What is Penance and Reconciliation?

When we sin, we are walking away from God. When we want to go back to God, we must choose to stop, turn around, and go back to Him. This is the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.

It is true that only God can forgive sins. (1) It is also true that God willed that the Church participate in this act. Jesus told the apostles, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (2) When we confess our sins to a priest, we are following Christ and doing the will of God.

To go back to God we show contrition, being truly sorry for the things we have done. (3) We acknowledge that there is harm caused by sin and to re-establish a life worthy of a disciple of Christ, we perform acts of penance to make satisfaction for what we have done. (4) The priest acts in the person of Christ to forgive our sins and then assigns acts of penance. These are holy acts to help bring us back to God and to His Church.

Citations: (1) Mark 2:7, (2) John 20-19-23, (3) ccc 1451, (4) ccc 1494