Asking for forgiveness

“Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God’s mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1422)

The Sacrament of Penance is a liturgical action instituted by the Church for the reconciliation of sinners to communion with God and with the Church. Catholics are obliged to go to confession to receive the sacrament of penance at least once a year – usually during the Easter season – or whenever they are conscious of serious sin. Receiving this sacrament is encouraged at other times as a means of restoring full unity with God and His Church and for spiritual growth. The Sacrament of Penance is available at St Luke’s before Holy Mass and during Eucharistic Adoration. The Sacrament is also available by appointment through the Parish Office. During Advent and Lent, there will be extra sessions of Sacramental celebrations. Please check the bulletin during these periods of the year for times and places. Community Celebration and individual confession & absolution is held during Lent and Advent each year. Please check the bulletin during these periods of the year for times and places.

First Reconciliation for Children

The Sacrament of First Reconciliation is celebrated here at St Luke’s for Children aged 7+ (or Year 2 or above) who have been baptised. First Reconciliation dates are organised at the beginning of each year in collaboration with St Luke’s Primary School. Please Contact the Parish Office to learn more about Reconciliation in our Parish. Here are some answers to common questions about Reconciliation that will help you better understand this significant act of faith. Please click on the link HERE.

Reconciliation Guide

Confession begins with the:
(1) Sign of the Cross and the penitent greeting the priest with the words,
(2) “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was ….” (weeks, months, years).
(3) The penitent confesses sins to the priest, who stands in the name of Christ and the Church. The priest will help you make a good confession. If you are unsure or uneasy, ask the priest to help. Place your trust in God, a merciful Father who wants to forgive you.
(4) Following the confession of sins, say, “This is all I can remember. I am sorry for these and all my sins.”
(5) The priest will assign you a penance. The penance takes into account your personal situation and supports your spiritual good. It may be a prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service, or sacrifice; whatever the penance, the individual is joined in some way to Christ and the cross.
(6) The penitent will then pray an Act of Contrition. This prayer expresses true sorrow for the sins confessed. This prayer may be expressed in one’s own words or one may use one of the formal prayers of sorrow.
(7) The priest, acting in the person of Christ, will absolve you from your sins by saying the prayer of Absolution.
(8) As the prayer is ending, the penitent makes the Sign of the Cross and responds, “Amen.”
(9) The priest will express some words of praise and blessing.
(10) The penitent leaves, completing the assigned penance.

Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins not because of your just punishment, but most of all because they offend you, my God, who is all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Or

O, My God, I am very sorry that I have sinned against you because you are so good, and with your grace, I will try not to sin again.

• The sacrament of penance, then, becomes the way of renewing our baptismal dedication and dignity. It becomes the opportunity to restore baptismal innocence — aninnocence that has been marred by sin.

• What is Sin?

  We are profoundly loved by God, a love that is unconditional. God has given us life, and, through baptism, called us into union with Christ and with each other.
  Sin can be seen as a rejection of God’s love, as a refusal of an opportunity to accept his love and pass it on to others. And while many people would make the claim that “they don’t do anything wrong,” think about the things we have done that fail to develop us as persons, that fail to assist others. the can be the cause of hurt or pain to ourselves or another. Many of our personal failings could be named “sin” because they stand in the way of our becoming all that God has called us to be.
  Sin is often referred to as a disorder or sickness. There are occasions when we are seriously ill, and other times when we have a cold. So, too, sin can be serious (mortal) or less threatening (venial). The connection between health and holiness and wholeness is helpful in discovering sin in my life. Where are those places, those areas, those situations that “simply do not feel right?” Where are those places where I could have done something, but choose to do nothing?
  Sin is a personal act, in that it affects the individual person created in the image and likeness of God. Our participation is collective wrong doing gives rise to “social sin” — sin that gives rise to social situation and institutions contrary to the very nature of God.
  How will I go about the business of healing and wholeness. Our God’s mercy is everlasting and knows no limits.

• Conversion and Contrition

  Conversion means a turning around, a changing direction, doing a complete reversal of a former way. It is the light of the glory of Christ that calls us to change our hearts, to radically conform our living to the life of Christ.
  The most important act of the penitent in the celebration of the sacrament of penance is contrition, which is heartfelt sorrow and aversion for the sin committed, along with the intention of sinning no more. We can only approach the kingdom of Christ by metanoia, or conversion. This is a profound change of the whole person by which one begins to consider, judge, and arrange his or her life according to the holiness and the love of God, made manifest in Jesus Christ. The genuineness of penance depends on this heartfelt contrition. For conversion should affect a person from within so that it may progressively enlighten him or her and render the person more like Christ.
  Our God is ever calling us into deeper union with him, a constant call to change our hearts and conform them to the very heart of God, who is love.

• Confession

  The sacrament of penance includes the confession of sins, which comes from true knowledge of self before God and from contrition for those sins. However, this inner examination of heart and the exterior accusation should be made in the light of God’s mercy. Confession requires in the penitent the will to open his or her heart to the minister of God, and in the minister a spiritual judgment by which acting in the person of Christ, he pronounces the forgiveness of sins.
  The conversion is completed by acts of penance or satisfaction for the sins committed, by amendment of conduct, and also by the reparation of injury. The kind and extent of the satisfaction should be suited to the personal condition of each penitent so that each one may restore the order which he or she disturbed through sin and through the corresponding remedy be cured of the sickness from which he or she suffered. Thus the penitent, forgetting the things which are past, again becomes part of the mystery of salvation and turns toward the future filled with hope.

• Absolution

  Through the sign of absolution, God grants pardon to the sinner who in sacramental confession manifests a change of heart to the church’s minister. In God’s design the humanity and loving kindness of our Savior have visibly appeared to us, and God uses visible signs to give salvation and to renew the broken covenant.
  In the sacrament of penance the Father receives the repentant son who comes back to him, Christ places the lost sheep on his shoulders and bring it back to the sheepfold, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies the temple of God again, living more fully within it. This is finally expressed in a renewed and more fervent sharing of the Lord’s table, and there is great joy at the banquet of God’s Church over the son or daughter who has returned form afar.