The

Sacrament of
Penance
“God wants to forgive our
sins”
 Penance is a sacrament instituted by Christ
 in which forgiveness of sins committed after baptism is granted
through the priest's absolution
 to those who with true sorrow confess their sins, and promise to
satisfy for the same.
 Jesus has a immense love for us;
 he desires to heals us and to restore us to union with Him and with
the Father.
 It is a great gift for us to be able to meet Jesus and to be forgiven
by Him in the Sacrament of Penance.
 A young man who lived in the town of Capernaum when Jesus was teaching
there.
 He never saw Jesus, he never heard His teachings.
 He never could go outside to play with his friends.
 He was in bed all day long
 He was paralyzed. He could not walk.
 We can imagine that he like to listen to the people talking on the street as they
passed by his window
 One morning he heard may excited voices as people were hurrying by:
 “Jesus is here! He will heal the sick! Let’s hurry, we want to see Jesus!”
 Could you imagine,
 maybe the paralyzed young man called out, “Mother, mother”
 And His mother came to se what he wanted.
 May be He said, “Mother, I want to see Jesus! Please, help me to get to Him.”
 Probably His mother didn’t know what to do, and She said,
 “How can I do that?
 You can’t walk, and I not strong enough to carry you.” She was sad.
 The young’s friends came by. They were strong.
 In those days, beds were made of straw woven into mats.
 They lifted the whole bed with the young man in it and carried him
to the house were Jesus was.
 The house was filled with people. Event the doorway was
crowded.
 The young man’s friends asked, “Please let us in, our friend needs
help.” But no one moved.
 What could they do? They were thinking hard.
 Then they have an idea: they went to the other side of the house
 There were stairs leading up to the flat roof of the house.
 It was hard to climb the steps and carry their friend on his bed, but
they made it.
 Inside the house, everyone was listening so intently to Jesus that
no one noticed what was happening.
 On the roof, the young man’s friends began working hard to remove
some of the tiles until they made a large opening in the roof.
 Then they tied a strong rope to both ends of the bed,
 and slowly and carefully lowered him through the ceiling in to the
room, right in front of Jesus.
 Can you imagine how surprised everyone was?
 Jesus was so please to see the faith of this young man.
 He looked at him and said, “Son, have courage. Your sins are
forgiven.”
 Some of the people who heard this became very upset.
 They thought to themselves, “How can He forgive sins? Only God
can forgive sins.”
 Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said. “So that you may
know that I have power to forgive sins on earth…”
 He turned to paralyzed man and said, “I say to you, get up, take up
your mat and go home.”
 When Jesus said this, the young man who had not been able to
move at all, got up at once!
 He untied the ropes and lifted his bed on his shoulder and walked
home.
 Can you imagine how happy he was, and how very grateful he was
to Jesus for the rest of his life!?
 Everyone there was so surprised. They said, “We have never seen
anything like this!”
 Let me ask you the same question Jesus asked the crowd before He
healed the young man.
 “Which is easier to say: Your sins are forgiven, or get up and walk?
 What would you say? For Jesus, both were easy because He is God.
 Let us thing about this: how many years so you think the young man
might have lived after he was healed?
 If he lived a very long life, it probably was not more than 125 years.
 How long will he live in heave if he has sanctifying grace in his soul? He
will live forever!
 What happened to the young man when Jesus said to him, “Your sins are
forgiven”?
 When Jesus said this, the young man’s sins were gone!
 And he receive sanctifying grace!
 To receive sanctifying grace was a much greater gift from Jesus, even
greater from Jesus, even greater than being able to walk.
 Jesus wants to give us this great gift of forgiveness, too!
 He wants to forgive our sins.
 How do we know?
 We know because Jesus gave power to the apostles, to forgive sins
in His Name.
 and through them to the Bishops and priests,
 Jesus told His apostles: “Whose sins you forgive, they are
forgiven.”
 The priest does not know your thought as Jesus does.
 The priest cannot see your soul, the way Jesus saw the soul and the
faith of that young man.
