PREPARATION FOR CONFESSION

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In order to prepare yourself for a proper reconciliation (formerly called confession), take some time prior to going to the church to reflect on your thoughts, words, and actions since your last successful reconciliation.

Examine your conscience, think about your sins, feel the sorrow of your sins, and resolve to do better in the future. 

If its been a while since you've made your last reconciliation, take some time to practice what you're going to say.

Arrive early and sit quietly in your pew as you mentally prepare yourself.

If there is a line outside the confessional stand quietly in line.

Enter the confessional room when appropriate. You may kneel at the confessional or, if you are comfortable with a face-to-face conversation, sit in the chair facing the priest.

Begin by saying, "Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been (how long) since my last confession."

"I am (married, single, widowed, etc.)"

Tell Father your sins. When finished say, "I am sorry for these, and all the sins of my whole life."

Father may then talk to you. He will also assign a penance.

You then say an Act of Contrition:

Oh my God, I am sorry for having offended you. I detest all my sins because they offend you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to sin no more and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Amen.

Father will then give you absolution. (He may give you absolution as you are saying the Act of Contrition.)

You say, "thank you, father" and leave the confessional.

You then go to your pew and say your penance.

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This page last updated on Sunday, September 19, 2010

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