Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

I seem to be hitting my dictionary a lot lately...  The first definition of 
"absolve" in my American Heritage Dictionary is "to set free from guilt".

I'm not sure exactly what circumstances you are in, but would say that 
whatever act lead to the creation of a child as you describe, to find such 
beauty and love is to find God.

Perhaps there is some guilt attached to the events.  Perhaps they might be 
seen by some as bad.  Absolution is not to denounce such an act, but to set 
one free from whatever guilt there may be.

Peace,

Jim

    RE-1
    You couldn't have explained it better Jim !

    Peace
    Jim

    The God I worship is a God of forgiveness and compassion.  The God
    I worship can take a situation full of pain and seemingly full of
    futility, and create something precious and beautiful from it.
    
    Peace,
    Richard

    
    I am wondering if the concerned person is really refering to
    the "annulment" procedure of the RC Church. The annulment process
    is an examination of a marriage by the church, at the request of
    one of the marriage partners, to determine if it was a sacramentally
    valid marriage. The RC church does not recognize divorce of a 
    valid marriage, but does understand that some marriages were, perhaps,
    undertaken without the conditions to be sacramentally valid in
    the church. If this is judged to be the case and the annulment is
    granted, it is as if the people had never been married in the 
    RC Church. 
    
    I don't know the factors involved in this process and I don't know 
    for certain how the Church views the children of such an annulled
    marriage. 
    
    If this is indeed what the anomyous person is refering to, I would 
    suggest that the person discuss this further with a Priest. Also,
    the Diocean Office often has a Ministry for Separated and Divorced
    Catholics or offer programs to help a person work through the
    difficult period of readjustment and reconcilliation. I'm sure 
    these people would have the best explination and support for
    someone in your friend's situation.
    
    I hope this helps.
    
    Mary
    

    
             Response from the basenoter...Anon..
    
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
      Back in May when I posed this question, I was ready to ask the
    question, but not ready to hear the answer.  Now that I have struggled
    and prayed and been prayed for, I am ready.  The answer was here all
    along, but just as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I had to find it for
    myself.  Thanks to you all for caring.
    
    
    Anon
    
    

    Dear Anon,
    
    	If it would not violate a confidence, would you be willing to
    share with us the answer you found?  It might make a difference to
    another reader.
    
    Peace,
    Richard

This is a reply from our anonymous friend who entered .0.  (Richard, I think 
your question in .6 is well answered here.)

Peace, anon.

Jim  (co-mod)
===========================================================================
  Sorry this was so long in coming, but even though I experienced this over 
  a year ago, it has taken me this long to be able to put it into words.

  The answer, for me, was to come to know, in my very soul, that I don't have
  to ask for God's forgiveness.  I already have it.  I have always had it.  I
  only needed to be open to it and and accept it.  I needed to forgive myself.
  I needed to open myself to really letting God into my life.  At the time I
  asked to have that original note posted, I was hiding from God.  If you had
  asked me that then, I would have denied it - more hiding.  

  Now I don't claim to have this down pat.  There are many, many times when I
  can't seem to be open to God.  But I am not perfect.  God is perfect.  God
  does not expect me to be perfect.  God wants me to perfect but knows that I
  will fail.  So, I keep struggling, trying to feel God with my heart and
  soul.  Play at understanding God, but always remembering that God is a
  mystery that is believed more than it is understood.

  (For the curious - the detail of my original question is that my first
  daughter was conceived out of wed lock.  Guilt trip #1.  And the marriage
  ended in divorce.  Guilt trip #2.  And I was not chaste after divorce.
  Guilt trip #3.  And I remarried.  Guilt trip #4.  Along with some other
  sins along the way - I was a very burdened soul.  I still occasionally pick
  up my burdens, and I occasionally add to them.  But it is somehow lighter
  now.)

The power to forgive sins was given to the Church by our risen Lord on
the first evening of Easter: "Jesus breathed on the disciples, and said to
them, `Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'" (John 20:22-23)

At the heart of the Gospel is the call to repentance, the call to turn from
sin toward God.  (Mark 1:14-15)  In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we
have the means for forgiveness of sin committed after Baptism.

In its essence, Penance is something extremely simple -- we kneel beside
another and confess to God our sins, laying bare the real failures of every
day which honest thinking compels us to admit.  A confession is not a portrait
of vague disgust with ourselves, but revealing those concrete occasions in
which we have sinned.  Confession and the granting of God's forgiveness, or
Absolution, not only gives us, but also compels us to seek a new and enriched
relationship with the Saviour of the world, with our neighbors, and with
ourselves.  By our penance, we enter into the joy of our Lord.

The four stages of this Sacrament of the Gospel of grace are:  "Contrition",
or sorrow for our sins:  By careful self-examination, we know what our sins
are and the extent to which we have offended God's love and goodness.
"Confession": we own up to our sins simply, honestly, and completely.  [For
extremely serious sins] we make our confession to a Priest as a minister of
God and as a representative of his holy Church.  "Absolution": God washes
away the stain of sin from our souls and gives us strength to resist sin in
the future.  "Satisfaction": we do our penance as a sign that we will try
to do God's holy will in the future, resolving not to sin again, by the
help of God's grace.

Thank you, Anon. re: .7,

I do appreciate the inner struggles you've been dealing with.  And thank you
for getting back to us, no matter the time it took.

The God I worship is a God of forgiveness; forgiveness far and away more
expansive than our own human capacity to forgive.

Peace,
Richard