What Happens During the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

Welcome to the second installment of our series on the Sacrament of Confession. You can find our first post in the series here.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation and forgiveness of sins involves 4 main parts:

1.            Contrition

For you to be forgiven, you must have a genuine sorrow for having offended God and is the most important act of the penitent. Forgiveness of sin is not possible if you don’t have the sorrow and firm resolve not to repeat the sin.  It means that you must be ready to turn away from evil and turn to God and includes the resolve to avoid those sins in the future. The sins may be venial or mortal.

“Perfect contrition” is the Contrition that arises from the love of God above everything else. This loving sorrow remits both mortal and venial sins as long as you resolve to confess them as quickly as possible. “Imperfect contrition” is when other motives such as the fear or damnation and the ugliness of seen bring penitents to confession, but it is still sufficient for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Holy Spirit is responsible for moving you in either case and initiates the conversation.

2.            Confession

It involves confronting one’s since in a profound way to God by talking about them aloud to the priest. Confession helps liberate you from sins that might be troubling your hearts and allows you to be reconciled both to God and man.

Confession asks you to look into your soul with an honest gaze and identify the sins you have committed. If you do this, your heart and mind will be opened to God and it will help move you towards communion with the Church and offer you a new future.

Confession involves naming your sins before the priest, who is Christ’s representative here on earth and allows you to face your shortcomings in a more honest way and accept responsibility for your sins. It is also during Confession that a penitent and priest can work together to find the proper direction the penitent should follow to grow spiritually and avoid sin in the future.

3.            Absolution

Once you have confessed your sins to the priest, you will receive words of encouragement for moral and spiritual growth. The priest will then grant absolution, which means that he sets you free from your sins, using the power entrusted by Christ to the Church and through which he pardons the sins of the penitent. The priest will speak words by which God reconciles sinners to himself through the merits of the Cross.

4.            Penance/Satisfaction

Absolution helps take away the sin, but it does not remedy the disorders caused by the sin. It is obvious that you need to make reparations for certain damages caused by your sin, such as the restoration of the reputation of a person you have injured, rectifying an injustice, or refunding stolen money. Sin also weakens the relationship you have with God and others. Sin harms your inner life, which is why you need restoration.

It is the reason for acts of penance and the satisfaction of sins. The penance the priest gives helps you start making satisfaction for your sins. Just as you need to take up some exercise when you get physically out of shape, you need to adopt spiritual exercises when your soul is morally out of shape to help restore it.

Penance is an important part of your healing from sin. The penance may be to do something good for your enemy every day for one week straight. It could also involve visiting a hospital or nursing home one day every week for one month.  It could also be a set of prayers, such as saying the Hail Mary or Our Father several times. Obviously, you should always do it in cooperation with God’s graces, which are critical to the healing.

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