What comes after “Bless me, Father”

The CNS offers insight in an article “tips for Catholics long absent from the confessional

“Just come. Don’t prepare. We’ll do it in there. I’ll help you with this. At the end of it, you’re going to think about things we didn’t cover. You can come again,” said Msgr. Richard Lavalley, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Winooski, Vt. “The more complicated it becomes, the worse it becomes. (Penitents) don’t know what to make of it and they become ashamed.”

The motivations for wanting to go back to confession can be many, said Jesuit Fr. Jake Empereur, a priest since 1965 and a parochial vicar at St. Matthew Parish in San Antonio.

“It could be because of health issues. It could be because their conscience moves them to finally be able to participate in the church and the liturgy and Communion and things like that,” he said. “People get married. Sometimes it’s someone’s first Communion, sometimes it’s a wedding. It’s all sorts of different reasons.”

And what they have on their mind — and want to get off their chest — can vary as well, Empereur told Catholic News Service.

Read the full article  for the perspective offered by two priests.  Msgr. Richard Lavalley, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Winooski, Vt. and Father Jake Empereur, a priest since 1965 and a parochial vicar at St. Matthew Parish in San Antonio.