• Avalibility of Reconciliation

Dear Friends in Christ

Why is it that this Sacrament which is so powerful, for the most part only available on Saturdays or by appointment.? We should all have the oportunity before each Mass to ask the Lord forgiveness for our sinfullness. There also needs to be more teaching about this, so people will be more aware of the beautiful gift left to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ. Could it be that the majority of us have become lukewarm in our faith, and do not believe what is taught concerning what happens after death. Do we still believe that we will be judged on how we lived our lives and delt with accordingly or are we of the mindset that everyone goes to heaven? What are your thoughts concerning Reconciliation?

The forgiveness of sins does not only take place within the sacrament of Reconciliaton. Other places include: hearing the Word of God, resitution with those I have wronged or injured (also a precondition for receiving forgiveness), through productive love (turning from selfishness to selflessness), conversation (sharing my prayer and struggles with an intimate friend or spiritual director), and also through ascetic forms of life, the acceptance of unavoidable suffering that can be understood as the death of the self and its guilt, a dying with Jesus and an occasion of the forgiveness won for us by Jesus. Theologian Herbert Vorgrimler writes that the tradition of Christian faith recognises many forms of forgiveness in which the One divine pardon is tangible. (Sacramental Theology by Herbert Vorgrimler - Collegeville: the Liturgical Press, p 203).

Forgiveness & Reconciliation are beautiful. Forgiveness has to do with the past, Reconciliation with Future. I understand that forgiveness of others is a must not doing it is the most stupid thing somebody could do, everybody wants to be Free. However forgiveness doesn't always mean Reconciliation between 2 human beings, I've often seen many people falling into this misconception. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you have to open yourself to more abuse! You have to keep your boundaries up and working! The other fuzzy subject is the one of "Abiding", after Reconciliation. People in general don't get it! It means death to the flesh and the flesh screams to be on the throne of our lives,....Jesus on the Throne! We need more teaching on Reconciliation and Abiding in Jesus! do you think the DIOWEB would be a good tool?.....love,...celine

Check out the Columns section of theDeoWeb Diocesan newspaper- there are four articles on the sacrament of Reconciliation!

In service to you, Linda

December 21, 2005

Hello again Randy,

Here below I disected the reply of this one person that replied to you before I did. It will be easier for me to point out the doctrinal errors involved here. I have also corrected the spelling mistakes.

(1) The forgiveness of sins does not only take place within the sacrament of Reconciliaton. (Reconciliation). The forgiveness of sins can only take place and be truly and completely absolved from one's soul, when an individual (with sincere regret in his heart of having committed sins and having offended GOD), enters the confessional and confesses all of his sins to a validly ordained priest in the Catholic Church. It is obvious that this individual who wrote the above reply to you cannot differentiate between "forgiveness and absolving of sins". Whether one makes restitution through a change of heart and truly makes amends toward the people one has wronged, it does not erase the sins from his soul until he has confessed those sins to a validly ordained priest in the Catholic Church and he has heard the words coming from the priest: "I absolve you of all your sins." Then the priest gives you a penance to make. He will tell you to recite a decade of the Rosary or whatever other penances the priest sees fit. And one must make that penance as soon as he is able to; otherwise, his sins may not be forgiven if he does not recite the penance purposely.

(2) Other places include: hearing the Word of God, resitution (restitution) with those I have wronged or injured (also a precondition for receiving forgiveness), through productive love (turning from selfishness to selflessness), conversation (sharing my prayer and struggles with an intimate friend or spiritual director), and also through ascetic forms of life, the acceptance of unavoidable suffering that can be understood as the death of the self and its guilt, a dying with Jesus and an occasion of the forgiveness won for us by Jesus. It is easy to see in this paragraph that this person does seem to realize that there is a big difference between receiving forgiveness from the people you may have wronged; and the receiving of forgiveness from Our Lord in the confessional that absolves your immortal soul of all the sins you have just confessed to the priest. It is Our Lord Himself through His priest that gives you absolution of all your sins. The priest is only the Representative of Our Lord in the Sacrament of Penance. If you receive forgiveness from the people you have wronged, that does not remove and absolve your sins from your soul. That can only take place in the confessional. The rest of what he says in this 2nd paragraph is much of the same as I have just explained to you. Even the dying he talks about with Jesus and an occasion of the forgiveness won for us by Jesus, even that will not remove sins from your soul until you go to the confessional. Jesus can and will only absolve you of all your sins when you follow that path to forgiveness that He established through His Only Church-the Catholic Church, and the validly ordained priest that you will tell your sins too. There are no forgiveness of sins and absolving of sins other than through that path-period!

(3) Theologian Herbert Vorgrimler writes that the tradition of Christian faith recognises (recognizes) many forms of forgiveness in which the One divine pardon is tangible. (Sacramental Theology by Herbert Vorgrimler - Collegeville: the Liturgical Press, p 203). I am not positive, but I don't believe that this theologian that he speaks about here is a Catholic theologian. And even if he were, there are many theologians that go directly against the Magisterium of the Church. There may be many 'forms' of forgiveness, (very ambiguous) but there is ONLY ONE FORM that one must follow in the "forgiving and absolving" of sins in the Catholic Church-the confessional and the telling of one's sins to a validly ordained priest in the Catholic Church-period!

I believe the reply that you received from the other person is pretty well along the same lines as the above.

Until we speak again, I remain,

Yours truly and Faithfully in Christ Jesus and His Holy Mother Mary,

Claude R. Beaudin (pen name-honktonk)

Forgiveness does not mean absolution. The article was not about the sacrament of Reconciliation, it was about forgiveness. There are also no doctrinal errors in the article.

Professor Doctor Herbert Vorgrimler is a universally well respected Catholic theologian and co-authored the Catholic Theological Dictionary with Karl Rahner. It has a nihil obstat and an imprimatur.

I would suggest you read the columns on the Sacrament of Reconciliation found in the Diocesan Newspaper. Linda Labelle, Diocesan Coordinator of Faith Development and Evangelisation.