Celebrating Reconciliation in Advent

A communal penance service (following the second rite of the post-conciliar revision—reconciliation of several penitents with individual confession and absolution) is a common Advent feature of Roman Catholic parishes in the United States. No. 22 of the Rite of Penance offers this brief account:

“Communal celebration shows more clearly the ecclesial nature of penance. The faithful listen together to the word of God, which as it proclaims his mercy invites them to conversion; at the same time they examine the conformity of their lives with that word of God and help each other through common prayer. After confessing and being absolved individually, all join in praising God together for his wonderful deeds on behalf of the people he has gained for himself through the blood of his Son.”

Observers have noted some practical concerns about this rite. Chief among these concerns are the number of penitents relative to the number of priests and the tendency among penitents to leave as soon as they have had their individual confession.

If the ratio of penitents to priests is too high, both penitents and priests may feel pressured to be swift (if not downright hasty) in their conversation and prayer. While being overly scrupulous and anxious about each individual sin is not healthy for this sacrament, I think that reducing confession of sin to a one general category of sin (e.g., “anger”) without elaboration is also not healthy for the sacrament.

If for any reason a significant number of penitents leaves before all have had the opportunity to confess individually, there is damage done not only to the ecclesial quality of the sacrament but also damage to the dynamic of worship of God. The anamnesis of God’s mercy and the extension of that mercy to each sinner by right ought to call forth from all gathered an expression of thanksgiving and praise. God’s forgiveness is always a gift and no gift is properly received unless the giver is thanked. The first rite of the sacrament (reconciliation of individual penitents) includes a proclamation of praise of God but this proclamation involving individual penitent and priest is omitted in the second rite and shifted to a shared proclamation after all have individually confessed.

What is the experience of the second rite of the sacrament of reconciliation in your parish? Do parishioners generally feel that there is sufficient time for each penitent? Do some penitents leave early? What strategies, if any, has your liturgy committee come up with to address these problems?

Timothy Brunk

Dr. Timothy Brunk is Associate Professor of Liturgical and Sacramental Theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University.  He holds a doctorate from Marquette University, a Master of Arts degree in pastoral studies from Seattle University, a Master of Arts in theology from Boston College, and a Bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.  He is the author of fifteen journal articles and two books, including The Sacraments and Consumer Culture (Liturgical Press, 2020), which the Catholic Media Association recognized at its annual meeting as the first-place winner in the category of books on the sacraments.

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Comments

32 responses to “Celebrating Reconciliation in Advent”

  1. Todd Orbitz

    We generally have Confession 20 minutes before and after every single Mass. Also on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday nights for 2 hours.

    Hence, when we get to Lent and Advent, they simply add more times…. usually every night from 6:-7:30 throughout Advent and Lent. Also, they take out a billboard for our parish each Lent, letting people know the “light is on” . The Priests talk of many people who return after years during Advent/Lent.

    In terms of the Second Rite? I have seen it only once in our Parish. It was sparsely attended, probably because of the other normal hours for Confession.

    Reply
  2. Terri Miyamoto

    My experience has been that if the individual confessions last more than 20 minutes or,so, everyone’s gone by the time they’re over. I almost never managed to get enough priests, and enough relatively private stations, to finish that quickly. And there is always someone who hangs back to the end because they expect a longer time with the priest. I think the expectation of having closing rites after individual confessions just doesn’t work. I haven’t been anyplace that tries to make it work in years.

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  3. Katherine Christensen

    People do leave after individual confessions; we don’t even try to do a formal closing, haven’t in years, even for a First Reconciliation. And when we have just one priest – as may be the case near Christmas and Easter – it does take time. I don’t think people feel rushed, though, given the amount of time some individuals do take.

    Ordinarily we have confessions for about twenty minutes before each of the weekend Masses. That time is not heavily used, and not only due to a loss of the culture of confession. It’s frankly awkward, between the placement of our reconciliation space and the music ministers (design flaw in the new building!). And for any of us who are involved in preparing for the Mass, it’s hard to be immobilized, in line for confession, or to have the mental clear space for it.

