When did they change confession?

In "What is a Sacrament? New Wine, Old Wineskins," (Religion Teacher's Journal, Februray 2007) Sr. Linda Gaupin writes:

Catechists and teachers must be people who themselves have been transformed by sacraments and who live the sacramental life. It also goes without saying that they know the meaning of sacrament as set forth in the revised sacramental rites of the church. In my ministry of forming catechists it is not uncommon to find catechists who are unaware that the ritual forms of reconciliation have changed from “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”

Apparently she was right about the amount of formation we still need to do. Ever since the article appeared, she has been getting e-mails from catechists (and from DREs and priests!) asking when the sacrament of reconciliation changed. Here is her response:

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The sacrament was revised following the Second Vatican Council. It was published in Latin in 1973 for the universal Church and issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship. Pope Paul VI approved the revised Rite of Penance and ordered it to replace "the pertinent titles of the Roman Ritual hitherto in use." The decree issuing the rite states: "The Rite in its Latin original is to come into force as soon as it is published. Anything the contrary notwithstanding" [Decree].

The English translation of the revised Rite of Penance was approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1975. The Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy [BCL] recommended that the new rite not be introduced until adequate catechesis had been done for clergy and the faithful. To allow time for a full and authentic catechesis, they delayed the effective mandatory date for implementation until the First Sunday of Lent, 1977. To facilitate this catechesis the BCL prepared The Rite of Penance: Study Book Edition. This book contained the entire official rite plus introductory material to acquaint priests and religious educators with the richness of the meaning of the sacrament as well as the renewal of penance in the church.

In the revised Rite of Penance there are three sacramental forms.

1. The first is entitled the "Rite of Reconciliation of Individual Penitents." This is the sacramental ritual that is to be used between a penitent and the priest.
2. The second sacramental form is used when several pentitents are present. It is entitled "Rite for Reconciliation of Several Penitents with General Confession and Absolution." This ritual form can be found in the Rite of Penance.
3. The third sacramental form is entitled "Rite for Reconciliation of Several Penitents with General Confession and Absolution." This form is generally not permitted for use in the United States.

I trust this helps. You may want to contact your diocesan director in the worship office of your diocese if you need further assistance with this.

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Click here for a list of resources on the sacrament of reconciliation.

Preaching from Triduum to Triduum

In Whole Community Liturgy, I suggest that parish leaders develop a year-long preaching plan based on how they plan to lead parish growth and faith development in the coming year. The best time to start this plan is in the weeks just after the Triduum. That way, parish growth and development can be measured from Triduum to Triduum. The parish should ask itself how it has grown in faith and holiness in the last year. The homilies throughout the year should be the inspiration for keeping the parish on track with investing its talents.

For a simple outline for a preaching planning retreat, see the Center for Excellence in Preaching site. The day is based on a Bible-preaching (vs. liturgical preaching) model, and is designed for a single person. However, it could easily be adapted to a liturgically oriented team retreat.

DaVigil Code, March issue

This clue appeared in the March 2007 issue of Today’s Parish Minister.

If you Google “Caesar’s Cipher,” you will learn that a Caesar's cipher is a simple substitution cipher in which each letter in the original message is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions further down the alphabet. For example, with a shift of 3, A would be replaced by D, B would become E, and so on. The method is named after Julius Caesar, who used it to communicate with his generals.

If you go to the Web address listed in the clue, you will find a “calculator” that will decipher the message for you, using a shift of 23 (“encrypted three and twenty more provides the key”). Type the encrypted text into the “Shift cipher” box, set the decryption key to 23, and click on “decrypt.” You will get the following unencrypted text:

Saints awake the victory’s won.
Death has fled trod down by light.
Angels hymn the sheep now one.
Ransomed on this holy night.

What is the church’s hidden treasure? If you haven’t figured out yet, all will be revealed in the next issue of Today’s Parish Minister.

RCIA resources

In the March 2007 issue of Today's Parish Minister, Paul Turner writes:

To receive a previously baptized Christian into the church in the same ceremony when catechumens are being baptized blurs the nature of the Easter Vigil.

He provides some supporting resources below that back up his statement.

What do you think?

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Johnson, Maxwell E. “Let’s Stop Receiving ‘Converts’ at Easter.” In Worship: Rites, Feasts, and Reflections. Portland: Pastoral Press, 2004, 83–94.

Journey to the Fullness of Life. Washington DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2000.

