Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Confession at Spirit of Vatican II

Good morning,

I noticed that Fr. Tim accidentally left out of his announcements on Sunday that we will begin to offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation, also called in this country Sacrament of Penance or Confession. Since this has not been offered here at Spirit of Vatican II Church before, I will have a class for anyone who wants to know how this is done. The class will be Tonight at 7 in the Parish Hall. Then the first time for this wonderful Sacrament will be Saturday from 3 pm to 4:30 pm. I hope we can do this each week. Since this Church building does not have any Confessional, I will put a screen in the Meditation Chamber so there can be some privacy if people wish it. I am looking forward to this wonderful Sacrament and hope many parishioners take advantage of this opportunity to become reconciled to our forgiving God and escape from the burden of their sins.

Pax vobiscum,

Fr. Juno

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Father Juno,

I think you have been slightly minsinformed. In fact we have had a sacrament of repentence here at SOV2 in the past. This is a "corporate" sacrament whereby we come before the god-spirit and display remorse for our collective sins: intolerance, abusing the environment, lack of compassion and empathy, failure to grow in charity, offenses against women, minorities, and historical oppressed groups, the crusades, the inquisition, the atrocities and war crimes of Popes Pius XI and XII, Paul VI shortsightedness, the failures of John Paul II and Benedict XVI to embrace liberation theology, failure to understand "dissident" theologians, the persecution of Galileo, and our fear to stand up against the masculo-fascist society and dogmatic elements in the historic Church.

We're then asked to write down one of our own failures on a piece of paper. For example when we neglect to live in the god-spirit, our failure to own our sexuality and explore its dimensions to its fullest potential and other sins against self. It's important to recognize the sins you commit against yourself and forgive yourself so that you can start to really love yourself. As Father Tim says, we have to learn to love ourselves before we can effectively love others. We then burn these pieces of paper and mix the ashes with water and potting soil and go outside to plant a new gingko tree. It's a beautiful litany.

Let's be church together!

Maryann McGronk (MM)

Anonymous said...

Fr. Juno, I'll come to Confession, and I know some others who will, too.

~ ADT

Anonymous said...

Juno,
With all due respect, I should not have to hide my face in shame for being HUMAN!!!
I am not hiding behind some screen to tell you I threw away an aluminum can and a two plastic garbage bags and laughed at a homeless man.
Besides, like MM said, we have already been forgiven by that service a while back.
So, thanks but no thanks.
P.S. I think that second paragraph counts for confession today anyways, right??
Go ahead and give me ad solution or what have you.
Thanks.
-Britnee

Warren said...

I think that the words of absolution need to be toned down. I suggest the following:

May the merciful being of superabundant equanamity, extend his doubtless already plenary benevolence, upon you, in recognition of the divinity you already possess, may you come to forgive yourself, grant yourself absolution, and find new ways to explore all aspects of your personality, including your unique sexuality, within a framework of personal freedom that works for you. Amen.

Jeff Miller said...

Individual confession is not in the spirit of V2. Communal services are. Best if you have everybody write a sin on a piece of paper and then burn them all.

I am sure now that I have told you of this you will repent of the "traditional" understanding of this sacrament.

Che' Lovell said...

Jeff,

You mean burn the pieces of paper right? I mean it would be bad to burn everybody! We wouldn't do that at SOV2, that sounds like one of those rigid traditionalist churches I have been hearing so much about.

Of course if they are KofC albinos from Opus Dei we might in fact have to burn them because they kill so many chickens.

Che'

Cathy_of_Alex said...

I'm dismayed to see Confession even being talked about at all. Didn't VII do away with that? Isn't it enough for me to just lie on my bed with my cat and tell my sins to God in my head? Why do I need Tim or Juno at all (by the way, call no man Father and authoritarian titles are so 1950s)

Peace Out.

swissmiss said...

Dudes:

Can't we just have a few brewskis, jam a little bit and forget about all that stuff? We are all righteous as long as we are kind to Mother Earth. Organic food makes for organic souls.

Catch ya on the flip flop.

Anonymous said...

This "sacrament of confession" is optional, right? After all, Jesus already paid the full price for our sins, and we're all cool with the big guy.

We don't have to go separately, do we? Can't we dispense with the screens and have a big "group confession" like they do on Oprah?

Anonymous said...

What's a sacrament?
Rob

Anonymous said...

It sounds a lot like the word harassment... What are you trying to get people involved in Fr. Juno?

Rob

Fr. V said...

3 to 4:30? Don't you have other responsibilites? Holy cow. If you have that kind of time, maybe you can come over and help coach football or something, I'm swamped over here!

Well, I hope it works out just the same.