|
"All-holy Father, you have shown us your mercy and made us a new creation in the likeness of your Son. Make us living signs of your love for the whole world to see. We ask this through Christ, our Lord" (Rite of Penance).
The Rite of Penance
Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God's forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
During his public life, Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God's forgiveness and the return to the bosom of of the People of God.
Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his church: above all those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and thus have lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. it is to them that the Sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank '[of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
Individual Confession is available in the Eucharistic Chapel Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00pm , and by individual appointment.
|
