{"id":1004,"date":"2013-03-03T07:54:07","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T12:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2013-03-03T07:54:07","modified_gmt":"2013-03-03T12:54:07","slug":"confession-or-spiritual-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/confession-or-spiritual-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Confession or Spiritual Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Catholics we should be familiar with the Sacrament of Reconciliation<\/a> (Confession).\u00a0 Less known, there is also Spiritual Direction.\u00a0 The two can have a lot of overlap.\u00a0\u00a0 The Sacrament of Reconciliation<\/a>\u00a0focuses on our sins but can include some<\/em> conversation that helps us to think about our sins and what we need to do to change our behavior.\u00a0 Spiritual Direction can <\/em>include discussion of our sins but its purpose is to invite us to find where God is leading us in our lives.\u00a0 This is called discernment.\u00a0 It can include discussion of our sins but its purpose is not the sacrament itself.\u00a0 Since Spiritual Direction is not a sacrament, anyone can be a spiritual director.\u00a0 It can be a priest, a religious, somebody who works in the church, or just someone who has a deep spirituality of their own and the gifts to be a spiritual direction.\u00a0 It really is a matter of gifts.\u00a0 There are lay people with these gifts while not every priest has the gifts to be a good spiritual director.\u00a0 If the person is a priest, then it can include the Sacrament of Reconciliation<\/a>\u00a0but the confessing of sins must be done clearly and explicitly.<\/p>\n

So how do we know if we should we go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation<\/a>\u00a0or Spiritual Direction?\u00a0 If you know you have sinned, then always begin with the Sacrament of Reconciliation<\/a>.\u00a0 If you want to seek spiritual advice about problems\u00a0in live or big decisions, then it is Spiritual Direction you are looking for.<\/p>\n

There is one more distinction that should be made, time.\u00a0 By time I mean the length of time you expect it to take.\u00a0 Spiritual Direction may be a one-time meeting or be repeated over time as you discern God’s direction.\u00a0 These meetings might be 40-50 minutes.\u00a0 On the other hand, the Sacrament of Reconciliation<\/a>\u00a0generally takes just a few minutes.<\/p>\n

Here at Immaculate Conception Church, the Sacrament of Reconciliation<\/a>\u00a0is offered each Saturday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.\u00a0 Typically, I might hear the confessions of anywhere between 5 and 12 people.\u00a0 Given the time frame, one should understand that these confessions generally are just\u00a0a few minutes for each person.<\/p>\n

There are times, for instance when a person hasn’t been to confession in a long time, when it might take longer but still not need to be Spiritual Direction.\u00a0 If you know your confession might be longer than a few minutes I invite you to make an appointment with your local priest.\u00a0 This respects others who might be waiting in line but it also is meant to give you the opportunity to make a good and thorough confession of your sins.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Catholics we should be familiar with the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession).\u00a0 Less known, there is also Spiritual Direction.\u00a0 The two can have a lot of overlap.\u00a0\u00a0 The Sacrament of Reconciliation\u00a0focuses on our sins but can include some conversation that helps us to think about our sins and what we need to do to change …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Confession or Spiritual Direction’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-gc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}