First Sunday of Lent
April 2, 2025 Column Father De Celles
LENT. Fundamental to a fruitful observance of Lent is the reception of the Sacrament of Penance (also called “Confession” or “Reconciliation”). A while back I published a small pamphlet called “Making a Good Confession: A Brief Examination of Conscience and Guide to Going to Confession.” Copies of these purple pamphlets can be found by all the doors of the church and near the confessionals. I hope you will find it helpful in preparing for and making a good confession.
But what is the Sacrament of Penanceitself all about? What follows are some short excerpts from the “CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH” to provide a brief refresher:
The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. 1440 Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the sacrament of Penance…
Reconciliation with the Church. 1444 In imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church. This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ’s solemn words to Simon Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” “The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to its head.”
1445 The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God; whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his. Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God….
The sacrament of forgiveness. 1446 Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification….
1447 Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably. During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism…was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation…During the seventh century Irish missionaries…took to continental Europe the “private” practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest…
1448 Beneath the changes in discipline…that this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same fundamental structure is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements: on the one hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit: namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction; on the other, God’s action through the intervention of the Church. The Church, who through the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him…
Lenten Adoration. As always, we have Exposition and Adoration on Wednesdays from 9am to 7pm. But during Lent our Fridays Exposition and Adoration will be extended throughout the evening and throughout the night (“Nocturnal”) until just before the Saturday morning 9am Mass. Basically what we do now on First Fridays.
Doing a holy hour every week before the Blessed Sacrament is a powerful penance for Lent: it’s a form of prayer, and it’s a sacrifice (of time—and sleep, especially during the late-night/early-morning hours), and it can be a form of almsgiving if you use it to pray for people.
“What do I do in Adoration?” This is a question a lot of folks ask me. There really aren’t many rules for what you do at Adoration. Basically you come, sit or kneel quietly, and pray. You can just sit there and talk to Jesus, and listen to Him. And you can pray your Rosary or other prayers you know, or from a good Catholic prayer book (they’ll be some prayer books in the church if you want to use those). Or bring your Bible or some other good spiritual book (even and interesting biography of a saint) to read between prayers. But mainly come and be with Jesus.
An hour sounds like a long time, but it’s not really, if you split it up between praying the Rosary, reading, and just talking and listening to Jesus. As St. John Vianney once said, “Him looking at you, and you looking at Him.” It’ll do you a lot of good, and joined with all the prayers of your fellow parishioners adoring over the 24 hours it will be great for our parish and the whole Church.
Please Sign Up. We need at least 2 adorers to volunteer to commit to be present for each hour of scheduled adoration, so please visit our website to sign up and take 1 hour. But even if you don’t sign up, please come to adore at any time.
Lenten Series. The last few years we’ve presented our Lenten Series as “extended homilies” at an evening Mass. This year we’ll do this at the Wednesday 7pm Mass, where I will give a five-part series of talks (homilies) meditating on the theme, “The Wounds of Our Lord’s Passion.” This coming Wednesday, March 12, I’ll be talking about “The Wounds of the Scourging.” Why Jesus was scourged, and why so viciously? Does the Scourging have a particular spiritual meaning? How can I learn something particular about Jesus, suffering and myself in these wounds? Please join us.
FORMED.ORG. Another great tool in Lent is the website FORMED.ORG. There’s something helpful for any Catholic. Go to the site and see for yourself. This is FREE for St. Raymond’s parishioners who are registered with FORMED.ORG. If you have not registered, just go online to www.straymonds.formed.org. You can also sign up at daily.formed.org/lent to receive helpful emails throughout Lent.
Federal Workers. This is a very trying time for some of your fellow parishioners and friends, given the President’s actions to change the personnel in the Executive Branch of the government. Many folks in the metropolitan area have lost or fear losing their jobs. Staying out of the politics, the reality is that some good people will be out of work. And while others might deserve to lose their jobs, we still have to treat everyone with Christian charity: we have to love even our enemies. So I ask you to be aware of those around you who are caught up in this, and to do what you can to help them. Most of all, pray for them, especially those who are your fellow parishioners.
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles