Heard great sermon for families

[a83192]

At my Parish 2 weeks ago our Pastor gave a great sermon on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He particularly focused the sermon to the parents of the families of the parish.

He said that parents should not force their children to go to confession because it would turn them off from reception of the Sacrament.
He said that Confession should be encouraged like for example bringing your children to church on Saturday afternoons while confessions are being heard.

He said that if their children want to go to Confession the parents should accommodate them.

How do you fellow parents encourage your children to frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

 

[Gordon_Sims]

I take my kids with me just about every time I go (at least once a month). I don’t tell them they have to confess, but I do encourage them. It works out better if we plan on staying for the Saturday evening Mass because it helps kill time between me getting out and Mass starting.

 

[UbiCaritas]

Not much of a concern for us yet, as our kid is still in utero, but things we’ve talked about include:

–Make it clear from the time they start preparing for Confession what Confession is: the priest, in the person of Christ, forgives our sins.

–An important correlation to the first point is that the priest is not there to get a kid into trouble. We’ll explain that the priest can never tell us what happens in Confession, though the kid is welcome to bring any questions he or she might have about Confession to us. This is hugely important to most kids, I think; after all, they will probably list sins in Confession that the parents don’t know about and would ordinarily punish for, so they’re scared that the priest will tell their parents and they’ll get into trouble. I certainly was. My parents did assure me that this wouldn’t happen, but since I’d seen them lie about a lot of other things, I couldn’t believe them, and while I made a good First Confession I was terrified that I was going to be punished horribly by my parents for the sins I told the priest. Not a good position to be in.

–We’ll make sure that they understand the basics of catechesis about Confession so as to avoid, if possible, both laxity and scrupulosity. Again, an example: I was taught (obviously incorrectly) that if I genuinely forgot that I had committed a sin and therefore didn’t mention it in Confession, that that unknown sin would send me to Hell through no awareness of my own. As you might imagine, this really messed with my understanding of both God (really? God would send me to Hell for not remembering that I argued with my sister on a certain occasion, and yet I’m supposed to love Him?!) and the Sacrament.

–Explain early and often that if they ever want to go to Confession, all they have to do is ask a parent and we’ll take them, no questions asked.

–Go to Confession as a family, and then go out to dinner or ice cream or something of the sort afterwards.

–Lead by example by our (ie, the parents) going to Confession often.