Reconciliation

We are all broken in some way, and Jesus is the one that can repair us. Reconciliation is called a sacrament of healing. It is the opportunity to reconcile our relationship with God. We are the ones that turn away from God through our poor choices and selfishness. Celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation allows us to let go of those thoughts, words, and actions that keep us from having a fuller relationship with God and others. Through the sacrament, we are forgiven of our sins and receive grace to help us become the person that God created us to be.

Children

Children usually celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation in their second grade year. Preparation for this sacrament begins in the first grade year. Therefore the parents should contact the Religious Education Director in the Spring of the child’s Kindergarten year to register him/her in the Wednesday Night Program. It is expected that all children will have a continuous religious education experience to prepare them for their lives as Catholic Christians.  If you have any questions about preparing for Reconciliation contact the Religious Education Director Marianne Francis. 

Contact Marianne

Adults

The sacrament is available on Saturdays at 4:00 PM. During the liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent, there will be additional opportunities. If you have previously celebrated your first Reconciliation and are in need of a refresher on “how to” go to reconciliation, check out the helpful links. Even if it has been a long time since your last Reconciliation, do not be afraid to come and seek God’s forgiveness. You may sit face-to-face with the priest or kneel behind the screen if you desire more privacy.

Helpful Links

My crucified God, behold me at Your feet. Do not reject me, a poor sinner, as I appear before You. I have offended You much in the past, my Jesus, but in the future I resolve to sin no more. My God, I put all my sins before You.  I have considered them and realize they do not deserve Your pardon. But I beg of you to cast one glance upon Your sufferings and see how great is the worth of that Precious Blood that flows from your veins. My God, at this hour close Your eyes to my want of merit and open them to Your infinite merits. Since You, dear Jesus, have been pleased to die for my sins, grant me forgiveness for them all, that I may no longer feel their heavy burden, which presses me to the earth. My Jesus, help me, for I desire to become good, no matter what it may cost. Take away, destroy, root out completely all that You find in me that may be contrary to Your holy Will. At the same time I beg You, O Jesus, to enlighten me, that I may be able to walk in Your holy light. Amen.

Dear Jesus, help me to make a good Confession, help me to find out my sins, help me to be sorry for them,help me to make up my mind not to sin again.  Have mercy on me, O Lord, and forgive me.  Mary, my mother, pray for me. Amen.

O my God, help me to remember the times when I didn’t live as Jesus asked me to.  Help me to be sorry and to try again.  Amen

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.

O my God, I thank You for loving me, I am sorry for all my sins; for not loving others and not loving You. Help me to live like Jesus and not sin again. Amen

My dearest Jesus, I have told all my sins as well as I could. I tried hard to make a good confession. I feel sure that you have forgiven me.  I thank You. It is only because of all Your sufferings that I can go to confession and free myself from my sins. Your Heart is full of love and mercy for poor sinners. I love You because You are so good to me. My loving Savior, I shall try to keep from sin and to love You more each day. My dear Mother Mary, pray for me and help me to keep my promises. Protect me and do not let me fall back into sin. Almighty God, kneeling before Your Divine Majesty, I adore You and because You command me, I dare approach Your divine Heart. But what shall I say if You do not enlighten me with a ray of Your divine light?

Speak to my soul, O Lord, and command me to listen to Your voice. Enlighten my will to put Your words into practice. Pour Your grace into my heart; lift up my soul weighed down by my sins; raise my mind to heavenly things, so that earthly desires may no longer appeal to me. Speak to my soul with Your divine omnipotence, for You are my salvation, my life, and my peace, in time and in eternity. Strengthen me with the grace of Your Holy Spirit and give Your peace to my soul that I may be free from all needless worry and care. Help me to desire always that which is pleasing and acceptable to You so that Your Will may be my will, Grant that I may rid myself of all unholy desires, and that for Your love I may remain unknown in this world, and be known only to You.

Do not permit me to attribute to myself the good that You perform in me and through me, but rather, referring all honor to Your majesty, may I glory only in my weakness, so that  renouncing sincerely all vain glory which comes from the world, I may aspire to the true and lasting glory which comes from you. Amen.

