SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Who instituted the
Sacrament of
Penance/Reconciliation?
“Our Savior Jesus Christ
instituted in his Church the
Sacrament of Penance
when he gave his apostles
and their successors the
power to forgive sins.”
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Jesus said to them: “Peace be with
you. As the Father has sent me, so I
send you.” Then he breathed on
them and said: “Receive the Holy
Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they
are forgiven them; if you hold them
bound, they are held bound. ”
(Jn 20:21-23)
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Jesus naturally drew sinners into a
process of conversion. Christ’s
teaching on the whole process of
conversion is best exemplified in
his parable of the Prodigal Son, or
the “Forgiving Father”.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
The primary reality for Christians, then, is not human
suffering and sin, but God’s healing and forgiveness of sin.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
There has been a sharp,
dramatic decline in the
number of Catholics regularly
going to “Confession,” as the
Sacrament of Reconciliation is
commonly called. Pope John
Paul II recognized that “the
Sacrament of Penance is in
crisis.”
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Many reasons are offered: the loss of a
“sense of sin” and personal guilt; a
widespread confusion over what is
morally right and wrong; or a deep
dissatisfaction with impersonal routine
confessions that failed to bring about
any authentic spiritual conversion.
“Why do I have to confess to a priest?”
“What’s the use of going to confession
when I always fall into the same sins?”
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Who forgives sin in
this Sacrament?
It is the Triune God
who forgives: the
Father reconciles us to
Himself through Christ
who empowered his
apostles with the Holy
Spirit for the
forgiveness of sins.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
“Confession” stresses the importance of
acknowledging our sins while asking for God’s
forgiving grace.
“Sacrament of Penance” emphasizes rather the
whole process of conversion, including
contrition, repentance and satisfaction, which
the penitent enters into, both personally and as
a member of the Church community.
“Sacrament of Reconciliation” brings out the
inner relationship between being reconciled with
God and being reconciled with our neighbor.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
What is the Sacrament of
Penance/Reconciliation?
It is the sacrament through
which we:
• obtain pardon from God for
sins committed after Baptism
and for which we are truly
repentant, and
• are reconciled with the
Christian community, the
Church.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Three Basic Realities of the Sacrament of Reconciliation:
• God who in His infinite mercy grants forgiveness and
reconciles us to Himself and to one another in this
sacrament celebrated in the context of His Word in
Scripture;
• the Church, the Christian community, as continuing
Christ’s ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation; and
• continued personal conversion and heartfelt repentance
for sins against God and neighbor, supported by the
charity, good example and prayers of the whole
community.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
God Who Forgives/Reconciles
Many poorly catechized Filipino Catholics are still
plagued by fears, superstitious taboos, and
irrational guilt feelings, based on an un-Christian
view of a vengeful God.
Christ, the Son of God-made-man, lived among us
in order to free us from the slavery of sin, and call
us out of darkness into his own wonderful light.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Profession of Faith:
a. we are sinners;
b. we need the mercy of God our Father who sent His Son to save us and the Holy Spirit to
dwell within us;
c. God’s mercy, is always available to us, comes through:
• Christ, the “Primordial Sacrament” of God’s mercy;
• the Church, the “Fundamental Sacrament” of Christ;
• the priest, representing both Christ and the Church.
d. God calls us to conversion, that is, to be truly sorry for our sins, to “make up” for our
sins and the sins of others, and to do better with the help of His Grace.
e. The closer intimacy with Christ and re-integration in the Church community effected in
confession finds a natural completion in the Eucharistic celebration.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
For like each of her members, the Church herself needs
to be both forgiven and forgiving, reconciled and
reconciling. Thus, the Christian community in every
Eucharistic celebration prays as Christ the Lord taught his
disciples: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin
against us.”
Our Catholic Church needs forgiveness because she is not
an elite social group of the “saved,” but like Christ her
Head receives both sinners and the just. Hence she “is at
the same time holy and always in need of purification,
[and] constantly pursues repentance and renewal.”
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
The Church herself becomes the instrument of conversion and
absolution of her penitents through the ministry entrusted by Christ to
the apostles and their successors.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Our new life given in Baptism does not
eradicate our human weaknesses and
openness to temptations and to sin.
But, clearly no sin is beyond the mercy of
God. Nothing we do can ever change or
diminish God’s incredible love for each of
us. But we must respond. But this
reconciling love of the grace of conversion
is never imposed — we must freely
accept and cooperate with it.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
What are the effects of the sacrament of Penance
worthily received?
1. The restoration or increase of sanctifying grace.
2. The forgiveness of sins.
3. The remission of the eternal punishment. If
necessary, and also of part, at least, of the
temporal punishment due to our sins.
