LIVE WEBINAR: EUCHARIST AND CONFESSION DURING QUARANTINE

hey guys welcome to our webinar it's a blessing a blessing to be here with you live um for a teaching series like this is a time where i get to talk to you i get to share um a little bit in depth you know during mass we often have time to talk we have time to celebrate the eucharist but very often not the time to go into depth we do this in a certain amount of of ways like number one is we have our podcast every week make sure you're um tuning into that that you're um checking out our podcast um uh also and also this webinars and teachings over here so i'm going to take comments we're going to have time where we're going to um have interaction and we're going to i'm going to play a couple of teaching a video that i just pre-recorded just for this um and also as i said this will be a time for us to go deeper so i'm going to take your questions i'm going to listen to you and we're going to talk i don't know how long this is going to take i don't know it might take 20 minutes it might take longer um i hope hopefully i'll make the point and then we'll get out of here but let's thirst for jesus so let's begin this time of webinar the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit amen lord jesus we thank you for your love we thank you that you are with us we thank you lord that you want to open our ears and open our eyes and open our mind to what you have to say lord speak to this heart speak to this mind so that we might love you more so that we might honor you more so that we might be closer and faster on the journey to becoming your saints and we ask all of this in jesus name amen amen amen okay so as i said we're going to have time um to to have questions um what will happen is they will show up like this can you please speak in maltese so yes i'll take your questions i'll be happy to um ask to take anything that you would like to say okay so the thing we're going to talk about today is confession and eucharist now if you're anything like my situation right now we are in lockdown so we're in what we call stage four lock down here in melbourne and where i cannot leave i have curfew eight o'clock so i'm certainly going to be out of here before eight o'clock because i need to take my dog for a walk otherwise he's going to be locked in um until 5am um and so this is the time we have a lot of questions like god how am i going to get to confession you know especially if you have mortal sin if you have big sin in your life how are you going to receive the eucharist this online mass enough is it good is it enough so we're going to answer try and answer all of these questions particularly focus on this but we're not going to be limited to this okay so if you have any other questions um and i will answer your questions maybe that don't seem very relevant to what we're talking about because i'm happy to answer any questions here's a strange and wonderful and great question um is judas really a bad person look nobody is intrinsically bad okay god creates everyone good but there are decisions we make that separate us from god judas made not one decision an ongoing conscious decision to betray god to walk away from god so it's very often it's not one decision he didn't just betray jesus the ones it was it was systemic it was a long process where he started to fade and fade and fade until his heart became hard his jew this really bad a bad person i don't i i don't think he's intrinsically bad but he's certainly choices um so that that's um yeah for this question um okay so let's go to this um let's go to the first part of this session where we're going to talk about and you're going to hear about um confession you're going to hear about the eucharist and how it is relevant there are certain things you might hear that you might with my jar with you it might make you uncomfortable and that's a good thing okay this is where we're going to discuss and i'm happy to clarify things as we go along so here it goes this is the first um part of of this webinar what an absolutely extraordinary time we have been living in a time where we have been isolated from the parish we love from the church we have been brought up in the way we practice our faith today is different to how we were practicing it a few months ago and the reality is it might never be the same again the church might not be as full as it was before and i'm not being pessimistic here it's just because people are starting to think differently not that it's the right way of thinking i do believe that if our churches are to be full again which i pray and hope they will the church needs to learn to outreach in a new way and one of the ways we need to learn as a church to outreach and i'm not just talking about priests and bishops i'm talking about you and me i'm a priest yes but all of us we all need to outreach but we need to know why to outreach why should people come back to the church why can't we continue with our online masses why can't we continue doing the things we do in isolation that way we can sleep in on sunday in our pajamas watch online mass wouldn't that be a good way of practicing our faith from now on well we need to understand a couple of things the first thing that we need to understand is the sacraments you see we can receive the sacraments when we are in the church but the reality is sacraments are not available online now yes the mass is available online but not the sacrament the liturgy is available online but the actual sacrament the receiving of the body and the blood of christ is being broadcast you can see that but you're actually not receiving the sacrament now as we have been experiencing this deprivation of the sacrament the separation of the sacraments a lot of us have grown in thirst for the eucharist in thirst for being close to the sacrament the source and the summit of our faith the blessed sacrament and this is a good thing this