Subtitle: One bizarre Penance service
From St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hamlin:
Just a reminder: You still need to make a regular oral, individual Confession in order to be forgiven your mortal sins. Writing down your sins on a piece of paper and setting it on fire without even showing it to a priest will not accomplish this.
Tags: Progressive Drivel
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They must have a Liturgy committee there.
Communal Penance services are harmful because they diminish individual accountability.
I know of many people who think a Communal Penance Service takes the place of individual confession. Some haven’t been to individual confession for years. This one, in particular, is trying too hard to be poetic. When I went “on Cursillo” (which overall was a great weekend), we did something similarly dopey. They had us pick up rocks on the beach and think about how we had failed God. We then threw the rocks into the ocean so we could “throw away” things that weighed us down. I get the symbolism, but the whole thing felt a little forced and cheesy. I felt the weekend tried to capitalize on heightened emotions brought on by the retreat experience. Again, I’m glad I made the retreat, but there were some aspects that my personality found….uncomfortable.
Just go to confession (and I’m speaking to myself as much as anyone else)!