can perceive the presence of God and seek Him, truth, goodness and absolute beauty. We savour fragments of life and happiness and we long for total fulfillment.”

Many of our problems stem from the fact that we often focus on one part of our human reality and neglect the other.  Often we live either so in the world that we forget that we have a spiritual dimension, or we live so in the spiritual dimension that we neglect the corporal reality.  On the one hand we have those who in their effort to perform the corporal works of mercy, they forget God and that solving all the worlds problems doesn’t depend on us.  We are merely asked to cooperate with God and love our neighbor.  On the other extreme we have those who are so spiritual that they are able to ignore their neighbor in need without lifting a finger to ease their burden.

Let us pray that in this year of our spiritual work, this new Liturgical Year which starts today, that we may integrate the spiritual and the corporal, that we may truly become holy and whole, fully human in Christ our Lord.

Happy Advent.

 

Thanksgiving – It isn’t a Holy Day of Obligation but…

What do you think of when you think of Thanksgiving?  Food?  Family?  Football? Big floats of cartoon characters on 5th Ave.? All wonderful things, and all wonderful things for which to be grateful.  And I am sure we all have our own list of things and people and conditions for which we would like to give thanks.  But to whom is our gratitude directed?

On Thursday morning, many of our friends and families will start the day in Church, to praise God for all His goodness to us.  We will see sons and daughters who have been away at college and have come home to be with family.  Perhaps they will bring friends home for the first time and they too will find a place in the pew.

I have a friend who used to say that the Church should make Thanksgiving a Holy Day of Obligation.  I am glad that it isn’t and that it remains just a holy day of opportunity and I hope that many of you will take the opportunity to make that extra effort to come together as a community of faith to return a gift of gratitude to our God.  I will stop at my local parish before heading out to have a meal with my sister’s family and will give thanks for all of you who are a blessing in my life. You know who you are

Have a a happy, safe and blessed Thanksgiving.

Preparing to Prepare: Advent is just around the corner.

I don’t know about you, but I have been seeing quite a few stories on the news and ads on TV that talk about upcoming sales and the best strategy to get just the right present at the cheapest price … how some stores are having “black Friday” prices the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving etc.  (And no, this is not going to be a story about the commercialization of Christmas, although you might just want to reflect on what the real meaning of Christmas is).  This is a blog post about the need to prepare to prepare… Those preparing for a commercialized Christmas are preparing to go shopping, making their lists, surfing the web for the latest gadget with all the right features and strategizing for the most economical way to get all the loot they plan to purchase. Should we not put in a little effort to plan our spiritual preparation to welcome Christ?

Advent, which starts November 28 (!) marks the beginning of our liturgical year and is the season to prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas, as well as looking forward to Christ’s coming at the end of time. It is a season of preparation.  How are you preparing to prepare?  Do you have a plan?  You can think of it as making a liturgical new year’s resolution.

Some suggestions:

Find out what is going on in your parish:

• Our parish is offering a variety of programs specifically for Advent.  On the Fridays of Advent, Dec 3, 10 and 17, there will be Friday evening Masses at St. Bernard Church which will include a homily reflection on St. Therese of Lisieux, followed by Eucharistic Adoration and Confessions.
• The Catholic Faith Formation Center will be starting a weekly Lectio Divina, which is an excellent way to prepare for the upcoming Sunday Mass.  Lectio Divina will start on November 30 and continue  Mondays at 2pm.
• On December 4, there is an Advent Morning of Reflection with Deacon Arnold, beginning with 8 AM Mass at St. Bernard and  ending with bag lunch at noon.
• On Sunday, December 12, there is a community bus trip planned to go to LaSalette Shrine in Enfield to see the Christmas lights, pray and sing carols together, and share a picnic supper.