longing for the eucharist is something god given god uses every situation romans 8 28 it says that god uses every situation for the good of those who love him and one of the things he's using is creating a thirst in his people for the eucharist the sacraments cannot be separated from matter and form and i know this is complicated but you need to be physically present for the eucharist so right now in quarantine we are being separated separated from the eucharist but you see god is still present his holy spirit is still there with us in our homes god is still amazing working amazingly in our own lives but there's more there's more and we need to come back to the eucharist we need to come back eventually as soon as we can back to the tangibility of sacraments coming back to receiving the eucharist spending time with eucharist but also another sacrament is the sacrament of penance yes we can and we should ask for forgiveness because god is a god of mercy god loves you but even asking for forgiveness is not the same as the sacrament of penance let's take a little bit of a break here and then we'll talk about it again what does it mean to be separated from the sacrament of penance it's a hard one hey to be separated from the sacrament of penance and yes we can and ask for forgiveness but we're still not receiving the sacraments as we were before and this is really hard now i'm seeing a lot of questions and a lot of questions were coming in and a lot of these questions that i'm seeing right now will be answered in the videos so pay attention to the videos um so i'll make sure to to deal with at least most of your questions over here okay so um i'm going to see if i have any questions um so selena's father i want to go to confession but sometimes i'm not free to confess all my sins is that wrong well look why i'd ask the question why are you not free can i tell you there are three things when you go to confession the first thing is that you're not going to impress the priest the priest has heard it all three months after his ordination he would have 33 weeks after his ordination he would have heard every single sin under the sun okay we are all the same the devil is not original the way he teases us the way he tempts us the way he causes us to sin is not original so there's no shame in going there you're not going to impress the priest the second thing is that when you go to confession the priest is bound by a seal of of of confessional secrecy so if he tells your sin even to another priest even to anyone even to anyone who he cannot even say that you came to confession okay so there's that confessional secrecy if it is disclosed he is automatically excommunicated and he will not he's not as a priest i'm not interested in telling people's sins the third thing is that the priest is a sinner himself okay that this we recognize that we are there to offer god's mercy we're not there to give condemnation we're there to give mercy so try to confess all of your sins now you don't need to give the details of your sin you don't want to say how you sinned but just talk about how if you want to go through the commandments go through that and express holding sins back intentionally during confession is not being generous with god god wants to be extravagant with his mercy let us be extravagant with the way we confess our sins and turn away from them okay so um you can them thought you cannot through yes so this is um michael great thought you can't receive the sacraments online thank um yes no you cannot receive the sacraments online but you can receive prayer online jesus is present his holy spirit is present and he can still work in us and i certainly am one to advocate online masses because i think they're important they create a desire in us for the word of god and it also actually draws us to to god to god himself okay so um i'm going to go to the second part of this um this one in this one i'm going to talk about confession now what if you have mortal sin what what are you going to do now that you're in quarantine what if you cannot go to confession actually the pope said i'll mention a little bit about what the pope says even though i'm not quoting him here but this is pretty much what what is important at this moment that we understand we understand um let's talk about where we sit and where we're at of penance i'll start by saying that god has called you to be a saint he has called you to be his he has called you to be holy but the reality is that we mess up we turn away sometimes we turn away with small things which is called venial sin things that maybe are not grave matter or maybe things that we did not fully intend to do but then we can separate ourselves in a serious way which is called mortal sin and this is where the church asks us to come to the sacrament of penance and to get absolution to get forgiveness of sins but what about now what if i am in mortal sin now what do i do i cannot get to a priest but again come back to that god loves you god wants to forgive you but there are certain things that we can do and i'm just going to give you just six quick things that you should do if you find yourself in this place of of mortal sin while you're in quarantine the first thing to do is to repent turn away from your sins stop doing this thing that is causing you to sin stop repent meta anoya metanoia turn around turn away from your sin and then confess your sin but how do you confess your sin confess your sin to god ask god for forgiveness ask god tell god god i'm so sorry for what i've done i'm so sorry for turning my heart away from you i'm so sorry for doing this and this and speak to god about your sin and trust that he's going to forgive you the second thing is make an act of contrition just say jesus oh my god because you are so good i'm very sorry that i have sinned against you and by the help of your grace help me not sin again ask god for mercy the third thing