1. Reconciliation Celebrating Forgiveness

2. Reconciliation • A Sacrament of Healing • Focus is forgiveness

3. Telling our Stories • We must acknowledge our sin. • We cannot change what we don’t admit. • Examination of Conscience. • We examine our relationships with: God, others and ourselves.

4. Why a Priest • Our humanness desires forgiveness in a human way • Reconciliation offers a truly human experience via the priest • When we sin against the Church we should formally acknowledge and make amends with the Church

5. 3 Forms of the Rite • Individual • Communal celebration with individual confession and absolution • Communal celebration for several penitents with general confession and absolution • Nota Bene- Absolution- the release of penitents from the guilt of their sins, in the name of Jesus Christ

6. 2 Methods • Face to Face- priest and penitent seated in chairs • Behind the screen- priest and penitent are separated by a screen • Face to Face is more in the spirit of the modern sacrament

7. The Essentials • Penitent’s contrition • Confession of sins • Words of Absolution by the priest (page 226) • Doing the Penance

8. History • “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:23) • We are called by Christ to forgive. • In the early Church healing and forgiveness was a community experience. • In the early 5th Century, Irish monks began private confession within their community

9. Confession as Confidential • The priest is bound by the seal of confession- he may not, under any circumstances whatsoever, reveal what has been told to him in confession. • This assures penitents can be completely honest before God and the Church’s representative, without fear that their disclosures will be used against them.

10. Symbol of God’s Forgiveness • It is a tangible way of conveying the forgiving power of God.