Day 39: 2/8/13 - Use The Saint Augustine's Prayer Book to Prepare for Reconciliation

Day 39: 2/8/13 - Use The Saint Augustine's Prayer Book to Prepare for Reconciliation
New Thing- Cataloging my sins using the Saint Augustine's Prayer Book to prepare for the Rite of Reconciliation   
Inspiration: Confession      
Time: About an hour                     
Bottom Line: O Lord...that is humbling.

Reflection: As many of you know, I am in the process of working on my doctorate at Drew University. My thesis is dealing with Reconciliation, both as a theological concept and the Rite (which is also known as private confession). I believe that the great gift that Jesus gave us on the cross was to reconcile all of creation back to God, thus we are called, to live resurrected lives that are free from the pain of being out of relationship with Him. Here is what St. Paul says about this concept:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. - 2 Cor. 5:17-20

In other words, because of Christ's sacrifice and his bringing us into union with God, we have become new creations--reconciled back to God--and we are thus called to be his ambassadors of this reconciling love to the world. In fact, our Catechism tells us that the mission of the church lives into this ambassadorship by "restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."

So, this is where the Rite of Reconciliation comes into the project. This Rite also goes by the name of "Private Confession" which has a bit of a bad rap because of the guilt and shame that has been associated with it over the years. However, my thesis contends that the true joy of this blessing is that once a person has confessed their sins and heard those comforting words "you are forgiven" from the priest, they are again able to live into that hope of being a new creation in a full and holistic way. It is an invitation to peace, joy, and action.

I am going to to be teaching a class on this invitation to "new creation living" on Tuesday nights during Lent at St. David's (info and registration found here.) if you are interested in putting all this theory into practice. 

Now a confession of my own: it has been years since I have made a private one-on-one confession and I am planing on remedying that on Sunday (stay tuned for that post) to get ready for Lent and to hear confessions myself. The last time I did it, I prepared for it by simply making the list of the things I had done that I felt I needed to confess, but this time I used the Saint Augustine's Prayer Book which is a classic book of devotions for members of the Episcopal Church. This little book is full of prayers and meditations to help a person prepare and give thanks for the sacraments of the church including a VERY comprehensive catalogue of sin. I have to say that I was amazed at how helpful it was as well as being humbling. Helpful because it gave some vocabulary to problems that had been nagging at me but I didn't know how to express. Humbling because...well I was making a catalog of my sins. However, I do feel ready to make my confession. Actually, I would say I am looking forward to laying these burdens down and picking up joy and peace.