Posted on 02/16/2010 5:27:44 AM PST by mlizzy
New York City, N.Y., Feb 16, 2010 / 08:04 am (CNA).- A young adults group in the Archdiocese of New York has recently announced a 24-hour confession event which will take place in March during the 2010 Lenten season.
The Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Adults (CSPYA) group is holding their second annual “24 Hours of Confession” project March 5 -6 at 51 parishes throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, Duchess, Staten Island, as well as Orange, Rockland and Westchester counties.
“Catholics need to know that confession is all about God's forgiveness and love and that the priest is there for them,” said the young adult group's director Mario Bruschi. “That is why our goal for this project will be focused on reminding people about the importance of the priesthood and that confession can restore us when we sin.”
In response to this event, Bishop Dominick Lagonegro of Orange County also announced recently that 25 parishes in his diocese will be holding additional confession times from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. on March 5.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Many dioceses and parishes appear to have relegated the confessional to an obscure room along with votive candles and statuary.
Our parish is providing extra priests on Ash Wednesday for Confession - I guess in between the 4 Masses & 3 Prayer services with ashes. I think it’s great!
Why NYC? All the thieves, crooks and sinners are in Albany.
Very good news!
I usually can only get about 22 hours of sins before I have to start making things up. Then I confess for lying about my sins to boost me to 24 hours.
Ha, ha. I don’t *think* you need to stay the full 24 hours ...
Shrovetide...lots of shrivin’ goin on out dere!!
Lent. It's here already.
A friend sent me something Archbishop Timothy Dolan wrote on his Facebook page titled, "To Whom Shall We Go?"
Why do we have [Lent]? To accept in a more intense way the invitation of Jesus to be more closely united with Him on the cross, thereby dying with Him to sin, selfishness, Satan, and eternal death, so to rise with Him on Easter Sunday to a more radiant life of grace, mercy, and spiritual rebirth.
How do we do it? Through the three ancient Lenten practices: prayer, sacrifice, and charity.
A newsman asked me if I have any practical counsel for Lent.
“Yes,” I replied. “Get back to confession.”
This sacrament of penance is most associated with this season of Lent. There is no better time to approach this sacrament of reconciliation than before Easter.
Last week I made my annual retreat with thirty-five other priests from the archdiocese in Ars, a tiny village in southwestern France.
That village had a legendary pastor, or curé — the Curé of Ars – by the name of John Vianney for forty-one years. While there, he converted the town, and, a case can be made, all of France, simply by hearing confessions. By the time of his death in 1859, they had built a new train station to handle the thousands who came weekly to approach the confessional of the humble, holy pastor now venerated as the patron saint of priests.
We priests knelt before that simple wooden confessional a lot last week, preparing for our own confession on retreat, and praying, at my request, for a renewal of the sacrament of penance in our own parishes and archdiocese....
We’re called to be saints, but we’re sure not there yet. And a great help to get there is the sacrament of penance.
And Lent is a grand time to return to it! A blessed Lent!
You can read the entire piece on Facebook. I can't link to it, unfortunately.
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