Is your parish offering more opportunities for Confession during Lent?

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Yes, every Friday evening in addition to the normal schedule. Plus, there is an all day 12 hours of reconciliation, but I forget which day that’s on.
 
Our parish already has confessions heard 1.5 hours each weekday and 4 hours on Sat.

There will certainly be one or two special evening sessions held during Lent, but I could not see how they could add any more ‘regular’ hours for confession.
 
Yes, infact it’s an archdiocese wide effort.

Each parish is offering extra confession time every Monday evening in Lent from 6-7pm, in addition to what their normal parish’s confession time is.
 
asia53 said:
Yes, my church is offering several opportunities along with normal confession times.
  • February 28, The Light is On campaign–all parishes in the Denver Metro area will have confession from 4 PM to 7 PM, or as Father M said “till the last person is done”.
  • Parish Lenten Mission-bringing in additional priests from the surrounding parishes, 3 nights, March 3, 4 and 5.
  • The week before Holy Week–will have confession every night for two hours.
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the Light is On program is offered in the Archdiocese of Baltimore on Wednesday nights from 7 to 8:30pm … but the five parishes in my cluster have it on Tuesday nights.
 
anp1215 said:
I mostly attend my geographical parish which is only 1 1/2 miles from my house. As far as I know, they aren’t altering or adding more Confession times to their regular schedule (half an hour on Tuesdays, an hour on Saturdays, and by appointment). There will also be a seasonal Reconciliation service.

Sometimes I attend my old parish across town, and I noticed that they have added extra Confession times for Lent, which I think is awesome! They’ve added an extra hour on Wednesdays (for a total of two hours) and Saturdays (for a total of four hours, two in English and two in Spanish). Additionally, on Ash Wednesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, a priest is available for Confessions from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm. They will also have a seasonal Reconciliation service.

What about your parish? Are they affording more opportunities for Confession during Lent?
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Yes. We have three priests who spend time sitting in the Church waiting…waiting…and waiting some more from 9:30 A.M. - 8:00 P.M. every other day since Ash Wednesday. One said that his job in the Parish is done and dusted. He can now go to heaven as 99.99% of parishioners are now saints and will ask those parishioners on Sunday to bring a sinner along for confession.
 
Yes. The diocese is doing the light is on program on Wednesdays. Our normal confession times on Saturdays and before noon Mass on weekdays. Plus confession times after stations of the cross on Fridays. Each parish around here has a similar amount of confession times so no excuse for anyone.
 
Ours did the Light is On for Advent, and I think it went very well, but it will not happen during Lent because many parishes already had other plans. Next year, perhaps.

Our diocese offers 5 “Opportunities for Confession” on 5 different evenings starting in March - each at a different parish. Some of those are very well attended - waits of an hour or more. Our parish will probably offer an extra hour somewhere along the way…that seems to be the custom in recent years.

As for me and mine, every parish seems to offer confession on Saturdays from 3:00 - 3:30. Taking one of my teens today to a “nearby parish” because he knows our priest well and would like to go anonymously. Which puts me waiting until next week, because I know our priest well, and he is a wise and gifted confessor, and I’ll stick with him.
 
I think the sacrament needs to be mentioned a great deal part of the homilies during Lent, and highly encouraging all those who are able to go to avail themselves of the chance (First Communion age and up). Various parishes in my area have added more times especially for people like me who cannot go on Saturday morning or early afternoon on Saturday as an example, some parishes have a few evening or day time chances to accommodate working people as an example.

I remember last year at one parish the priest there said he asked a few others to assist him with private confessions, and only a few people bothered to show up. I hope after that mention that a few more people came the next times he had private Confession as this was during Lent, with every Saturday morning, and Wednesday evenings available.
 
In addition to the usual Saturday afternoon hour, we have confession after the Friday night fish fry and Stations of the Cross. Our Bishop here in Kansas wants to ensure that we have extra times available to make confessions every week; we also have one parish reconciliation service.
 
MissRose73 said:
I think the sacrament needs to be mentioned a great deal part of the homilies during Lent, and highly encouraging all those who are able to go to avail themselves of the chance
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This is so important! Adding all the confession times in the world won’t encourage people to go as much as preaching about our need for the sacrament regularly.

In my parish, the opportunities for Confession aren’t really increasing because we already have ample time available. Confessions are scheduled 1/2 hour before every service and Father is very approachable at other times as well. In our small parish, that is ample times. He does find a way to work confession into nearly every homily.

At the local Roman Rite parish, they usually have confessions from 3-4 on Saturday and again from 7-8, on Sunday morning, plus once a month during the Family Holy Hour. For lent, their pastor will be waiting in the confessional from 1-5 every Friday, plus many additional opportunities (every day for several hours) during Holy Week.
 
