First off, thank you to everyone who has sent in a suggestion for the Ask Father segment of my bulletin articles. Over the coming months I hope to answer many of the questions that you all are asking, or may have, throughout the liturgical year. I am greatly looking forward to this segment!
This week I will not be answering a question that was asked, but will get to them in the following week as we have an announcement to make of something that we are trying out beginning next Sunday. Starting on September 15th, we will begin having confessions after the 9 am Mass until the beginning of the 11 am Mass. That means that I will be in the confessional from 10-11 for the upcoming Sundays on a trial basis.
When Fr. Greg and I were looking at our liturgical calendar of when we are offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we realized that we offered many times for the sacrament every month. Yet, what we were missing was a time and opportunity that was conducive to young families to receive the sacrament. With many parents working and caring for children, confessions at noon on Wednesdays, Friday nights, Saturday mornings and Saturday evenings aren't great times for them. We are hoping this time between our two largest family Masses will be a time that would be conducive for all of you with kids in the home to be able to frequent the sacrament more often. Let dad take the kids for a donut in the parish hall and run wild while mom goes to confession or let mom chat with her gal pals in the narthex and the children play while dad goes to confessions. Gosh, why not just have the whole family go before the 11 o'clock Mass and receive the Eucharist all fresh and clean! Nothing is better than slinging those two sacraments back to back.
I can already hear the question: Why go to confession with regularity, don’t I just need to go once a year? Going to confession as a habit of once a month can be a great way to deepen your prayer life and to grow in relationship with Jesus. When we receive the sacraments, there are the immediate effects (forgiveness of sins) but there is also the lasting reality of grace in our lives. When we go to confession, the lasting reality of grace that we receive is specific to whatever we confess, meaning Jesus gives us the grace to fight against the sins that we struggle with day to day! The more of that particular grace that we receive, the easier it is to live a life of virtue and to remain in a state of grace in our lives! Jesus wants us to live holy lives and he gives us the grace in order to do it. That grace is waiting for us, all we have to do is go after it!
Consider making confession a regular part of your life. Our confession times are as follows:
- Wednesdays at 12 noon
- Saturdays at 3:30
- Sundays from 10-11
- 1st Fridays at 6 pm
- 1st Saturdays at 9 am
In Christ,
Fr. Andrew