All of us know that the Lord has richly blessed our diocese, which explains why Sister Joan Leonard, CSJ, chose that as the title of her history of the earlier years of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The blessings of the Lord are abundant in all our parishes and in the many sacramental, pastoral and charitable initiatives of our diocese as a whole.

None gladdens my heart more than a project that began before my arrival and which has become a custom of inestimable value for us all. I mean the dedication of the Monday of Holy Week to diocesan wide availability of the sacrament of penance in all the parishes of our diocese. Yes, again this year anyone can come to confession and receive the sacrament of reconciliation in any one of the 133 parishes of the diocese. What an extraordinary gift this is! What an abundance of grace flows from the merciful heart of Jesus into the lives of all those who come to confession and receive this sacrament of divine love and mercy! In every parish between 3 and 9 p.m. there will be a priest to be the instrument of God’s love — to offer the sacramental forgiveness of sins to any and all who come to confess their sins in a spirit of sorrow and a desire to be reconciled to God and to neighbor.

Can there be any better way to prepare for the Holy Days and Easter? Can there be any more deeply personal and profound an experience of God’s love than to encounter him in this sacrament and hear the priest say in the name of the Eternal Priest, “I absolve you of your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”?

Some of you may want to go to confession but have not been in a long time and are a bit fearful. Please put any fear out of your mind and heart. No priest will yell at you. No priest will lecture you. We are instruments of God’s merciful love, and He is the Father who is always looking out for us, always yearning for us, always eager to embrace us who turn to Him and accept His merciful love.

Some may not be sure what to do or how to prepare. It is very simple. Spend a bit of time in Church with the Lord before you go to confession. Prayerfully look over your life since your last confession and see what sins you have committed, what words or actions went against God’s law and the Church’s teaching, what sins have separated you from God’s love and from loving relationships with others. Express sorrow for your sins to God and go to the priest.

In the confessional, you can choose to speak face to face or to remain anonymous and speak through the screen. Make your confession very simple: state how long since your last confession, tell the priest your sins and express your sorrow. He will take it from there, giving you a penance — usually some familiar prayers to be said — invite you to say an act of contrition (he will help you if you forgot) and then give you absolution from all your sins. You will leave him to say your penance freed from all your sins, reunited with God, the Father who loves you so much that He sent his Son who offered himself on the cross for you; and on rising from the dead sends the Spirit into your hearts “so that we are no longer slaves but heirs, heirs with Jesus Christ,” sharing in the divine life that His Son has won for us.

Our priests have generously set aside this block of time, six hours of availability for the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. Many of our parishes have only one or perhaps two priests. Like all of us, a priest alone will need to take a break or two during that period. If you come into the Church and at that moment the priest is not available, be patient and he’ll be back. Priests usually leave a note on the confessional if they need to excuse themselves for a few moments.

Last year at Lent I sent one and all in our diocese a pastoral letter on the sacrament of penance. In that I said, “So, my friends, let your conscience free. Let your heart roam toward the One who is calling you to be in love with Him as He is already in love with you. Let His love be the light that illumines the dark corners of your life, not to punish you but to bring you to want to be rid of the darkness. In sorrow for your sins, let His light banish the darkness of sin and death to bathe you in his perfect light. All it takes is a sincere heart. All it takes is an upright conscience …”

The Church is the Father’s home on earth. Like him, in fidelity to Him, the Church is waiting for you, yearning for you, eager to welcome you home by being the instrument of God’s love, by reconciling you to Him and to the Church community through the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, the sacrament of divine mercy. The Church imitates the Father in his patient but constant longing for the forgiveness of every sinner. The Church imitates the Father in offering every penitent that same embrace, that same pardon, that same reconciliation that makes us once again sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters in the community of communion. At this moment how can we not praise God for so beautiful a sacrament — the sacrament that shows us God’s love as mercy, the sacrament that gives us back a restored humanity, the sacrament that makes us one with God and one with all our brothers and sisters in this Body of Christ, which is our true home and the one place we can always find God’s life and love!