News - March 2021 RSS Feed

Every parish in the Archdiocese will offer Sacramental Reconciliation on Monday, March 29 from 3-9PM. If you have been away from this Sacrament for a while, this would be a good opportunity to celebrate it. At St. Helena, we will hear Confession in English, Spanish, and French. We also hear Confession every Saturday from 4-5:30PM and by appointment. Confession is one of the least understood of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. In reconciling us to God, it is a great source of Sanctifying Grace, and Catholics are encouraged to take advantage of it often. But it is also the subject of many common misunderstandings, both among non-Catholics and among Catholics themselves. The Sacrament of Confession is one of the seven sacraments recognized by the Catholic Church. Catholics believe that all of the sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ himself to give us grace. In the case of Confession, that institution occurred on Easter Sunday, when Christ first appeared to the apostles after his Resurrection. He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). Catholics also believe that the sacraments are an outward sign of an inward grace. In this case, the outward sign is the absolution, or forgiveness of sins, that the priest grants to the penitent (the person confessing his sins); the inward grace is the reconciliation of the penitent to God. That is why the Sacrament of Confession is sometimes called the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Whereas Confession stresses the action of the believer in the sacrament, Reconciliation stresses the action of God, who uses the sacrament to reconcile us to Himself by restoring Sanctifying Grace in our souls. The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Sacrament of Confession as the Sacrament of Penance. Penance expresses the proper attitude with which we should approach the sacrament—with sorrow for our sins, a desire to atone for them, and a firm resolve not to commit them again. The purpose of Confession is to reconcile man to God. When we sin, we deprive ourselves of God’s grace, and by doing so, we make it even easier to sin again. The only way out of this downward cycle is to acknowledge our sins, to repent of them, and to ask for God’s forgiveness. Then, in the Sacrament of Penance, grace can be restored to our souls, and we can once again resist sin. Most non-Catholics, and even some Catholics, often ask whether they can simply confess their sins directly to God and whether God can forgive them without going through a priest. On the most basic level, of course, the answer is yes, and Catholics should make frequent acts of contrition, which are prayers in which we tell God that we are sorry for our sins and ask for His forgiveness. While Catholics are only required to confess mortal sins directly to a priest and not venial sins, the Church encourages the frequent confession of all sins because it is a good thing to do. While Penance is the only sacrament not celebrated within a Eucharistic framework and for which therefore no Ritual Mass is provided, the Confiteor, said within the Penitential Rite at the beginning of the Mass serves as a general confession of sins, both past, absolved mortal sins, and any venial sins one currently is guilty of but which don't merit damnation. It is in this sense that the general absolution given by a priest during Mass makes explicit the priestly intercession to God on behalf of the people (in concordance with the fact that he is about to offer the perfect Victim to the Father, "in persona Christi.”) But the question misses the point of the Sacrament of Confession. The sacrament, by its very nature, confers graces that help us to live a Christian life, which is why one of the Precepts of the Church requires Catholics to receive it at least once per year. Moreover, the Sacrament of Penance was instituted by Christ as the proper form for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, we should not only be willing to receive the sacrament but should embrace it as a gift from a loving God. Three things are required of a penitent in order to receive the sacrament worthily: One must be contrite—or, in other words, sorry for one’s sins. One must confess those sins fully, both in kind and in number. One must be willing to do penance and make amends for one’s sins. Again, while Catholics are only required to go to Confession when they are aware that they have committed a mortal sin, the Church urges the faithful to take advantage of the sacrament often. A good rule of thumb is to go once per month. The Church strongly recommends that, in preparation for fulfilling our Easter Duty to receive Holy Communion, we go to Confession even if we are aware of venial sin only. This is the reason why we celebrate Reconciliation Monday during Holy Week. Thus, the Church especially urges the faithful to receive the Sacrament of Confession frequently during Lent, to help them in their spiritual preparation for Easter.

NewYork-Presbyterian has partnered with the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC), a local CBO that provides free services to residents of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, to provide a call center for our local community residents to answer questions and schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments into The Armory in Washington Heights. Who can get vaccinated? We are currently able to vaccinate those eligible individuals age 60 and over who live in the five boroughs of New York City. Vaccination appointments preferred. If you are eligible due to your age, you must provide proof of age and address. We are also currently able to vaccinate eligible individuals age 18 and over with comorbidities and underlying medical conditions who live in the five boroughs of New York City. Vaccination appointments are required. New York State has listed the medical conditions that are eligible. You can find the list here. New York State and New York City require that you must sign a form onsite at The Armory attesting that you have a medical condition that makes you eligible to be vaccinated, but you will not need other documentation of your medical condition.

SPECIAL COVID SELF-TEST AT ST. HELENA March 22-24 Beginning tomorrow, March 22, self-testers will now include a Resource Navigator (RNav) who will offer additional resources and tote bags containing cloth masks, hand sanitizer, children’s books, and/or phones for positive cases or known contacts. This special service is specific to St. Helena’s as we are located in a high-needs zip code, and the city wants to ensure our community is being supported. Anna, our RNav, will join the self-testing team from Monday, March 22nd through Wednesday, March 24th.