Reconciliation

- Sacraments

Confession Times
- Saturday: 5:00 PM OR by appointment

Reconciliation

“Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain

pardon from God’s mercy for theoffense
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.”

Why a Sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism?

“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.

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 conversiondirected toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord
never ceases to call us.

Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same
time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God’s
forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished
liturgically by the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.

Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man
has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercises this divine power: “Your sins are
forgiven.” Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise
in his name.” Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action his whole Church should
be the sign and instrument of forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the
price of his blood. But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic
ministry which he charged with the “ministry of reconciliation.” The apostle is sent out
“on behalf of Christ” with “God making his appeal” through him and pleading: “Be reconciled
to God.”

Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all
for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal
grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers
a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the
Church present this sacrament as “the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which
is the loss of grace.”

Among the penitent’s acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is “sorrow of the soul
and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again.”
Click here for an Act of Contrition . The reception of this sacrament ought to be prepared for
by an examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. The passages best
suited to this can be found in the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the apostolic Letters,
such as the Sermon on the Mount and the apostolic teachings.

The spiritual effects of the sacrament of Penance are:

reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace;
reconciliation with the Church;
remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins;
remission, at least in part, of temporal punishment resulting from sin;
peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation;
an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.

This sacrament is available on Saturdays, after the 4:00 PM Mass, or by appointment.

AN ACT OF CONTRITION
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee. I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend thee, my God, Who art all-good and
deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, sin
no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.