Confession-a tale of two churches

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RSulli

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Confession in my town is a conundrum.

It was Saterday, three months since my last confession, and needless to say I was thinking it was time to go. But it was also time to do some much needed shopping with my wife of 49 years. Shopping ran long, it was hot as heck, patience was at a premium and by the time we pulled into the driveway and began unloading the “stuff” confession was beginning to take a back seat to creature comforts and the ball game.

But then I began thinking of my life for the last three months. Good sense won out.

I stepped into the church and there was a line all around the back of St. Judes and Mass was a scant 45 minutes away. I asked the usher if he thought that the line would outlive the beginning of the Mass. He said probably but it always depends of the length of the individuals confessions and proceedes to tell me this story.

A parishoner asked him “may I go ahead of the line. My hip is bothering me and besides I only have a few sins to confess” He told me, without devulging an identity of course, the confession lasted 15 minutes. The bottom line being I was too late.

Gods graces are given in abundance and we only have to do the work. And work I did and began driving to another church five minutes away. Thats a lot of work for the lame and lazy.

I entered the church and discovered a line of-let me see-two people.
 
Good idea to check on confession and Mass times for several nearby parishes!
 
That looks like a good healthy parish, if it has a line that long for confession.

Good for you, that you found the short line in the other parish. Hopefully that parish just has so much confession times and priests that the line is unusually short.

In my parish it is pretty short, (we are pretty progressive.) Our parish is in bad shape. But these things change with time, maybe we will get an orthodox priest and turn things around. Right now we have no priest.

God Bless
Scylla
 
scylla said:
That looks like a good healthy parish, if it has a line that long for confession.

Good for you, that you found the short line in the other parish. Hopefully that parish just has so much confession times and priests that the line is unusually short.
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We have many times for Confessions at my Parish and yet the lines are long especially on Saturdays when every one has a chance to go. I have been told that there is usually no long line at the other Parish in town so, hmmm, maybe I will head out there of a Saturday for my next Confession.
scylla said:
In my parish it is pretty short, (we are pretty progressive.) Our parish is in bad shape. But these things change with time, maybe we will get an orthodox priest and turn things around. Right now we have no priest.

God Bless
Scylla
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I pray that you do get a good orthodox Priest as my experience is the Priest sets the tone for the Parish.

Brenda V.
 
RSulli said:
A parishoner asked him “may I go ahead of the line. My hip is bothering me and besides I only have a few sins to confess” He told me, without devulging an identity of course, the confession lasted 15 minutes.
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15 minutes for “a few sins”?

The lines tend to be rather long in my parish, but I’ve never seen any confession take 15 minutes. Most take about 2 minutes. I’m beginning to think that if it takes that long, perhaps they are there more for a therapy session than for confession. Therapy / counseling can be done by appointment at another time, and need not be done by a priest!
 
JimG said:
15 minutes for “a few sins”?

The lines tend to be rather long in my parish, but I’ve never seen any confession take 15 minutes. Most take about 2 minutes. I’m beginning to think that if it takes that long, perhaps they are there more for a therapy session than for confession. Therapy / counseling can be done by appointment at another time, and need not be done by a priest!
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There’s a guy in our parish who used to take 10-15 minutes every single time - and he went almost every week. If I planned to go to confession, I jumped into line (ready or not) when I saw him come through the door so I wouldn’t end up behind him.

Betsy
 
The Confession I made upon ending my 15 year absence took longer than the usual few minutes. But I knew it would and made my comback at a conference where there were several confessors. That way it didn’t prevent anyone else.
 
lines here are always long, which is a good thing, but I have this feeling that as an employee I should not take time away from the parishioners, so my regular confessor (and spiritual director) is the retired priest at the monastery whom I see once a month or so. he is getting very frail but is such a lovely man and wonderful priest, please pray for him.
 
katy said:
The Confession I made upon ending my 15 year absence took longer than the usual few minutes. But I knew it would and made my comback at a conference where there were several confessors. That way it didn’t prevent anyone else.
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Praise our God always! RSulli
 
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