As we listen to the parable of the Prodigal Son, we remember the love and mercy of God who awaits our return in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Confessions are available in Athboy Church every Saturday at 5.45pm.
To prepare for Easter, our Penitential Service will take place after Vigil & 11.30am Masses next weekend, on 5 & 6th April.
During Lent, we are invited to repent of our sins and to seek the forgiveness of God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is an opportunity for us to make a new beginning in our lives of faith and prepares us to renew our Baptismal Promises at Easter. This sacrament brings the forgiveness of God as we recognise our need for his mercy and pardon in our lives.
Confession, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, is so called because the “confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament”. The Catechism tells us that “it is also called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest’s sacramental absolution, God grants us ‘pardon and peace’”.
It is also called the sacrament of Reconciliation because it reconciles sinners to God and then to each other.
To prepare for Confession we need to spend some moments looking at our lives and asking for the grace of God to see ourselves as we are.
Sin is wilfully rejecting good and choosing evil.” When we recognise that we have offended God, who is all deserving of our love, we sense the need to make things right. Like the prodigal son in the Gospel, we long to know again the loving forgiveness of God who patiently waits for each of us. Jesus himself has established this sure and certain way for us to access God’s mercy and to know that our sins are forgiven. You have the option to go to confession anonymously, that is, behind a screen or face to face, if you so desire.