Ideas you can do by yourself or together with friends:

• Get something to read for Advent: of course you can’t go wrong with Scripture, but perhaps get a daily devotional which has readings and meditations specifically for the season.  For example Word Among Us, or Magnificat usually have issues specifically geared to Advent.
• Write religious Christmas cards:  rather than getting a box of cards and just sticking on a label and signing your name, write one Christmas card a day during Advent, taking time to pray for the person or family you are sending the card to and really taking time with each card to write a personal message.
• Go to daily Mass – there really is no better way to prepare – because each liturgy during the Advent season is geared to prepare you for Christmas!
• Make an Advent wreath or a  Jesse tree
• Check various online sites for daily prayer/inspiration such as Sacred Space or Creighton’s Advent Prayer site or for your mp3 player check out Pray-as-you-Go
• Starting Dec 16 meditate on the O Antiphons and pray a Christmas Novena (for example, here is a family Christmas Novena)

Mainly, try to remember that ‘Jesus is the Reason for the Season’ and rather than worrying about giving people “things”, take time for prayer and reflection and find a way to give them a little of yourself, be it through spending time, or helping out, or just being truly present to those you love and care about.

The End of the Liturgical Year

It is November and we are coming to the end of the liturgical year.  Our readings these days talk about the end times, judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory.  It is also a time of remembrance: remembering those who have died, praying for their souls, remembering the saints and praying that one day we may be with them in paradise.

It is also a time of Thanksgiving and there is much to be grateful for, not the least of which is the ability and freedom to practice our faith.   I look to events in Iraq and Pakistan where people risk death to practice their faith and I am struck by how indifferent we can be to our freedom to believe and to live our Catholic faith out in the open.    How many of us are silent or hide our faith when that faith is challenged or ridiculed?   How many of us take our faith seriously and try to integrate faith in all that we are and do?  Or do we see it as just another “activity” that only affects us only on Sunday morning?

The last Sunday of the liturgical year is Christ our King on November 21, when we celebrate that Christ is supreme over our lives.  The new year starts the following Sunday with the First Sunday of Advent and the anticipation of Christ’s coming at Christmas as a little baby as well as at the end of time in glory.   Perhaps this would be a good time to reflect on how we live our Catholic faith, our prayer life, our relationship with Jesus and how we fit in his Body the Church, our vocation to holiness and our state in life.  It may be a good time to think of some resolutions: to pray more, to learn the tenets of our Catholic Faith, and to be a witness to Christ by how we love our neighbor and by giving of ourselves in imitation of Jesus.

Let us celebrate our faith and be joyful in the gifts that we have received.

All Souls – The day to pray for our dead.

Today is All Souls Day, the day the Church invites us to pray for our deceased relatives and friend who may not yet be in heaven.  Normally this is a time I pray for people like my Godmother, or priests I have known, or people I have mourned but the ache of their loss is no longer immediate. This year we have lost several young people from our community, and I will keep them in prayer.

But then, this week, we received news of a student’s death.  I had met him only in passing, but still it hits home, to lose someone so young, with his life ahead of him.  Students, friends, faculty are in mourning.   Please pray for all who are in mourning, and pray for Tyler.

For some reason, this R.E.M song is stuck in my head, so I thought I would share it for all those who are hurting.  Remember you are not alone.

 

Praying for all students on All Saints Day

Button from Agnusgiftshop.com

I like this button from Agnus Gift Shop .  It shows that sainthood is not just for those few extraordinary folks, but that we are all called to be saints .  God calls us all to holiness.  On the Feast of All Saints, which we celebrate today, we celebrate just that – ALL SAINTS, not just those who are canonized by the Church, but all of those holy men and women who are in heaven.  We may not know their names, but they are in heaven and in the presence of God, and one day we hope to be right there with them.   Let us continue to help each other on that  journey home. In the meantime, we can meet all these saints at every Mass, for Mass is truly heaven touching earth, as we are reminded of when the priest prays the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass.

Just before we sing the Sanctus,  the priest invites us to join the angels and all the saints in singing the hymn of praise (Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty … ).  And then again, the saints are invoked:

In union with the whole Church we honor Mary, the ever-virgin mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God. We honor Joseph, her husband, the apostles and martyrs Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude; we honor Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian and all the saints. May their merits and prayers gain us your constant help and protection. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

At Mass we are truly surrounded by a cloud of saints worshiping God along with us.    And so I pray for all college students today that they may truly become the best version of themselves, for in this lies true happiness which lasts forever.

May Mary, Queen of Angels and Saints and Apostles guide us all to her Son, that one day we may behold him face to face.