1. The Sacrament of Reconciliation Parent Meeting
October 2016
Good Shepherd Church
Margie Meyers
Director of Faith Formation
( )

2. Prayer & Personal Reflection
Think of a time when you were aware of God’s presence in your life in the past week. (the past month? Year?)
Please be ready to briefly share this experience with a small group – so pick an experience that you can be comfortable talking about.

3. Introductions (in small groups)
Introduce yourself to at least two people that you don’t know well.
Who are you? Where are you from? Who is your son or daughter?
What’s the best thing about raising a 2nd grader in 2016?
What do you remember learning about Sin and confession when you were a child?

4. Parent Meeting Outline
Prayer/Reflection/Sharing
Sacramental Theology
A brief history of the Sacrament of Penance; Rite of Reconciliation
An Adult Understanding: Reconciliation, Penance, Confession and Forgiveness
The Role of the Family
Guide and Materials for Home Preparation for First Reconciliation
Overview of Dates and Expectations
Questions & Comments; Evaluation

5. Q What is a Sacrament?
Baltimore Catechism; No. 3, Lesson 13

6. A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.
Q What is a Sacrament?
A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.
Baltimore Catechism; No. 3, Lesson 13
Sacraments are "powers that comes forth" from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are "the masterworks of God" in the new and everlasting covenant.
CCC 1116

7. A Sacrament affects what it signifies.
A sacrament is an ordinary experience that becomes extra-ordinary because God is present with us in a special way in that experience . The moment or experience becomes Sacred.
A Sacrament affects what it signifies.
A Sacrament opens our eyes, strengthens the bond, deepens our Relationship with God and is an experience of God’s Grace.
The world, our lives, are full of sacred moments if we have the eyes and heart to be aware of them.

8. God - the Trinity Jesus Church The Seven Sacraments
It all starts with Jesus
The loving God who made us wants to be present to us. Lovers want to be together. God knows how hard it is for us to love someone we cannot see or touch. And so the invisible God took flesh and came among us and was seen in human likeness. Central to the mystery of Christmas is the realization that God comes to us—and we come to God—in the flesh, through our bodies in the midst of the created world.
The invisible God, whom no eye has seen, was seen in the humanity of Jesus. God, whose wonder and love are beyond our imagination, wished to become visible and close to us. St. Augustine (who died in 430) calls sacraments "visible signs of invisible grace." Our understanding of sacrament starts with making the invisible visible. As we pray at Christmas: "In the wonder of the Incarnation your eternal Word has brought to the eyes of faith a new and radiant vision of your glory. In him we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see" (Christmas Preface I).
An important step in enriching our understanding of sacrament is to see Jesus himself, in his humanity, as the first and original sacrament. It all starts with Jesus. Jesus himself is our sacrament, our visible sign of the invisible God.
From Jesus to Church
"But we cannot see Jesus. Jesus is no longer among us—." It didn't take Christians long to see how false that objection is! St. Paul was born again in the light of the revelation that Christ is present among us. Paul retells the incident: "I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' I replied, 'Who are you, sir?' And he said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting' " (Acts 22:7-8).
Paul realized that Christ cannot be separated from his members. The risen Christ is so identified with the Christian that what Paul did to a Christian, Paul did to Christ himself. The Christian is baptized into Christ and can say with Paul, "yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me..." (Galatians 2:20).
As Jesus is the original sacrament, so we who are baptized into the risen Christ become sacrament. Today it is Christ's body the Church which is the sacrament, the revelation of the loving plan of God. The Second Vatican Council teaches that Jesus "rising from the dead, sent his life-giving Spirit upon his disciples and through this Spirit has established his body, the Church, as the universal sacrament of salvation" (The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #48).
The Church itself is sacrament. Another point in enriching our understanding of sacrament is to think of sacraments not so much as something we receive but something that we are. We are sacrament, instruments of grace; we are the ordinary way God graces today's world.

9. What’s in a name? The Sacrament of Reconciliation or
The Sacrament of Penance or
The Sacrament of Confession or
The Sacrament of Forgiveness
The Sacrament of Conversion
“The Sacrament of Penance”
The Rite of Reconciliation”

10. Confession in History
In the very early church – Baptism was the Sacrament of Forgiveness. Conversion at Baptism meant life was changed- they would sin no more. But it soon became clear that people would fall off the sinless wagon because humans are not perfect. We’d make a mistakes, screw up, fall into bad patterns of sinfulness. In the early centuries, people long public penances were given when serious sins were committed. “Sackcloth and ashes”. You’d only experience the sacrament once in a lifetime – so people would hold off until their deathbeds .. (but if they didn’t make it….???) in the 500 – 900’s- monastic communities started to develop the idea of private penances that matched the acts of sinfulness. The practice of the repeated confession with the private penance eventually was accepted into the norm of the practice of the church. The teaching from the Council of Trent in the

11. To understand the Sacrament we must understand Sin.
1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."121
1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight."122 Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods,"123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God."124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125
1851 It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate's cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas' betrayal - so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples' flight. However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world,126 the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.

12. To Understand the Sacrament we must understand God’s Mercy and Unconditional Love
And not understand God with human frailty and weakness. Because it is hard for us to forgive some things, I believe it is hard for us to truly understand God’s unconditional love, mercy ultimate forgiveness. God’s extreme mercy and love for us and a gift.

