Sunday Meditation: What Better Way to Start the New Year than Repent of Our Sins and Make a Firm Purpose of Amendment?

I'm not sure how I got on Buffalo Regional Right to Life's mailing list, but a recent newsletter contained an Act of Contrition which offers much for meditation. One can sin through malice or through ignorance. Obviously, the sins we commit out of ignorance limit our culpability, but they still offend God's justice. Praying and sacrificing in atonement for those sins, both our own and those of others, can be a response to St. Paul's admonition to "make up what's lacking in the suffering of Christ." (Colossians 1:24)

Obviously, Jesus' sacrifice is perfect so what can possibly be lacking? The answer: our free will decision to join our sufferings to His. He will never force our will, but He invites us to participate in the salvation of the world. If you read Fr. Collins' description of God's covenantal relationship with us, you know how much God desires our union with Him and with each other. Whenever we sin, we break that covenant and damage both our relationship with God and with the human family. It is good to ponder on that and repent.

Meditating on this Act of Contrition is something I want to do often this year. I'm making a copy and putting it in my adoration bag and will be praying it at my weekly holy hour. May God make 2019 a year that we all grow closer to God and to each other especially through our Mother Mary.

ACT OF CONTRITION

Forgive me my sins O Lord, forgive me my sins:

• the sins of my youth,

• the sins of my age,

• the sins of my soul,

• the sins of my body,

• my idle sins,

• my serious voluntary sins,

•  the sins I know,

• the sins I don't know,

• the sins I have concealed so long and which are now hidden from memory

I am truly sorry for every sin, mortal and venial, fo all the sins of my childhood up to the present hour. I know my sins have wounded thy tender Heart, O my Savior, let me be freed from the bonds of evil through the most bitter passion of my Redeemer. Amen

O my Jesus, forget and forgive what I have been. Amen.