Prepared by: GROUP 4
 Commonly called the Sacrament of
Confession and Penance
 One of the seven sacraments of the Catholic
Church and sacred mysteries of the
Orthodoxy in which faithful obtain Divine
mercy for the sins committed against God and
the neighbor and are reconciled with the
community of the Church ( Vatican II, Lumen
Gentium)
Minister: Priest
Form:
Priest: “I absolve you of your sins in
the name of the Father, and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit”
Matter: Sins; Contrition and confession;
priestly words of absolution
 Confession- stresses the importance of
acknowledging our sins while asking for
God’s forgiving grace
 Sacrament of Penance- emphasize rather
the whole process of conversion, including
contrition, repentance and satisfaction
 Sacrament of Reconciliation- brings out the
inner relationship between being reconciled
with God and with our neighbor.
 The
Sacrament of Reconciliation is a sacrament in
which the priest, as the agent of God, forgives sins
committed after Baptism, when the sinner is
heartily sorry for them, sincerely confesses them,
and is willing to make satisfaction for them.
 By his death on the Cross, Jesus Christ redeemed
man from sin and from the consequences of his sin,
especially from the eternal death that is sin’s due.
 So it is not surprising that on the very day he rose
from the dead, Jesus instituted the sacrament by
which men’s sins could be forgiven.
 Jesus knew well that many of us would forget
our brave baptismal promises and commit grave
sins after our Baptism. He knew that many of us
would lose the grace, the sharing-in-God’s-ownlife which came to us in Baptism.
 Since God’s mercy is infinite and unwearying, it
seems inevitable that he would provide a second
chance (and a third and a fourth and a
hundredth if necessary) for those who might
relapse into sin.
 Reconciling of man to God
If a person has cut himself off from God by a
grave and deliberate act of disobedience against God
(by mortal sin), the sacrament of Reconciliation
reunites the soul to God; sanctifying grace is restored
to the soul
 Wipes out the eternal punishment which is the
inevitable consequence of mortal sin. It also remits
at least part of the temporal punishment due to sin.
 Restores to us the merits of our past good works if
these have been lost by mortal sin.
To repent and ask for God’s forgiveness and that grace can be
restored and resist sins.
The sin itself (or sins) is forgiven. Sins disappear from the
soul with the coming of sanctifying grace.
When received without any mortal sin on the soul, the
sacrament of Reconciliation imparts to the soul an increase in
sanctifying grace. This means that there is a deepening and
strengthening of that divine-life-shared by which the soul is united
to God.
And always, any venial sins which the penitent may have
committed and for which he is truly sorry are forgiven. These are
the lesser and more common sins which do not cut us off from God
but still hinder, like clouds across the sun, the full flow of his grace
to the soul.

 He
must be contrite (or in other words
sorry for his sins)
 He must confess those sins fully, in kind
and in number.
 He must be willing to do penance and
make amends for his sins
A good rule of the thumb is to go
once per month
To go to confession even if we
are aware of venial sin only
Frequently during lent
Lent-40 days penitential season
before Easter
“PUT AWAY YOUR
MISDEEDS: CEASE DOING
EVIL; LEARN TO DO GOOD.
MAKE JUSTICE YOUR AIM;
REDRESSED THE
WRONGED.”
ISAIAH 1:16