Starting on Feb. 23, the first Monday of Lent, every church in the Paterson Diocese in New Jersey opens its doors on Monday evenings during Lent to allow Catholics to receive God’s healing love and forgiveness through the sacrament of reconciliation. Priests will be available every Monday during Lent, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., through March 30, as part of the diocesan initiative Welcome Home to Healing.
Now in its 18th year in the diocese, Welcome Home to Healing was established to help draw the faithful closer to a call of conversion as they prepare for Holy Week and Easter. In the past, many parishes had to keep the church doors open longer than 8:30 p.m. to accommodate the large number of penitents waiting in line to confess their sins.
Because parishes will be open at the same time on Monday evenings, faithful who may not feel comfortable going to confession to a priest they know in their parish can visit any church of their choice. Also, each parish will continue to hold its regularly scheduled reconciliation times, and many parishes may host their own individual Lenten reconciliation services and activities.
In his column posted on Feb. 17 on BeaconNJ.org, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney promotes Welcome Home to Healing among the diocesan faithful.
Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
“I strongly encourage you and ask you to invite others to give this sacrament ‘another chance’ — if it’s been a while, a few years or many, many years; if you have had a bad experience in the past, please know that our loving and merciful God is ‘waiting for you’ to approach this sacrament so that, after confessing your sins and asking for forgiveness, you can hear those beautiful words, ‘I absolve you from your sins. Go in Peace, your sins are forgiven,’” Bishop Sweeney writes in his column.
Many parishes have ordered Welcome Home to Healing lawn signs in English and/or Spanish to alert their faithful and passersby about the initiative. Father Jared Brogan, director of the diocesan Worship Office, is coordinating the initiative in the Church of Paterson.
“The Welcome Home to Healing initiative is an opportunity for all people, whether they have been away from the Church or not, to be reconciled with God and the Church through the sacrament of reconciliation as we prepare to celebrate the great mystery of our faith, the Paschal Mystery, the suffering, dying and resurrection of Jesus which was the ultimate victory over sin,” Father Brogan said.
At St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester, N.J., priests there hear confessions for up to two hours, mostly of people from neighboring parishes. The Morris County parish follows up Welcome Home to Healing by offering confessions on Monday evenings throughout the year, said Father Nicholas Bozza, pastor.
“The closer we get to God, the more we notice our sins. We are able to confess and repent. Whatever we confess, God gives us pointed grace to help us with our sins, whether they be anger, infidelity, lying, or being judgmental,” Father Bozza said. “God’s forgiveness brings us an intense, deep, and satisfying peace — more than this world can offer.”
[To learn more about the Welcome Home to Healing Initiative in the Diocese of Paterson, go to www.rcdop.org and click on Welcome Home to Healing on the home page.]
