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NEW YORK — Holy Week is the culmination of Lent, a time to repent, confess and come to Easter renewed. U.S. dioceses have been offering increased opportunities for the “confess” part.The Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Adults in New York is one of them. With the Archdiocese of New York, it sponsored 24 Hours of Confession at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and 20 Manhattan parishes on the first Friday and Saturday of March. “Thousands upon thousands of Catholics line up to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday each year,” said Mario Bruschi, the co-director of the young adults group. “Imagine if these...

" For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will; but the evil which I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will, is present...

ROME, SEPT. 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university. Q: Could you please comment on what appropriate and adequate penances might be in the sacrament of reconciliation. I tend to stay to the traditional Our Fathers and Hail Marys, but I feel at times they are inadequate. A colleague gives much more "difficult" penances: e.g., the Stations of the Cross, two or three rosaries, reading certain psalms or other Scripture texts. Many of his penitents come back later not having been able to complete their penance and are...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - At most outdoor festivals the longest queues are generally for the portable toilets and bar but at World Youth Day in Sydney, the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock, one of the biggest queues is for confessing sins. ADVERTISEMENT With some 300,000 young Catholic pilgrims attending WYD from July 15-20 the Church is staging the world's largest confessional, with more than 1,000 priests at anyone time hearing sins and dispensing penance at 250 locations. "The notion in Sydney was to decentralize the celebration of reconciliation (confession). The groups received reconciliation in over 250 locations throughout greater Sydney," said...

Q. When did confession to a priest start?A. Confession is a sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ Himself in John 20: 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven… From the early writings of the Church fathers below you can see that the sacrament of confession has always been a practice of the Church founded by Jesus Christ.In the early Church confession was not done in private to the priest but to the whole gathered...

Q. Why do Catholics have to confess their sins to a priest instead of praying straight to God?A. In obedience to Christ. John 20:19-23 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22...

I do a lot of freelance writing for non-profit organizations and, frequently, while attending brainstorming sessions, I will hear the phrase "We need to 'Think Outside the Box' on this one.""Thinking Outside the Box" has become a mantra for Americans. It means to conceive ideas that are not commonplace; to one-up the competition with original creativity; to find a new path to profit that has yet to be exploited in the marketplace.In fact our society is obsessed with "Thinking Outside the Box." People continually search for new ways to entertain themselves, to feed themselves, to exercise themselves, to justify themselves,...

Advice from Fr. Philip Neri’s ConfessionalI. Starting point: 1. Sin. When we sin we abuse a gift from God. Just about every sin we commit can be traced back to a disordered use of some grace we have received from God. Abusing God’s gifts is a dangerous practice b/c it is through the charitable use of our divine gifts for others that God perfects His love us. If you are not using your gifts for the benefit of others then God’s love is not being perfected in you. 2. Forgiveness. When we ask for forgiveness we are not asking...

Dear Friend of Catholic Answers: True story: Many years ago I was at the cathedral in San Diego for confession. I told the unseen (and now long deceased) priest my sins and waited for his counsel. What I got was: "Why are you wasting my time?" "Pardon me, Father?" I said, thinking I had misheard him. "I asked why are you wasting my time? You had only venial sins to confess. You can have venial sins forgiven by saying an act of contrition or during the penitential rite at Mass. So why are you wasting my time?" Uncharacteristically, I was...

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 29, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI, performing a key priestly duty, entered one of the confessionals of St. Peter's Basilica to hear the confessions of various young people from the Diocese of Rome. It marked the culminating moment of today's penitential service over which the Pope presided to prepare for the diocesan-level World Youth Day, to be held Sunday in Rome. In a basilica filled with young men and women, about 200 priests -- some seated on chairs because there were not enough confessionals -- administered the sacrament of reconciliation. While the confessions were being heard, the choir...

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The baptized need to rediscover the sacrament of reconciliation so that they can experience "the boundless renewing power of divine love," says Benedict XVI. The Pope said this today when receiving in audience Cardinal James Stafford, major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, with the prelates and officials of that tribunal, as well as the penitentiary fathers of the patriarchal basilicas of Rome. "In the gesture of absolution, uttered in the name and on account of the Church, the confessor becomes the conscious means of a wonderful event of grace," the Holy Father said in...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. (National Catholic Reporter) – Lyn Woods, a middle-aged Catholic woman who teaches ceramics at the Southwest School of Art & Craft in San Antonio, said that, although she goes to church, she hasn’t been to confession in many years. She says her childhood experience of the sacrament of reconciliation explains much of her adult attitude toward it today. “When I was 7, 8 or 9 years old,” she said, “I found myself repeating the same sins over and over to the priest. It seemed to me they weren’t really sins but simply human nature. On the other...

Traditional Mass Propers, CommemoratingSaint Birgitta of Sweden, Widow( Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 01 October 2006 A.D. Missa Da Pacem "....My son thy sins are forgiven thee...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers, CommemoratingSaint Remigius, Bishop and Confessor ( Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 01 October 2006 A.D. Missa Justus es, Dómine "....Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers, CommemoratingThe Order of Our Lady of Ransom( Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 24 September 2006 A.D. Missa Miserére Mihi ".... "He that hunbleth himself shall be exalted."...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers, Commemorating forthe Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi( Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 17 September 2006 A.D. Missa Inclina, Dómine ".... Young man I say to thee, Arise...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers For The Feast Day ofSaint Nicholas of Tolentino, Confessor( Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 10 September 2006 A.D. Missa Protéctor Noster "....No man can serve two masters...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Traditional Mass Propers For The Feast Day ofPope Saint Pius X( Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost ) 3 September 2006 A.D. Missa Réspice, Dómine "....Go thy way for thy faith hath made thee whole...." "Nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Mass forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of words; it is a great action. The greatest action that can be on earth. It is. . .the vocation of the Eternal." -- John Henry Cardinal Newman

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The former custom of the celebration of penance in Holy Week was revived at the Vatican, presided over by an American cardinal. The celebration in St. Peter's Basilica today took place according to the rite for communitarian reconciliation, with confession and individual absolution. Presiding, in the name of Benedict XVI, was Cardinal James Stafford, major penitentiary, who explained in his homily that "the darkness of sin will never be able to suppress the light of divine mercy." The cardinal pointed out that this is the answer for the many people who wonder if it...

Why keep Lent?  Here are a collection of thoughts about what Lent is, and why we should bother._____________________________________________________________ Ash Wednesday is the clarion call to “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15). For the next forty days, the faithful willingly submit to fasting and self-denial in imitation of Our Lord’s forty-day fast in the desert. It is in these dark and still nights, these desert-times, that the soul experiences its greatest growth. There, in the inner arena, the soul battles the world, the flesh and the devil just as Our Lord battled Satan's triple temptation in the desert. His battle...