The Stripping Begins: From Christmas to Ordinary Time and Looking Forward to Lent

I always decorate the house for Christmas over weeks, not days. The stripping as the season nears the end also takes time. My first action this week was to gather up all the displayed Christmas cards, put a few of my favorites in a card album, and add the rest to my craft bin.

 Today I'm returning the dining room table to ordinary time. I love my Christmas placemats, but the twelve days they depict ended with Epiphany, so they are washed off and ready to go back in the Christmas drawer until next year. The fancy Christmas balls never go on the tree because of all the pins that tend to fall out. They add to the beauty of the table, but it's time to collect all the pins and bangles they've dropped, put them back on, and gently wrap and return them to their home in the tin until next year. The rich looking table cloth will come off next. I made it from a bolt of material a friend gave me after she had a chair reupholstered. I will spot clean it unless it needs a trip to the dry cleaners. And then the plain wood of the table will once again be relatively bare. All of this takes on a metaphorical meaning for me. The return to relative bareness reminds me that we should strip and bare our souls every time we enter the confessional.

What If...? Questions I'm Thinking About Today...

 

What if...:

• ...people spent less time complaining and more time saying, "Thank you?"

• ...people recognized that all suffering is used by God to bless us instead of bewailing their fate and being angry at God?

The Song Running Through My Head This Morning: My God, My God, Why Have You Abandoned Me?

This hymn has been running through my head ever since yesterday. It started up again this morning, but the words are a little different: It's not "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Instead, the words are, "My God, my God, why have I abandoned You?" 

It's a good question for Advent. 

Jesus and the devil go to confession, get the same penance

Jesus goes into the confessional and tells the priest that He's perfect, that He's like God, that in fact He is God and likes babies and people and animals and the beautiful world He created, that He tries to guide each person to heaven, that He wants sinners to amend their lives and live with Him in heaven forever. 

The priest thinks, "Hmmmm - a bit prideful, isn't He. Pride is definitely a sin," so he gives Jesus His penance: "Do an act of mercy." Jesus then goes out of the confessional to heal the sick, make the blind see and the deaf hear. He raises the dead and then does the most merciful act of all - He dies on the cross so that we can be redeemed and live in heaven with Him for eternity.

The devil then goes into the confessional and tells the priest that he has compassion for all people and their rights, that he is a devoted social justice warrior, that he accompanies people on their earthly journey encouraging them to fight for their rights whatever they might be - the right to move about freely from country to country, the right to be themselves or change themselves into whatever they dream themselves to be, the right to be free from all burdens and authority, the right to think and speak as they want.

Guest Post: Repentance - the Royal Road to Spiritual Regeneration

by Father Tom Collins

When St. John Paul II introduced the new Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, he included, as the Third Mystery, The Proclamation of the Kingdom with the Call to Repentance. Unfortunately, in a society that tends to view repentance in a negative light, this mystery is frequently subject to being abbreviated as merely The Proclamation of the Kingdom. Yet, as the example and teaching of so many saints have so clearly pointed out, ongoing repentance is the key to authentic spiritual regeneration. 

Is the Mercy of Pope Francis Filling Confessionals with Penitents?

Not according to an Italian priest who sent a letter to Sandro Magister at Chiesa. Some of its contents are heartbreaking to say the least. Is a "penitent" who reflects no sorrow for sin and has no firm purpose of amendment to avoid sin in the future making a "good confession?" I recommend you read the entire article and entire letter from the priest. I plan to make sacrifices today in atonement for the two "penitents" Father mentions and also for Pope Francis:

"The facts are these. Since the opening of the Holy Year backed by Pope Francis and on the occasion of the Christmas festivities of 2015 - as also since Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been sitting on the throne of Peter - the number of faithful who approach the confessional has not increased.... The trend of a progressive, rapid diminution of the frequency of sacramental reconciliation that has characterized recent decades has not stopped. On the contrary: the confessionals of my church have been largely deserted. 

On Mercy and What it Requires!

Pope Francis talks a lot about mercy and, in fact, we will soon begin the year of Mercy. So what exactly is the Mercy of God? And what does it require of us?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about "cheap grace," the grace we bestow on ourselves, grace without the cross and without Jesus Christ. I think we might also talk about "cheap mercy."

In the wee hours at adoration this morning I was reading the first essay in Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family. (You know, the book hijacked by Fr. Lombardi and co.) Cardinal Carlo Caffarra addressed Mercy and Conversion. The cardinal began by saying, "These reflections focus on the act in which God's mercy shines forth in its preeminent form: the forgiveness of a sinner."

Great News about SSPX and the Year of Mercy

POPE FRANCIS FOR YEAR OF MERCY GRANTS THAT SSPX PRIESTS CAN VALIDLY ABSOLVE!

Omigosh, what will Church Militant TV do with this? The SSPX perhaps aren't as demonic as formerly thought. Read the entire post and the comments at Fr. Z's blog and take to heart his admonition to go to Confession.

Let's pray in the Year of Mercy that we see the complete reconciliation of the SSPX. We need their fidelity and zeal to help renew the face of the earth!

Here is the salient quote from the document:

A Good Lenten Message to Priests: Hear Confessions!

“Wait for faithful in the confessional,” Apostolic Penitentiary tells priests

Remember St. Jean Vianney who spent most of his day in the confessional:

My children, we cannot comprehend the goodness of God towards us in instituting this great Sacrament of Penance. If we had had a favour to ask of Our Lord, we should never have thought of asking Him that. But He foresaw our frailty and our inconstancy in well-doing, and His love induced Him to do what we should not have dared to ask. If one said to those poor lost souls that have been so long in Hell, "We are going to place a priest at the gate of Hell: all those who wish to confess have only to go out, " do you think, my children, that a single one would remain? The most guilty would not be afraid of telling their sins, nor even of telling them before all the world. Oh, how soon Hell would be a desert, and how Heaven would be peopled! Well, we have the time and the means, which those poor lost souls have not. And I am quite sure that those wretched ones say in Hell, "O accursed priest! if I had never known you, I should not be so guilty!" (Read more from this great saint here.)

