Dec/080
Sacrament of Reconciliation
CNA had a recent article on the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which Archbishop Nienstedt talked about 13 years as a confessor. You can find the short article here. In the article Nienstedt talks about why the sacrament should be one-on-one and a little bit into what the confessor might be looking for when listening.
I'm a big fan of face-to-face confessions. My wife, who is Lutheran, has general absolution at each weekly service, and it certainly doesn't have the same feel and gravity of the sacrament face-to-face. It's interesting that once while talking with one of her pastors, they said they wished more Lutherans would attend one-on-one confession. He also felt it was more powerful and effective for the penitent.
I know that in my personal history of confession, some of the largest breakthroughs I've made in my personal life have been as a result of personal penance I've received from priests who were able to not only listen and absolve me of my sins, but who also provided me with a method for dealing with that which lead me to sin in the first place. I find a lot of people who haven't been to confession since they were children feel like it's going to simply be "give me three Hail Mary's and a couple of Our Fathers." It's not. I believe every time I've gone in my adult life there has been something that the priest has said or requested as part of my penance that has helped change who I am, by reinforcing who I want to be.
