{"id":650,"date":"2005-06-01T21:24:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-02T02:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hugodlr.com\/?p=650"},"modified":"2005-06-01T21:24:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-02T02:24:00","slug":"confession-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hugodlr.com\/?p=650","title":{"rendered":"Confession Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

More thoughts on the sacrament of reconcilliation (penance\/confession), also culled from a post I made to a mailing list I belong to – the questions I’m replying to are in red<\/span> . . .<\/p>\n

1. Can an individual have his sins forgiven without going to a priest?
<\/span>
hmmm . . . easy\/tricky question. The Church still affirms that confessing to God is needed and necessary, an integral part of a person’s spiritual life. For example, many people devlop the habit of talking to God about the day’s events, particularly asking for forgiveness for any transgressions made that day. However, in order for full reconciliation to take place, the Church does teach that sacramental forgiveness, celebrated with a priest, is still fundamentally important. That is the one way that the penitent (sinner) is reconciled with the community (remember the history lesson from my earlier email) and with God. God’s forgiveness is a given, though – an attitude that God has towards us. That is why the language of the sacrament talks about “celebrating” – in the sacrament of confession we celebrate the forgiveness that God has already extended to his children. We just believe that an assurance of forgiveness is given with the celebration of the sacrament – it is a sacramental moment, a moment where God’s presence is tangible in the celebration of the mystery.<\/p>\n

2. Does the priest have the ability from God to grant forgiveness, or what exactly is “absolution”?
Prayer of Absolution
God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son
has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
Through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
<\/span>
Absolution is part of the ritual of the sacrament. It is part of the five movements of the sacrament: Confession, Prayer\/Scripture\/Counseling, Contrition, Absolution, Penance.<\/p>\n

1. Confession: The colloquial terms used for the whole sacrament, it forms the first movement of the celebration of the sacrament. (Technically, though, there is a prior movement – examining our conscience – before we go to confession we spend time in prayer, silence, solitude, interior examination – we prepare ourselves to enter into the celebration of the mystery of forgiveness by preparing our mind, heart and soul to confess our sins.) We enter into the confessional and either sit with the priest or site behind a screen and tell the priest our sins, our failings, our faults, etc.<\/p>\n

2. Prayer\/Scripture\/Counseling: After we have talked the priest may share a Scripture reading with us about God’s mercy, healing, love and forgiveness. He may pray for us or with us (depending on the relationship between the priest and penitent, this may involve laying on of hands or anointing with oil, or it may be more formal). He may also talk to us about what we have confessed (one of the major boons of going to the same confessor is that a relationship is developed – they are able to make connections between current confessions and prior confessions – they are also able to more fully challenge to grow past bad habits that we have formed). The priest may also ask us questions about our confession, either for clarification or to probe areas where they feel we may not be fully honest.<\/p>\n

3. Contrition: The penitent prays a prayer of contrition either spontaneously or through a memorized prayer (there are several versions of this prayer that school children learn). The prayer expresses sorrow for our sins, a firm amendment to avoid the sins we have confessed, a love of God, and a desire to enter heaven.<\/p>\n

4. Absolution: The priest prays for the penitent using the prayer you have quoted above. The prayer is a prayer of Christ – the priest is speaking through their sacramental office – the forgiveness offered is offered in and through the church which is offered in and through Christ (remember another earlier post where I talked about the sacramental worldview of the Church – God–>Christ–>Church–>individual members of the body of Christ).<\/p>\n

5. Penance: In order to outwardly show the inward conversion of heart, the penitent is given prayers or actions to say\/do after the celebration of the sacrament. Most of the time it takes the form of prayers to say, Scripture passages to read, or a meeting with another person who we have offended and not reconciled with yet. Again, the form of the sacrament echoes and mirrors the form of the sacrament as it developed in the early church, with the modification that the priest is now standing in for the community to hear our confessions.<\/p>\n

In other words, yes, we Catholics see the absolution given by the priest as being given by God, only transmitted through the office of the priest (not necessarily the priest himself). It is God himself who forgives the sins – however, as we are people of flesh and blood, we believe that sacrament ally (through the people and things of this world) we are offered the forgiveness in a tangible way so that we can appreciate the invisible reality that is happening (the cleansing of our souls, bodies, hearts and minds and their reorientation to God by his mercy and forgiveness).<\/p>\n

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More thoughts on the sacrament of reconcilliation (penance\/confession), also culled from a post I made to a mailing list I<\/p>\n

Continue readingConfession Part II<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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