    I don’t think our liturgy committee would even know where to start, in addressing the situation.

    Reply
  4. Bill deHaas

    Wonder if the focus should be on mercy as celebrated by the local community? Why this *confession obsession*? Is that really the primary focus? Is Advent about *confession* – would suggest that the sacrament of reconcilation has a number of actions – confession being only one action.
    Just asking?? (sorry, confession in this day and age e.g. sexual abuse, episcopal cover ups; financial irregularities, etc. impact what folks younger than 45 years old think and participate in)

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  5. Adam Booth, C.S.C.

    Like others, my experience is that most people have given up on doing any formal closing to these services. The only exception I can think to that was our penance services at the seminary. Parishes here help each other out (and university priests do their part too), so there are always plenty of confessors.

    I’m not sure I’m in general a huge fan of penance services (I’d never been to one before I entered seminary), but plenty of people seem to like them so I’m happy to keep on providing them. That might be why I don’t think we’re really losing too much by not having a formal conclusion.

    I think the operative understanding is that in penance services, we prepare for confessions together, then we go off and engage the sacrament. This isn’t how the rite envisages it, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. There’s value to coming together, being reminded that we’re not in this alone. There’s value to an opportunity for preaching about reconciliation in a dedicated context, and to a group of people walking together through an examination of conscience. And there’s probably something supportive about doing your penance with the body of Christ in the form of the people gathered tangibly present.

    Reply
  6. Rita Ferrone Avatar
    Rita Ferrone

    When I was in parish ministry, we made the ending work. (And believe me, it had never worked before.) First, the priests had to understand that the individual confessions were not a time of counseling in that setting. Then they flowed, for the most part.

    But we did something more, too, which really made a difference. We invited everyone to come up around the altar at the end. Once there, we sang a song of praise, were prayed over and dismissed.

    I think the connection of reconciliation with Eucharist is missing, and when it is restored — by that physical symbol of coming together close to one another around the Christ-center of the space (altar) — the communal nature of the event is no longer abstract, it becomes real. The difference was palpable. Folks were moved to tears. People came up to me for days afterwards, saying “This was the best reconciliation service I’ve ever been to in my life.”

    Scuttling back to your pews after individual confessions, putting your head down, and waiting for a lackluster dismissal does nothing for people. You have to make the conclusion of the rite something worth waiting for, and then people will not only do it, they will look forward to doing it. That’s my experience, anyway.

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  7. Scott Pluff

    With the priest shortage in southern Illinois, we are having trouble finding enough priests for reconciliation services. For our 300 school students, we have stopped doing penance services in Advent and Lent and gone to our two resident priests hearing their individual confessions spread over a couple weeks time. We still have separate communal celebrations of First Reconciliation and the general Lenten parish penance service, but those may be combined at some point in the future as well.

    The fewer priests available for these communal services lead to longer wait times for confession. I would find it impractical to have people stay for a final blessing if that means waiting an hour or longer for the conclusion.

    Reply
    1. Rita Ferrone Avatar
      Rita Ferrone

      @Scott Pluff:
      Isn’t it time for Rite III? Yet? Ever?

      Reply
      1. Scott Pluff

        @Rita Ferrone:
        I know Rite III has gone out of fashion, if it was ever in fashion. But the priest shortage may make it necessary. If you have one priest serving 2000 people, or 10,000 people in some areas of the country, how can he hear individual confessions from all? Or perhaps we could enable deacons to hear confessions and anoint the sick, but that’s a topic for another day.

      2. Paul Fell

        @Rita Ferrone:

        Here is the problem I see with Rite III.

