We Are in the First Week of Lent
The season of Lent has begun — forty days set apart for fasting, prayer, and penance. It is a sacred invitation to examine the soul honestly and return to God with the whole heart.
Confessing Our Sins
Sin is a reality of daily life, and that is precisely why confession is not optional — it is essential. Going to confession every five to six weeks has become a spiritual discipline, but during Lent, the frequency increases, because the desire is to remain close to God and walk in His grace.
Daily Mass is a profound gift, and it does help cleanse the soul of venial sin. Venial sins are indeed forgiven by receiving Communion and by the other intercessory prayers of Mass. That said, the confessional remains irreplaceable. The regular confession of venial sins helps form the conscience, fight against evil tendencies, and allow Christ to heal and strengthen the soul for progress in the life of the Spirit. There is no such thing as a “free pass” into heaven — but there is a merciful Father who never tires of welcoming His children home.
My Pew
There is an unspoken rhythm to Sunday Mass. For those who attend faithfully every week, the same spot, the same kneeler, the same corner of sacred space becomes part of how the soul prepares to meet God. So when someone else is already sitting there, the disruption is real — and the irritation that follows is understandable.
Is it wrong to feel that way? Honestly — yes and no. There is nothing sinful about having a preference or a routine. The frustration becomes a problem only when it pulls the heart away from worship rather than toward it. The woman and her son are also God’s children, made in His image, present at Mass for reasons only God fully knows. Perhaps the boy on his phone needs someone to pray for him. Perhaps the mother is exhausted and this Mass is all she has left to hold onto.
The invitation here is not to abandon the routine — it is to let the irritation become a prayer. Offer it. Let God do something with it.
My Parking Spot
Moving to another pew is not quite as simple as it sounds. Mike drops off at the front of the church before parking in his usual spot — his assigned parking space, naturally. By the time he walks in, he knows exactly where to find his seat. A change of pew would require a change of coordinates for the whole operation. For now, the routine holds.
Offering It Up to God
This Lent, the resolution is to offer these small annoyances to the Lord. The irritation of a displaced seat, the distraction of a child on a phone — these are small things. And small things, surrendered to God with intention, become something beautiful. The spirit will no longer be broken by something as ordinary as a different face in the usual pew. Offer it. Let it go. Let it become a prayer.
The Sacrament of Penance
Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest? The answer goes deeper than tradition or obligation — it goes straight to the nature of sin itself.
Sin is, before all else, an offense against God — a rupture of communion with Him. At the same time, it damages communion with the Church. For this reason, conversion entails both God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, expressed and accomplished liturgically through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes clear what confession does for the soul on even the most human level:
“The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others. Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible.” — CCC 1455
And for those who confess with honesty and a complete heart, the mercy of God is boundless: when Christ’s faithful strive to confess all the sins that they can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for pardon.
Indeed, the regular confession of venial sins helps form the conscience, fight against evil tendencies, and allow Christ to heal and strengthen the soul for progress in the life of the Spirit.
This is not a burden. It is a gift — one of the most merciful gifts Christ left His Church.
Two Confessions
During COVID, there were two back-to-back confessions — and the story behind them is worth telling.
It had been announced that one of the parish’s regular priests was being transferred to another parish. Because of COVID, confessions were held in the open area of the church, with room dividers standing in for the privacy of the confessional.
Having gone to confession the day prior with Priest A, the decision was made to return the following day — not primarily to confess sins, but to thank Priest B, the priest who was leaving. There was no other way to express that gratitude. Everyone was keeping their distance, and the room dividers created the only real opportunity for a private moment.
As the dividers were being arranged, a careful eye watched to determine which priest had gone behind which partition. Priest B appeared to be behind one of them. From the back of the church, the line formed quickly — and the wait began.
This was not a confession of sins. It was a confession of gratitude.
The Same Sin
When the moment finally came, the familiar prayer was offered: Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was yesterday. The room divider concealed the priest’s face — but not his voice. It was not Priest B. It was Priest A.
“You confessed these sins yesterday,” he said.
In a flash of panic, the reply came: “I know. I can’t get past them.”
It was a lie. Said in the confessional. To a priest.
Priest B was never found. The goodbye never happened. But the next morning, Mass came — and with it, Communion. And that small white lie, a venial sin born of embarrassment in the most sacred of spaces, was met with the mercy of Christ in the Eucharist.
The Pew Report
The numbers are sobering. According to Pew Research Center data, of self-identified Catholics, only 23% reported a sacramental confession at least once a year. Despite the Church’s requirement that Catholics go to confession at least once a year — with more frequent confession highly encouraged — polling has consistently shown that over half of U.S. Catholics go to confession either less than once a year or not at all.
This parish is a different story. The lines for confession speak for themselves. On the evening of February 23rd, with several priests hearing confessions, more than 100 souls came forward to receive the mercy of God in the Sacrament of Penance. That is not a statistic — that is a revival.
Finding Freedom
There is nothing more beautiful than walking out of the confessional absolved. The soul is purified. The mind is cleared. The weight that the Enemy had been carrying on behalf of the sinner is gone — and communion with Christ is restored.
So if you are Catholic: go to confession.
God already knows every failure. There is nothing hidden from Him — not one dark corner, not one shameful moment. But the Enemy knows them too, and he uses them differently. Where God offers mercy, the Enemy offers chains — whispering daily that the sin is too great, that it cannot be forgiven, that return is impossible.
It is a lie. Of those who go to confession regularly, about two-thirds report “a clear sense of forgiveness, reassurance of God’s mercy, and interior peace.” The God of the universe is not waiting to condemn — He is waiting to welcome.
This is what Lent is for: to look honestly within, to name what is there, and to purge the dust and shadows so that the soul can see the Son clearly once more.
My Prayer
Dear Lord, forgive the transgressions of Your children. Purify our souls and heal the deep wounds of our past sins. May we enter this Lent with full confidence in Your mercy and Your desire to restore us.
For those who have stayed away from the confessional, soften their hearts and free them. Remind them that You are not a judge waiting to condemn, but a Father running to meet them.
Free us all. Amen.