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'But now, now – it
is the Lord who speaks – come back to me with all your heart,
fasting, weeping, mourning. Let your hearts be broken, not your
garments torn, turn to the Lord your God again, for he is all
tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, and
ready to relent.'
(from 1st reading of Ash Wednesday - in full see
Joel 2:12-18)
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"Jesus' call to conversion and penance,
like that of the prophets before Him, does not aim first at outward
works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the
CONVERSION OF THE HEART, INTERIOR CONVERSION. Without this, such
penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion
urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.
Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a
return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a
turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we
have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and
resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust
in the help of His grace."
~ from 'the Catechism of the
Catholic Church': 1430-31.
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A note on Reconciliation
(Confession) Taken from "Christ, The Life of the Soul" -
Book Two: The Sacrament and the Virtue of Penance:
"Never forget, then: every time you receive this sacrament
[confession] worthily, with devotion, even if there are only venial
sins to confess, the blood of Christ flows in abundance upon your
soul, so as to vivify it, make it strong against temptation, render
it generous in the struggle against attachment to sin; and so as to
destroy in it the roots and the effects of sin. The soul
finds in this sacrament a special grace for uprooting vices and
purifying itself more and more; for regaining the life of grace or
increasing that life within itself."
~ Blessed Columba Marmion [contributed via IIPG]
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"The
Healing Power of Confession". Dr. Scott Hahn
professor of biblical theology at Franciscan University,
presents the historical and biblical and theological foundation of
the Sacrament of Reconciliation, providing an important guide for
new Catholics, a source of renewal for "old hands", and a challenge
to all to deepen our relationship with Christ through regular use
of this Sacrament and offers personal testimony on its healing
effects. YouTube (Audio) - Part 1 of
3 30:00 mins \ Part 2 of
3 30:00 mins \ Part 3 of
3 12:00 mins
How do
I go to Confession? Especially useful for a young audience, a
short YouTube video
creatively walks through the Sacrament of Reconciliation in a way
that will stick with you.
Confession explained? A
short YouTube
video
'Confession' by Fr. Tom -
scroll down
"Jesus is
waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us
down. He is the God who has a name: Mercy." ~ Pope
Francis on Twitter
@Pontifex Feb 14 2016
"Confession heals, confession
justifies, confession grants pardon of sin. All hope consists in
confession. In confession there is a chance for mercy. Believe it
firmly. Do not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of the mercy
of God. Hope and have confidence in confession." ~
St Isidore of Seville (560-636AD)
"Confession is the soul's bath. Even
a clean and unoccupied room gathers dust. Return after a week and
you will see that it needs dusting again!" ~ St. Pio
of Pietrelcina
The Medjugorje visionaries testify that Our Lady
recommends monthly confession. "Monthly confession will be a remedy
for the Church in the west. Whole sections of the Church could be
cured, if the believers would go to confession once a month."
August 6, 1982
Acts of
Contrition - Prayers of Repentance
An Act of Contrition is a
prayer that expresses to God the sorrow one feels and willingness
to change and to avoid sin in the future. It may be memorised or
spontaneous and is prayed regularly in a healthy Catholic
spirituality. No one knows the hour at which Jesus will call them
to account for their earthly life. We do well to ask His
forgiveness for our faults every evening, so that if He should call
us in the night we will have done all we could to be prepared. In
addition we should ask Jesus to forgive us anytime we have
committed a serious sin. An Act of Contrition is no substitute for
sacramental Confession.
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O my God, I am sorry and
beg pardon for all my sins and detest them above all things because
they deserve thy dreadful punishments, because they have crucified
my loving Saviour Jesus Christ and most of all because they offend
Thy infinite goodness and I firmly resolve with the help of Thy
grace, never to offend thee again and carefully to avoid the
occasions of sin. Amen.
variation: -
O my God, I am
sorry and beg pardon for all my sins, and detest them above all
things, because they have crucified my loving Saviour Jesus Christ,
and, most of all, because they offend your infinite goodness; and I
firmly resolve, by the help of your grace, never to offend you
again, and carefully to avoid the occasions of sin.
Amen.
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O
my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest
all my sins, known and unknown, not only because I dread the loss
of heaven and dread the pains of hell, and not only because Thou
art my Creator, my Redeemer and my Sanctifier, but most of all
because my sins have offended Thee, my God, Who art all good in
Thyself 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
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| My God, I am sorry for my
sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do
good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all
things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no
more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Saviour Jesus
Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God, have
mercy.
<:))))<><
O my God, I
am sorry for my sins because I have offended you. I know I should
love you above all things. Help me to do penance, to do better, and
to avoid anything that might lead me to sin. Amen.
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Forgive me my sins, O Lord, forgive me my sins; the sins of my
youth, the sins of my age, the sins of my soul, the sins of my
body; my idle sins, my serious voluntary sins; the sins I know, the
sins I do not know; the sins I have concealed for so long, and
which are now hidden from my memory.
