{"id":26513,"date":"2011-07-05T14:18:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T18:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/07\/examination-of-conscience-for\/"},"modified":"2014-06-05T10:07:17","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T14:07:17","slug":"examination-of-conscience-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/07\/examination-of-conscience-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Examination of Conscience for priests"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"confession-6.jpg\"<\/a>The Congregation for Clergy published an examination of conscience entitled “<\/i>The Priest, Minister of Divine Mercy: An Aid for Confessors and Spiritual Directors”\u00a0which hopes to reinvigorate the priest’s spiritual paternity<\/strong> by a recovery of the sacrament of Confession by penitent and confessor. Here is yet another aspect of the new evangelization called for by Blessed John Paul II and now Pope Benedict: the renewal of priests and people through Reconciliation. <\/i><\/p>\n

“The Priest, Minister of Divine Mercy”\u00a0is the fruit of Pope Benedict’s Year for Priests<\/strong>. As Cardinal Piacenza notes, this “is a measure of authentic faith in the saving action of God<\/span> which shows itself more clearly in the power of grace than in human strategic or pastoral initiatives which sometimes overlook this essential truth.” A sobering statement for one who works in a parish.<\/i><\/p>\n

On the surface it seems that this text is exclusively for the clergy. Don’t be fooled into putting it aside. \u00a0I would recommend it to the laity as well. Be acquainted to the sacrament of Confession, the theology and practice of the Church and what the Church expects of her clergy. We have to help each other see Christ’s work among through concrete manifestation of Divine Mercy.<\/i><\/p>\n

Consider the ideas found in the introduction (the link to the full text is at the end):<\/i><\/p>\n

“It is necessary\u00a0to return to the confessional as a place in which to\u00a0celebrate the\u00a0Sacrament of Reconciliation, but also as a place in which\u00a0“to dwell” more\u00a0often, so that the faithful may \u00a0and compassion, advice and comfort, feel\u00a0that they are loved and understood by God and\u00a0experience the presence of\u00a0Divine Mercy beside the Real Presence in\u00a0the Eucharist”.<\/p>\n

With these words, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI addressed\u00a0confessors during the recent Year for Priests, indicating to each one\u00a0present the importance and therefore the apostolic urgency of rediscovering the Sacrament of Reconciliation, both from their viewpoint\u00a0of penitents as well as that of ministers.\u00a0Along with the daily celebration of the Eucharist, the availability\u00a0of the priest to hear sacramental confessions, to welcome penitents,\u00a0and to accompany them spiritually when they so request, is the real\u00a0measure of a priest’s pastoral charity. By their availability, priests give\u00a0joyful witness and in a certain sense take upon themselves their true\u00a0identity, rede\ufb01ned in the Sacrament of Holy Orders and not reducible\u00a0to a mere functionality.\u00a0The priest is a minister, which is to say that he is at the same time\u00a0both a servant and a prudent dispenser of Divine Mercy. To him is\u00a0entrusted the serious responsibility “to forgive or to retain sins” (cf.\u00a0John 20: 23).<\/p>\n

\"Rembrandt<\/a><\/p>\n

Through him, and through the power of the Spirit who is\u00a0the Lord and Giver of Life, the faithful are able to experience today in\u00a0the Church the joy of the Prodigal Son, who after a life of sin returned\u00a0to his father’s house in the manner of a servant but was welcomed\u00a0with the dignity of a son.\u00a0Whenever a confessor is available, sooner or later a penitent will\u00a0arrive. And if the confessor continues to make himself available, even\u00a0stubbornly so, sooner or later many penitents will arrive!\u00a0Our rediscovery of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, both as penitents and as ministers, is a measure of authentic faith in the saving action of God which shows itself more clearly in the power of grace\u00a0than in human strategic or pastoral initiatives which sometimes overlook this essential truth.<\/p>\n

Responding to the appeal of the Holy Father and expressing his\u00a0profound intent, this aid is intended as yet another fruit of the Year\u00a0for Priests, to be a helpful instrument for the ongoing formation of\u00a0the Clergy and an aid in rediscovering the indispensible value of the\u00a0Sacrament of Reconciliation and of Spiritual Direction.\u00a0The new evangelization and the ongoing renewal of the Church,\u00a0semper reformanda, draw their life blood from the true sancti\ufb01cation of\u00a0each member of the Church. It is clear that sancti\ufb01 cation must precede both evangelization and renewal, for it lays claim to and forms\u00a0the necessary precondition for every effective apostolic effort, as well\u00a0as for the reform of the Clergy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the generous celebration of the Sacrament of Divine Mercy,\u00a0each priest is called to experience for himself the uniqueness and the\u00a0indispensability of the ministry entrusted to him. Such an experience\u00a0will help him to avoid the “ever-changing sense of identity” which so\u00a0often marks the existence of some priests. Instead, his experience will\u00a0cultivate within himself that sense of wonder which \ufb01 lls his heart, for\u00a0through no merit of his own he is called by God, in the Church, to\u00a0break the Eucharistic Bread and to forgive the sins of others.<\/p>\n

Here’s “The Priest, Minister of Divine Mercy: An Aid for Confessors and spiritual Directors”:\u00a0Examination of Conscience for confessors and spiritual directors.pdf<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Congregation for Clergy published an examination of conscience entitled “The Priest, Minister of Divine Mercy: An Aid for Confessors and Spiritual Directors”\u00a0which hopes to reinvigorate the priest’s spiritual paternity by a recovery of the sacrament of Confession by penitent and confessor. Here is yet another aspect of the new evangelization called for by Blessed … Continue reading Examination of Conscience for priests<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[2330,2204,2376,2205,1818,2468,2036,32104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30894,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26513\/revisions\/30894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}