On Wednesday Feb. 19th the Holy Father gave and interesting teaching on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I include the text from the media office at the Vatican.

GENERAL AUDIENCE: Confession

The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis at this Wednesday's general audience to the Sacrament of penance. After touring St. Peter's Square in an open car, greeting the thousands of faithful who applauded as he passed, the Pope explained that “the forgiveness of our sins is not something we can offer to ourselves; it is not the result of our efforts, but rather a gift from the Holy Spirit, which fills us from the wellspring of mercy and grace that surges endlessly from the open heart of Christ, crucified and risen again. … It reminds us that it is only by allowing ourselves to be reconciled through the Lord Jesus with the Father and with our brothers that we may truly be at peace”.

Pope Francis explained that the celebration of this Sacrament has transformed from its previously public nature to the private and reserved form of Confession. However, “this should not lead to the loss of the ecclesiastical matrix, which constitutes its living context. Indeed, the Christian community is the place in which the presence of the Spirit is felt, which renews hearts in God's love and brings all brothers together as one, in Jesus Christ”. He continued, “For this reason, it is not enough to ask for the Lord's forgiveness in our own minds and hearts, but rather it is also necessary to humbly and trustfully confess our sins to a minister of the Church”.

The Bishop of Rome emphasised that the priest does not only represent God, but rather the community as a whole, and that anyone who seeks to confess only to God should remember that our sins are also committed against our brothers and against the Church, which is why it is necessary to ask forgiveness from them too, and to be ashamed for what we have done. “Shame can be good”, he affirmed; “It is good for us to have a certain amount of shame, because to be ashamed can be healthy. When someone has no shame, in my country we describe them as “sin verguenza”, shameless. Shame can be good as it can make us humble, and the priest receives this confession with love and tenderness, and forgives in the name of God. Also from a human point of view, to unburden oneself, it is good to speak with a brother and to tell the priest those things which lie so heavily upon our hearts. And one feels unburdened before God, with the Church, and with a brother. Do not be afraid of Confession!”

The Pontiff went on to ask those present when they last confessed, and strongly urged them not to overlook Confession. “If a long time has passed, do not waste another day, go, the priest will be good. It is Jesus who is there, and Jesus is better than a priest, Jesus will receive you, he will receive you with love. Be courageous and go to Confession! … Every time we confess, God embraces us, God celebrates! Let us go ahead on this path. May God bless you!”

  Pope Francis, courtesy of Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, English language assistant, Holy See Press Office.

Understanding the new changes in the Church is an ongoing struggle for many people.  With the New Roman Missal we went back to some old ways and some new ways.
1. We don't kneel to receive the Eucharist.  people are not forbidden from doing this but it is highly discouraged.  Begging the question of why is it discouraged?  Some would argue that it is a greater sign of reverence.  Others would argue that it draws attention to ourselves and not to what we are receiving.  One of the keys to this is found in the words we recite just before we receive the Eucharist, we profess that we are not worthy, but only say the word and i shall be healed. Because we are healed we don't coming in supplication but rather we come in jubilation and exaltation, we stand.
2. Even if we are not receiving the Blood of Christ we still bow to the Chalice as we pass by.  Why?  Because contained in the Chalice is the Blood of Christ and we need to offer due respect for the Blood of Jesus.  In the same way before we receive the Body of Christ we should have offered a head bow to the Body of Christ in the Ciborium, we are not bowing to the Eucharistic Minister but what is in the Ciborium.
3. Receiving on the tongue or in the hand are both totally acceptable. But if we are going to receive on the hand we should make sure our hands are clean and when we present our hands that we are forming a plate with them.  When we receive on the tongue, the tongue should extend outside the mouth in a sense forming a plate to receive the Body of Christ. 
   As a general rule we do not take the Body of Christ, it should not be handed from the priests fingers to our fingers. the exception to this, and there are always exceptions. is due to age or arthritis.
4. The Rule on state of Grace has not changed.  We are still suppose to be in a State of Grace, that is free from sin.  Sadly many people don't seem to realize that if we have serious sins on our hearts the only sacrament that takes them away is Reconciliation.  Probably the worst sin in this area is believing we don't need to go to Reconciliation.  But Reconciliation is not just about what we have done, it is also about what we have failed to do. 
5. Abstaining from food for an hour before receiving the Eucharist is also still in affect.  And for those not aware, that includes not chewing gum during mass.  One of the upsetting things is people taking the gum out of their mouths to receive Jesus and then putting the gum back in right after.  Then particles of Jesus become mixed in with the persons gum and sooner or later they throw the gum away, with Jesus stuck to it. 
6. Now after we receive we stand until everyone has received and then we kneel or sit to say our personal prayers.  Again the exception for this would be the elderly and parents with small children.

