Reconcile Our Relationship with God
As we are entering the 4th week of Lent, have you prepared yourself for Easter? Is there any improvement that we make during this Lent period? Have you tried your best to be a good child of God? Do you try to spend more time with Him in the midst of your business during this period?
Easter is a glorious occasion where we celebrate Jesus' everlasting love for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection. Jesus died because of our sins and He wants to cleanse us from sin. But, as a human being, we are so weak and easily tempted to do sins. Many times, consciously or unconsciously, we go against His will. Every time we sin, we lash Jesus' body and nail Him and put ourselves further and further from Him. But Jesus will always be there waiting for us to come back to Him and He is ready to embrace us with his everlasting love, just as the father who welcomes back the prodigal son.
That's why we need to reconcile our relationship with God through the sacrament of reconciliation. We might think that confessing our sins in our personal prayer is enough, but actually it is not. We need to receive the sacrament of reconciliation because it is the 'special celebration' where God welcomes us, His children, that choose to come back to His side.
During the confession, the priest is sitting in the name of Christ, thus when he says "...I absolve you,.." it is actually God himself that forgives us. Every sin, even the most private and personal sin, has implications to the larger community around us, thus there is no such things as a private sins.
When we confess our sin, the most crucial part is when we examine our conscience. That is the moment when we reflect and recall things that we have done against God's will. For this part, I suggest that you read the list of questions for the examination of conscience that may help your personal reflection (usually contained in the later part of the Novena book).
After we reconcile ourselves with God, we are ready to welcome the Easter as a new person who leave our past sins behind. Hopefully before this Easter all of us have come home as his children who have wholeheartedly said the act of contrition:
Easter is a glorious occasion where we celebrate Jesus' everlasting love for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection. Jesus died because of our sins and He wants to cleanse us from sin. But, as a human being, we are so weak and easily tempted to do sins. Many times, consciously or unconsciously, we go against His will. Every time we sin, we lash Jesus' body and nail Him and put ourselves further and further from Him. But Jesus will always be there waiting for us to come back to Him and He is ready to embrace us with his everlasting love, just as the father who welcomes back the prodigal son.
That's why we need to reconcile our relationship with God through the sacrament of reconciliation. We might think that confessing our sins in our personal prayer is enough, but actually it is not. We need to receive the sacrament of reconciliation because it is the 'special celebration' where God welcomes us, His children, that choose to come back to His side.
During the confession, the priest is sitting in the name of Christ, thus when he says "...I absolve you,.." it is actually God himself that forgives us. Every sin, even the most private and personal sin, has implications to the larger community around us, thus there is no such things as a private sins.
When we confess our sin, the most crucial part is when we examine our conscience. That is the moment when we reflect and recall things that we have done against God's will. For this part, I suggest that you read the list of questions for the examination of conscience that may help your personal reflection (usually contained in the later part of the Novena book).
After we reconcile ourselves with God, we are ready to welcome the Easter as a new person who leave our past sins behind. Hopefully before this Easter all of us have come home as his children who have wholeheartedly said the act of contrition:
"O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You,
and I detest all my sins, because they deserve your just punishment.
But most of all, because they offend You, my God, who are all good
and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace,
to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen."
God Bless,
Randy Williams
and I detest all my sins, because they deserve your just punishment.
But most of all, because they offend You, my God, who are all good
and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace,
to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen."
God Bless,
Randy Williams
posted by Randy | 3/18/2007
1 Comments:
Thank you Randy for the very important reminder. Continue to pray for each and every one of us so that this Lent may truly be a unique experience.
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