![]() It is a crisis on both sides of the confessional screen. The huge number of participants, from 500 to 800 ordained and soon-to-be ordained men, who attend the course sponsored by the Apostolic Penitentiary each year attests to the importance and need for adequate formation concerning the sacrament of reconciliation, particularly when confession, as well as “the sense of sin,” is in crisis, Pope Francis told participants in 2019. VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Every year, for more than three decades, the Vatican tribunal dealing with matters of conscience has offered a course to help priests in their “ministry of mercy” as confessors. Mary’s Church in Detroit in this file photo. The hood and the black bag was taken off you and instead, Jesus died in your place.A man makes his confession in a confessional booth at Old St. I LOVE YOU.”Īnd at that instant, you know in the depth of your heart and soul, that the person is Jesus. Someone with authority perhaps? Who has decided that maybe you shouldn’t die after all?Īnd the voice continues, “I WILL TAKE HIS/HER PLACE. “STOP! STOP!!” and you wonder who this person could be. You won’t know.Īs he places the bag over your head and just as he was about to place the loop over your neck, you hear a voice shouting from a distance. You won’t know when he pulls the lever which would cause the floor beneath your feet to collapse, thus hanging you. And he asks you to walk on a circular platform along its circumference. He puts a black cloth bag around your head and apologizes for what he has to do. The guard/executioner arrives at your cell and slowly leads you to the place where everything is going to end. You pace around your room hoping and praying that this is all a nightmare or that somebody would come and change this gloomy approaching future of yours. In any case, there’s not much you can do anymore. YOUR life, which you had exchanged for that sin. At that point in time, it just doesn’t seem worth it. A tinge of regret for committing the sin? No, because a tinge would be a gross understatement instead you feel an overwhelming surge of regret and wished that at that point in time, you could take back the sin. I will come to it later.)Īnd there you were on the day that you were going to be executed by hanging, you were so filled with nerves and anxiety at the thought of losing your life. *(Hold on to that thought if you think that the death penalty is too severe a punishment for sinning. In this case, the punishment is the death penalty. Imagine that you have committed a sin, a sin that is deserving of punishment. After the story, I will state the points of the story to focus on.** This is not a perfect analogy, as analogies seldom are. Hopefully, it will be useful for you too (: I am re-telling the story here again because for myself, I have learnt to appreciate and love the sacraments for what they are when I am reminded about the intense love of God for me. However, each and every time I try to convince myself that maybe I don’t have to go for confession I am reminded of a story a beloved and wise friend of mine once told me. This is because I feel a deep sense of humiliation when I have to voice out my sins to the priest, thereby admitting to my sins (often I just shrug them off). When the time comes for Penitential Services because it’s Advent or Lent, I often dread going. ![]() Similar to many other Catholics around the world, I used to (and sometimes still do actually) have a fear for this Sacrament. Yes, I’m referring to the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It is a Sacrament that is most often than not, feared of or thought of as pointless. ![]() Having just passed the season of Christmas, many Catholics would have probably gone for a very important sacrament.
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