III. Celebrating the Sacrament of Penance
1. The confessor may invite you to trust in God's mercy and may read something from Scripture.'Then both malce the sign of the cross. When you enter the confessional, the priest will greet you.
2.
Next you confess your sins. If you need help, never hesitate to ask the priest. If your sin is a matter of serious or mortal sin, you must confess the kind of sin and the number of times. It is most helpful to the confessor if you can give him the sense of sin in your life at the present time.
3. When you have finished confessing your sins, listen to the confessor. Be free to ask any questions you may have about morality, particular actions or attitudes, your conscience and how to make solid moral decision. The priest will then give you a penance: make sure you understand what the penance is. When the confessor asks you to make an act of contrition, you may pray to God in your own words or use one of the following forms:
Act of Contrition
My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God, have mercy
__________________
Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
__________________
Lord God, in your goodness have mercy on me: do not look on my sins, but take away all my guilt. Create in me a clean heart and renew in me an upright spirit
4.
The priest will then give you absolution.
5.
A short proclamation of praise may follow.
Priest: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
Penitent: God's mercy endures forever.
or
Priest: The Lord has freed you from your sins. Go in peace.
Penitent: Thanks be to God.
When you are finished, you may want to spend time before God in thanksgiving, praying in your own words or with one of these passages:
"The love of God was revealed to us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son for the forgiveness of our
sins." (1 John 4, 9-10)
"The most important act of the penitent is contrition, which is
heartfelt sorrow and aversion for the sin committed along with the intention of sinning no more. We can only approach the Kingdom of Christ by
metanoia. This is a profound change of the whole person by which one begins to consider, judge and arrange his/her life according to the holiness and love of God, made manifest in his Son."
(Pope Paul VI in the The Rite of Penance)
0 Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
(From The Peace Prayer of St. Francis)
'Whoever is in Christ is a new
creation; the old things have passed away; behold new things have come. And all this is from
God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the
world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 'We
implore you on behalf of Christ, he reconciled to God
2
Corinthians 537-19, 206