Our family is currently celebrating the arrival of a new member. We welcomed a new niece into the world recently and are over the moon to soon meet this beautiful baby girl. In the days leading up to her birth my sister was on a mission, hunting for parishes all over town in search of priests available to administer confession. She was determined to be in a state of grace when bringing her daughter into the world.

What a beautiful gift to their family to know that this new momma was in friendship with God when she gave our parents their first grandchild! On one hand, being recently confessed was a safeguard for my sister, should anything go wrong during the birth. Thankfully, it didn’t and both mother and baby girl are healthy and happy. By ensuring she was in communion with God as much as possible my sister also enabled her daughter to be born surrounded by grace and love. What better way to begin a holy and blessed life? It was the very best running start my sister could give. 

This got me thinking about how often we all run to confession when embarking on a journey or undergoing an important medical procedure. Life is full of risks and of course it’s not feasible to receive absolution from a priest every time we cross the street but it’s certainly something that should always be forefront in our minds as we proceed through life. The Catholic Church requires that its members receive the sacrament of Reconciliation at least once a year but how often on any given day do we turn away from God, even in small, seemingly mundane ways. We need sincere and regular Reconciliation to maintain a state of grace to receive Holy Communion and to be in friendship with Christ. 

My husband and I generally try to make it to confession every couple of weeks and emergency, short notice Reconciliation is rare for us at this point but as Catholics we all ought to leap at the opportunity to renew our relationship with the Lord. We should all run to confession as often as possible even if it means hunting all over town for available priests.