Oakham, Ronald A., ed. One at the Table: The Reception of Baptized Christians. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1995.

Sieverding, Dale. The Reception of Baptized Christians: A History and Evaluation. Forum Essays 7. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2001.

Turner, Paul. When Other Christians Become Catholic. Pueblo. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2007.

The Fire of Faith

The choir huddled together near a wood pile stacked higher than Jane’s head. “Holy Week,” she thought. “Yeah, right. What’s so holy about it?” Nothing had gone right since it started. She loved her sixth grade Sunday school class, but the only part of the Passion play they got right last Sunday was the mob scene. Not exactly a dramatic stretch for most of them.

Then she and Tom had had a fight about…what? She couldn’t remember. But he should know better. rehearsals for the kids, planning Easter dinner, trying to get caught up at work (and failing) so she could take Good Friday off. “Wouldn’t a good husband cut you a little slack?” she thought.

And then John had been a real pain all day. “Mom, do we have to go to Easter Vigil?” he whined. “It’s going to be cold.” He had begged her to join the seasonal choir with him. “It would be a lenten family thing,” he explained. “Like Father Thompson told us to do on Ash Wednesday.” She knew it had much more to do with Mary Beth Richards in the soprano section than Father Thompson, but whatever gets the kid to church.

Her own voice, unused to regular singing, was raw from practicing and from the rainy weather. The seminarian intern—-what was he thinking?—-had talked Father Thompson into starting the Vigil outside this year. John stood sullen at her side, alternating between pouting and stealing glances at Mary Beth.

“Dear friends in Christ,” said Father Thompson, “on this most holy night….” John stifled a yawn. Jane elbowed him, and gave him her best “DON’T YOU DARE” look. “We ask this through Christ our Lord.” Boom! Boom! Boom! Someone was pounding a drum. A torch appeared, snaking its way above the heads of the crowd.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Jane realized they were too close to the wood and began to inch backward. The torch bearer tossed the flame into the wood. Woosh! Flames lit up the night. Boom! Boom! Boom!

Jane grabbed her son’s arm to pull him back, but he wouldn’t move. He stared into the flame, his face glowing in the fire light. “Wow!” he said to the fire. “Is that what God’s like?”

“Holy Week,” thought Jane. “Holy indeed.”

Genius Tool

We posted earlier about mind maps. Here is a short video of Tony Buzan, the inventor of the concept, discussing how to use mind maps to boost your thinking power.


[via Slacker Manager]

The Sixth Station

When she saw him fall, she tried to call out but could only whisper. Her throat was raw and her voice spent from earlier shouting his name against the mob. “Barabbas,” they had yelled in unison, drowning out her frantic pleas.

Then Simon called out to the guards. They pulled him from the crowd to help, and she tried to follow. The guards pushed her back, and she stumbled and fell, just as he had.

From the dirt, she remembered this was how she had first encountered him. She had been trying to reach through another crowd, crawling on the ground, intending only to touch his sandal or his cloak. Somehow, in all the jostling, the people pressing round him, he’d known her touch. He turned and looked directly at her, down in the dirt, her tunic stained and caked. She was embarrassed, ashamed to be in public, ashamed for him to see. She buried her head in her hands and wept. But he would not take his eyes off her. He knelt down and cupped her chin in his hand. She looked up and saw his face.

It was unlike any face she’d ever seen. It was ordinary and plain and unremarkable. And at the same time it was completely extraordinary, a most remarkable face. She couldn’t stop staring. Long after he’d gone, she would still see his face as if it were inches in front of her, looking back, deep into her soul.

As Simon shouldered some of the weight off of him, he turned toward her once again. The pain she saw was too much for her. Blood dripped into his eyes and off his chin; sweat and tears mixed with the dirt of the road, making his face into a gruesome mask. And still somehow, it was his face, that face that had stared back at her on the road to Capernaum. He reached out to help her up, but the guards lashed him and pushed him forward. The crowd cheered and urged him on with taunts and jeers.

She tore a piece from her new tunic, the first she’d had in years that was not stained with her own blood, and charged after the mob. She slipped under the guard’s arm as he tried to stop her and reached out to touch him once again. But this time, standing, face to face. She wanted him to see—see what she’d become because of him. Healed. Whole.

She took the unstained scrap torn from her dress and wiped the blood and dirt from his face, praying she could stop the pain for him as he had for her. As the guards pushed the procession onward, she held the bloodstained rag in her hands and wept, still seeing his face, inches in front of her.