Reconciliation?

Question

What hapends during Reconciliation.
When and how did Reconciliation start

Answer 1

The Catholic Church believes that "Only God forgives sin."

When a penitent person asks God for forgiveness, his (or her) sins are immediately forgiven.

Catholics also believe that when someone sins they not only hurt their relationship with God, they also injure the entire church, the body of Christ.

Jesus said, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19)

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,"Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (Luke 20:22-23)

The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation with a priest ordained in the name of Jesus Christ not only reconciles the sinner to God but with the entire church, including you and me.

This is one way how to go to Confession

+ Get yourself ready by making your examination of conscience.

You enter the confessional. You can choose to talk to the priest face to face or anonymously behind a screen.

+ After the priest greets you with the Sign of the Cross make the Sign of the Cross and say: “Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been (say how long) since my last confession. These are my sins…”

+ Tell your sins simply and honestly to the priest. Don’t be embarrassed.

+ When you are done listing your sins please say: “…I am sorry for these sins and all the sins I can’t remember.”

+ Listen to the advice the priest gives you and accept the penance from him. Then make an Act of Contrition for your sins:

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.
Amen.

+ The priest will then conclude with the words: “Your sins are truly forgiven, Go in Peace”. You respond: “Thanks be to God.”

+ Perform your penance as soon as possible.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Personally, I don't really believe in reconciliation. Yes, maybe there was a time Jesus said you can tell my apostles your problems, I've never really heard that. But all that aside, christianity really is simple. Prayer is this awesome thing we have to use... and why not use it?? ANY time of day you can go to God and say hey, I really screwed up here and I need to come clean. You don't need to drive to a church, come at some certain time, crawl in a booth and let it all out to some priest. God is on call 24/7... that's His JOB. I just look at it like why go through someone else when you can go to the one who really matters and talk? He's waiting :)

Answer 3

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

Jesus settled our debt to God for our sins, once and for all. He has restored our friendship and harmony with God. We have become acceptable in His sight, even to His adopting us as His children. It is all about relationship and our being forgiven by the living God. This is a new covenant with God established through Jesus Christ. Read Hebrews 9:11-28 for more information. There is no other name given to us by which we may be saved. Jesus is the way, the truth, and life.

Answer 4

Do you mean the Sacrament of Confession to a priest? This was practiced in the times of the Apostles.

In the book of James it says: that sins are forgiven by the priests in the sacrament of the sick. This is another example of man's authority to forgive sins on earth. Then in verse 16, James says “Therefore, confess our sins to one another,” in reference to the men referred to in verse 15, the priests of the Church. (james 5:15-16)

Also in the Gospel of John 20:21 - before He grants them the authority to forgive sins, Jesus says to the apostles, "as the Father sent me, so I send you." As Christ was sent by the Father to forgive sins, so Christ sends the apostles and their successors forgive sins.

During reconciliation/confession, you tell the priest your sins in number and kind and he listens, gives you spiritual direction and absolution (forgivness). Then you are given a penance to take away the temporal punishment due to sin.

The priest does all these things "in persona Christi" (in the person of Christ, as his representative). The forgiveness comes from God.....through the words of the priest.

Answer 5

Confession has been with us from the beginning. It's biblical.

"As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained' (John 20:21-23).

Jesus himself never condemned sinners. He forgave them.

According to the Council of Trent (December, 1545 to December, 1563) the consensus was that by the words of Christ from John's Gospel - the power of forgiving and retaining sins was communicated to the Apostles and their lawful successors.

It is therefore Catholic doctrine that the Church from the earliest times believed in the power to forgive sins as granted by Christ to the Apostles.

The formula for the rite itself has changed over the centuries.