Reconciliation
Healing our spiritual wounds
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is for our spiritual healing. According to the Gospels, after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the apostles, breathed on them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23) The reason for this sacrament is to heal our spiritual wounds, which we call sin.
“The Lord forgives all who repent, if their repentance leads to the unity of God and to the council of the bishop. I have faith in the grace of Jesus Christ; and He will remove from you every chain.”
– Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Philadelphians, 210 AD.
Penance is an experience of the gift of God’s boundless mercy
Not only does it [the Sacrament of Penance] free us from our sins but it also challenges us to have the same kind of compassion and forgiveness for those who sin against us. We are liberated to be forgivers. We obtain new insight into the words of the Prayer of St. Francis: “It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.”
Jesus entrusted the ministry of reconciliation to the Church. The Sacrament of Penance is God’s gift to us so that any sin committed after Baptism can be forgiven. In confession we have the opportunity to repent and recover the grace of friendship with God. It is a holy moment in which we place ourselves in his presence and honestly acknowledge our sins, especially mortal sins. With absolution, we are reconciled to God and the Church. The Sacrament helps us stay close to the truth that we cannot live without God. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
~from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults | en español
Link to USCCB for more information
https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/penance
For more information on Reconciliation, please reach out to Ken Cummins at the parish office, (502) 491-8535 xt 128
Questions about Reconciliation
When does my child receive First Reconciliation?
- Children are prepared to receive in the fall of their 2nd grade year
When is confession available at St. Martha?
Tuesdays from 6-6:30pm. Please call the office at 502-491-8535 if you would like to arrange a private Confession with one of our priests.
I have not been to confession in a long time, how is it done?
- We start by examining our conscience. A good way to do this is to review the Ten Commandments and identify those that we have broken. And we must have perfect contrition for these sins; in other words, be truly sorry for them and be resolved to not repeat them.
- We enter the confessional and greet the priest. We say, “Bless me Father for I have sinned, it has been (state how long) since my last confession.”
- We confess all our mortal or serious sins and answer any questions from the priest.
- When we have finished confessing we say an Act of Contrition, such as: “Oh my God, I am very sorry for having offended You. I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and fear the pain of hell, but most of all, because I have offended You, my God, Who are all good and deserving of my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.”
- The priest will say the prayer of Absolution and give us a penance to do.
- We then leave and immediately perform the penance given to us.