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Living the Gift of …. Reconciliation
The sacrament of reconciliation, or confession, is a gift of love given to us by God. It allows us to unload past actions, or sins, that are weighing our conscience down. God never intended for us to carry that load. He gave us confession as a way to release the load from our conscience and give it to Him. It is His way of giving us a happy heart. As St. Pope John Paul II told us, “We are not the sum of our past mistakes, we are the sum of God’s love for us.” Through confession our sins are forgiven. Every time we receive this sacrament, we get to experience the joy of being saved, and wrap ourselves in God’s love for us. In John 20:23 Jesus gave the disciples the power to forgive sins when he said, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven.” When we confess our sins to our priest, we are confessing them to God through the priest. When the priest forgives our sins, he is forgiving them in persona Christi, or “in the person of Christ.” It’s not really the priest you are confessing to … he’s a conduit to God. And when the priest tells you your sins are forgiven, it’s really God wrapping you in his arms with the love of a parent removing a thorn from his child’s soul. As St. John Vianney once asked, “Do you know what God wants to do for you more than anything else? He wants to forgive you!”
We invite you to take the opportunity to receive God’s love for you through the sacrament of reconciliation each month. Confession is offered Saturdays from 9-11am at Sacred Heart Chapel, Wednesdays from 5:30-6:20pm at St. Patrick Chapel, and the first Sunday of the month after the following Masses 8am at Sacred Heart Chapel, 9am at St. Patrick Chapel, and 11:30am at St. Patrick Chapel.