        In many parishes with which I have experience, there is already a strong “get in, get out” mentality to Mass. Anything beyond Mass is not attended too well, and the longer the event, the poorer attendance is. Further, people seem reluctant to invest any additional effort beyond whatever requirements are necessary. When we have trimmed things down to encourage attendance at various events, the trimmed version becomes the new norm, until people get antsy with that format, at which point the event is trimmed again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

        If Rite III is ever used, I fear that a demand will develop for this format on a regular basis and it will be harder and harder to implement anything else. Since this Rite was apparently designed for use in circumstances where death may be forthcoming and no time was allowed for proper liturgical context, what would we be giving up in terms of the richness of the Sacrament by using this form all the time? Would this really serve the congregation in a meaningful way? Would this devolve the Sacrament into a purely utilitarian purpose? Since many things in the church seem to be heading toward utilitarianism, I worry about this approach and how it would damage people’s understanding of the Sacrament over time.

        I know the situation well in Scott Pluff’s neck of the woods. In a rural Diocese where priests are scarce, Rite III could become the de facto standard in a very short period of time, especially if the congregations start demanding something quicker and easier–get in, get out.

  8. Lee Bacchi

    I was so hoping that Pope Francis would authorize the third rite for the Year of Mercy. “General absolution” takes place in the context of a full liturgical rite (according to the ritual), so it’s hard to imagine it was meant only for emergency crowd situations – the Titanic, a plan going down, an impending nuclear attack, etc.

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  9. Lee Bacchi

    In one parish where I assist as a confessor, the people are invited tio stay for closing rites, and a good number of them do. I usually stay myself, unless there is an emergency at the hospital where I am a chaplain.

    Reply
  10. Lee Bacchi

    Rita Ferrone : @Scott Pluff: Isn’t it time for Rite III? Yet? Ever?

    See my #11. Yes, yes, yes, Rita, it is time, especially in this Jubilee Year of Mercy.

    Reply
  11. Paul Inwood

    Rite III still exists in a few places, where bishops have seen the pastoral wisdom of providing a gateway (and not an easy option if the service is designed well) for bringing people back to the sacrament. With the continuing decrease in the number of confessors available, and the facility to use Rite III where it would otherwise be impossible for people to receive the sacrament within a reasonable period of time, it would seem that the proposal that bishops be encouraged to permit Rite III during the Year of Mercy shortly before Christmas and Easter, if not more often, has some traction. See also http://www.thetablet.co.uk/letters/8/7514/general-absolution

    I would also point to my experience in the 1970s of very powerful celebrations of Rite III, which were in no way a cop-out but were extremely challenging while at the same time offering people the opportunity to “pass through the door”. If they had unresolved problems or serious sin, they were encouraged to see a priest subsequently. I recall the two priests in the parish where I ministered spending every evening seeing hordes of “absolved penitents” for weeks after a celebration of Rite III. These encounters often resulted in further sacramental absolution, and a return to the Church of many who had not felt able to come to Mass for years.

    Back in the day, there was also quite a lot of Rite IIb, where the confessors would hear the confessions but not give absolution. Everyone stayed in the church and, when the confessions were over, all the priests present would stand on the sanctuary step and together pronounce the words of absolution over all the penitents. The song of praise that followed would frequently be spectacular.

    That solved the problem of people leaving before the end in a different way from the one Rita described. It did not, though, solve the liturgical problem of having a communal rite that starts together but where the community is then fragmented as people scatter to individual confessions and may never reassemble as a worshipping body. That surely makes no sense, and supports the case for Rite III as a liturgical necessity and not merely a luxury for emergency use. As one liturgist put it, when John Paul II stated baldly that, although there were three rites of Penance available, Rite I was the only “proper” one (Misericordia Dei, 2002, para 1a, ramming home CCL 960), why on earth has the Church provided three different forms of the sacrament if only one of them is now deemed, thirty years later, to be the “sole and ordinary means” ?

    Reply
    1. Chuck Middendorf

      @Paul Inwood:
      Thanks for mentioning it–Back in the day, we also did something like “Rite 2B”. “2B” is how the pastor and I referred to it, in private.