 That is why you have to tell the priest your sins to be forgiven.
 When the priest says, “Your sins are forgiven”, you receive
a) sanctifying grace from Jesus,
b) and you receive the gift of a good conscience
c) and peace.
 Do you think the priest would ever tell anyone what you told him
in confession? NO! He would never do that.
 When he became a priest, he made a solemn promise never to tell
what he heard in confession.
 It would be a very serious and grave sin for a priest to break the seal
of confession.
 It is only between you and God.

 There were priests who died rather than say what they heard in
confession.
 One of those priests was Saint John Nepomuk.
 The queen of Prague went to confession to Father John.
 Later the King called for Father and commanded, “Tell me at once what
the Queen told you in confession!”
 Father John answered, “My King, I cannot tell you.”
 The King said, “If you tell me, I will give you a lot of money.”
 Father John shook his head and said, “I cannot tell you, not for anything
on earth.”
 Then the King shouted, “Take him to the prison! That will teach him to
talk!”
 They took Father John to prison, but he did not change his mind.
 The king ordered him to be punished.
 They beat him, kicked him, and slapped him in the face,
 but Father John would not break the sacred trust, the seal of confession.
 He did not say a word.
 Finally, they killed him and carried his body to the river during
the night.
 They tied a big stone around his feet and pushed his body into the
river.
 God showed everyone how pleased He was with this saintly
priest.
 Father John who died rather than to speak a bout what he had
heard in confession.
 Instead of sinking down into the river, Father John’s body
floated on the top of the water.
 It was shining like a brilliant jewel! All the people went to the river
to see this miracle.
 They love and admired Father John’s courage and prayed, asking
Father John to help them to be courageous too.
 Father John’s Nepomuk is a Saint in heaven; people have
honored him for hundreds of years, even this day.
 Saint John Nepmuk was born in 1340 and died on March 20,
1393.
 We should never be afraid to make a sincere confession. Jesus
already knows our sins.
 He is very ready to forgive us when we are sorry.
 So let us prepare well, so we may receive this great gift of
forgiveness form Jesus.
 It is good to go to confession often, because we strengthen our
love and friendship with God and others.
 Then we are sure that our soul is clean from sin and filled with
grace.
 You don’t wait until your shirt is very dirty and torn before you put
on a new shirt, do you?
 In the same way, you don’t have to wait until you have a mortal sin
on your soul to go to confession.
 God knows you and sees your soul. But the priest cannot see your soul.
 How can he be sure that you are telling him the truth? He can’t not be sure.
 If you lie to the priest in confession, you do not cheat the priest, or God. You cheat
yourself.
 If someone decided not to confess a mortal sin, he committed,
 instead of receiving forgiveness for his sins, he makes it worse,
 He commits another mortal sin called a “Sacrilege” because he mistreated the
Sacrament of Penance. This is how precious this sacrament is.
 What if you sincerely forgot to tell the priest a serious sin you committed,
would that be a sacrilege?
 No, not if you really forgot.
 If you really forget to tell a mortal sin and remember it later, the next time you go
to confession, tell that sin to the priest.
 Be truthful in confession; ask Jesus to help you to trust in His love, and to see yourself
truthfully.
 In the Sacrament of reconciliation you will come to love God more and more, and
you will love others, too.
 In it you’ll receive God’s Grace in your soul by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
 Thank Jesus often
 “Dear Jesus, thank you for giving us the sacrament of Penance,
thank you that I can confess my sins to the priest receive forgiveness
from You.”
 Make up your mind to receive the Sacrament of Penance as soon as
possible.
 The Sacrament of forgiveness is called the sacrament of Penance.
 The word “penance” come form Latin and means “showing
sorrow”, being sorry for our sins.
 This Sacrament is also called the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
which means, “making up” or “being friends again.”
 It is also called the Sacrament of Forgiveness because when our
sins are forgiven, we receive the pardon and peace of Jesus.
 The gift of forgiveness: peace, joy, reconciliation, etc.