At the "One Rock" celebration summer of 2012 several thousand young people gathered around to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  We began outside as the sun was going down and ended in the dark with the candles around the Blessed Sacrament providing light.  Most amazing was the non Catholics who were present and how this touched them.  Praying before the Blessed Sacrament is one of those Catholic things that we do and often do not fully understand ourselves.  It is one of those Ecumenical times when Christians can come together in prayer but it is also one of the dividing elements in the Christian faith.  A friend of mine from University time used to give me a hard time about worshiping Mary but he found it even more strange that we would kneel in front of a "piece of bread" as he put it and expect something to happen. It is very hard to explain somethings to others, but that does not stop us from loving each other.
  As we knelt there you could see people kneeling but it was what you felt. There was something very special happening.  What I noticed was we all knelt, generally you kneel for a short time and then sit, no this time, this time we stayed kneeling.  Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist to bring about change, but that change begins inside each of us.  If I am not at peace, how can I bring peace into the world?  If I am not at peace how can I expect peace around me or in my family?  At the mass we offer each other the peace of Christ, but do we know what we are offering? When we offer Christ's peace to the other we are offering Christ's love. 

Many of you have asked how Fr. John is doing in Rome, and I am happy to report that he is doing very well.  As you can see he has not aged one bit and still looks as studious as always.  We went to listen to the Holy Father together and had a wonderful day together.  We even went out for supper together and yes I did charge it to the parish and now you can all say you paid for Fr. John's supper in Rome.  He offered his prayers for all of us and please remember to pray for him.

  So how do you stay in touch with the parish in an every changing world?  How many people actually read a parish bulletin?  How many people really know what is going on in their own parish?  And if they read the bulletin do they retain the information?
   These are the kinds of questions often asked by priests to priests and priests to parishioners.  So what might be the answer?
  When I was taking my degree in Business we often talked about two approaches to getting a message out, one the scatter gun approach and the other was the high powered rifle approach.  Can you tell there was a bunch of farm boys in my group?
  The scatter gun approach was based on you tell or leave your message in as many places as possible, sort of like leaving 8 by 10 photos all over the place.  The high powered rifle approach was one big photo in what was assumed the best place.
  We are going to try the scatter gun approach, bulletin, webpage, blog, announcements after mass all in the hopes of getting the message out about what is going on in our parish and in some cases the great need that we have for volunteers to make these programs work.  The other possibility is creating some new programs.  For instance:
1. we have a grief program for some one who has lost a spouse but we don't have a grief program for people who have lost a parent or child, these people need our help also.
2. we have a youth program for junior high kids but we lack the ability to grow it because we need more young men to help as leaders.  These men could be married or not, they just need to be willing to help.  Boys need male role-models to look up to and they need them in their own environment. 
  These are just a few things we need to be aware of. 
   The other thing for me as a priest is the question of how often do we need to be reminded that God is truly present in our lives.  On my phone I get daily updates from the Vatican, the Popes daily homily (not that I would ever steal his material), daily inspirations, Catholic thoughts and others.  Why do i subscribe to these?  Because I need reminders to refocus throughout the day and keep Jesus front and centre in my life.  If I am the priest and I need this help, and I am sure i am not a whole lot different than other people, where do the people of God find their daily help to stay focused on Jesus?
  How many of the apps on your smart phone are for Games, music, shows etc?  How many are on your phone for the big guy?  How many God apps do you have on your phone?  One is nice, many is better!
Peace:  Fr. Kevin