When I sit down to write these letters, checking the date; it amazes me how quickly times passes. Wednesday of this week will be the beginning of a new month, September! Again, I ask the question—Where does time go!

Monday, September 6, will be Labor Day. I’ve always thought of it as kind of the "unofficial end of summer." It used to be that school resumed the day after. But now, of course, school begins so much earlier. Having spent 22 years as a teacher and principal, I’m not all that convinced that all of this extra time means a whole lot.

"In our day," school began the day after Labor Day and ended in early June. In addition to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a very brief break at Easter (Good Friday and Easter Monday), we also got the holy days off. Toss in an extra day for the Feast of Saint Francis for our Franciscan teachers in grade school or Providence Foundation Day for our Providence teaching Sisters in high school. Now, in spite of all this time off I know we got an excellent Catholic education. I’d put it up against any today, public or parochial. O, well, it’s a different world I suppose. But is it any better?

On Labor Day we will have Mass at 9:00 a.m. (English) rather than in the evening. I suggest that anytime we can, we attend Mass on civil holidays. Thank God for the chance to be able to work. Pray for the unemployed.

The Parish Council met last Monday. The vast majority of our meeting was an excellent presentation on our roof situation at Holy Rosary. The meeting began at 7:00 p.m. and went beyond 11:00. Just ask anyone on the Council anything you want to know about roofing. We are all experts!

Seriously, we received some good recommendations. Now it’s up to us to decide when and what to repair. We do have some serious concerns. I don’t want to see any more leaking like we had last winter. You can still see the effects in the Southeast and Southwest corners of the church ceiling.

Given that our church now has a new confessional or reconciliation room, here are some more thoughts on this sacrament of God’s mercy and peace:

How do I go to confession? So much has changed! Well, yes and no. The essential elements of confession remain the same:

• First comes a good examination of conscience before we even approach the priest. There are some good little books for this. Running through the ten commandments is an excellent exercise. If nothing else just focus on three key areas of responsibility: God, my family and others, myself.
• Second, upon arriving in the place set aside for confession, we make the sign of the cross and the priest will say a brief prayer. It’s key to let him know approximately how long it has been since your last confession. If you think it’s helpful, let him know your status in life: married or single, student, adult, and so forth.
• Third, there is the confession of sins. Mention each sin you accuse yourself of. "Call a spade a spade." Beating around the bush with a lot of double talk, excuses, or "circumstantial evidence" is not necessary. It could be helpful, however, to mention some special circumstances. I mean things like, "I’ve been under lots of pressure at work or school lately;" "My spouse is terminally ill;" "I’m unemployed;" "I’ve been way from the Church for years;" and so forth.
• Fourth, the priest will give you some brief advice, a penance, then he will ask you to express your sorrow. We should have An Act of Contrition memorized. If not, we will have a card with a version of this prayer printed on it in the confessional.
• Lastly, the priest gives us absolution (God’s pardon for our sins). This is the best part. As I mentioned last week, in Scripture Jesus gave His Church the power to forgive sins. Awesome! The Church does this when the priest prays the prayer of absolution. If we are truly sorry, our sins are really forgiven. What peace! What joy! We can begin anew.

Many of us memorized that formula, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was ______ago and these are my sins." It’s not absolutely essential that we use this (never was). But, you know, there is nothing wrong with it either. It helps get us started.

In recent years the Church has encouraged us not to just rattle on with memorized formulas and "laundry lists" of sins. There can be a danger in this. There are funny stories about people in their eighties confessing that "I disobeyed my mother" or "I hit my little brother." Some people memorized things as children and have been repeating them ever since. (Don’t laugh, I’ve had people in my confessional do just this!)

The point is that there is a structure to this sacrament. In any event, whether you’re prepared or not, just ask the priest for help. "Father, I don’t know what to do!" He will be glad to help you. Don’t feel self-conscious. Hearing confessions is one of our greatest joys!

In God’s Providence,

Msgr. Schaedel