𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 – 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. 𝗦𝘁. 𝗩𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆. 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱.
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https://app.flocknote.com/note/26015412 OR https://bit.ly/HangingOutatOLM

From our daily confessions, which are many, to our week long confessions during the 5th week of Lent, our long Holy week confession lines, and our Divine Mercy service confessions, you would think that as a priest I would say, “Ok, no more confessions please!” However, I know that I will always both promote, and seek out the beautiful Sacrament myself. This is not only because it has a tremendous impact on my life, or because I’ve been consecrated as a priest of Jesus Christ to offer the Sacrament and forgiveness of sins. At an even more fundamental level, our Gospel today points out that repentance and forgiveness of sins is the foundation of our Church, and needs to be proclaimed to the whole world (cf. Luke 24:47).

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter recounts our Lord’s Passion to the crowds gathering after he performed a healing in the temple. He recalls the Israelite people choosing Barabbas, a murderer, over Jesus. What was St. Peter doing? He was encouraging those listening to “repent so that there can be forgiveness of sins” (cf. Acts 3:19). Barabbas has an interesting meaning in Scripture. Bar means “son of” and Abba means “father.” Hence, Israelite people were making a choice: which son of the father they would follow. Will they follow Barabbas, who followed his selfish passions, or Jesus, who surrenders himself completely as a self-gift?

This same choice is offered to us every day. How many of us choose … view the full posting at https://app.flocknote.com/note/26015412
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