Main Office (253) 631-1940
Faith Formation (253) 631-6175
Direct Aid (253) 631-1044
Transitional Housing (253) 638-9798
13055 SE 192nd St, Renton, WA 98058, USA
Reconciliation
Fridays 9:00-10:00 AM Saturdays 3:00-4:00 PM*
* excluding Christmas weekend
Note: Advent Reconciliation times include:
Thursday, December 15th, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
(Reconciliation Service)
Friday, December 16th, 9:00 - 10:00 am
Saturday December 17th, 2:00 - 4:00 pm.
(Confession)
Then He breathed on them and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.”
John 20: 22-23
One of the great gifts of the Catholic Church is the power, given by Christ through the apostles, to forgive sin. When Christ forgave sin in front of the Pharisees they were scandalized. So too when the Church forgives through her priests in persona Christi people may fail to understand why another human being is necessary for reconciliation with God.
The first good reason for such an arrangement is simply this, because He willed it so. Just as Christ became Incarnate in order to save us, so He constructed the Church in such a way as to remain present to the world through our humanity. It is humbling to go to another sinner like ourselves in order to recover our peace with God. St. James writes, “Hence, declare your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may find healing.” (James 5:16)
It is clear from John 20 quoted above that Christ is speaking of a power not given to all, otherwise any Christian could hold bound another’s sin and prevent them from finding peace and forgiveness. The history of the Church shows very early that if one wanted to repent of serious sin after baptism one needed to go to the bishop. Early Christians believed as we do that when one member of the Body of Christ had fallen out of communion with the rest of the Body, thus renouncing in some way their connection to the Body, a healing was necessary through the instrumentation of the Bishop. As early as 70 AD, this was recorded in a reliable document called the Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), "In church confess your sins, and do not come to your prayer with a guilt conscience. Such is the Way of Life...On the Lord's own day, assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks; but first confess your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure"
The Rite of Reconciliation is composed of five steps:
Examination of Conscience – We ask the Holy Spirit to help us know our sins and give us true contrition for them
Confession of Sin – We tell our sins to the priest
Penance and Counsel – The priest gives us any pertinent advice and some act of penance (a prayer or deed)
Act of Contrition and Absolution – After a prayer of sorrow the priest gives us Christ’s absolution
Satisfaction – We fulfill the penance given by the priest
Excellent pamphlets describing how to make a good confession are available in the narthex or online (click here)
Our Reconciliation Room is located within our Chapel adjacent to the Church Narthex (click for map)
Have no fear, the Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