13. What do you remember about your own First Confession
What do you remember about your own First Confession? Without sharing too many details (i.e. sins) how was that experience for you?
How has your understanding of the Sacrament of Confession changed since then?
(short film)

15. The Role of the Family

16. "Domestic Church"
“The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church.”* It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church as is evident in the New Testament.
CCC #2204
*Familiaris Consortio (1981) 16

17. The Church is a Family of Families
Family is called to be a community of faith, hope and love
When a family becomes a community of love – it begins to become an image of the loving communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Learning forgiveness is an important key to a healthy communion – community of love.
God’s essence – is Relationship. We are the image of God. Completely loving – giving- sharing in creation, redemption, inspiration. We are called to live that co-creator role in Family. DOMESTIC CHURCH. Church in the home. Church of the home. I recently read a book – at the urging of two of my aunts – called “The Shack.” It has struck a chord within our culture and it has been on the best selling lists for a while now. As best I can tell, it’s genre is “Theological Fiction” which I usually avoid. I was dubious, at best. While the Shack has many problems. MANY. One thing I did like was it’s metaphorical representation of the Trinity as a family of God, more or less. Highly loving, very personal and intimate. That particular part of the book, I found very engaging.

18. Readiness Does your child know…
The Difference between right and wrong?
The difference between an accidental mistake and a sin?
That we sin when we deliberately choose to do wrong?
That God is loving and merciful and will ALWAYS forgive us?
That we must be willing to forgive others, just as God forgives us.
That the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a celebration of God’s forgiveness and gives us grace to live as God’s children.

19. Moral Development
As we develop, we grow in understanding of right and wrong. Very young, can not distinguish between accidental wrongs and sins.
Children often distinguish right or wrong based on the severity of punishment.

20. Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
1. Obedience and punishment orientation
(How can I avoid punishment?)
2. Self-interest orientation
(What's in it for me?)
Level 2 (Conventional)
3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
(Social norms)
(The good boy/good girl attitude)
4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation
(Law and order morality)
Level 3 (Post-Conventional)
5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles
(Principled conscience)

21. Sacramental Stoles – A Good Shepherd Tradition
If your child was baptized here at Good Shepherd, you should already have a stole and you can begin to plan on adding symbols for Reconciliation in time for the Celebration in January.
If your son or daughter was not baptized here, then please pick up the stoles before you leave this evening.
Handouts with instructions and some symbol suggestions are available in the handouts.

22. Catechism points, Prayers, Lyrics for songs
Your Child’s Book
God’s Love
Loving God
Refusing to Love
Loving Choices
Returning to Love
Celebrating God’s Love
Showing Love
Living Reconciliation
Catechism points, Prayers, Lyrics for songs

23. 8 chapters – 9.5 weeks Retreat Group Celebration of ReconciliationSu M T W Th F Sa
OCT 1 2 8 9 15
RET 16 22 23 29 30
NOV. 6 13 20 27
DEC
*2*DEC
Retreat
Saturday, Oct. 17–
9:00 – Noon
Group
Celebration of
Reconciliation
Friday, December 2
7:00 p.m.
Home Preparation, Prayer and Participation

24. $20 (Reconciliation) + $20 (Eucharist)
SACRAMENTAL FEE
$20 (Reconciliation) + $20 (Eucharist)
= $40 Total
Helps cover the cost of:
Student Books (specifically for the Sacraments)
Parent Guides
Retreats
Celebrations
Fee was included in the Faith Formation registration form so you probably already paid it if your child is registered for Parish Faith Formation (home based or group session)
As always…
Fee will be waived if the fee presents a burden to the family. A problem with any fee or cost should never prevent a family from participating in any program, event and will NEVER keep a family from the celebration of a Sacrament.

25. Dates to note – First Reconciliation
Home Preparation, using book, begins now (or soon)
Most of the Home Prep Should be completed by mid- Nov.
First Reconciliation Retreat: (Warehouse)
OCT :30 – 12:30 p.m.
Rehearsal: Nov. 30 (Wednesday) - 7pm
Celebration of First Reconciliation:
Friday, Dec. 2 at 7:00 p.m.
*Regular attendance at weekend liturgy and personal prayer are important, ongoing components of Sacramental preparation and all Faith Formation.

26. First Reconciliation Retreat October 15 (Saturday) 9:30 a. m
First Reconciliation Retreat October 15 (Saturday) 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 Good Shepherd WAREHOUSE
Parent Helpers Needed For Break Time:
Last name begins with.. Please bring . . .
GoGurts
Fruit Chunks (grapes, strawberries, melon, pineapple, mini-oranges)
Mini-muffins or mini bagels
Juice - large bottle kid-friendly

27. Dates to note: First Communion
Parent Meeting:
Tuesday, Jan 31 : 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
(Parish Hall)
OR Monday, Jan. 30 : 6:00 ish– 7:30 p.m.
Home Prep
(Late January through mid-April)
First Communion Retreat:
March 18 (Saturday) – 9:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m.
First Communion Celebration:
Group Celebration: April 29, Saturday, – 10 am
Or Family-based/Parish Weekend Mass Option

28. Comments?
Questions?
Please take a few moments to complete the evaluation survey. I take your input serious and it will affect meetings planned for the future.
Call with questions!
Sheperded.pbworks.com