Penance Service • Unción de los Enfermos

Confession: The Gift of God's Mercy "Repent and believe in the Gospel." This instruction is not reserved just for Ash Wednesday or for Lent. We are called to "repent and believe" every day of our lives, constantly turning to God's mercy and love, and growing in holiness. One of the ways we can best do this is by going to Confession, where we have the opportunity to accept the many graces God has in store for us through this beautiful - and often underutilized - sacrament. Frequent Confession has so many benefits, including:

1. Confession helps us to better "know thyself." St. Augustine and countless other saints and doctors of the Church talk about the importance of knowing ourselves well. Through coming to know ourselves better, we realized how fallen we are, and how badly we need God’s help and grace to get through life. Frequent Confession helps remind us to rely on God to help rid us of our sins.

2. Confession helps us to overcome sin and vice. The grace we receive from the Sacrament of Confession helps us combat our faults and failings and break our habits of vice much more easily and expediently than we could otherwise do without the sacramental grace.

3. Confession brings us peace. Guilt from the sins we commit can make us feel all mixed up inside and cause us to lose our peace and joy. When we hear God's forgiving words to us from the lips of the priest in Confession, a burden is lifted off our shoulders. Sins weigh us down and enslave us, often giving our passions power over us, instead of us having control over our passions. With the healing power of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we can again feel the peace of heart and soul that comes from being in a good relationship with God.

4. Confession helps us become more saintly, more like Jesus! Jesus was perfectly humble, perfectly generous, perfectly patient, perfectly loving, perfectly everything! Don't you wish you could be as humble, generous, patient, and loving as Jesus? Saints throughout history have felt that way too, and they have frequented the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help transform them into people who are more like Christ. Little images of Christ that's what saints are!

5. Confession strengthen our will. Every time we experience the Sacrament of Confession, God strengthens our will and our self-control to be able to resist the temptations that confront us in our lives. We become more resolute to follow God's will and not our own whims.

The words of absolution in the Confessional are beautiful: "I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Jesus is waiting to forgive you, all you have to do is ask! Don't miss out any longer on the healing power of Confession...go to Confession this week. Also, consider sharing this article or our GoodConfession.com site with someone in your life whom you believe would benefit from the graces of sacramental Reconciliation!

Recommended Resource from Catholics Come Home: GoodConfession.com. God wants us all to grow in holiness so we can be saints. But how do we actually do that? Good Confession is here to help you figure that out. Take time to explore the resources we have provided on this website to help you learn how to go to Confession, and, more importantly, how to “go and sin no more.”

Our Lenten Penance Service is Tomorrow at 3:00pm. Same place we celebrate Outdoors Mass.

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Estimados feligreses: El día 13 de Marzo a las 11:00am, habrá una Misa seguida de Unción de los enfermos.

La mayoría de las personas están muy confundidas al respecto. Confunden este triple sacramento con una bendición del cadáver o con los responsos para los difuntos. Se olvidan (ignoran tal vez) que es un Sacramento. La Unción de Enfermos puede ser administrada solo por los sacerdotes.

Sucede que, muchas veces, llaman al sacerdote cuando la persona se está muriendo No es necesario que la persona se ponga grave de repente o sufra un accidente. Debido a la pandemia, todos estamos en riesgo de contraer el virus y enfermar gravemente.

El sacramento da a quien lo reciba (enfermo o no) la fuerza y la lucidez para aceptar con crisitiana resignación las consecuencias de la enfermedad; los dolores y la angustia.

Nuestro Servicio Penitencial será el mismo sábado 13 de marzo a las 3:00 pm. Habrá otros sacerdotes ayudando en las confesiones.

No olvide prepararse bien:

1.- Haga su examen de conciencia antes de venir.

2.- Pida a Dios dolor de sus pecados

3.- Lleve puesto su cubre bocas todo el tiempo: mientras está en linea y mientras dice sus pecados al sacerdote.