This business of having reconciliation services, appointments for confession and specific hours on Saturday afternoon or 30 minutes during a weekday morning/night, have only added to the relegation of this Sacrament to almost oblivion. IMHO priests should spend 30 to 45 minutes prior to each and all Masses in the confessional (reconcilliation room). The Sacrament has to be preached from the altar and made convenient all times, not just duiring Lent. The current practice has led to many unworthy Communions and a generation that does not know the beauty of this wonderful Sacrament.
 
We have added quite a bunch, now four times a week. Holy Thursday goes from 9:00 until the last person leaves, sometimes after midnight.
 
For a start, all the priests in our diocese have been asked to focus their homilies on the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first three Sundays of Lent. In addition to that, there are multiple communal Penance services on throughout the diocese. In my parish, additional times have been added each week, as well as “by appointment”, which is always available.
Kris
 
The Diocese of Rochester, NY is going to have confession at all parishes all day on Holy Thursday. If you are away or just want to go to another parish for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, they will be there for you.
At the Parish I attend there is a standard time on Saturdays for confession, but one can make an appointment that is convenient for oneself and the available priest.
I was the first to be received into the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in New York State. Our fellowship now has a fully received priest, but we are only about 7 members. We meet an hour and a half from where I live and I ride with the priest and his wife. There has been no talk of confession.
I am active at the Roman Church in walking distance here.
 
Our parish had a penance service with individual confession immediately following with six priests in the Sanctuary. I didn’t go because there is no privacy and they don’t want you to confess all your sins because it would take longer. I just go to the regular confession on Saturday. I don’t think they have any extra times other than that service. Also I wish the place we have our regular confessions was more private. It’s held in the chapel and it’s a really small space. Sometimes people don’t wait outside the chapel door, they come inside and pray at the pews while waiting. Our priest is elderly and hard of hearing so you can’t whisper and there is a chance you can be overheard. I may start going to the parish that is 15 minutes away. I’ve been there before and they do it in a private room which is better in my opinion.
 
Actually, it is Tuesday March 26th that is the Day of Penance in the Diocese of Rochester, not Holy Thursday.

And is that the Fellowship of St. Alban? I am so happy that you have found a home here!! I am looking forward to joining you for Mass sometime soon!
jennina67 said:
The Diocese of Rochester, NY is going to have confession at all parishes all day on Holy Thursday. If you are away or just want to go to another parish for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, they will be there for you.
At the Parish I attend there is a standard time on Saturdays for confession, but one can make an appointment that is convenient for oneself and the available priest.
I was the first to be received into the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in New York State. Our fellowship now has a fully received priest, but we are only about 7 members. We meet an hour and a half from where I live and I ride with the priest and his wife. There has been no talk of confession.
I am active at the Roman Church in walking distance here.
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Oneofthewomen said:
Actually, it is Tuesday March 26th that is the Day of Penance in the Diocese of Rochester, not Holy Thursday.

And is that the Fellowship of St. Alban? I am so happy that you have found a home here!! I am looking forward to joining you for Mass sometime soon!
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Many people have the wrong idea about the day down here in Hornell!! Most of us do not feel the need to go to a different church for confession, but it is nice that it is available if you cannot receive the sacrament in your home parish.

Thank you for setting us straight.

Yes, It is the Fellowship of St. Alban. We do not have arrangements for the Sacrament of Reconciliation yet, but most of us have connections with a Roman Church. We are not having any services during Holy Week either, because our priest has obligations down here with the Roman Catholic Churches he assists at. Our Masses are held at 3pm at Guardian Angels in the old building.
 
We will be offering generous opportunities for Confession during Holy Week, including 3 solid hours on Good Friday and regularly scheduled Confessions twice on Holy Saturday. One thing our pastor has not scheduled is a “communal penance” service. He says that this practice only serves to cement the false belief that Confession is something we do twice a year. Our parish offers regularly scheduled Confessions four times a week: 45 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and two 45-minute segments on Saturday. We often have both priests in the confessional and when the line extends so far that Mass begins and the scheduled confessions are to end, one priest will remain in the confessional until the last penitent is absolved. If there is only our pastor, he will issue a promise to penitents remaining in line, then he goes to celebrate Mass, and processes straight from the altar back into the confessional and hears Confessions until the last penitent is absolved.

Our bishop has recently issued a pastoral letter to priests on the subject of Confession. Our priests both preached on various aspects of this healing sacrament for three Sundays. And we are a “city on a hill” providing Confession opportunities for many of the faithful in the region when other local parishes do not offer nearly enough for the people seeking it. The other week, I spoke on the phone with a man who was very grateful that we offer so many opportunities. And I am grateful to our pastor and our bishop who place so much emphasis on this sacrament which is so important, especially in our modern world of paganism, atheism, and grave sin. As for myself, I try to attend Confession monthly, if only to unburden myself of venial sins and qualify for all the plenary indulgences that are offered. Thank the Lord and St. John Vianney that my very own pastor is so dedicated to saving souls in this way.
 
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