Through Penance we receive God’s forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the acknowledgement that a sin was committed, and the release from the debt associated with it. It is not permission to sin. In Penance we receive Jesus’ healing grace through absolution by the priest. The signs of this sacrament are the confession of our sins and the words of absolution by the priest.

confession is available at the following times, or by appointment. 

Please call the office at 402-426-3823 to make an appointment.

 St. Francis Borgia              St. John the Baptist                     St. Patrick

The Sacrament of Confession is as old as the Church itself.

Here is what the early church had to say about the sacrament:

Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience.
This is the way of life…. On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks,
after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure.
– The Didache, A.D. 70-90

Just as a man is enlightened by the Holy Spirit when he is baptized by a priest, so he who
confesses his sins with a repentant heart obtains their remission from the priest.
– St. Athanasius of Alexandria (d. 373)

It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries
[i.e. the Sacraments] is entrusted [i.e. priests]. Those doing penance of old are found to
have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins
to John the Baptist [Matt 3:6]; but in Acts they confessed to the Apostles, by whom also
all were baptized [Acts 19:18].
– St. Basil The Great (d. 379)

From the Catechism on the Sacrament of Reconciliation:

1422 "Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion."

Why a Sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism?

1425 "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." One must appreciate the magnitude of the gift God has given us in the sacraments of Christian initiation [Baptism] in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who has "put on Christ." But the apostle John also says: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." and the Lord himself taught us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses," linking our forgiveness of one another's offenses to the forgiveness of our sins that God will grant us.

1426 Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy and without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy and without blemish." Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.