Penance & Reconciliation
The Sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation is celebrated:
Saturday afternoons from 3-3:45 PM
(except the First Sunday of the Month)
First Sunday of the Month from 7:15-7:45 AM and 9:45-10:15 AM
(Note the Saturday afternoon time is NOT held on these weekends)
By appointment (contact the Parish Office at 413-323-6272 x1)
First Reconciliation is celebrated during Advent of the 2nd grade year.
Contact the Faith Formation Office at
413-323-6272 x2.
WHAT IS THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE & RECONCILIATION?
Penance & Reconciliation is a “Sacrament of Healing”. Though we have received new life through the sacraments of initiation, that life is carried “in earthen vessels”. We are still in our “earthly tent,” subject to suffering, illness, and death. Our new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin.
The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members.
“Just as an animal becomes a stronger beast of burden and more beautiful to behold the more often and better it is fed, so too confession - the more often it is used and the more carefully it is made as to both lesser and greater sins - conveys the soul increasingly forward and is so pleasing to God that it leads the soul to God's very heart.” -- Revelations of St. Bridget
The Sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation is fundamentally a joyful encounter with God’s loving mercy and forgiveness, and the Church’s reconciling embrace. It requires of us a response of a contrite heart, confession with our lips, practice of humility, and acts of “satisfaction” or “penance” to repair the harm caused by sin and re-establish habits befitting a disciple of Christ.
Other names for this sacrament are:
Sacrament of Conversion – it is the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
Sacrament of Penance – it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.
Sacrament of Confession – as the essential element of this sacrament is the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest. It is also the profound acknowledgment and praise of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.
Sacrament of Forgiveness – by the priest’s sacramental absolution God grants the penitent “pardon and peace.”
Sacrament of Reconciliation – it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles. He who lives in God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: “Go; first be reconciled with your brother.”
Read More: Catechism of the Catholic Church (1420-1498)