**Confessions twenty minutes before and after all masses**

Our diocese has adopted family based catechesis, this means that the parents are the primary instructors in the faith for their children. The Archdiocese uses its own resource callled LIVING FAITH. The resource is avaliable at the masses on the weekend. EAch week all familes are invited to tke this home. For Parents of children preparing for sacraments additional resouces will be provided. The parish has a team of catechetical leaders who will support parents in using this program as a tool in the religious education and sacramental preparation of their children.

For further information call the Parish office: 521-2660

The Sacrament of Reconciliation has been known by three different names throughout history. These names are:

• Confession
• Penance
• Reconciliation

A Sacrament is a visible sign of God’s presence, God’s activity in our lives, in the Church and in our world. But it goes beyond that! Sacraments not only show us what God is like and what God dreams for us; Sacraments also make that happen!

Let’s look at the three titles that we have used to name this Sacrament.

If we call the Sacrament “Confession,” this captures one important aspect of the Sacrament. It involves us confessing what we have consciously done wrong, our sins. But if we focus on this alone, we kind of get the lens out of focus, don’t we? If we focus only on confessing our sins, we are looking only at what we have done wrong. That not the main focus of the Sacrament, because a Sacrament is meant to tell us something about God.

If we call the Sacrament “Penance,” this also captures one aspect of the Sacrament, for the Sacrament does involve us taking on a penance—doing something to make up for what we have done wrong. But if we focus on this alone, we kind of get the lens out of focus, don’t we? If we focus only on what we need to do to make up, we’re missing what God wants to accomplish in this Sacrament.

But if we call the Sacrament “Reconciliation,” then we have the focus more clear. The Sacrament is really about what God wants to do in us and through us and for us in this wonderful encounter.

It tells us that God is love, and love is always ready to forgive, no matter what the wrong.

It tells us that God already knows the secrets of our hearts, but sometimes we need to name these aloud in order to prepare our hearts to renew the experience of God’s love and forgiveness.

It tells us that, as God is One, God dreams that we might all be one as well—one with each other and one with God. God’s will is that all people will be reconciled with one another and with God.