is make penance echo penance make say three hail marys fast from a meal do something in reparation for your sin in an act of sorrow i tell you this your penance is not going to bring about your forgiveness but bringing doing an act of penance you are bringing to god this desire not to do this again offering it as a fast as a prayer the the fourth thing is to commit not to do this thing again say god i i'm not going to do this again and make sure you take the things that are causing you to sin away as much as you can if your phone is causing you to sin put strict rules on how you use your phone never let your phone enter into your your bedroom i don't know whatever it is if you want radical change in your life sometimes you need to take radical steps the next thing you need to do is to trust in god's mercy trust that god has forgiven you and then the sixth thing is go to confession as soon as you reasonably can once quarantine's over get yourself to confession let's go back and let's talk a little bit about this i have um a lot of questions coming in that are very interesting so if i don't deal with your questions um please please bring them back um write them again so this one um question father of my husband changed um into born again and we said we shouldn't confess straight to god what are your thoughts we should only confess straight to god yes god is the forgiver of sins but we have the sacrament and the sacrament of reconciliation god has given the authority you know let me explain this in the history this is how sins used to be forgiven they were always confessed to others okay he says confess your sins to one another that's scriptural okay now before what used to happen was the person used to stand in front of the church and confess their sins to the entire church okay even in the catholic church this was how confession was done and the community together would agree to forgive that person and give them penance but can you imagine the shame of standing in front of a whole congregation and telling them your sin and especially if you were honest and so the church organized and gave that authority to the ordained to the person who was ordained and the scripture even this sunday says what you bind on that shall be bound on heaven in heaven what you loose on that shall be loosed in heaven god was also talking about the forgiveness of sins that yes we need to go to a priest because the priest has the authority not because of their goodness but because they act in persona christi in the person of christ to forgive your sins whether you feel forgiven or not you see when we ask god for forgiveness sometimes we feel forgiven sometimes we don't but when we go to confession i can guarantee you this you are forgiven every time this comes to this question father at times i'm doing confession i feel soft and ashamed yes that's fine get over yourself shame doesn't come from god okay guilt doesn't come from god what comes from god is conviction conviction so we go to god with conviction and at the end while leaving the confession i still have doubt yes it's okay to feel doubt but know that you are forgiven okay when you're given the prayer of absolution you are objectively it's an objectively forgiven okay all of your sins are forgiven if you are repentant and you intend not to do it again okay so that's um that's a guarantee um can you recommend a podcast that goes through the bible verse by verse well i don't know one that goes through verse by verse but we certainly have on catholic influences podcast we go through the scripture every sunday we go through it through the historical critical meta method so um if you want to know um a little bit about this this is our podcast frgministry.com forward slash podcast that's the catholic influencers podcast um you can stay um yeah that's every week we release that once a week in preparation for the the upcoming gospel also um again just if i'll put this up if anyone wants to support this ministry and the reason i say this is it's frg ministry is a non-for-profit organization it's a charity so we are able to continue to work and to glorify god through this um this ministry if you're able to to help in any way okay so let's go i've lost the chats where are we okay father um i don't know whether to put this up but i'm going to put it up because it doesn't have a name um or maybe it does um i have an incredible mortal sins and it seems like i don't know i know i have to turn away but the last time i went to confession i didn't feel i was was valid and useful it's not a matter of feeling okay beside the sacrament of reconciliation is objectively we are we are forgiven we are forgiven whether you feel it or not but also you're given the grace not to do it again so go go for the grace go for the forgiveness um and and because the priest was short so short in confession i don't it doesn't who said a longer prayer is better than a shorter prayer no one ever said that okay so just understand that whether they're short or long you're still forgiven it's not the priest who forgives your sin it's god god is able to do it in a short time he's able to do it in a long time sometimes long is good sometimes short is good um yeah maybe he didn't judge the situation well um father we are forgiven by god so many times but sometimes it's so hard to forgive someone who has hurt us and we um do we do that yes to forgive someone i just want to say this about forgiveness about forgiving others forgiveness is is is not an emotion it's a decision it's a decision you have to make to will the other well okay just to even consciously say god i just pray blessing over this person even though they've done so much wrong to me it's not losing every time we do that we're choosing not to let them hold on to us they're going to sleep fine they're it's only us that are being held back so forgive to set yourself free and sometimes a decision you have to make a thousand