Religion News
A Message from Father John:
THE CELEBRATION OF RECONCILIATION
I would like to thank our five school communities for the way they prepared the Grade Four children for the celebration of Reconciliation. It was a joy to celebrate with them.
COVID has certainly had an impact on how we prepare for the Sacraments. As we were unable to gather for our family nights last year, I have had a few questions about how we celebrated your child’s First Reconciliation. These questions would have been covered in our family nights, so I thought I would give a brief explanation of how we celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation with your child.
In a group setting for us Reconciliation is always celebrated as a Second Rite, which means we gather together for prayer, listen to God’s word and then during the liturgy we celebrate individual Reconciliation. Under current guidelines we are to hear the reconciliation of children in an open space in view of others. This is an Archdiocesan guideline. This means that priests are to never celebrate Reconciliation with children in a closed room.
The focus of Reconciliation is about it being a celebration of God’s love, unlike back in the 60’s and before when it was often seen as a Sacrament we were afraid of. Today we teach our children that it is a Sacrament were Jesus embraces us in his love, that we are not to be afraid if we have made some wrong choices. The image I present to the children is that of the “Forgiving Father/Prodigal Son parable of Jesus. In celebrating Reconciliation we celebrate that like the parable when the father embraced his son when he came home, so does Jesus embrace us in celebrating Reconciliation. It about the children understand that Jesus loves us so much that in hugging us he wants to feel out heart beat and we His.
I look forward to celebrating First Eucharist with your child in 2nd Term and prior to that celebration the children will have the opportunity the celebrate Reconciliation again as a part of their preparation.
Holy Trinity Parish
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