Next weekend (June 6/7) we will begin allowing small groups (10 persons or less) to attend weekend Masses. Call the parish office if you would like to add your family to the schedule. We will continue to live-stream Sunday Mass on Facebook from St. Mary's at 8 AM.
  
Mass on Sunday, June 7, will be live-streamed on  Facebook at 8 AM.  Confessions during this COVID-19 Pandemic began Saturday, May 9. See Schedule and Instructions Here.
 

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The Lion's Roar

America, a weekly magazine produced by the Society of Jesus, asked its readers what they miss about the church. I will share here some of the answers. And I will have more for next week.

I miss coming into church right before Mass: the cool scented air, the quiet, the colors streaming in from the windows and the smiles of friends. This may be an odd thing to miss but it is a few minutes of changing from world time to God time, of feeling my muscles relax, my breath slow down and my mind open to Jesus. (Mary Witucki; Easton, Pa.)

Everything I took for granted. Daily Mass after I drop my daughter off at school. Lighting candles for the sick (and sometimes paying for them!). Hearing a favorite hymn, and trying to sing it. Hearing Fathers Vince, Junior or Adam nailing a homily. Seeing the same 99-year-old man, with cane, genuflecting until his right knee hits the floor—and seeing him painfully getting up. Going out of my way to shake a hand at the sign of peace. Seeing others at Mass, whether 20 or 300, and knowing that despite our doubts...we are part of a 2,000-year tradition. The taste of a Communion wafer. Criticizing, in my head, the dude who leaves after Communion...and then feeling like a jerk because I don’t know his story. (Thomas Brzozowski; Somerdale, N.J.)

I really miss just being able to walk into church when I am feeling anxious or scared and sitting in silence during adoration or before Mass starts. I always feel Christ’s reassuring presence in sacred space and I have been missing that. (Ursula Newcomb; Toledo, Ohio)

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It is a beautiful and praiseworthy tradition to recite an act of spiritual communion when one is unable, for whatever reason, to receive Holy Communion. Below is an act of spiritual communion composed by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri.
 
My Jesus,  I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.  I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.  Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.  I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You.  Never permit me to be separated from You.  Amen.

 
Today’s passage from the Gospel According to John tells us that Jesus said to his disciples, As the Father has sent me, so I send you. [ 20:21b].  In the previous verses, Jesus twice said, Peace be with you as he saw their fear that the Jewish enemies of Jesus would be after them, too.

What did Jesus send them to do?  Well, the first thing we see is that they are to forgive and retain sins.  Notice: forgive and retain.  We probably don’t think very often of the fact that when priests hear confessions, they can not only forgive people’s sin, but also retain (i.e., deny forgiveness) when it is appropriate.  This may scare people about going to confession, but we need to see what it’s all about.

No priest, at least none whom I have ever encountered in my life, would refuse forgiveness to anyone who approaches the sacrament of Reconciliation with the exception that the person deliberately intends to commit the sin again.  Confession is not like erasing the blackboard (or the white board, I guess, in these days) so that you can write on it again.

Of course, when I go to confession with sorrow in my heart and a true intention to do everything I can to avoid the sin in the future, I know from experience that I can easily commit the sin again if I get careless and put myself in the situation where I know that I have consistently sinned before.  If I truly intend to avoid the sin in the future, I won’t enter what we traditionally call an “occasion of sin” except for a serious and necessary reason.

Another reason why a priest would refuse forgiveness for a sin would be if the person were coming to the priest not for forgiveness, but to make sure the priest could not reveal something about him or her.  I don’t think any priest would reveal something about a person that he heard in confession but couldn’t forgive.  That would give the impression that the priest was violating the seal of confession.  If a priest suspected that someone was coming to confession only to keep the priest quiet about something, the priest would say, “I will not hear your confession.  You’ll have to go to someone else.”  These are rare occasions.  In my 56+ years as a priest, I have never had to do that.

The point of all this is that the priest cannot refuse forgiveness just because he feels like it.  I know of no priest who would enjoy having to refuse forgiveness.  He would plead with the one confessing to be sorry for his/her sin and make a firm intention to avoid it in the future.  As long as there is a sincere intention, that’s all we need to grant forgiveness.

Some people don’t go to confession because they would feel embarrassed. Join the crowd!  We priests, including the Pope, must have our sins forgiven by another priest, and sometimes we can be very embarrassed. It’s no secret that priests are not perfectly holy, even when we’re not doing terrible things.

Forgiveness through confession is a proclamation of God’s faithful and unchangeable love for us, even when we are unfaithful and changeable in our relationship with him.  It’s one of the joys of the priesthood to be the instrument through which God lifts the burden of sin and guilt from his people.

Remember, Fr Ariel and I are now making confessions available on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  Don’t live with guilt and discouragement. Bring it to Christ.

• Mass on Sunday, June 7, will be live-streamed on  Facebook at 8 AM.
• Anchor: Episode 8 - Visit with our priests this Thursday, June 4, on Facebook at 11:30 AM.
• Confessions during this COVID-19 Pandemic began Saturday, May 9. Download Schedule and Instructions by clicking here.

 

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IMPORTANT MESSAGES FROM BISHOP DAVID J. MALLOY

** Bishop Malloy Announces Plan to Reopen Churches for Public Mass **

Bishop Malloy has issued a new statement on May 13 about plans, procedures and restrictions for opening churches within the Diocese of Rockford.

Letter from Bishop Malloy and Executive Summary for reopening churches

** STATEMENT UPDATED AS OF 8:00 AM, 4/9/2020 **

Bishop Malloy has issued a new statement extending dispensation past Easter.

Bishop Malloy's Dispensation Statement

To comply with Vatican and state guidance about group gatherings during this time of pandemic, Bishop David Malloy has cancelled all in-person Masses and other prayer gatherings in the Rockford Diocese until further notice. 

Diocesan Cancellations AND Postponements

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