4. The help to avoid sin in the future.
5. The restoration of the merits of our good works,
if they have been lost by mortal sins.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
What does “process of conversion” mean?
Conversion is an ongoing process of constant
turning
a) away from sin and the occasions of sin, and
b) toward renewing our spirit by:
• acknowledging our sins,
• being truly repentant, and
• with firm purpose of amendment.
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Dimensions of Total Christian Conversion
We spontaneously think of turning away
from the self-centered pursuit of satisfying
our own egotistical needs, and toward loving
service of others (moral conversion).
Such always involves our feelings, emotions,
and imagination needed to support an out-
going love that overcomes the temptations
to prejudices, over-sensitivity, hatred and
pride (affective conversion).
SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION/PENANCE/CON
FESSION
Dimensions of Total Christian Conversion
But this re-direction of our affections can last
only if grounded in a shift in the ways we
understand and judge the basic meaning and
value of our lives (intellectual conversion).
Each of these three conversions actually
contributes to a fourth which is really a
“falling in love with God” (religious
conversion). This happens through God’s
grace, when we freely respond to the Father’s
Self-giving through Jesus Christ His Son, in
their Holy Spirit of undying LOVE.
SIN
A genuine “Christian sense of sin” is
the opposite of a “guilt complex.” Its
source point of reference is God, not
ourselves. Sin really destroys, injures,
dishonors, perverts, poisons, corrupts.
Sin is variously described as breaking
God’s law, or our love relationship
with Him and others, or as going
against one’s conscience, and the like.
SIN
All moral reality is made up of the objective nature
of the act/attitude, the intention of the agent, and
the circumstances.
Sin as a moral reality is an attitude, an action or
failure to act, or a power or force that leads us into
evil.
Sin separates us from, alienates us from, i.e.,
makes us strangers (aliens) from . . . what?
From our true selves (intra-personal), our
neighbors (inter-personal), the larger community
(societal), and God, the ground and source of all
three.
SIN
What are the factors which
determine the gravity of a sin and
what are its degrees?
The factors which determine the
gravity of a sin are:
• the nature of the act,
• the intention of the doer, and
• the circumstances relevant to the
sin committed.
SIN
Classification of Sin:
Personal sin is never just “private”.
Social sin refers to negative moral attitudes
and acts or failure to act that are common to
a community or particular society.
Structural “sin” it refers to existing
structures that condition society in a harmful
and unjust way.
SIN
Sin can be venial or mortal depending on the different levels of
MORAL EVIL involved. Traditionally, sin is defined as “mortal”
when its nature, intention and circumstances involve grave
matter, sufficient knowledge, and full consent of the will.
SIN
In reference to their gravity, sins
are commonly classified as
“mortal” or “venial”:
Mortal sin, or “sin unto death” kills
our basic love relationship with
God and others. For a sin to be
considered “mortal” there must be
grave matter, sufficient knowledge
and full consent.
SIN
In reference to their gravity, sins are
commonly classified as “mortal” or
“venial”:
Venial sin is “excusable sin” which
does not involve our fundamental
core freedom, but undermines and
weakens our love relationships with
God and others. Some venial sins can
deeply hurt our relationships with
God.
SIN
As Catholics we are obliged to confess all mortal
sins committed after Baptism, and are
encouraged to confess venial sins as well.
Parts of the Sacrament
1. contrition or heartfelt sorrow;
2. confession of all grave/mortal sins to the priest, minister of the Church,
acting in the person of Christ; and
3. penance/satisfaction for sins committed, by restitution and reparation
of injury, and firm purpose of renewal of life.
The essential act of the priest is absolution which is the efficacious sign
of God’s pardon.
Parts of the Sacrament
Parts of the Sacrament
What must we do to receive the
Sacrament of Reconciliation worthily?
1. Examine our conscience to remember
our sins.
2. Be sorry for our sins.
3. Have the firm purpose of not sinning
again.
4. Confess our sins to the priest.
5. Be willing to perform penance the
priest gives.
Parts of the Sacrament
Parts of the Sacrament
Parts of the Sacrament
Words of Absolution:
God, the Father of mercies, through the death
and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the
world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit
among us for the forgiveness of sins; through
the ministry of the Church may God give you
pardon and peace. And I absolve you from
your sins in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
To which the penitent answers: “Amen”
Parts of the Sacrament
The priest’s absolution is not a magical formula that wiped away all
sins, without really effecting any change in the penitent’s attitudes or
spiritual life.
Parts of the Sacrament
What is the seal of confession?
It is the most solemn obligation of a priest to keep
secret what has been revealed to him in confession.
The penalty for violating the seal of confession is
excommunication reserved to the Pope, besides several
ecclesial penalties.