Ephesians: and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, the day to go to Reconciliation. They changed our confession times here, so I wasn't able to go to Confession in honor of Divine Mercy Sunday.
When my oldest was taking steps toward her First Communion, we all went through a group Reconciliation. I went up to one of the priests and started, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been," I hesitated as I tried to recall how long it had been since my last confession, "Quite a while since my last confession."
"How long?" He asked.
"Several years, I suppose," I answered.
"Well, you're going to have to work for this one," he said, with a bit of a chuckle, but wasn't kidding.
Leaving the Church that day, a friend said, "I love going to confession because it's like I've got a clean slate. I feel so clean."
Many years ago, when my youngest was in first or second grade, his friend's mother told me about Divine Mercy Sunday. She explained it as, "When you sin, it's like nailing a nail into a piece of wood. You go to Reconciliation, it's like pulling the nail out but there's still a hole. Go to Mass and Reconciliation on Divine Mercy Sunday, and the holes are taken away."
She and I went to Mass at the Cathedral in Colorado Springs that year and then to Confession, and I did feel like a new self. She also told me that at the end of her confession, she always adds, "...and for anything else I may have forgotten," as an added protection for anything she may have overlooked.
Reconciliation is really one of the best Sacraments because it's like a reset button on your computer or phone. Sometimes you have too many tabs open and the computer/phone doesn't work as smoothly or as quickly. Sometimes, it will just freeze up completely and I have to restart my computer. That's what Reconciliation is to me, a restart, a new self.
God's mercy is infinite. There is nothing that can't be forgiven. Why not start a new tradition of making time for Reconciliation?
April 24
Matthew: So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them.
Mark: And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.
Luke: And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.
John: God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Acts: When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them,
Romans: but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
Galatians: Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.
Ephesians: and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
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