times a day okay um okay um i'm just saying because a lot of are coming in um okay apart from praying oh sorry um apart from other than praying for our son who's addicted um what should parents do well prayer is not the is it's not everything but the first thing make sure you're praying make sure you're praying and get family members to pray spray spiritual warfare tell the devil in jesus name that he has no hold over your child that in jesus name that your child is free that god has won victory do spiritual warfare fight the spiritual war for them but also open doors try and get them to get um the help they need i don't know your situation but certainly it's impossible almost to get out of an addiction by yourself you need others you need the help of others um okay so this one how can i forgive others again and again though they insult you over and over okay forgiveness also is about being wise okay so if someone's abusing you or hurting you it might be wise to stay away as much as possible okay it doesn't mean you haven't forgiven if someone's if you're an abusive situation it doesn't you need to walk away you cannot let the person keep hurting you okay that's not a lack of forgiveness that's wisdom okay that's that's being protecting yourself but then you can still wish the other well pray for them pray blessing over them okay i'm gonna go back i'm gonna go to the third part of this um this webinar um and then we'll we'll continue with questions so this is the third part okay we talked about the eucharist we talked about penance now let's talk about the third thing so so we talked about the sacramentality okay how we need to be around the sacraments we talked in particular about the eucharist and we talked about the sacrament of penance how we need the physicality we need to be there to receive the actual sacrament now online masses that's fantastic that keeps us connected this is great and keep going to online masses this is so important also make sure that when you send venial or mortal sin that you're asking god for forgiveness but also another thing to long for is the community how we need each other how we need the community how we need one another you see to think that you don't need the community i'm not just talking about your family though the wider community the ones peop the people you don't the people you have to choose to be around the hypocrites in the church like you and me to be around people who also have the fire of god in their hearts we need to be around these people we need to be around these people because they're going to keep the fire in our hearts going we need the community jesus always worked in community never in isolation he brought people together the church is a place where we together need to come back to the fire of god but also the sacramentality now i'm not talking about sacraments here the sacramentals in our church now i'm talking about things like the holy water the statues the the altar the the stations of the cross those tangibility even the tangibility within the liturgy for example when we stand we sit we kneel these all these moments all these motions all these symbols the water and baptism all of that are symbols and reminders to us of our journey towards heaven and we need that as well and this is why as well at home it's a good idea to set up a little altar with these sacramentals to remind us and to keep us longing to come back to the church coming back to celebrating the eucharist coming back to celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation confirmation all of our sacraments this is a time that's a challenging time but it's also a beautiful time of us growing deepening our foundations so when we do go back we will have a deeper appreciation a deeper longing a deeper thirsting for the things of god okay i want to take some more questions some really good questions i if i don't answer your question ask them again but also if i don't know the answer i'll tell you i don't know here's one a great one you know if two questions if we die in a state of mortal sin before we have the chance to go to reconciliation do we go to heaven if we have if we have repented and have the intention to go to reconciliation yes daniel yes absolutely okay so the state of mortal sin is three things first of all is that it is grave matter two that you intended to do it three that you have the the free the soldiers two is that you have the freedom to do it okay so if you're forced into something then it is not a mortal sin okay and so these are if you're in a state of mortal sin and you intend to go to compassion absolutely god god is a god of mercy god is not it doesn't want you to go to hell it's not always you're living your life to please him and all of a sudden you die and you had sinned and you're gonna go to hell god is not cruel like that god is a god of love okay and he wants you to get to heaven more than you do and thank god thank god we have purgatory if we need you know that's a place of mercy it's a place where we're purified and we're made holy more explanation on why the sacrament of reconciliation can't be done over the phone i don't have much of an explanation but i know the church hasn't given the priest the authority to do that okay so the priest um it might be valid but it's illicit okay um so yeah at the moment we cannot because the matter and form is still there because there's compression there's contrition there's um sorrow for sin and then there's the prayer of absolution why we need to be physically present right now the church hasn't given us given us the authority to do that um and the sacraments all need um being being close um and proximity okay so if i missed your questions please um so i haven't been to church for uh so long it's a bad thing well if it's been a long time because of isolation then it's not a bad thing you're doing no but if you haven't been to the church for years and you