For the last two years, I have done away with Penance Services during Advent and Lent and with my bishop’s okay! TBTG!
Instead we have a Confession Extravaganza! I don’t really call it that but that is what it is. During Advent and usually the week of Christmas (prior of course) and Holy Wednesday of Passiontide, we begin hearing Confessions at 6 pm without a liturgical service at 6 pm.
Last night (Holy Wednesday), I had six priests hearing confessions (one of whom was our bishop!). We began at 6 pm and the last confession concluded at 10 PM! Yes, you read that correctly! Divine Mercy flowed in our church for four hours straight!!!! Holy moly!!!!
And the Confessions were thorough and “meaningful” meaning, these were good confessions of true sinfulness and sorrow.
I have to say that at “Penance Services” that drone on and on liturgically for about 45 minutes before Confessions actually start, that the confessions are superficial, or at least in my experience. Not so with the Confession Extravaganzas we have instituted. No liturgical Penance Services! They are the death of good confessions and people actually going to confession!
For all the liturgical ills of the Church since Vatican II, let’s blame the liturgists, especially the progressive ones! They are no-nothings who think they know something!
13 comments:
I have never, in my 37 years as a priest, led or been a part of a Penance Service that droned, "...drone on and on liturgically for about 45 minutes before Confessions actually start...". No Penance Service I have been a part of has even come close to that. The liturgical portion MAY take 15 minutes, all done in preparation for the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance.
Our penance services begin with the day's Evening Prayer, taken from the breviary. The congregation prays the Psalms, alternating right to left. We include the antiphons and intercessions according to the day. Do you find the praying of the Church's official prayer to be "droning?" Do you think that praying Evening Prayer causes the "death of good confessions?"
I will not presume to judge, as you have done, whether the confessions I have heard at Penance Services are superficial or not. It is not the priest's place to make such a judgment.
Nice to hear that many people choose to prepare themselves for Pascha.
FRMJK, you’ve lived a life in denial. I’ve been to your Macon Penance Serices and many others in the Macon and Augusta Deaneries and Albany 42 years ago. And yes, these drone on. You haven’t done this, but i have heard priests say to the penitents only to confess one sin and to exclude venial sins if possible. That was to shorten the confession time so the liturgy time could drone on. And don’t forget in the first years of doing these services, we demanded that everyone remain until the last confession to receive the final blessing and dimissal. Of course, most didn’t obey. And one particular parish in the Macon deanery, did the full liturgy of the word as on Sunday, with a long homily and long examination of conscience and yes, lots of silent time prior to the Confessions.
You live on a different planet then i do when it comes to Penance Services. And I might also add that in Augusta, in the 90’s, priests were offering general absolution if there were too many penitents during the liturgical service. After one o those, as people were leaving and others coming in late, after the service, Confession was denied to them for being late and missing the liturgical service which is what many began to do, coming late so they could go to Confession and leave. Of course, the priest did not know they were not there for the common penance and Act o Contrition with would be omitted during the private confession!
Fr. ALLAN McDonald - At no penance service I have attended in my 37+ years as a priest, in the Macon deanery or elsewhere, has it been "demanded" that everyone remain until the last confession. Name the priest or priests who did this, please.
At no Penance Service in any parish I have served in or pastored has the liturgical portion of a Penance Service come close to lasting 45 minutes, None.
I have never in my 37+ years as a priest seen a priest offer general absolution.
And as for your description of the "quality" of confession you hear, please recall:
Can. 983 §1. The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.
And
Can. 984 §1. A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded.
And
§2. A person who has been placed in authority cannot use in any manner for external governance the knowledge about sins which he has received in confession at any time.
Your canon law comment is of course a straw man as saying the quality of confessions in general divulges particular sins mentioned in a particular confession. You know better and certainly, I think you can do better.
Your reading comprehension is not very good either, I said early on, like when I was first ordained in in Albany, GA, we asked everyone to stay until the last confession so the Penance Service could be concluded. That of course did not last very long.
And yes, at a now very large suburban parish I attended a penance service with numerous priests available for private confessions only to have the presider freak out over a packed church and make a split second decision without any consultation that he would offer general absolution. Said same priest would offer general absolution at normal confession times if he had to leave and there were still five or six people in line--they got general absolution.
You have lived a very sheltered priesthood evidently, or in denial about the facts. And your reading comprehension, oh, my!
You start down a dangerous and slippery slope when you start describing the quality, or lack thereof, of the confessions you may have heard. Were this to happen in my presence, I would admonish those involved that they should cease and desist. Were it to continue, I would walk away.
You have amended your claim regarding staying till the last confession. First was was "demanded," now it is "asked."
I have lived in the same diocese as you. I do not see it through traditionalist filters, amd am very glad of that.
I am so glad you are so unlike we traditional miserable sinners. Pat yourself on the back and to read about the pharisee who highlights his virtues compared to the poor miserable sinner.
Playing the victim is old news. That dog doesn't hunt.
Skimming through the comments, I don't have much time to read them thoroughly, I tend to agree with Fr. AJM. Reconciliation is a stand alone sacrament and to layer a paraliturgical event on top of a sacrament that does not require one, at least to me, makes the two compete with each other. The service, particularly if is becomes lengthy, makes all that follows a "hurry up" event before people start becoming restless and frustrated as they came to have their confessions heard after examining their consciences. Why would we jeopardize that with the distraction of a service that is para-liturgical and, perhaps, unnecessary? Why would we risk people hurrying (if they feel they need to) and priests hurrying to move people along (if they feel they need to) and forgetting what they came to confess. Doesn't make sense to me. We want our people to have a grace filled Pascha, couldn't one argue that a solid/complete reconciliation is of critical importance to preparing to receive those graces.
Fr K again demonstrates his lack of introspection and self-awareness. Sad
Methinks the modernist priest doth protest much.
Penance services are so can I say, Protestant
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