Surveys and Penances

Friends

    Peace be with you. 

    Please remember to fill out your Discipleship Maker Index. Instructions for how to do this are located elsewhere in this bulletin. The more people from this parish to fill it out, the more information our pastoral council and other parish committees have to help guide us into the future. Plus, it is an indicator to the Archdiocese of how passionate you all are about the future of this parish and wanting to have a voice in what that future looks like. This parish has a scrappy reputation about proving wrong those who count us out, both with the flood and the derecho. Please, once again, prove just how much you care about the future of this parish by giving 10-15 minutes of your time to fill out this survey. 

    Now that we’ve reached Advent, the parishes in Cedar Rapids will begin coordinating communal penance events. I do encourage you to go, especially if it has been sometime since you last went. As usual, I will also be hearing confessions between the two Masses on Sunday mornings in what priests and liturgy people call Form 1. The advantage of Form 1 is that it gets to the confession part quickly. You come walking into the confessional, make the Sign of the Cross, and say “Father, forgive me for I have sinned.” or “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” Then you say “It’s been ___ weeks/months/years since my last confession.” Then you confess your sins. When you’re finished, say something like “For these and all my sins.” or “For these and the sins I cannot remember, I am heartily sorry.” I’ll give you a penance, ask you to pray the Act of Contrition, and give you Absolution. 

    The downside to Form 1 is that it can lose the communal sense of sin. Sin is a break with the Body of Christ. It harms our relationship with other humans and with God. That’s the advantage of Form 2 or Communal Penance. It begins with a Liturgy of the Word including readings and a homily that is meant to help focus us on the nature of sin and continues with petitions and communally praying an Act of Contrition. Then, several priests spread out throughout the church to allow for individual confession. After everyone has had a chance to have their confession heard, the people come back together again for an Our Father and a communal blessing. You, therefore, have the symbolism of how sin breaks us apart but God’s healing forgiveness brings us back together again. 

    The downside to Communal Penance is that we only do it during Advent and Lent so it makes it seem like Confession only happens during these seasons. It’s true to say that Advent and Lent are penitential in nature, however the Sacrament of Reconciliation is meant to happen whenever we are conscious of committing a mortal sin, not just in penitential seasons. That’s like finding out you have cancer and waiting until cancer awareness month to do anything about it. So, I do encourage you to come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, weather in Form 1 or Form 2, if you are conscious of committing a serious sin and/or if you have found yourself repeatedly committing a less serious sin. I also hope that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is something we see as a remedy for sin and not as a special prayer we do at certain times of the year.