Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore will have a special opportunity to go to confession on a Day of Reconciliation scheduled for March 19.
Parishes throughout the region will have extended hours for confession that day in anticipation of Easter. Click here for a list of confession times, included in the archdiocesan Lenten calendar.
Auxiliary Bishop Adam J. Parker said the idea for the Day of Reconciliation came from a group of pastors who gather as a council for Archbishop William E. Lori.
“We realize that this sacrament cleanses us of our sins,” Bishop Parker said, “which allows us to grow in our relationship with the Lord.”
In a pastoral exhortation on the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, the U.S. bishops wrote that God “wants to grant forgiveness and the grace to live a renewed life in him.”
“In this sacrament, he prepares us to receive him free from serious sin, with a lively faith, earnest hope, and sacrificial love in the Eucharist,” they said. “The church sees confession as so important that she requires that every Catholic go at least once a year.”
The church also encourages frequent confession “in order to grow closer to Christ Jesus and his body, the church,” they said. “By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we seek forgiveness and repentance, let go of patterns of sin, grow in the life of virtue and witness to a joyful conversion.”
To learn more about the sacrament of reconciliation, listen to Father Brian Nolan from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg speak on the topic on Catholic Baltimore below.
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