O almighty and most merciful God, I give You thanks with all the powers of my soul for this and all other mercies, graces, and blessings bestowed on me, and prostrating myself at Your sacred feet, I offer myself to be henceforth forever Yours. Let nothing in life or death ever separate me from You! I renounce with my whole soul all my treasons against You, and all the abominations and sins of my past life. I renew my promises made in Baptism, and from this moment I dedicate myself eternally to Your love and service. Grant that for the time to come, I may detest sin more than death itself, and avoid all such occasions and companies as have unhappily brought me to it. This I resolve to do by the aid of Your divine grace, without which I can do nothing. Amen.

Dear Jesus, thank you for helping me to make a good Confession, and thank you for taking away my sins. Help me, dear Jesus, never to offend you again. Mary, my mother, pray to Jesus for me.  My dear Angel Guardian help me. Amen.

O my God, thank you for forgiving me. Help me to love others. Help me to live as Jesus asked me to. Amen.

The joy after confession!

FAQs

What is Sin?

We are profoundly loved by God, a love that is unconditional. God has given us life, and, through baptism, called us into union with Christ and with each other.

Sin can be seen as a rejection of God’s love, as a refusal of an opportunity to accept his love and pass it on to others. And while many people would make the claim that “they don’t do anything wrong,” think about the things we have done that fail to develop us as persons, that fail to assist others. the can be the cause of hurt or pain to ourselves or another. Many of our personal failings could be named “sin” because they stand in the way of our becoming all that God has called us to be.

Sin is often referred to as a disorder or sickness. There are occasions when we are seriously ill, and other times when we have a cold. So, too, sin can be serious (mortal) or less threatening (venial). The connection between health and holiness and wholeness is helpful in discovering sin in my life. Where are those places, those areas, those situations that “simply do not feel right?” Where are those places where I could have done something, but choose to do nothing?

Sin is a personal act, in that it affects the individual person created in the image and likeness of God. Our participation is collective wrongdoing gives rise to “social sin” —sin that gives rise to social situation and institutions contrary to the very nature of God.

How will I go about the business of healing and wholeness. Our God’s mercy is everlasting and knows no limits.

Conversion and Contrition

Conversion means a turning around, a changing direction, doing a complete reversal of a former way. It is the light of the glory of Christ that calls us to change our hearts, to radically conform our living to the life of Christ.

The most important act of the penitent in the celebration of the sacrament of penance is contrition, which is heartfelt sorrow and aversion for the sin committed, along with the intention of sinning no more. We can only approach the kingdom of Christ by metanoia, or conversion. This is a profound change of the whole person by which one begins to consider, judge, and arrange his or her life according to the holiness and the love of God, made manifest in Jesus Christ. The genuineness of penance depends on this heartfelt contrition. For conversion should affect a person from within so that it may progressively enlighten him or her and render the person more like Christ.

Our God is ever calling us into deeper union with him, a constant call to change our hearts and conform them to the very heart of God, who is love.

Confession

The sacrament of penance includes the confession of sins, which comes from true knowledge of self before God and from contrition for those sins. However, this inner examination of heart and the exterior accusation should be made in the light of God’s mercy. Confession requires in the penitent the will to open his or her heart to the minister of God, and in the minister a spiritual judgment by which acting in the person of Christ, he pronounces the forgiveness of sins.

The conversion is completed by acts of penance or satisfaction for the sins committed, by amendment of conduct, and also by the reparation of injury. The kind and extent of the satisfaction should be suited to the personal condition of each penitent so that each one may restore the order which he or she disturbed through sin and through the corresponding remedy be cured of the sickness from which he or she suffered. Thus the penitent, forgetting the things which are past, again becomes part of the mystery of salvation and turns toward the future filled with hope.

Absolution

Through the sign of absolution, God grants pardon to the sinner who in sacramental confession manifests a change of heart to the church’s minister. In God’s design the humanity and loving kindness of our Savior have visibly appeared to us, and God uses visible signs to give salvation and to renew the broken covenant.

In the sacrament of penance the Father receives the repentant son who comes back to him, Christ places the lost sheep on his shoulders and bring it back to the sheepfold, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies the temple of God again, living more fully within it. This is finally expressed in a renewed and more fervent sharing of the Lord’s table, and there is great joy at the banquet of God’s Church over the son or daughter who has returned from afar.