First Communal Reconciliation

[pacersFan]

I went to my first Communal Reconciliation last night. I am an Elect, so it was my first Reconciliation experience as well. I was very nervous about it, and didn’t know what to expect, but it ended up being a very wonderful experience.

I can see now the importance of Reconciliation to Christianity, and I find it very sad that it is missing from the Protestant splinters. Christianity is a very guilt oriented religion. By that, I mean that it calls you to a level of perfection that is unattainable, and you accumulate a level of guilt for the areas where you have fallen short (sinned). This guilt can be quite a burden, and it will begin to wear on you, whether you realize it or not.

I was raised that you can take this guilt of sin straight to God in prayer for forgiveness, which is fine, but there is something about the lack of feedback from that situation that does not allow you to completely clear your conscience. There is something extra that you get from being face to face with another person. I’ve never felt the release of such a burden as I did last night.

At any rate, I’m glad that I was able to muster the courage to go last night. It was such a profound experience for me last night, that I can’t seem to stop talking about it. I can still her my mother’s voice saying, “Priest’s can’t forgive sins.” Maybe someday I’ll be able to explain to her just how much more than that there is to this Sacrament.

 

[Benedictus]

Can you clarify what you mean by Communal Reconciliation? Was this a communal service with individual, private confessions to a priest, or was it an (invalid) general absolution service?

 

[pacersFan]

Benedictus:

Can you clarify what you mean by Communal Reconciliation? Was this a communal service with individual, private confessions to a priest, or was it an (invalid) general absolution service?

It was a communal service with individual confessions to a priest. It was in the format of a Mass, with at one point (right after the Homily) 4 priests each went to different corners of the Church and took confessions from people, one parishoner at a time.

 

[Bobby_Jim]

I really like that type of service, where the priest leads some communal prayer, scripture reading, a homily, examination of conscience, followed by individual confession and absolution. Among other things, it reminds me that my sin, and my forgiveness, isn’t just between me & Jesus, but that in my sin, no matter how “private”, I sin against the whole Church. Downside is that sometimes the priests feel a little rushed to get through everyone, whereas the priest might feel more free to take 10-15 minutes with someone who really needs it in a private setting.

note too that I don’t think the general absolution service w/o individual confession is “invalid” - I think it’s illicit (illegal) except in cases of imminent danger of death, and must be followed up by individual confession & absolution when the opportunity arises. I think the language may even be such that the absolution received in a general confession is in some way “contingent” upon the faithful actually intending to go to individual confession, and carrying this out in a reasonable (though undefined) length of time… so those folks who go to general absolution services with no intent of ever confessing individually are not necessarily absolved in the eyes of the church.

 

[Benedictus]

Bobby Jim:

note too that I don’t think the general absolution service w/o individual confession is “invalid” - I think it’s illicit (illegal) except in cases of imminent danger of death, and must be followed up by individual confession & absolution when the opportunity arises.

General absolution in non-emergency circumstances is indeed invalid, not just illicit (cf. CIC 961).

It may be that God won’t hold those people who were tricked into believing that the absolution was valid accountable for their sins, but He may; however, the wicked priest will have to answer for each and every sin he pretended to forgive.

Even when it is done in emergency circumstances, the people most confess any mortal sins forgiven as soon as possible (cf. CIC 962-963).