RECONCILIATION Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How

This is a pretty easy one… YOU and GOD -God calls us to draw closer to Him. That means getting away from things that take you away from Him. If we think about it we are created out of love, to be loved, to love, and to be joined in perfect union with Love for all eternity. God is Love… WHO:

Reconciliation is a shower for the soul. -When we sin we get a smear on our soul. This smear not only affects our relationship with God but it affects everyone around us. The CCC says, “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.” (1422) Literally confession is telling the priest all your sins in as much detail as you can remember. WHAT:

The precepts of the Church states that you must try to confess your sins to a priest at least once a year… -If you want to do a little more than the bottom I would suggest going during lent and Advent -If you want to do even more I would say go quarterly -If you want to be extreme I would say to go to monthly confession -If you want to go to the limit I would say go every week!!! Seriously though it is of the upmost importance that you go to Confession if you have committed a mortal sin. Even if you went to confession and the next day committed a mortal sin you should call a priest. WHEN: Here at the parish we have confessions on Saturdays from 3:00-4:45pm

The only place that you can receive the sacrament of reconciliation is…… Anywhere a priest is!!! I have gone to confession in the middle of a field, In a university cafeteria, in a dorm room, in a house, sitting by a lake, and at a camp trailer. The priest is the only requirement to have a confession. There are some technicalities that would make it not work for a priest to hear a confession but those don’t really matter.

God is no dummy… He knows human psychology (he created it) and He knows that we need others to help us through our problems. In the letter of James he says, “therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16) This idea is not just found in the Catholic Church. The 12 steps of AA have this in their 5 th step. -“Step 5: admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” The reason that the AA program has this in it is because they have found that until an addict shares what exactly he has done with another person he will not recover. WHY:

In a way we are addicted to sin, and so for us to truly stop sinning and get over our “Addiction” we must confess our sins to the priest. The second more spiritual reason is to help us in our journey to heaven. -If we are in the state of mortal sin we are cut off from God’s grace. This makes it impossible to make it to Heaven!! The only why to reconcile with God is through the sacrament of Confession.

Here is a practical why to do confession. 1)Pray for true contrition for the sins you have committed. 2)Ask your guardian angel to help you remember all your sins. 3)Do an examination of conscience 4)Pray the act of contrition 5)Go to confession 6)Do your penance 7)Sin no more HOW: