Greetings in Christ!! This is the week!
Here we are in the first week of Lent. It is my sincerest hope that we approach this Holy Season with an intensity of focus and a commitment to make this the Best Lent Ever.
This week we are kicking off with a Mission, led by Sr. Teresa MacDonald. I met Sister Teresa through my sister Laure and was blown away by her joy, her faith and her commitment to caring for God’s People. I’m excited for us to experience her together and I hope we make this time a priority for our families.
The height of it all will be the 12 Hours of Confession that we are going to offer on Wednesday, March 9th, from
6 am until 6 pm. We are planning on having two priests working the confessionals all day, though if we can get three or more, we obviously will.
This is a great time for a primer on confession.
· The Church requires us to go twice a year. I find going once a month to be the best.
· If we haven’t gone in a long time, don’t worry, the priest will be happy you are there, not judging you for when you weren’t.
· Our default option for confessions is anonymous, meaning there is a privacy screen between you and the priest. I personally do not offer face to face, as I find it better to take me out of the equation. I’m free to close my eyes and pray while the person confesses.
· When you walk in, the priest will make the sign of the cross and say a short prayer.
· You say “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned, it has been ____ since my last confession.” You don’t have to be exact, give your best guess if you can’t remember.
· At that point, tell the priest your sins.
· I like to end with “For these sins and any I have forgotten” at the end of mine. You can say that or “Those are my sins.”
· The priest may give you advice; he will certainly give you a penance.
· After that, you’ll pray The Act of Contrition; if you need help, just ask the priest for help with it. Usually, we have a copy of it there.
· When you have finished the Act of Contrition, the priest will say the prayer of absolution, which ends with the words “I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
· He’ll then say something like “The Lord has freed you, go in peace” and you say something like “Thanks be to God.”
That’s it!
I can’t encourage you strongly enough to seize this time offered to you. I know that the line can be long, but the line for anything valuable is going to be and this is one of the most valuable things you can do.
It’s good to remember the line so that we don’t take too much time or treat the experience like Spiritual Direction.
We want to be hyper focused on our need to give Jesus our sins and the wonder of Him freeing us.
This was a long one, sorry! I’ll behave next week!
May Jesus bless you all. I’m so grateful that God lets me be your priest.
fjk