SIGN OF THE CROSS
Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday Vigil: 4:00pm
Sunday: 7:30am, 9:00am 10:30am (Live-stream), 12:00 Noon (Traditional Latin Mass), and 5:00pm
Weekday Mass Schedule (in Saint Joseph’s Chapel)
Monday through Friday: 8:00am, 11:00am
Saturday: 8:00am
Eucharistic Adoration
Weekly Adoration
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday from 12:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday from 12:00pm – 8:00pm
Confession
- Friday (except First Friday): 11:30 AM to 12 Noon
- Thursday before 1st Friday: 11:30 AM to 12 Noon
- Saturday: 11:30 AM to 12 Noon and 3:00 PM to 3:45 PM
Making a good confession
+ EXAMINE your conscience.
+ Be SINCERELY SORRY for your sins.
+ CONFESS your sins to a priest.
+ RESOLVE to amend your life.
+ Do the PENANCE the priest assigns.
+ TRY TO BE FREE OF DISTRACTIONS
When in the confession line, you really should clear yourself of all possible distractions. If you can, leave your cell phone in your car. You don’t want to be checking Facebook, the score of the game, or the Pizza Hut menu. You want to be distraction free in order to examine your conscience more thoroughly, consider the ways the Holy Spirit wants to work in and through you, and how to best make a sincere and fully contrite confession.
+ SLOW DOWN AND TAKE YOUR TIME
Don’t rush the process. Appreciate being in line, even if it lasts a while. When it’s your turn, reverently make the sign of the cross, reigniting your confidence in the work of the cross, recommitting to your baptismal promises, and fully trusting that when you exit the confessional you are entirely forgiven. Take your time to go through your sins and don’t forget to mention the things you’ve not done, like pray, forgive, be merciful, etc. Take your time and allow yourself to fully take in the greatness of this privileged Sacrament.
+ DON’T BE DEFENSIVE
Sometimes you might get a priest who takes the confessional as their opportunity to teach, others desire to be encouraging, and still others will persist with questions. Every priest is different, but they are all trying to help you complete your confession, receive absolution, and sin no more. This might require a bit of understanding on your part, and holy patience, too. Whatever you do, remain humble, and listen to what the priest is attempting to tell you. Don’t get defensive.
+ DON’T LOOK FOR PRAISE
You might not do this, but then again, you might not realize the subtle ways in which you do seek praises. You might name your sins, but preface and/or conclude them with the things you did right. You might be using complex theological words, interrupt the priest to supplement his advice, or offer a better quote you have in mind. The best offering you can make of yourself is the offering of the centurion: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you . . .” Stay humble. Period. Anything that rings of praise, don’t. Instead, find a way to praise others.
+ BE SPECIFIC
Along the same lines as slowing down and taking your time, you want to take the time you need to be specific about your sins. What caused you to sin? Is there a time of day [this sin] happens? Is there a common thread to your giving in to temptation? It will be more painful to confess strictly to looking at pornography than to just confess to looking at women with lust. It might be more painful, yes, but it will benefit your soul to practice humility in a more specific confession. This honesty will grant you courage, self-integrity, discipline, and more. Don’t dance around the issue—confess exactly what you did. Sin is a disease, and a disease cannot be removed until it is properly identified.
+ LEAVE OTHERS OUT OF IT
General and simple rule: don’t bring others into your confession. Don’t confess the sins of others in order to make yours look less damaging, or to offer evidence of how [this sin] might not be your fault. Just don’t do it.
+ ABSOLUTION IS COMPLETE AND FINAL
Lastly, you must have zero doubts about the finality of your absolution. Those sins are buried. Dead. They’re never coming back. Ever. So don’t think about them for a single moment longer. The work of the cross is unconditional that way—any other objection is an objection to the authority of Christ, so don’t do it. Have confidence in the graces given to you as a newly confessed soul, and be confident in the power of the Sacrament over the realms of darkness.
Shaun Mcafee, The National Catholic Register, September 6, 2017
Examination of Conscience
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS:
1. I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD. YOU SHALL NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.
Do I give God time every day in prayer? Do I seek to love Him with my whole heart? Have I been involved with superstitious practices (horoscopes or ouija boards) or have I been involved with the occult? Do I seek to surrender myself to God’s Word as taught by the Church? Have I ever received Communion in the state of mortal sin? Have I ever deliberately told a lie in Confession or have I withheld a mortal sin from the priest in Confession?
2. YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN.
Have I used God’s name in vain: lightly or carelessly? Have I been angry with God? Have I wished evil upon any other person? Have I insulted a sacred person or abused a sacred object?
3. REMEMBER TO KEEP HOLY THE LORD’S DAY.
Have I deliberately missed Mass on Sundays or Holy Days of Obligation? Have I not kept Sunday as a family day and a day of rest? Do I do needless work on Sunday? Do I make others work on Sunday?
4. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.
Do I honor and obey my parents? Have I neglected my duties to my spouse and children? Have I given my family good religious example? Do I try to bring peace into my home life? Do I care for my aged and infirm relatives? Do I respect my elders? Do I respect my pastor, bishop, and the Pope?
5. YOU SHALL NOT KILL.
Have I had an abortion or encouraged anyone to have an abortion? Have I physically harmed anyone? Have I abused alcohol or drugs? Did I give scandal to anyone, thereby leading them into sin? Have I been angry or resentful? Have I harbored hatred in my heart? Have I been sterilized for reasons of birth control? Have I encouraged or condoned sterilization?
6. YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
Have I been faithful to my marriage vows, in thought and action? Have I engaged in any sexual activity before marriage or outside of marriage? Have I used any method of contraception or artificial birth control? Has each sexual act in my marriage been open to the transmission of new life? Have I respected all members of the opposite sex, or have I thought of other people as objects? Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity? Do I seek to be pure in my thoughts, words and actions? Am I careful to dress modestly, so as not to tempt others? Have I been guilty of masturbation with myself.
7. YOU SHALL NOT STEAL.
Have I stolen what is not mine? Have I returned or made restitution for what I have stolen? Do I waste time at work, school or at home? Do I gamble excessively, thereby denying my family of their needs? Do I pay my debts promptly? Do I seek to share what I have with the poor?
8. YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS.
Have I lied? Have I gossiped? Have I harmed someone’s reputation? Have I spoken behind someone else’s back? Am I critical, negative, or uncharitable in my thoughts of others? Do I keep secret what should be kept confidential?
9. YOU SHALL NOT DESIRE YOUR NEIGHBORS WIFE.
Have I consented to impure thoughts? Have I caused them by impure television, movies, books, magazines or internet? Do I pray at once to banish impure thoughts and temptations? Do I listen to, or engage in, impure conversations or jokes?
10. YOU SHALL NOT DESIRE YOUR NEIGHBORS GOODS.
Am I jealous of what other people have? Do I envy other people’s families or possessions? Am I greedy or selfish? Are material possessions the purpose of my life? Do I trust that God will care for all of my material and spiritual needs?
AN ACT OF CONTRITION
“O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all My love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen.”
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