Patricia! Not the most common name but a very beautiful one. It was my mother’s name. Tomrrow would be her birthday so the first Mass tomorrow is for her. She’d have been – my gosh – 75 already, but the Lord saw fit to call her home when she was in her early 50’s.
Thanks for your good words, both of you. Much appreciated. Speaking of “working up the gumption,” . . .
I made my first Confession at 7 years old. I just turned 37 so that was 30 years ago. I have gone to Confession every week since that first Confession (apart from a span of a few weeks when I prefered to be in a sandy foxhole defending the country when I was in the Army). I must admit, while I dont’ really ahve to work myself up for COnfession, there is still some unidentifiable feeling or notion or SOMETHING that comes over me. When I speak to the parents of the students preparing for First Confession, I share this with them. Then I remidn them that when this happens, it could be for two reasons. The first reason could come from within ourselves. Remember the first time you sat beind the wheel of a car to drive it? What if you had tossed your driver’s license into a drawer and used it only once a year or once every few years. The same feeling from that first time would probably never be overcome. That’s probably a common one for the “semi-churched” crowd.
The second one is very simple: the Devil wants to do anything he can to drive a wedge between you and the sacraments. The devil, of course, can’t MAKE you do anything, but he does know how to push our butons, each of us having different buttons. When things like that happen to you – at the risk of having eaten too much watercress – NAME IT for what it is and tell him to go to hell where he belongs. DOnt’ let him push your buttons. That’s the spritual as well as the emotional side. Now, for the practical side, remind yourself of how many times you’ve seen a penitent emerge from the confession bleeding profusely, bruised, bloodied or missing a limb?
Hopefully, never. It isn’t a dangerous, unsafe thing to go to Confession. Believe me, OH please believe me. THer is nothing you can come up with to confess that the priest hasn’t heard a gajillion times. The week after my ordination, before I received an assignemnt (refered to as our Honeymoon week), I was invited to hear COnfessions at a local 40-hours. I heard confessions that evening for the first time, for just over an hour. Guess what? I haven’t heard anything new since.
Oh sure, sometimes the stage is different, but there are only so many scripts. Sin is death. Therefore, by its very nature it cannot be creative. There are no new sins. Yes, new ways of sinning, but they come down to the same old sins. Relax. Kick the devil in the groin and move along.
Ask St. John Vianney to help you (he was a confessor) and to help all of our priests (he is the patron of Parish priests).
Here’s one for you: A little kid goes into the confessional and says, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I said ‘damned’ once. OOPS! TWICE!” hehehe
As far as the reference to the seminarians, no, only priests and bishops can confess. However, if the area is teaming with seminarians, there may be one or more seminaries local to him. In that case, there are probably a good number of priests in residence and perhaps avail themselves to the faithful outside the seminary.
Many thanks again!
– Fr. l.
), like Linda H. said, your reply to PuzzleAnnie soundedharsh. You cited that you answered to what she had said in this thread, but ALSO that of a response she wrote in another thread. Not everyone reads every forum, or every topic within a forum, so your judgement of her did come across as harsh.