We are a church of sinners – with faults and failings, who sin despite our best intentions. Jesus said ‘It is not the healthy who need the doctor but the sick….I did not come to call the virtuous but sinners’. (Matthew 9:12-13).  This is best summed up in the phrase – ‘The Church is not a hotel for the saints but a hospital for sinners! 

The sacrament of reconciliation is above all an act of God’s love. It is a personal moment to be lived in a relationship of love with God. It is not routine, not an ordeal to be gone through, but very much part of the personal renewal which takes place in each person. We are invited, in the light of God’s love, to recognize the sinfulness of your life, to have true sorrow for your sins, and a firm intention to avoid them in future.

Reconciliation lies at the heart of the Good News of Jesus Christ, who came to reconcile us with his Father and with one another. In this sacrament of forgiveness, we confess the holiness and mercy of God, who grants us pardon and peace. Through the absolution given by the priest in the name of the Holy Trinity, we are forgiven by God. We are at the same time reconciled with the Church which is wounded by our sins. Although sin is something deeply personal, it is never private. It also affects others for the worse, as holiness affects others for the better. Since serious sin excludes a person from full participation in the Eucharist and full communion with the Church, receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation should always involve a desire for restoration
to both Eucharistic communion and full unity with the Church.

Times for confession in the Parish Church are given on the web site as well as those in neighbouring Churches and centres.