I am truly sorry for every sin, mortal and venial, for all the sins
of my childhood up to the present hour.
I know my sins have wounded Thy tender heart, O My Saviour, let me
be freed from the bonds of evil through the most bitter Passion of
My Redeemer. Amen.
O My Jesus,
forget and forgive what I have been. Amen.
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| O my God, I am truly
sorry for having sinned, because you are infinitely good and sin
displeases you. I am firmly resolved, with the help of your grace,
never more to offend you, and I will carefully avoid the near
occasions of sin. Rev.F.X.Lasance, My Prayer Book
(1908). |
'O my Jesus, forgive my sins, save me from the
fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven especially those in most
need of thy mercy.' ("The Fatima prayer" said at end of each decade
of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
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<:))))<><
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Homily by Fr. Frank Harris:
'The Healing Sacrament of Reconciliation'.
Forgiveness & Restoration. 'Sin consists of every thought,
word and deed which is not in conformity with the will of
God.' Given on Laetare Sunday,
18th March 2012, 4th Sunday of Lent. 9am Mass
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 listen download (8:07 mins)
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<:))))<><
'Confession' by Father Tom.
Confessing your sins can change your life when it is seen in the context of a loving relationship with God. There is nothing worse than going to confession out of fear, fear of damnation, fear of being judged by the priest, fear of being told off. I got told off in confession once, in the Vatican of all places. I told the priest what I was sorry for and he proceeded to tell me off for the things I had said. I would have assumed that by the very fact I was sorry for them I
understood that I had offended the Goodness of God.
That was a lesson for me in how not to hear a confession. As a priest myself while I was disturbed by that experience many others especially lay people could have been put off confession and maybe the church for life. I hope those experiences are few and far between. When we go to confession we
make ourselves vulnerable and for the priest it is a very privileged position, one which demands humility and compassion from him. Confession is about a loving relationship with God.
The Grace we receive in the sacrament is transformative. We go into confession with our grotty sins, things which drag us and others down but we come out spotless, they have been removed by something far greater than us or the sin, the love of God. It is this love which is transformative. That is why regular reception of the sacrament is a powerful spiritual act. For most people receiving the transformative grace of God’s forgiveness regularly is the key to ongoing conversion and growth in being a disciple of Jesus. Sometimes someone will ask me what the point of confessing the same sins is, my first response is that we could be grateful that there are no new sins, so the grace they have received has helped them in this way. When we begin to notice a new sin appearing alongside our usual ones that is not a good sign!
Sin can be stubborn, for some reason we see the confession of the same sins as some sort of failure on our part rather that a sign of how deeply rooted sin can be. That is why there can be great profit in regular confession because frequent confession helps us to begin to counteract repetitive and ingrained sins. It does it in two ways, the first I have mentioned above, the grace we receive begins to work against our weakness by strengthening us. The second is more human, when we confess our sins we can do so without making a decision to amend our lives. The more we confess even regular sins the more we are aware of our need to reflect up- on and examine our lives, when we do this we can begin to change our habits and patterns of behaviour. If we gossip we can begin to look at why we do it, maybe we are attention seeking, which could point to loneliness, or it might be because we dislike someone and we can see that we should let go of that anger and forgive them. The reflection that confession necessitates helps us begin to change, we are beginning to co-operate with God's grace working in our lives that is how we become saints!
Fr Tom is Parish Priest at St Bonaventure’s Church, Bristol. (from
Medj Prayer Partners Feb 2017)
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"When you look at the crucifix, you
understand how much Jesus loved you.
When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus
loves you now...." Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
update
November 2023 v 1.14 (links) ~
ê¿ê JMJ +AMDG with
❤ by admin
ê¿ê
Any views or opinions presented here are solely
those of the page editor and do not necessarily represent those of
the Holy Family Parish.
The lighter side:
'A Confession' 
A priest was being honoured at his retirement dinner after 25
years in the parish. A leading local politician, who was also a
member of the congregation, was chosen to make the presentation and
give a little speech at the dinner. He was delayed so the priest
decided to say his own few words while they waited.
'I got my first impression of the parish from the first
confession I heard here. I thought I had been assigned to a
terrible place. The very first person who entered my confessional
told me he had stolen a television set and, when stopped by the
police, had almost murdered the officer. He had stolen money from
his parents, embezzled from his place of business, had an affair
with his boss's wife, taken illegal drugs. I was appalled. But as
the days went on I knew that my people were not all like that and I
had, indeed, come to a fine parish full of good and loving
people.'
Just as the priest finished his talk the politician arrived
full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make the
presentation and give his speech. 'I'll never forget the first day
our parish priest arrived, 'said the politician.' In fact, I had
the honour of being the first one to go to him in
confession.'
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