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Sacrament of Reconciliation:
Saturday, 4:00 - 4:30 pm
or by appointment
To speak of
reconciliation and penance is for the men and women of our time an
invitation to rediscover, translated into their own way of speaking, the
very words with which our savior and teacher Jesus Christ began his
preaching: "Repent, and believe in the Gospel," that is to say, accept the
good news of love, of adoption as children of God and hence of brotherhood.
--Pope John Paul II
from his post-synodal apostolic exhortation
"Reconciliation & Penance," 1984
CCC ARTICLE 4
THE SACRAMENT OF
PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION
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"Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy
for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled
with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity,
by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion."
I. What Is This Sacrament Called?
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It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes
sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning
to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
It is called the sacrament of penance, since it consecrates the
Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and
satisfaction.
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It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or
confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In
a profound sense it is also a "confession"—acknowledgment and praise—of the
holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.
It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's
sacramental absolution God grants the penitent "pardon and peace."
It is called the sacrament of reconciliation, because it imparts to
the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God." He who
lives by God's merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go;
first be reconciled to your brother."
II. Why a Sacrament of
Reconciliation after Baptism?
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"You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." One must appreciate the
magnitude of the gift God has given us in the sacraments of Christian
initiation in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who
has "put on Christ." But the apostle John also says: "If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." And the Lord himself
taught us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses," linking our forgiveness of
one another's offenses to the forgiveness of our sins that God will grant
us.
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Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit
and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy and
without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy
and without blemish." Nevertheless the new life received in Christian
initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor
the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in
the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove
themselves in the struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of
conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never
ceases to call us.
The complete CCC article on the Sacrament of Reconciliation
can be read online at the USCCB Website.
From the Baltimore Catechism
of 1891
187. Q. What is the Sacrament of Penance?
A. Penance is a Sacrament in which the sins committed after
Baptism are forgiven.
188. Q. How does the Sacrament of Penance remit sin, and
restore to the soul the friendship of God?
A. The Sacrament of Penance remits sins and restores the
friendship of God to the soul by means of the absolution of the priest.
189. Q. How do you know that the priest has the power of
absolving from the sins committed after Baptism?
A. I know that the priest has the power of absolving from
the sins committed after Baptism, because Jesus Christ granted that power to
the priests of His Church when He said: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall
retain, they are retained."
190. Q. How do the priests of the Church exercise the power
of forgiving sins?
A. The priests of the Church exercise the power of forgiving
sins by hearing the confession of sins, and granting pardon for them as
ministers of God and in His name.
191. Q. What must we do to receive the Sacrament of Penance
worthily?
A. To receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily we must do
five things:
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We must examine our conscience.
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We must have sorrow for our sins.
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We must make a firm resolution never more to offend God.
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We must confess our sins to the priest.
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We must accept the penance which the priest gives us.
192. Q. What is the examination of conscience?
A. The examination of conscience is an earnest effort to
recall to mind all the sins we have committed since our last worthy
confession.
193. Q. How can we make a good examination of conscience?
A. We can make a good examination of conscience by calling
to memory the commandments of God, the precepts of the Church, the seven
capital sins, and the particular duties of our state in life, to find out
the sins we have committed.
194. Q. What should we do before beginning the examination
of conscience?
A. Before beginning the examination of conscience we should
pray to God to give us light to know our sins and grace to detest them.
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