The Good News About
The "New" Rite of Penance
Fr. Bart Karwacki, OFM Conv.

In 1973 the Congregation for Divine Worship, the office of the Church entrusted with liturgical renewal, introduced a New Rite of Penance. This was its response to the decree of the Second Vatican Council that the Sacrament of Reconciliation should be revised. This new Rite was designed to call the faithful to continual conversion and renewal by placing individual confession and absolution in the context of a celebration of the word of God and emphasizing its relationship to the community. For whatever reason, many Catholics seldom use this new rite, which is more than 25 years old. Many, in fact, do not even know there was a change in the Ritual of confessing our sins. The following is an examination of the new Ritual for the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help introduce people to this wonderful way to celebrate God's forgiveness of sins. It is hoped that by understanding the new ritual Catholics will be encouraged to make more frequent and better use of this sacrament.

Preparation of the Penitent

The Sacrament of Penance is a celebration of the forgiveness of sins. We should express our sorrow to God for our sins every day of our lives. Yet, we also need sacramental moments in our lives when we can celebrate our reconciliation with God. We need to rejoice over the fact that God loves us in spite of our sinfulness and that He expresses that love by offering us His mercy and forgiveness. The Sacrament of Reconciliation provides us with an opportunity to experience God's mercy in a profound way.

Penitents are asked to prepare for the celebration of this sacrament by prayer, the reading of Scripture and silent reflection. In particular, they are asked to do an honest reflection on how they have lived or failed to live the Lord's commandment to love God and neighbor (an examination of conscience).

Reception of the Penitent

The celebration of the sacrament begins with the priest welcoming the penitent in a friendly manner. This can and often does take place in a confessional with a screen. Yet, a more personal exchange can take place between the priest and penitent if they can sit face to face in a reconciliation room designed for this purpose. The rite no longer begins with "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned." Rather, the penitent makes the Sign of the Cross. This beginning is significant for it places emphasis on the love of the Triune God who calls the penitent to celebrate reconciliation and seek forgiveness on the journey of conversion.

Reading of the Word of God

After this simple beginning a short text from Scripture may be read. Although this is an optional part of the rite and can be omitted because of time and circumstances, it does provide us with a way of centering our attention upon God's mercy and call to conversion. This short reading can be chosen either by the priest or by the penitent. This can give the penitent the opportunity to proclaim an especially meaningful passage of the Word or God.

Confession of Sins and Acceptance of Satisfaction

The rite continues with a dialogue between the priest and the penitent. If there is a reconciliation room designed for the celebration of the sacrament that is soundproof and private, then there is no need to whisper. The priest and penitent can speak in a normal conversational tone. The goal is to have a frank and open dialogue. The first information that we tell the priest is approximately how long it has been since the last time that we celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A word about the frequency of the celebration of this sacrament might be helpful here. There is no hard and fast rule about how often we are to celebrate this sacrament (other than the fact that we are to celebrate the sacrament at least once a year during Easter season when we are in the state of mortal sin). To confess our sins every week is probably a bit too often and can easily lead to a tendency toward scrupulosity. On the other hand, confessing only once a year or so is not all that helpful in developing a spiritual life. Many spiritual directors recommend that we ought to celebrate this sacrament about four times a year. A good rule of thumb would be once each season. It is especially meaningful to make use of the sacrament during the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent. If we are in touch with our spiritual life, we will feel a need to seek reconciliation with God periodically. This feeling is actually God calling us to conversion.

We then confess our sins. It is not necessary to list exactly how many times that we have committed certain sins (although a sense of whether something happened once or frequently can be helpful. Rather, it is important to communicate the areas of sin and the types of sins we commit. Because this is being done in dialogue, we can explain our struggles to live the Christian life and ask the priest for clarification and advice. The priest, in turn, can help us to explore areas of selfishness and sin and assist us with information that will provide us with a better understanding of how to grow closer to Christ. The sacrament celebrated in this way provides us with the means to explore, or in a sense, analyze the patterns of sinfulness that exist in our lives. Such an analysis helps us to discover ways of reversing these patterns and growing closer to the Lord. These sinful tendencies are often called the seven capital sins: pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust. They are the root causes of all of our sins. We can better understand this by looking at one particular example. The underlying cause of the sin of gossip, talking negatively about one's neighbor, might be rooted in pride (feeling superior to others) or in envy (failing to recognize one's own giftedness and therefore wanting to put another person down). When we are able to identify the root or the roots of a particular sinful action, then we can make the necessary changes in our lives to help us overcome that sin (or at least we will understand what areas of our life need work).

A Life of Conversion

The very name of the sacrament, Penance, means conversion or change. It implies that the sacrament is more than the mere confession of sins. It is an opportunity to discover ways to change and undergo true conversion from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. There are times when we find that we are confessing the same sin over and over again because it has become deeply ingrained in our character. Although this can be frustrating, it does indicate a pattern of sinfulness and it provides us with an opportunity to explore the cause of sin. We thus can discover more about ourselves and make the necessary changes in our moral behavior.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation offers us the opportunity to discuss our weakness with another knowledgeable human being, but it also helps us to experience the reconciling grace of God's love who calls and helps us to grow closer to Him.

The priest then gives us a "penance," a prayer or action that has a two-fold purpose. It satisfies some of the injustice caused by the sin, but it also helps us to reverse the pattern of sinfulness in our lives. It is a concrete opportunity for us to express God's love in our lives as opposed to the patterns of selfishness which our sins involved. Part of the dialogue between the priest and ourselves might be the question of what an appropriate penance would be given the particular circumstances or our lives.

Prayer of the Penitent and the Absolution

We then express sorrow for our sins with a prayer which is now called the Prayer of the Penitent (but it is also known as the Act of Contrition). The new Rite of Penance provides ten different Prayers of the Penitent of varying lengths which are based upon Scripture. (We do not have the space in this brochure to print all ten, but they are generally available in parish reconciliation rooms). We are free to choose any one of these ten prayers, or even to make up a prayer on our own that expresses our sorrow for our sins.

The priest then extends his hand over us and gives us the absolution. We are reminded in this prayer that the forgiveness of sins is a part of the Church's ministry, a ministry founded on God the Father who reconciled the world through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is imparted upon us so that we can experience God's pardon and peace. It is through these words that we receive assurance that our sins are forgiven and we can truly enjoy and celebrate that we have been reconciled to God and neighbor.

Proclamation and Praise and Dismissal

The Rite of Penance concludes with a very simple praise to God with the priest saying, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." The response to this greeting is, "His mercy endures forever." The priest then dismisses the penitent, bidding them to go in peace.

The above stated ritual obviously involves a bit more time and effort than some of the styles of confessing our sins that we used in the past, but the effort can be well worth our while. To experience the peace and joy of true reconciliation with God, neighbor, and even with one's self motivates us to celebrate this Sacrament as a true means to holiness.

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