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| Ministry of Reconciliation Guidelines and Procedures
I. Ministry of Reconciliation Goal IV. Requirements to be a Minister VIII. Training and Mentoring Time XIII. Duties of Reconciliation Ministers
Goal
atmosphere, an uplifting spirit and an orderly environment.
Objectives
2. To be able to recruit, educate and train enough volunteers as Reconciliation Ministers, whose primary duties and responsibilities would include :
Reconciliation Minister 1. Preserve and maintain a prayerful, respectable and orderly manner, decorum and environment for penitents wishing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This includes but is not limited to:
2. The Reconciliation Minister has the right to remove penitents from the Mary Chapel should they become unruly and difficult, after all efforts made have been exhausted in order to ensure a prayerful, respectable and peaceful environment. 3. The Reconciliation Minister is a peacekeeper in the Mary Chapel during these hours. It is not their role, nor their duty and responsibility to look after minor children. 4. A Reconciliation Minister will be present for the entire duration of the reconciliation service to maintain peace and order.
Requirements to be a Minister of Reconciliation Plan of Action 1. Carefully chosen and selected soft meditative instrumental music will be played for the entire duration of the reconciliation. This should set the tone and the mood for a peaceful and prayerful atmosphere. 2. Give each penitent a choice and freedom to choose which confessor they would prefer. All priests are bi-lingual. 3. An orderly seating arrangement will be implemented, which will help avoid misunderstandings and unruly behavior and conduct. Doing this will allow us to better manage our time and resources of volunteers available. 4. A brief announcement will be made by the Minister explaining the process and simple rules for confession that people will follow. Manpower 2. The remaining membership would be coming from lay people or from other ministries that are interested in helping out.
Terms: Rotation Basis Training and Mentoring Time Training may include shadowing with the minister for that particular week to get and develop the feeling of being comfortable. Attendance 2. Arrival of 15 minutes before confession time – this will allow time to set up things needed for confessions – music set up. 3. He/She will make sure that the chapel is left in a tidy and orderly manner, lights off, chair/pews all in place. Conduct 2. Must have patience and tolerance. Language Manner of Dressing
Specific Duties of Reconciliation Ministers 1. Please arrive not later than 3:00 P.M. on the day you are scheduled to serve in the Ministry. People start arriving by 3:00. 2. Upon arrival, please check both confessional rooms and turn the lights on. Leave both doors open. This will signal that the confessors are not there yet. 3. Retrieve the Sign Tags of the confessors for that Saturday in confessional room #1. They are located underneath the Bible. Slide the tag on the wall of each confessional room. 4. Retrieve the CD player and the CD underneath the table of the confessor in room #1. Plug it into the right hand side wall outlet outside the room of confessor #1. Turn it to medium high. Choose which CD you want to play first. 5. Prepare your reading materials to be offered to the penitents by placing them on the small credence table by the water font on your left hand side. 6. Bring that small credence table to the center of the aisle to make it visible for the penitents. The reading materials are printed in both English and Spanish. You do not have to collect them back. Penitents can keep the materials if they wish, and we will just replenish them as time goes by. 7. Make sure the Chapel is neat and tidy.
1. As each penitent begins to arrive, position yourself at the middle aisle and be ready to greet. Offer the names of the two confessors for that day and let penitents choose. REMEMBER to tell them that the confessors are both proficient in English and Spanish. Who they choose determines their seating arrangement.
2. Try to maintain a good sense of balance as you go along. This may not always be the case, depending on the choice of confessors that we have. 3. The last 4 rows on the back of each aisle are to be marked RESERVED. Please do not allow anybody to sit in this section. This is being done in order to protect both the confessor and penitent from being overheard of what was said inside the confessional room. 4. The confessors will normally arrive just a few minutes before 3:30. Upon their arrival they will immediately go to their designated section. 5. By this time you may proceed with your brief announcement to the community assembled. You may choose to do it at the lectern provided or at the center aisle, where ever you feel comfortable. PLEASE speak loudly enough to be heard by everyone. 6. As you begin the reconciliation process, give each penitent a signal to stand up and proceed to the confessional room. Continue this process until you get to the very last person. 7. As they begin to exit the confessional room, some of them may wish to go back to do their penance at the same seat they were when they first came in…...that’s fine, some of them leave immediately…that’s fine as well. 8. Once in a while you will run into a few people who can be difficult with unruly behavior and conduct. If this happens, please use your own judgment and DO NOT get into any kind of discussion, as this is not the proper place to be. You may wish to bring them outside where you can briefly explain things to them if you wish to do that. Should a behavior become very difficult, destructive, annoying and disturbing you may remove them from the Mary Chapel as a last resort and offer a last alternative:
9. Please be mindful of the time. Typically it should end at 4:45 P.M. but in most cases it goes a few minutes past that time. Here is the rule: Depending on who the confessor is, he may want to continue on or he may ask you to make an announcement. We generally do not want the confessor to be there past 5:30 unless it is a special circumstance. 10. After the last penitent has come out of the confessional room, PLEASE notify the confessors that they are DONE. 11. You may now start closing down. Please remember the following:
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