10 Welcome Home Part 2 The Church has a special Sacrament for saying; “You are forgiven. Welcome home!” It is the Sacrament of Penance. We call it Reconciliation. Reconciliation is a big word, but it simply means bringing together to make peace. When something is broken, the pieces need to be brought together before it can be mended. ——&When the friendship between two people is broken, they have to be brought together i to sit down and talk until they can be reconciled. Sometimes they need help to do that. In the story of the younger son, there was no peace until the father and son came together and were reconciled. Sometimes we need to say sorry for hurting others and we need to be reconciled with God's People.= In the Sacrament of Penance | celebrate God’s ferake in the community of the Church. We pray together one: read a story from the Bible. It is a story of God's Are oy Ve, Ss We think about times we have not lived as well as we could. We pray the “Our Father” together asking for God's forgiveness and help. Then | meet with the priest individually. He welcomes me ] and | make the Sign of the Cross.| talk about anything | have done wrong and the times | have hurt other people. The priest helps by listening to me and giving me some ideas for living a good life. He gives me a prayer to say after | leave him. This is called a penance. Then | tell God how sorry | am and | promise to live a good life. The priest then holds his hand over my head and says a prayer that gives me God's forgiveness. This is called the prayer of absolution. | say, “Amen!” He says, “Go in peace!” That means God has forgiven me and | am reconciled with all God's People.