As we all make our preparations for Christmas this month, let’s add one more thing to the to-do list: Go to confession. One of the best ways to observe Advent, a season of reflection, is to examine the conscience, make things right and head into the new year with a clean heart and renewed hope.
The Catechism instructs that Catholics should go to confession at least once per year. But a 2008 study from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that nearly three-quarters of Catholics never participate in the sacrament of reconciliation. Researchers estimate that about eighty percent of Catholics regularly went to confession just a few generations ago. What happened?
The steep drop-off can partly be blamed on faulty or limited understanding of the sacrament. Some believe they should confess directly to God without institutional interventions from the Church.
Others fear the judgment of the priest or doubt the promise of anonymity. Some have had a bad experience in the confessional. Some think it’s pointless to say the same sins over and over. If you watch a lot of crime dramas, you might think that the confessional is only for murderers, not regular workaday sinners.
For me, some of those excuses ring true, but frequently my resistance to confession is more practical. I don’t like waiting in line. It stresses me out if the line is moving slowly and I might not make it in before Mass. I don’t quite know what to say. I don’t want to confess to a priest I don’t like or one who knows me very well. (I know it shouldn’t matter.)
In all honesty, the key to returning to a more regular practice of celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation is finding the right time and place to do it — something convenient for my schedule where I’m mostly a stranger and where I won’t have to wait in a long line.
Luckily, the season of Advent offers abundant opportunities for a quick, painless and anonymous confession. Every deanery is hosting one or more “communal” celebrations of penance, which provide long and unhurried stretches of time for individual confessions. These services often include instructions for how to make a confession, so they are particularly welcoming to those who have not been in a long time. Priests rejoice, by the way, at the penitent who returns after 10 or 20 years or more!
Most parishes are offering additional times or extended hours for confession. These opportunities have been collated into one big list at www.archlou.org/christmas-2024. And the “Bulletin Board” section of The Record is always full of special liturgies and events that include time for confession.
Peruse these opportunities and find one that works for your schedule. Use it as a springboard to return to this sacrament more frequently. Make reconciliation part of your monthly routine.
In this new year, let’s not think of penance as an annual obligation, but rather as a regular part of the Christian life, full of joy and hope.
Dr. Karen Shadle is director of the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Office of Worship.
