Some of you denizens of these USA might be experiencing a buzz in your head as we approach the Labor Day weekend. You have, perhaps, lots of preparations for this unofficial end of summer activities which have to be squeezed in.
Don’t forget also to examine your consciences and GO TO CONFESSION!
Apropos going to confession, a reader sent this:
I know you love evangelizing – esp the sacrament of reconciliation. I thought this was a nice quote for you to see (and or use). From Sr. Faustina’s Diary:
Today, the Lord has been teaching me, once again, how I am to approach the Sacrament of Penance: My daughter, just as you prepare in My presence, so also you make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyze what sort of a priest it is that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light (Diary, 1725).
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Jesus Himself referred to the Sacrament of Confession as the “Tribunal of Mercy”, which is a beautiful way of expressing both the Justice of God and His Mercy that together make up the essence of His forgiveness of our sins in the Confessional.
I had to go to confession the other day, and the guy in the rotation was a priest who happened to be a liberal modernest Teilhardian. So when I confess problems with constancy his only concern was that I was praying too much. He gives me as a penance to review my prayer life. Like saying the rosary can be too much. But it’s a penance so now I HAVE to do it. So Our Lady spends the next week while I am in prayer or learning about the various prayers explaining exactly why I need to pray them. It was an interesting moment of grace and a perfect example of the sacrament itself having power.
As far as I know, on Labor Day Father is hearing confessions for his regular Monday evening hour and 45 minutes. He also hears confessions Tuesday through Saturday. He has both morning and evening hours and on some days both. Confession hours are printed on the first page of the weekly bulletin.
Hard to make an excuse for not going!
The Divine Mercy devotion as expounded through St. Faustina, is near and dear to my heart. And I have always kept in mind that quote regarding priests hearing my confessions. I have been to a priest who said he did not know what a near occasion of sin was. And to priests who never give any advice. But I have trusted in God that going to confession is what is most important, and that even if I did not receive any practical advice on some occasion, I would receive it eventually. And so I have. And those occasions, few though they are as a percentage of my confessions, are the ones that stick with me.
We should accept the priest in any individual confession, but that does not mean we have to keep going to such a priest if we can find alternatives. I have sometimes driven over an hour to go to a different priest, and I have been well rewarded by the Lord. I most often go to the closest priest that is convenient, and I try my best not to find fault with him, instead trusting in God. But when I feel the need I go elsewhere, even if it takes a much greater effort.
God gives us the mercy of absolution regardless of what kind of priest it is that is His instrument, and I am grateful for that. But that does not stop me from traveling further when I feel the need.
If nothing else, our sometimes disappointing experiences in confession as regards practical advice, should inspire us to pray for those priests that they might receive the grace from God to be better confessors.
We are blessed this weekend with a parish mission given by an out of area priest. Both hubby and I availed ourselves of his morning 3 hour confession session today. The lineup was lo……ng! The Lord is merciful.
Pax et bonum