My Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Advent is a time for preparation. We prepare for the judgement of Christ the King when he comes at the end of time as we prepare our hearts to receive him, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary prepared to bring him forth for the salvation of the world.
Preparing to receive the newborn Christ at Christmas time is a task that takes time. Charitable works, self-sacrifice, prayer, penance and study are all a part of such a preparation.
But perhaps the most important way in which I can prepare my heart to receive the Lord is by confessing my sins and getting rid of the selfish filth that clutters up my heart and my mind. A few weeks ago, as I prepared to pick up Cardinal George at Logan airport, I spent quite a while cleaning out my car. Why? Because an old friend and honored guest was about to arrive and I wanted to show him how important his arrival was to me. How much more so should I clean out my heart in preparation to receive the Lord Jesus this Christmas!
Yet the sad fact is that many Catholics have given up on cleaning out their lives. While we are particularly blessed with a larger number of Confessions than most, even the Cathedral Church could do better in encouraging our parishioners to go to Confession on a regular basis.
A survey of adult Catholics just a few years ago reported the sad fact that only twenty six percent of all adult Catholics go to confession at least once a year. Only two percent of Catholics do so once a month or more. Thirty percent say they go to Confession less than once a year and forty five percent of adult Catholics admit that they never go to confession!
Perhaps most surprising is the fact that while it is true that the more someone goes to Mass, the more they go to confession, 37% of those who go to Mass weekly go to confession less than once a year!
But these are just statistics. I am not writing to a statistic. I am writing to you. Have you not been to Confession in so long you’re afraid you won’t know how? Are you afraid that God could not possibly forgive that sin you’ve been carrying around so long? Are you too ashamed to go back? Are you convinced that you are too busy to take the time to go to Confession?
To you who’ve forgotten how, fear not! Enclosed with this week’s bulletin is a description of How to Go to Confession. To you who’ve forgotten your Act of Contrition, each of our confessionals has a lit copy right in front of the penitent ready for the reading!
To you who are afraid that God cannot forgive you or who are too ashamed, pray a bit about the Good Shepherd, going out to gently carry the lost sheep back to the fold. Pray about the one who loved you so much that he died to forgive your sins. Pray to the one who said to the woman caught in adultery: “Go and sin no more...your sins are forgiven!
To you who don’t think you have the time, take a look at the insert which announces all the times when confessions are heard throughout our deanery. There are a total of seventeen hours in every week when Confessions are being heard at Saint Paul’s, Saint John’s, Saint Peter’s, Mount Carmel or Holy Family.
And consider joining Bishop McManus and the many priests who will join him for a Communal Celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (with individual confession and absolution) here at the Cathedral on December 13th at 3:00pm.
Why not come home to God’s mercy this Advent? The Lord is waiting for you. Come find out what peace really is!
In the Lord,
Monsignor James P. Moroney
Rector