      Back in the day, we also did “2B” within the setting of the Mass (gasp!) with the approval of the local bishop. (The bishop’s logic: both what Rita beautifully describes above. And “hey…we do all of the other sacraments during Mass!”) The Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation seemed written just for these occasions!

      I can’t help disagree with Paul Fell. I’ve been part of parishes were all 3 Forms of Penance have lived together, and have supported one another. If catechized well (and maybe that’s the crux of matter), we’d have people take advantage of all the various options presented to them (and maybe having a variety of I, II, and III to choose from is also the crux of the matter!).

      Reply
  12. Adam Booth, C.S.C.

    Rita Ferrone : But we did something more, too, which really made a difference. We invited everyone to come up around the altar at the end. Once there, we sang a song of praise, were prayed over and dismissed. I think the connection of reconciliation with Eucharist is missing, and when it is restored — by that physical symbol of coming together close to one another around the Christ-center of the space (altar) — the communal nature of the event is no longer abstract, it becomes real.

    I really like this. I do the same thing, for the same reason, at the end of baptisms outside of Mass: after the Ephphatha, I have everyone gather round the altar for the introduction to the Our Father (which explicitly connects baptism to confirmation and Eucharist) and the blessings.

    I’ve never come across “IIb,” and I have to say I’d be pretty uncomfortable with it as a confessor. After some confessions, the ‘piety confessions,’ it would be fine, but penance services often attract people who have been away from the sacrament for years and who bring something incredibly painful for them. I’d feel awful not being able to proclaim God’s mercy to them sacramentally right then and there in a personal way. I also realize that I, and other confessors, can’t always tell which of those two categories someone is in.

    Reply
    1. Paul Inwood

      @Adam Booth, C.S.C.:

      penance services often attract people who have been away from the sacrament for years and who bring something incredibly painful for them.

      While that may once have been true, I don’t think it is true any longer. The vast majority of those who come to Rite II services are those who either frequent Rite I from time to time or who come to Rite II once or twice a year and confess to a priest who does not know them. The ones carrying pain who have not been for years do not come because Rite III is no longer offered and because they do not want to go through the trauma of speaking to a priest, and certainly not a priest who knows them, until they know they are already forgiven through God’s mercy.

      Reply
  13. Paul Inwood

    For those unable to see the Tablet link in #14 above:

    General absolution
    10 December 2015

    I am grateful to Eamon Duffy for his beautiful explanation of the history and purpose of the opening of Holy Doors (“Inclusive entry, 5 December). He quotes Pope Francis in Misericordiae Vultus: the Holy Door “is a Door of Mercy, through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons and instils hope”. It is a potent symbol of the all-embracing and unconditional forgiveness of God, for which we all yearn.

    The “letter of the law” makes it difficult to enable the conditions required for General Absolution to be fulfilled, but surely this is a time for the Spirit to rule, rather than the letter. If permission for General Absolution was given by our bishops, it would be a huge boost for our people’s participation in the Year of Mercy and it would play a considerable part in restoring our belief in and practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

    The rite was permitted – briefly – in the 1970s, and my experience then was that, far from diminishing the frequenting of the Sacrament of Reconciliation on the traditional one-to-one basis, General Absolution actually encouraged people to seek that meeting with the Lord through the ministry of the priest.

    Pastoral practice tells me that people often need to be set free from the burden and guilt of sin before they can come to the fruitful experience of that face- to-face encounter with the merciful and forgiving Lord. I would love to see the symbolism of the Holy Door understood and offered in this way; I believe it would be warmly welcomed, not as a “quick fix” or easy option, but as the beginning of a true and life-giving encounter with our loving and forgiving Lord.

    To seek permission for General Absolution in this coming Year of Mercy would give a wonderful sign that the Church lives first and foremost by the Spirit and not by the sometimes dead letter of canon law.

