A reader about a parish with confessions on Good Friday

From a reader:

I had to tell you about what happened at our parish ___ this Good Friday. We had confessions on Good Friday for the first time that I can remember since coming here in the early 1990s. Not only that, and this is why I am sending this message, confessions were scheduled from 8am to 2pm. When I arrived for the Veneration service at 6:30, They were still going and the line was still long. At the conclusion of Veneration, confessions were still being heard and the line had actually grown. When I left at 8:30pm, you guessed it, still going. I heard from one of our deacons the next morning that as of 9pm there were still two priests “in the box” and there was still a significant line.

Thirteen hours, plus, of confessions on Good Friday. Wow. What a blessing we have in our two new priests. I have written Bishop Olmsted to let him know. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?] I am so happy to have these two holy men guiding our parish I can just about explode.

I could go on and on about this but will not for respect of your time. I thought of you last Friday but I was not online much over the Triduum and this was my first opportunity to post.

God bless you for your ministry and most especially for your promotion of the sacrament of confession.

Notes like this make the work on the blog a joy.

Reverend Fathers, Your Excellencies… this is how its done.  People will be so grateful.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in GO TO CONFESSION, HONORED GUESTS, Just Too Cool, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, The Drill, The future and our choices and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

21 Comments

  1. lh says:

    That parish is really blessed to have those good priests. And thank you Father for promoting the Sacrament of Confession.

  2. jesusthroughmary says:

    If you build it, they will come. I imagine this parish will have more hours of confessions scheduled during Holy Week next year, and I’ll bet the lines will still be full throughout and beyond the scheduled times. The restoration of the Church will happen when regular confession is a regular thing for regular Catholics.

  3. mysticalrose says:

    While not as dramatic as thirteen hours of continuous confessions, we had a local parish offer confessions Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week AND on Good Friday. God bless the Pastor, who I am sure was probably unassisted in this effort.

  4. Clinton says:

    It’s marvelous that, in addition to writing to Fr. Z, the reader also wrote to Bishop Olmstead to
    let him know of the good his priests are doing at that parish. Such a letter of thanks is deeply
    appreciated in a chancery, I’m sure, and helps reinforce the good being done in the field.

  5. Lastsupperbusboy says:

    That is certainly good news, the tide is changing under Bishop Olmstead. What Parish is this? I’m a Phoenician. It’s a joy to avail oneself of the Sacraments and encourage men like these. (And please pray for those poor Priests with the unfortunate 9-5 attitude.)

  6. dochm13 says:

    I just moved to Phoenix one month ago and need to find a good NO parish. Can we find out where this took place? I have been attending the FSSP “mission”.

  7. Rachel Pineda says:

    Thank God & may he send us many more devoted priests with hearts meek and humble like our Lord’s heart.

  8. Dr Guinness says:

    Reminds me of the many great saints (Vianney, Padre Pio) who would sit “in the box” for hours on end with throngs of people streaming in… Oh, how the Devil must be tortured by all those souls he’s losing!

  9. catholicmidwest says:

    There were confessions here on Good Friday also. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen that in the whole time I’ve been Catholic. Used to be you had to make sure to get to confession before Holy Week or you were out of luck.

  10. alexandra88 says:

    Thats a lovely story of priests stepping up to the plate. I went to confession on Maundy Thursday at a nearby parish which I frequent for celebrating the sacrament (anonymous confessional has a LOT to do with it). Obviously, the priests there had the foresight that the Triduum would be busy so they had three confessionals running instead of the usual one, and indeed all three were being used. Well done Fathers!

  11. Bryan Boyle says:

    On the other hand…in contrast to these beacons of light…you have the parishes in my diocese (Metuchen) who have these ‘reconciliation nights’ where all the priests in a deanery congregate at various parishes in gang confession sessions (25 priests, no waiting…) in the schools on a Tuesday night for 2 hours 2 weeks before Passiontide…and close down the confessionals (I should have taken a photo of the sign on the door: No Confessions until April 21) for close to 3 weeks (except by appointment…try and get one…), for ‘pastoral reasons’ because Fr.’s too busy decorating the sanctuary. I admit the sanctuary looked beautiful…but wouldn’t a congregation of freshly cleaned souls be more pleasing to the Lord than a barren crucifix (sans corpus) and statue of the risen Christ standing on top of the tabernacle?

    Ick. If I had not voluntarily assumed the obligation to participate as a catechist for RCIA (6 new Catholics at the Vigil…), I would have left earlier this year for a more, ummmm, traditional parish. Those who have the privilege of having priests who know how to lead from the front should consider themselves extremely blessed.

  12. Diane at Te Deum Laudamus says:

    God bless those priests!

  13. Gregg the Obscure says:

    Our parish didn’t have confessions on Good Friday ,but we went to Holy Ghost in downtown Denver for the Divine Mercy Novena at 3 pm. There were long (my guess would be nearly two hour) lines for each of two confessionals. The sign said they would go from 1 pm “until finished”. Each of the other Fridays of Lent they had confession from the end of the 11:30 Mass until 5. Dear reverend Fathers, please be as generous as you can in making this sacrament available to the people who need it.

  14. irishgirl says:

    God bless those ‘Phoenician’ priests, and Bishop Olmstead as well!

  15. maxthedog123 says:

    I “prayed the steps” in Cincinnati (see below for a description of this wonderful tradition) for the first time this year on Good Friday. I went with my 9 year old son. Imagine my surprise when I got to the top of the steps and the young Rector of the seminary and the young Vocations Director were sitting discretely off to the side (wearing cassock/surplice/purple stole) hearing confessions. Another priest was inside hearing confessions. The 2 outside were there where they could not be missed – every one of the estimated 10,000 people coming up the steps that day would know there is the chance for God’s mercy! I thanked Fr. Fernandez after confession for being so generous to spend the time on Good Friday!!

    http://2011.hciparish.org/?page_id=147

  16. kittenchan says:

    dochm13: I can personally (and highly) recommend Sts. Simon and Jude Cathedral (27th Avenue and Maryland) and St. Thomas the Apostle parish (24th Street and Campbell).

  17. heway says:

    Well, we are not in the Phoenix diocese but our mission priest did make himself available for a little while at our church and then almost every day at his main parish. Our Vigil Mass (only Mass) was crowded wiith newcomers and oldcomers. and I understand that the other and bigger parish was overcrowded at both vigil and morning Masses. We are all very excited and hope that it is a good omen.

  18. Laura98 says:

    Bishop Olmsted has been such a blessing for us!

    Many years ago I attended St. Thomas the Apostle (when I lived in the area), it was such a welcoming parish then, with wonderful priests. I really missed it when I moved away.

  19. smad0142 says:

    Gregg the Obscure,

    Holy Ghost is a bastion of orthodoxy and beautiful liturgy. Last year I was one of those people in that Good Friday confessional line. We are so blessed in Denver to have several Parishes that have daily Confession. I can not understand for the life of me why during the Sacred Triduum it is harder than ever for people to go to Confession. As someone said above, I would rather be in a congregation that has all just gone to Confession than one with beautiful decorations.

  20. AnAmericanMother says:

    Our parish had confessions on Good Friday. I don’t recall this occurring before, but I could be wrong.

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