haven't been to mass on a sunday it is a sin it is a sin not to go to mass on a sunday when you're obliged to go to us at the moment the obligation is lifted okay in most ices i think it's not all across the world okay so yes it is it is something also to confess because we need community we need each other we need the eucharist how can it be a good thing to be separated from god and god's lavishing of grace is in the sacrament of reconciliation the sacrament of of eucharist the community that builds builds us up so yeah um i'm sorry father um so father does addictions like pornography alcohol for under moderation um a pornography does yes it is a grave matter if you have if you were free to do it and you you chose to do that consciously you are consciously chose choosing that yes that is um grave sin um alcohol it's not bad to drink but probably to get drunk out of your senses that you you are now at the mercy of of of your drunkenness then yes again because you're losing control of what god has given you um that can be a mortal sin as well but to drink no absolutely not it's not a sin to have a drink um okay well um father how is it like to be a saint i haven't a clue i wouldn't know but i know that god calls us to be a saint and to be saints and one day one day i hope to be um close enough to god for that um what is the best penance after confession usually the priest gives the the penance but it's just look at the understanding of penance is not is is to make reparation for your sin to understand the gravity of what you've done but also the mercy of god so one of the things that i love to give as a penance is to tell the people to spend few moments in silence and then just allow god to love them but also to pray to pray for those who also have the same sin as you because your sin doesn't only affect you it affects the community it affects the community and so you need to pray also for the community those within the church that you have affected and hurt um well that's a good question um what is pornography i recommend you don't google it um okay um pornography is um watching i don't know if this is an authentic question but yes it is um yeah look up definition of it i don't know how to explain um tell us okay could you please tell us more about priests must pray and do penance for his penitent yeah okay so one of the things that we do as well is that i offer penance for my pen incidents as well you see because sometimes there's especially if there's graves in one of the things i do is i would fast and i would pray for those who have sinned it doesn't come instead of the penance given to the penitent but it also it's a prayer it's a prayer of intercession a responsibility that i have with jesus as well to look after you as well to look after those who who have come to confession um how do you control jealousy um well i think it's just a matter of understanding how much you allowed and how much you are valued spending time with jesus and thanking jesus for your gifts but also thanking god for the gifts that others have received if you're jealous of someone thank god for the gifts that they have be try to be happy for them by blessing praying blessings over them um yeah so uh how often should we confess well how often do you sin um i i go every two weeks when i can um i i try to go at least every two weeks okay um i think we we we're filled with love of god but we leak okay we need god's mercy okay so i'm going to soon finish off i'm here just again a reminder to check out our podcast um also um we have an amazing course we've just done um it's it's called knowing mary um and so check it out frgministry.com forward slash knowing mary also um if you're able to support this ministry please please please consider prayerfully consider this um because we need your support um yes i will pray for malta uh please pray for malta that it will bring back the values of our forefathers amen lord jesus please please give us you give malta you okay father why do you become a priest um uh i'm not sure if i understand that's why i became a priest um because yeah i have i've written a book about it go to store.frgministry.com there you can read my book it's actually also i think still being made into a hollywood movie um so yeah i can't don't have time to explain that right now um i've already answered this question if you've confessed and yet you don't feel forgiven should you keep reconfessing to other priests no that's scrupulosity scruplicity swoopers you're forgiven okay just get over yourself get over yourself okay so um so okay anyway this was the this webinar about um confession about community about eucharist during during this time of kovit this time of pandemic so i hope you are blessed by this i just want to pray a blessing over you in the name of the father the son the holy spirit amen lord jesus we thank you for your blessing we thank you lord that you've given us these gifts of the sacraments but we also thank you for the internet we thank you for the phone we thank you for ways that you continue to allow us to be ministered to but also we thank you for prayer for each other that through prayer lord jesus that we can grow in love with you lord i ask your blessing and your peace on every person who's listening to this i just ask you to help them understand how much you love them and how much this death that you've given them for the eucharist for confession lord is from you so that they can return with a whole heart and i ask your blessing and your peace over them of every over every person in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen god bless you and thank you for tuning in may god give you strength and peace and get excited eventually to return to the sacraments ciao

Channel: Fr Rob Galea

Views: 9,238

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Id: 2XFWKOIuRhk

Length: 35min 8sec (2108 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2020