Penitential Rite
Entrance Song: Hosea
Leader : In the name of the Father…+
All : Amen.
Leader : By our sin, we have rejected God’s love for us and turned our backs to
His invitation to share in his own Divine Life. But we are not without
hope, for our God is a God of mercy.
Though our sin has made us dead men, alien to God and to the family
and household of our brothers and sisters in the Church, God does not
give us up. In the sacrament of Penance, the Lord returns our lost life
to us: we are reconciled to him and to our brothers and sisters. Let us
open our hearts to the word which the Lord speaks to us today: It is a
message of mercy and pardon.
All : I will get up and go to my father, and will say to Him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and before you, I am no longer worthy to be
called your son.
Leader : But to the penitent, he provides a way back; he encourages those who
are losing hope! Return to the Lord and give up sin, pray to Him, and
make your offenses few.
All : I will get up and go to my father, and will say to Him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and before you, I am no longer worthy to be
called your son.
Leader : Please be seated. Let us listen to St. John, who tells us that sin not only
disrupts our union of love with God but also destroys the fellowship of
love that we share with all the members of Christ’s body, the Church.
Christ will free us from our sin if we turn to Him.
Reader : The reading is taken from the 1st letter of St. John (1 Jn 1:5-2:2)
The Word of the Lord.
All : Thanks be to God.
Leader : Please stand (kneel - if inside the church)
Let us pray that the God of such great mercy will have mercy on us.
(taken from Joel 2:12-14/ps130)
Help us, O Jesus, our savior, because of the glory of your name’s sake.
All : Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice!
Leader : Yet, even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with
fasting and weeping and mourning.
All : Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice!
Leader : Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord your God.
Leader : For gracious and merciful is He, slow to anger, rich in kindness and
relenting in punishment.
Leader : Perhaps He will again relent and leave behind him a blessing.
Leader : Glory be…
Leader : Let us now listen to the beautiful story of the Prodigal Son, as recorded
by St. Luke
Reader : Luke 15:11-24
Reflection
Kneel
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
Leader : God calls us to conversation. His will is that we should live for one
another. Let us, therefore, examine our conscience and ask the Lord
for His mercy. We know that we live too exclusively for ourselves; we
drift along in indifference to our brothers and sisters.
Leader : For our failure to be kind and gentle with one another. Lord, have
mercy.
All : Lord, have mercy
Leader : For all the times when jealousy has functioned as a closed door,
shutting us off from one another. Lord, have mercy.
All : Lord, have mercy.
Leader : for hurting the feelings of others thoughtlessly or even with purpose.
Lord, have mercy.
All : Lord, have mercy
Leader : For all the times we have been impatient and have failed to see you in
our brothers and sisters. Lord, have mercy.
All : Lord, have mercy
Leader : Our Father in heaven, you have given us your son, to be our light, to be
our way that leads us out of the darkness that is in sin into the light
that is love. Help us all to be children of light. And so with confidence
we pray.
All : Our Father…+
Leader : Acknowledging our sinfulness, but with a desire for healing and
forgiveness, let us pray the Act of Contrition.
All : O my God, I’m heartily sorry for having offended you and I detest all
my sins and fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. But most of
all, because I offended you my God, who is all good and deserving all
of my love. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace to sin no more
and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
INDIVIDUAL CONFESSION
Penitential Rite used in the Ascension of the Lord Parish (chapel) in 1990s (unedited)