Religious Education & Faith Life

Reconciliation

Our Year Three students are busy preparing to Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. One of the things they are learning about is God’s rules and how breaking these rules is sinning. 

A sin is when people do something that they know goes against God’s rules. When something happens and people did not mean for that to happen, that is not a sin that is called an accident. Sometimes people can make a wrong choice or give a wrong answer because they do not know the right choice or answer, this is called a mistake. If people know God’s rules and deliberately choose to do what is wrong, that is a sin. 

The first rules God gave people were to teach them to know, love and stay close to God. God also gave people rules to know, love and get along with others. These rules were called the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments taught people to: 

love and obey their parents and those who take the place of parents 

be kind to other people and never hurt them in any way 

be honest and loyal to those you love 

respect what belongs to God, others and yourself. Never take or destroy what is not yours, including God’s creation 

always tell the truth 

be happy for others 

In order to decide if something is a sin people need to go through a process of reflecting on their lives and the wrong choices they have made. People need to reflect on whether these wrong choices were sins that they need to ask God for forgiveness.