healing

After 30 years--a return to confession

After 30 years--a return to confession

“The Lord is kind and merciful” ~ Psalm 103.  It had been 30 years since my last Confession.  I knew I needed to return to Confession but I was afraid.  Where would I start?  It had been so long. But because I was also attending Mass and receiving the Eucharist I knew I needed to make a decision soon.  I knew it was wrong to continue to receive the Eucharist after being away from Confession for so long.  I was searching for the right opportunity but my fear of going back to the sacrament was very strong.

Through an act of providence, I believe, I was invited to join a group of Catholics from various parishes in Rochester to travel to Irene, South Dakota….

The Lord will tell you what to say, if you ask

The Lord will tell you what to say, if you ask

A few years ago when preparing to receive the sacrament of reconciliation I ask the Lord to help me prepare my heart and soul for Him and if I had any sins that I did not recognize that the Holy Spirit would reveal them. I prayed in the morning at home, in the car, and entering the church but nothing seem to be coming to my mind.

As I walked up the stairs to the church I stopped suddenly and the Lord showed me something from my life. 

I come from a broken home...and Confession and the Eucharist have helped me heal

I come from a broken home...and Confession and the Eucharist have helped me heal

Since my conversion to the Catholic faith, I have learned that there is a powerful but often subtle connection between the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  Over the last several years, it seems like every important step forward in my interior life has happened through the rich relationship that exists between these two sacraments.

 I come from a broken home, have made a lot of bad choices in my life, and have struggled with addictions and compulsive behaviors that I used to medicate all of the unprocessed pain and undressed wounds in my life.  But, in the years since I have become Catholic, regular visits to the confessional and prayer before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament have gently but firmly accelerated the healing process and brought me to a level of freedom I could not have imagined was possible.