    Crispian Hollis
    Bishop Emeritus of Portsmouth, Mells, Somerset

    Reply
  14. Rita Ferrone Avatar
    Rita Ferrone

    Interesting discussion, all around! Paul, I am interested to hear that some places do continue to use Rite III. I agree totally that it was written to be used, not only in dire situations, but in cases where the number of penitents is great. Period. Unfortunately, the whole reform of Penance was toothpaste stuffed back in the tube during John Paul II’s pontificate, with the results as you see. Not what I’d call a thriving practice or a thoroughly renewed one.

    In support of Adam Booth’s sensitivity, I would observe that the words of absolution are really not the time-consuming part of individual confessions in Rite II, although I agree that doing it communally can be elegant. How long does it take to pronounce the formula? I would estimate 10 seconds. The counseling and discussion (which some confessors won’t let go of) is what creates time lags.

    The post does not bring up this question about Advent Penance services, but I would like to ask a further question, about readings. One of the samples in the RP uses John the Baptist. But are there other, genuinely Advent-themed readings that people use? Are the eschatological readings from the Advent lectionary ever used? Are Isaiah’s prophecies ever used? This relates again to the link to Eucharist. Is the gesture of a blessing with water ever used? There are ritual elements in the samples given in the rite, but they are a bit sketchy and need to be filled out or adapted. For example, I would not use the water ritual during Lent… the cross veneration, yes. Advent is a bit different.

    Reply
  15. Adam Booth, C.S.C.

    The short answer to all of your questions in that last paragraph, Rita, is: yes. When I last put together an Advent Penance service, I used Isaiah 55. The service at a nearby parish I helped out at last night used part of Luke’s “little apocalypse,” (with a good homily that made connections that weren’t immediately obvious to me) and a couple of weeks ago I heard a John the Baptist text being used at another parish.

    Reply
  16. Katherine Christensen

    How many people under the age of about 55 have ever been exposed to Rite III, or even know it exists? I’m older than that, have lived in two countries, five states, 7+ parishes, and have never yet encountered it in use.

    Might any “trauma” of coming to confession, especially if the only priest available is someone you know, be more a matter of the casual assumption that everyone will do so face-to-face?

    Reply
    1. Chuck Middendorf

      @Katherine Christensen:
      I suspect it happens in a lot more places who never openly talk about it, nor would publicize it. (Imagine: “COME TO SAINT MARY’S: WE USE RITE III!”) I’ve encountered it all 3 states where I lived. Pastors who do it, do so quietly. The current hierarchy doesn’t like it, so better to do it and ask for forgiveness (hee hee), instead of permission; with a excuse for its need readily available (blizzards was a popular reason back in Minnesota).

      PS. I’m in my 30’s.

      Reply
      1. Paul Inwood

        @Chuck Middendorf:

        I think this is right. Anyone who noted Crispian Hollis circumspectly saying in his letter to The Tablet that Rite III flourished briefly in the 1970s may be amused to know that several priests in his former diocese were still using Rite III regularly right through the 1990s and 2000s. (A couple still are, to this day.) I am sure he knew about it, too.

        I think wise pastors have, as Chuck says, always been quietly using it under the radar. And I recall a Liturgy Commission meeting in Westminster in the early 1980s where Basil Hume was (unusually!) present and the topic of General Absolution came up. Hume, characteristically trenchant, said “No b*gger in Rome’s going to tell me how to run my diocese!” I also heard him say to a gathering of priests around the same time “Don’t ask me, or I’ll have to say No. Just get on and do it!” He knew how important it was in bringing people back to the Church.

