Tag: confession

On
Dale Lawinger

Priests should preach about sin, Confession

To the editor:

As we enter into this extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, it is good to see the extra times set aside by our priests for the Sacrament of Confession. I am concerned that most priests will have a lot of reading time or time to visit with Our Lord as they wait for people to come to this sacrament of mercy.

We must not judge another person, but our priests need to teach from the pulpit what sin is. Today’s Church has forgotten to lead people, to be a teacher to us, more on dogma on the faith and not just love your neighbor.

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On
Fr. Donald Lange

Reconciliation helps us to live Lent with renewed faith

In Matthew 9:10-13, the Scribes and Pharisees complain that Christ dines with sinners and tax collectors. They are right. He does. Jesus responds by saying that he has come not to call the righteous, but sinners.

R. Charles Miller wrote that a sinner, as used here, is someone who admits they have sinned and needs God’s forgiveness to help them change. Conversely, the self-righteous think they don’t need forgiveness.

Sharing God’s mercy

Christ became flesh and took on a human nature to share the Father’s mercy with us. Chapter 15 of Luke’s Gospel features three parables of God’s mercy.

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On
Fr. Robert Barron

Revisiting spiritual welfare

In the sixth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, we find the account of Jesus sending out the Twelve, two by two, on mission.

The first thing he gave them, Mark tells us, was “authority over unclean spirits.” And the first pastoral act that they performed was to “drive out many demons.”

The reality of evil spirits

When I was coming of age in the ’60s and ’70s, it was common, even in seminaries, to dismiss such talk as primitive superstition — or perhaps to modernize it and make it a literary device using symbolic language evocative of the struggle with evil in the abstract.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

First Saturday at Durward’s Glen observed May 3

BARABOO — On December 10, 1925, Our Blessed Mother appeared to Lucia at Pentevedra, Spain.

She said, “I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the first Saturday of five successive months, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary.”

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On
Fr. Donald Lange

Advent Reconciliation: Offering Jesus the gift of a purified heart

Seeing with Jesus' Eyes, a column by Fr. Donald Lange

In the November 2013 issue of The Word Among Us, Scott Hahn is quoted as saying that an American priest went to Rome for a conference and a group meeting with Pope John Paul II. Before the meeting, the priest noticed a beggar on the steps of a church.

He recognized him as his former seminary classmate in Rome. They were ordained to the priesthood together. Now he was a beggar.

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On
Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

24-hour confessional, app attracts penitents, worldwide attention

PINE BLUFF — On Sunday, Aug. 4, Catholics around the world celebrated the feast day of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of priests and tireless confessor. In Pine Bluff, just west of Madison, the day took on some extra meaning.

Fr. Rick Heilman, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Pine Bluff, dedicated a 24-hour confessional and related smartphone app, asking for intercessory prayers from the saint.

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