By Alyssa Bormes

Untitled by StockSnap via Pixabay. CCO

Get out your fireworks; it’s St. Luke’s Feast Day! Now I love the whole Gospel, and I am particularly fond of the Nativity stories and the Prodigal Son, but I will never forget one line that meant everything to my coming home to the Church.

Nestled right in between the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son is the Parable of the Lost Coin.

Here it is:

“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15: 8-10  

It was the spring of 1999, and I was making my first adult confession to Bishop Paul Dudley, of happy memory. After the confession he made reference to the parable above when he said, “Alyssa, imagine the rejoicing in heaven today for one sinner coming home.

In one sentence, he welcomed me back to the fold.

Later, as I was leaving he emphatically stated, “Alyssa, God has forgiven you. Now, go home and do the hard work of forgiving yourself.”

So today, in honor of St. Luke, get to the confessional if you need; then do the wild work of forgiving yourself, and stand back and get ready…angels will be rejoicing! And it will be so much more than the woman’s rejoicing for the lost coin, this party is for your very soul!

About the Author:

Alyssa Bormes is an educator, author, speaker, and retreat leader. She currently teaches at the Chesterton Academy in Edina, Minnesota, writes for the Catholic Spirit, and the W.I.N.E blog, is the host of a weekly show, “Christian Witnesses in the Church,” on Radio Maria US, and is the author of The Catechism of Hockey. You can find her at alyssabormes.com.