The Sacraments of Reconciliation - Confession
Before The Sacrament of Reconciliation is primarily a sacrament of healing, Sin dehumanises us and cuts us off from God and from each other. Many lives are blighted by sin and guilt, by the
need for conversion and forgiveness. The Sacrament of Reconciliation gives us the opportunity to express our sorrow for the things we have done wrong to heal broken
relationships, to forgive ourselves and others, to open up the channels of full communication between us and God.

A university chaplain in the USA had a motto which she pinned to the chaplaincy wall: We are only as sick as the secrets we keep!' Most of us have things that we would rather others didn't know about us — things we have done or thought that we are ashamed or embarrassed to admit to. Sometimes these hidden secrets can take on much more importance than they deserve, simply because we keep them bottled up and are unable to speak about
them. Being able to say something out loud in a place of total confidentiality can be very liberating and healing. Confession is above all a place of healing It is not a place of judgement or punishment The point isn't to discover how awful we really are, but to discover how much we are loved by God, how precious we are, to discover our full dignity as children of God, loved by him to distraction. Confession is a place of mercy, where we can lay down burdens of guilt and shame that we carry with us. Nothing we have ever done is too much for the mercy and love of God. No matter what we think of ourselves or of God, we can still be certain that God forgives us, loves us and wants only to heal us.

THE CONFESSIONAL 'SEAL'
The 'seal' of confession is the undertaking by the priest that nothing said by the penitent in confession will ever be repeated. What the penitent has made known to the priest remains 'sealed The confidentiality of the confession is absolute. The priest cannot even act upon the knowledge given to him in confession. There have been cases where priests have been prosecuted by civil authorities for refusing to give evidence because that would mean divulging something told to them under the confessional seal.

What happens at Confession?

The penitent and the priest meet to celebrate this sign of God's life in the world. Words of welcome are exchanged and an opening prayer is offered.

They listen to the word of God read from the Scriptures.

The penitent acknowledges past failures and past refusals to live as a Christian.
Personal sorrow is expressed.

Words of encouragement are offered by the priest and a reminder of Christ's healing, welcoming love is given.
A suggestion of an act of sorrow and reparation is made.

An act of contrition is offered by the penitent in the form of a short prayer.

The priest extends his hand and says the words of absolution:

The Words of Absolution:

God, the Father of mercies,
through the death and the resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The bishop and his priests are the only ministers nominated to hear confessions.
However, there have been some notable exceptions. In 1349, during a particularly horrific outbreak of plague, people and priests were dying at such a rate that they were unable to have their confession heard before they died.

Here is part of a letter that the Bishop of Bath and Wells sent out to his clergy:
"..you should at once publicly command and persuade all men, in particular those who are now sick or should fall sick in the future, that if they are on the point of death and can not secure the services of a priest, then they should make confession to each other, as is permitted in the teaching of the Apostles, whether to a layman or, if no man is present, then even to a woman ... 'He then bound them by the laws of the Church to uphold the confessional seal and maintain the confidentiality of the penitent's confession. This of course was not sacramental confession but an appropriate pastoral solution in a crisis.

Penance
At the beginning of Mass there is a short penitential rite, where we acknowledge that we have sinned and ask forgiveness from God.

Penitential Rite

I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and in what I have failed to do;
and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

May almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life.

The penitential rite which, while not a substitute for the sacrament of Penance, is nonetheless an opportunity for us to recognise our need for God's mercy both as individuals and as a community.

We can say, quite rightly, that the entire Eucharistic Liturgy is a sacrament which reconciles. Nevertheless, within this larger context of healing, the penitential moment offers us a chance to see ourselves as children of a loving God, to let go of those things in ourselves that trouble us, and to recognise that God's mercy is always available. As the priest says the prayers of forgiveness, we are united in the realisation of our continuing need for repentance and reconciliation and in our appreciation of God's boundless mercy toward us.

We conclude the penitential rite with the Kyrie, "Lord, have mercy," (unless it has formed a part of the earlier prayer). The early Christians used these words as the response to their prayer petitions. For us they remain a simple, beautiful way to express our need for God's saving help.

"Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth," ring out the first lines of the ancient Christian hymn which follows the penitential rite. A joyful acclamation of God's love and mercy, the Gloria seems a fitting way to praise God, both in response to the reconciling mercy which we've just experienced and in preparation for the life giving Word which we are about to hear.

As the introductory rite concludes, we pray silently, recognising that we are indeed in God's presence and raising our hearts and minds to him. The priest then says a summary prayer, "collecting" all our petitions (this prayer is sometimes called a collect) and presenting them to God the Creator, through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Thus united in one Body before God we are ready to play our part, to hear and respond to God through word and sacrament.

The word 'penance' comes from the Latin word poenitentia which means sorrow or regret, so to be a penitent means to be a 'sorrowing one'. Penance also came to mean the things people did to show that they were sorry. In the early Church, penitents would stand in a special area of the church during the liturgy. They were called 'weepers' because they often just stood and wept throughout the Mass.
Here is an account by the fifth century writer Sozomen, of weeping penitents in the liturgy:

They throw themselves prostrate on the ground with wailing and lamentation. Facing them with tears in his eyes, the bishop hurries towards them and likewise falls to the ground. And the whole congregation of the church with loud crying is filled with tears. After this the bishop rises first and raises those who are prostrate; and after he has prayed in a fitting manner for those who are repentant of their sins, he dismisses them.