It is inspiring to us priests at Saint Francis, witnessing just how long the Confession lines get before the 5:30 evening Masses. Fr. Meng and I were discussing this specifically about confessions during Holy Week. During that week we had multiple priests every evening hearing confessions. One day we even had extend confessions during the evening Mass to not turn anyone away. As Fr. Meng and I were joyful at this aspect of our parish life, we hope that you, as a parishioner, also rejoice in the special nature and extraordinary effort that is put into making the incredible Sacrament of Reconciliation readily available.
Here are some stats. The number of days per year that daily confessions are NOT available, here at St. Francis are about five, such as, Triduum, Christmas, Christmas Eve. Then there are also holidays where we don’t have evening Mass such as Labor Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Thanksgiving. Further, there are also days for the fall Clergy Conference, and possibly one or two other miscellaneous days throughout the year where we cannot hear confessions. Roughly, there are approximately 20 days a year where we do not have confession available at Saint Francis. That’s 20 days out of 365, leaving 345 days of the year we give the blessed Sacrament of Reconciliation to our parish. That’s a little bit under 95% of the entire year! In terms of hours, St. Francis offers 13 hours of Confession a week, totaling 637 hours per year.
Why is this so extraordinary? The reality is that the overwhelming majority of parishes throughout the country do not come anywhere close to approaching 95% of days having Confession! When Fr. Meng lived in St Louis and Chicago, one of the parish website lines that frustrated him more than any other was this: “The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available on Saturday afternoons from 3:00 to 3:30 or by appointment.” That’s it. In fact, countless parishes around the country do something similar. If you add in a few extra Confession times in Lent and Advent, that’s maybe 60 days (or 30-45 hours) a year that they have confession available: just barely over 16% of days (or 7% of hours).
Fr. Meng and I truly do believe that if you want to quickly gauge the spiritual health of any parish look at how often the Sacrament of Reconciliation is made available and how many people show up to stand in line for it. One of the biggest strengths of our parish is the confessional. Who can deny the great witness of the constant full Confession line during Mass? One of the greatest testimonies to our confidence in the God of Mercy and His universal forgiveness of sins is precisely the constant stream of men and women, young and old, standing in that line to go to Confession! We applaud so many of you for your faithfulness to this wonderful Sacrament. We also encourage any who have been away from this beautiful Sacrament to unburden themselves of the sins they carry around and be free!
So, please know that Fr. Meng, Fr. Mendam, and I, make great efforts to sit in that Confessional because of our belief and confidence in this precious Sacrament. Its convenience at our parish brings God’s Divine Mercy to literally hundreds of souls a week. Together, let us all rely on God’s Divine Mercy. The best way to do that is in one of those two little rooms in that corner of the Church (or currently through the door in the N.E. corner of the gym).
The long and the short of it is this: St. Francis is a Parish with the charism of Confessions. May more and more people go to Confession and embrace its healing grace, where forgiveness and renewal await your open heart!
Father Jarrod Lies, Pastor