DETROIT (CNS) – When Father Benjamin Kosnac decided to start offering confessions 30 minutes before every Mass, he wasn’t sure anyone would come. But try walking into the chapel at SS. Cyril & Methodius Church in Sterling Heights. Mich., on any given weekend now, and you won’t find a seat that isn’t taken.

Despite the efforts of Father Kosnac and two or three other priests, who are tucked away in confessionals churning through as many penitents as possible before the bells announce the start of Mass, the lines just don’t seem to get any shorter.

It’s not that SS. Cyril & Methodius has an inordinate amount of sinners. It’s the lessons of Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams” character in action: “If you build it, they will come.”

“It works very well. It’s very practical,” Father Kosnac told The Michigan Catholic, Detroit’s archdiocesan newspaper.

“If you go to a holy Mass and you want to receive (the Eucharist) and you know there is a sin that prevents you from receiving holy Communion, we make it available before holy Mass so the person actually can receive.”

Father Kosnac has been offering daily confessions for 18 years at his parish, and during that time he has seen a steady growth of parishioners and non-parishioners alike seeking the sacrament.