Padre Pio was also a prisoner of the confessional:

"God runs after the most stubborn souls. They cost him too much to abandon them." 

"It is a tremendous responsibility to sit in the tribunal of the confessional." (Read more here.)

Thank God for "The light is on for you" initiative. Every Wednesday evening at every church in the Diocese of Arlington and Washington, D.C. a priest waits to hear confessions.

• Find a convenient Confession time in the Diocese of Arlington
• Find a convenient Confession time in the Archdiocese of Washington  

Helping Children Make Better Confessions

If children are to grow up practicing the faith, they need to practice it when they are young. The best thing a parent can do for their young children is to give them a good example by receiving the Sacraments devoutly and frequently. Here's a great article on helping children make a good confession. Father emphasizes obedience to parents and isn't obedience a neglected virtue today? Look how many people dissent from the authority of Holy Mother Church! They consider their dissent bold and virtuous which illustrates that sin darkens the intellect, i.e., it makes you stupid.

Let's all examine our consciences and see where we are disobedient to the rightful authority in our lives. It takes humility to be obedient and Jesus showed us that humility by making himself subordinate to His own creation. O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.

One of the Miracles of Newtown - Journalist Returns to the Faith

Pray for Michael Bellmore that he perseveres in his reversion to the Catholic faith.

Lapsed Catholic has a Confession to Make

Recover the Sense of Sin and the Joy of Confession Says Pope Benedict

Years ago we attended a family retreat where the priest told us many times that "sin is the cause of all unhappiness." Original sin and personal sin weigh down the world in sorrow. To see the price of sin just look at the crucifix. The antitdote to sin is repentance and submission to the will of God. But for that to happen we first need to recover that sense of sin. And Pope Benedict is calling on us to do that. Read more here...

An I-APP for Confession?

I don't have an I-phone or in I-pad so I'm not buying the I-APP for Confession, but the ad for it is just plain bizarre in my opinion. According to Bill Donohue of the Catholic League it's an examination of conscience and has an imprimatur from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Donohue says the media have been mis-characterizing it. (Wouldn't that be a surprise?) It's not phone-in confession and you can't get absolution without making a personal visit to the local padre. Phew! That clarification is sure a relief!

I can certainly see the value of tapping into the I-phone, I-pad craze. If you can get young people to think about the state of their souls and give them a push toward the confessional -- all the better. Nevertheless, what I see at the I-APP store makes me queasy. If you've downloaded the app, I'd love to hear your opinion of it. Is it really likely to help you make a holier confession? Or does it trivialize the sacrament?

On the cusp of Holy Week

The day before Palm Sunday is a good time to assess your Lent. How have you done with increasing your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving all meant to draw you to a closer walk with the Lord?

 I don't confess in public so I won't go into my own failures during this season of opportunity, but I'm resolved to take full advantage of Holy Week.

If you haven't been to confession, there's still time in these last few days. You can pack a lot into a short time even if your Lent so far leaves you with head bent, ashamed to look the Savior in the face. And you have plenty of friends to keep you company on the journey. Your guardian angel and patron saints are guides who know the way and they are eager to help if you ask.

Feast of Christ the King

The last Sunday of the liturgical year is the Feast of Christ King. It comes after several weeks of reflecting on the last things and the end of the world. None of us knows the day or the time, so we are called to be prepared at all times. Don't let the King come and find us unprepared. If it's been a long time since you went to Confession consider going this week as a way to end the old year in thanksgiving for God's goodness and to prepare for the first Sunday of Advent next week, a new beginning.

Lent's More than half over -- have you been to Confession yet? He's waiting for you.

Turn on any talk show: Oprah, Jerry Springer, Dr. Phil, Larry King (Is he still on?), etc. and you'll be regaled by folks shariing the most intimate details (and scandals) of their lives on national TV. No one mentions the verboten word, "sin." People are sick, or misunderstood, or have this or that syndrome, or their parents tramautized them by making them do chores. Whatever is wrong with them is someone else's fault. It couldn't possibly be theirs -- which probably explains the short lines outside the confessional. No sin - no need for confession. One problem -- it ain't healthy. When Catholics used confession, they weren't lying on the psychiatrist's couch.

Real Catholics know that love is always having to say you're sorry (Erich Segal's silly novel notwithstanding) -- to the other person we've injured and especially to God who is offended every time we hurt ourselves or our neighbor. Sin is real and its effects are damaging. We can only repair the damage by humbling ourselves, confessing our failures, and making reparation.

Confession isn't a doctrine made up at the Vatican. Jesus established it when he said to the apostles, "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall hold bound, they are held bound." (John 20:22) God made us with five senses. We often misuse them to sin: to look at pornography, listen to and share gossip, touch others with lust or take what doesn't belong to us. When we confess to a priest we use those same senses to repent and hear the words of absolution. Confession to God in the privacy of our room is all well and good, but we need our forgiveness with skin on. Every time I hear the priest say, "I absolve you from your sins..." my heart leaps up and I know, with a firm resolution, that I am forgiven. Jesus said so and He doesn't lie.

So make a good confession this Lent. If you've been away for a long time don't be afraid to come back. The priest has heard it all; you can't shock him and reconciling a repentant sinner with the Lord is one of the greatest joys of his ministry.

If you've forgotten how to make a good confession visit this website.