  17. Rory Cooney

    I don’t really have anything very different to add. At my parish we do Penance Services in Advent and Lent. There is no attempt made any more to keep people there, even though my desire has been to structure a rite according to Rite II that is a celebration of God’s mercy even for people who don’t want necessary to celebrate the auricular confession. I think there are a number of problems. Rita points up a big one: priests don’t want to give up the counseling piece, and in fairness, regular users of the sacrament don’t want them to, either. And not to restate the obvious, but there are others. 1) There’s no cogent modern theology being preached (and, I think, understood by preachers) about grace and sin. Where there’s no perception of sin, there’s no need for reconciliation. In the breach, there is 2) the experience of eucharist as a reconciling event, which indeed it is – the “ordinary” celebration of reconciliation. The real tragedy is that everybody knows something’s wrong, we know we have competing allegiances and most of them are not life-giving, and we collaborate with huge social strategies of sin, but the sacrament of penance doesn’t seem big enough to deal with those, even to address them. Baptismal spirituality is all over that stuff, conversion is all over that stuff, but preaching isn’t. The sacrament of penance (it seems to me, in practice) isn’t. Like other sacraments, it sort of replaced actual reconciliation with ritual action. INSTEAD of community, baptism. INSTEAD of solidarity, eucharist. INSTEAD of conversion, penance. You all know that’s shorthand, of course, but I hope you see what I mean. Until that gets addressed, we’ll have a holy year that wants to shrivel mercy down to size and constrict it into something a priest does, rather than something God does with and without the whole church.
    But yeah. We keep doing rite II like crazy people, doing the same things over and over expecting something to change. We’re doing it tonight. See you there? 🙂

    Reply
    1. Tim Brunk

      @Rory Cooney:
      Rory, you make some fine points about the larger cultural and theological context into which my questions about Rite II are / were dropped. In particular, your remarks about the tendency to allow ritual to substitute for reality reminds of a line from Aidan Kavanagh: “A harvest festival will not make crop failure go away.” (Elements of Rite, p. 30). I am also reminded of Amos’ insistence that justice ought to roll down like water. Ritual always runs the risk of hypocrisy. If it is any comfort to us late-moderns, at least we can say that this risk has been around for as long as there has been ritual–but we still have to address it in our theology, our parishes, and ourselves.

      Reply
  18. Scott Pluff

    I’ve heard of a parish up north that does a Rite III service every Lent. Of course this parish also celebrates a polka Mass under the beer tent during the parish picnic, with people drinking beer and dancing during Mass. How’s that for an innovation?

    Reply
    1. Paul Inwood

      @Scott Pluff:

      Of course this parish also celebrates a polka Mass under the beer tent during the parish picnic, with people drinking beer and dancing during Mass.

      They’d probably need Rite III right after that!

      Reply
  19. Karl Liam Saur

    In the US, it seems Rite III may have endured longer in the Midwest and perhaps West than the Northeast or South (other than Florida).

    Bad versions of Rite II, however, did have longer legs. (Like: confess only one sin and no more. Sure, make penitents feel like they are parasites on valuable priest time….)

    Because of Trent, the chance of having deacons as deacons administer Penance or the Sacrament of The Sick is illusory at best. Simplex priests, however….

    Reply
  20. Alan Johnson

    We have them Advent and Lent on a deanery basis. That way there are enough priests. Even so the church is far from full.
    The individual confessions take as long as they take accompanied by gentle singing (Taize etc) and instrumental music. People who find it time wasting don’t come a second time, I guess.
    People don’t leave early, because the agreed penance from all priests is that the penitents should stay and sing the final hymn – it usually raises the roof.

    Reply
    1. Paul Inwood

      @Alan Johnson:

      People don’t leave early, because the agreed penance from all priests is that the penitents should stay and sing the final hymn

      That is hilarious! Wonder why no one thought of it before!

      Reply
    2. Rita Ferrone Avatar
      Rita Ferrone

      @Alan Johnson:
      “the agreed penance from all priests is that the penitents should stay and sing the final hymn”

      This does take the cake!

      Reply
  21. Karl Liam Saur

    https://beerwhiskeyandbrotherhood.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/hairy-eyeball-jb.jpg?w=630

    Reply

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