Jesus came into our world to save all people from the power of Satan, and also from sin and its consequence - eternal death.    The purpose of His ministry was to reconcile each and very human being with God the Father.    His passion, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification at the right hand of His Father brought the possibility of forgiveness, peace and reconciliation to all people for all time.

On the evening of His resurrection from the dead, when He appeared to His Apostles, Jesus gave them the power to forgive all human sins.   "Breathing upon them He said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.   If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven them.    If you retain anyone's sins, they are retained." (John 20:22-23).     Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, bishops and priests of the Church receive the ability from Christ Himself to forgive sins.    This power is exercised in the "Sacrament of Reconciliation", also known as the   "Sacrament of Penance" or simply as "confession".    Through this Sacrament, God forgives the sins that we commit after our Baptism.     The priest is the minister through whom God forgives our sins.    The ministry of the priest represents the Whole Christ forgiving us and reconciling us to the Father and to the Whole Christ, the Church.

In order to worthily receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, two major requirements exist.    The first and foremost requirement, is that the penitent must be truly sorry for his/her sins.    Sorrow for sin is called "contrition".   "To be sorry" requires that the penitent have a solid resolution to avoid committing that sin again, as well as the persons, places and things that prompt that sinner to commit such a sin in the first place.    Without this repentant sorrow, one's contrition is insincere and the confession is not only pointless and useless, it is sacrilegious. 

The second major requirement, is the necessity to confess all Mortal Sins.   Thus, in order to confess well, the penitent should first spend some time examining his/her conscience.    Reviewing one's life to see how our good God was offended since our last confession.   All mortal/grave sins must be confessed to the priest that the penitent has  committed since his/her last good/worthy confession.    If a mortal sin is withheld, that confession is insincere and pointless, and is sacrilegious.    This requirement comes from the Lord God Himself as we read in the Catholic Catechism # 1455.

Three conditions must be fulfilled in order to commit any sin.    1. The person must know what he/she is about do is a sin.    2. The person must be aware of what he/she is doing.     3. And the person must want to do that knowing it is morally wrong because God has said so.     Sins come in two varieties:  Mortal and Venial.

Mortal Sin is a direct, conscious and free violation of one or other of God's Laws or Precepts.     Mortal sin destroys the life of God within anyone.    Anyone dying in such a state, has no chance of eternal salvation.    God's Basic Law is contained in the two Commandments of Love: "Love the Lord your God with all you heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind;   and love your neighbor as you love yourself."

We believe that once anyone has sinned gravely, God through His loving grace tries to draw that sinner back to Himself through sorrow for that sin.    God does not want the eternal death of any sinner, but rather that the sinner be converted and come to eternal life.   
Venial Sins are violations of God's Law that do not sever a sinner's

The word "Triduum" comes from the Latin and means "three days".    It is commonly pronounced "TRIH-doo-uhm" and refers to the Three Most Sacred Days in the Church Year.     The Sacred Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.    The Sacred Triduum reaches its highpoint at the Easter Vigil and concludes with evening prayer (Vespers) on Easter Sunday evening.   

Often there is confusion about how that block of time can be counted as three days.   The traditional practice of counting days from sunset to sunset is used during the Triduum.   Thus, Holy Thursday evening to Good Friday evening is one day.    Good Friday evening to Holy Saturday evening is the second day.    And Holy Saturday evening to Easter Sunday evening is the third day.      Counting days from midnight only began about 350 years ago.

Pope Pius XII in 1955 restored the Triduum Liturgies to their rightful place as the culmination of the entire Liturgical Year.

Although we talk of three days, our Sacred Triduum is best understood as One Liturgy in three-interlocking movements.     The death and the resurrection of the Lord cannot be separated.    Nor can the ascension and glorification of the Lord at the Father's right hand be separated from the death and resurrection;   it is all One Paschal Mystery.   The meaning of these three Sacred Days is distorted when we imagine that the Liturgy re-enacts the final events in the life of Jesus in a sort of historical review.    If we do that, we miss the point in that case.   The Mystery of Jesus' death and resurrection, ascension and glorification a the Father's right hand, is a present reality.    God invites into the very act of these Mysteries with Jesus.    The boundaries of time, and the boundaries of death, have no power here.

Our past, present and future are irrevocably marked by our own immersion into this Paschal Mystery through our Baptism.     

During the Sacred Triduum we wash one another's feet as symbolized by the priest's washing and kissing of the feet of a few members of the Gathered Assembly.     We reverence the cross upon which hung the Savior of the world.    We light fires during the darkness of night and proclaim again the stories of our creation and salvation, beginning with the flood and the saving of the Jewish people from Pharaoh.    All of this develops an awed awareness that this is what it means to be baptized.    The Easter Vigil then is the premier time to welcome new members into the Community of Faith, Church, through Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist.

Ideally no other parish events --- such as confessions, funerals, etc. --- should be scheduled during these three Most Sacred Days.    For "the presence", "the time", and "the energy" of "every person" in a local Community of Faith are needed for all what we do at church these three days.    Yes! this may be inconvenient!    But then birth and death are rarely convenient!    Our Forty Days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving lead us to the Sacred Triduum, but not just to its history.    Rather, our Lenten Practices lead us far beyond the Sacred Triduum's history, into its deepest meaning:   the Paschal Mystery of Faith which we celebrate.