‘Bless me father, for I have sinned.’

 

For those of us who frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation, it is how we begin to ask God for forgiveness for those times we have offended Him in sin through our thoughts, words and/or deeds or by omission.  It is our hope through our sincerity in going to Confession that God, through the priest, will give us absolution if we are truly repentant.

This year, the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 14, the secular date for Valentine’s Day, a time to profess our love to someone special and others in general.  Maybe we should take advantage of its message to profess our love to God by dedicating this Lent to cleanse ourselves especially from those sins we commit repetitively, mostly out of habit.

 

“All men have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.”                Rom. 3:23

 

In the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, he explains that though we are sinners, our salvation comes to us through our faith in Christ.  If we believe that Jesus, the Christ, died for our sins so we may have everlasting life, then we need to accept His gift.  But to do so, we need to actively work at avoiding sin or the near occasion.

What I am about to suggest is not new and will most likely not give immediate results.  What will be new is how to accept it and make it a priority in one’s life.   What will be seen is a change in one’s relationship with God that hopefully gives one pause in taking a path not associated with God’s ways.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Two, The Celebration of the Christian Mystery, offers in Chapter Two, The Sacrament of Healing.  In Paragraph 1440 it says: “Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with Him.  At the same time it damages communion with the Church.  For this reason conversion entails both God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.”

To accomplish this, especially as part of Lent, the Church calls for the faithful to fast, pray and give alms to those in need.  Doing this expresses conversion in relation to oneself, to God and to others.  The Catechism also offers a multitude of ways this can be done.  I am suggesting five ideas to be accomplished from Ash Wednesday through Holy Thursday.  They are: