The Sacrament of Reconciliation

This blog post is dedicated to teaching how to go receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and I hope by giving some concrete lessons it will be less intimidating for people to receive this sacrament. First of all, what is reconciliation? It is the restoring of a broken friendship or the settlement of a disagreement. When we go to Confession we are asking the priest (the intermediary between us and God) to hear our confession of our sins (sins are offenses against God and neighbor) where we acknowledge all the ways we have broken our relationship with God who loves us immeasurably. Through this one act of humility of confessing our sins we receive God's mercy and forgiveness. If we are contrite and truthfully confess our sins before the priest he then pronounces the words of absolution over us saying "Through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace. I absolve you from all your sins. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."


We might ask ourselves at times: "Why do I have to confess my sins to a priest? Why can't I just confess my sins directly to God? God is merciful and He will forgive me."


The sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation was instituted by Christ after the Resurrection when He appeared to the apostles in the Upper Room. Breathing on them, He said "Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). Catholics also believe that the sacraments are an outward sign of an inward grace. In this case, the outward sign is the absolution, or forgiveness of sins, that the priest grants to the penitent (the person confessing his sins); the inward grace is the reconciliation of the penitent to God (which is why the sacrament is also sometimes called the Sacrament of Reconciliation).

The priest is an Alter Christus or another Christ to his people, meaning he takes the place of Christ. He represents Christ on earth and ministers to the Faithful on Christ's behalf. By virtue of his ordination,  the priest is given the power to forgive sins, in the name of Christ.

 

 

What is the purpose of Confession?

That reconciling of man to God is the purpose of Confession. When we sin, we deprive ourselves of God’s grace. And by doing so, we make it even easier to sin some more. The only way out of this downward cycle is to acknowledge our sins, to repent of them, and to ask God’s forgiveness. Then, in the Sacrament of Confession, grace can be restored to our souls, and we can once again resist sin.

What Is Required?:

Three things are required of a penitent in order to receive the sacrament worthily:

1. He must be contrite—or, in other words, sorry for his sins.
2. He must confess those sins fully, in kind and in number.
3. He must be willing to do penance and make amends for his sins.

Mother Teresa speaks of the sacrament this way. 

"Confession is a beautiful act of great love. Only in confession can we go as sinners with sin and come out as sinners without sin. Confession is nothing but humility in action. We used to call it penance, but really it is a sacrament of love, a sacrament of forgiveness. When there is a gap between me and Christ, when my love is divided, anything can come to fill the gap. Confession is a place where I allow Jesus to take away from me everything that divides, that destroys. The reality of my sins must come first. For most of us there is the danger of forgetting that we are sinners and must go to confession as sinners. We must go to God to tell Him we are sorry for all we have done that may have hurt Him."

If you want to go to Confession but need help to examine your conscience click here: http://www.beginningcatholic.com/catholic-examination-of-conscience.html

If you just need basic guidelines for how to go to Confession click here: http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/confessionhowto.html