PARENTS > FIRST RECONCILIATION > SESSION 4

Session Review

Sin & Forgiveness

Even when we disobey the rules, God still loves us!
  • Sin hurts us, others, and our relationship with God.
  • Sin is choosing to do something we know is wrong or intentionally not doing something we know is right.
  • God gives us the freedom to make our own choices between good and bad things, and grace to us us with those choices.
  • Our conscience is God's voice within us helping us know right from wrong.
  • The Sacrament of Reconciliation heals us from sin.  In it, the Church celebrates how God forgives us.
  • We say we're sorry to God at the beginning of every Mass.

Rite of Reconciliation

  • Penance is a task the priest gives us after we confess, to help us turn away from sin and back to God.  It might be saying a prayer or other action.
  • You should perform your penance as soon after confession as possible.

From Papa Francis: Everyone Needs Reconciliation

In Lent 2014, Pope Francis presided at a reconciliation service and was expected to start hearing confessions along with 61 priests. But he surprised his master of ceremonies (and many others) by first going to one of the priests at an open confessional to confess himself.

Just beforehand he preached about the call to conversion: “It is the call to change one’s life. Conversion is not a matter of a moment or a year, is a commitment that lasts a lifetime. Who among us can be assumed not to be a sinner? No one.”