Confession and Vocation

This is not a confession, it's about Confession, aka Penance, or the more obnoxious (to me) Reconciliation. Ugh. I like Confession and I think penance is what you get when you go.

The other day on my board, someone mentioned their cousin was making her first Penance and another person asked what that was. I said it was when you make your first Confession and someone ELSE clarified that Confession meant confessing your sins to a Priest. I thought that was a bit much - I think people generally know what Confession is, since people on tv and in movies are CONSTANTLY going to Confession, especially if they are not Catholic. Oh does that GRATE on my NERVES.

There is this baseball player who was an Oakland prospect who is leaving baseball to become a priest. I was listening to Dan Patrick on ESPN Radio, he was interviewing the guy and he asked him something about confession, I think swearing, maybe? Does he confess swearing? And the guy answered, laughing "every week". Dan Patrick went on to say that he remembered confession! And he used to count how many times he disobeyed his parents! Ho ho ho, it really seemed to stir up some memories for Dan. He didn't seem to be *not* Catholic anymore, I truly think that he thinks that Confession is for little kids and maybe people who are becoming Priests?

He's wrong. You're supposed to go to Confession once a year, a rule of the Church, and really you should go more often that that, really whenever you are aware of mortal sin. As my priest says, the Pope goes to Confession once a week and if HE can think of things to confess, I suppose we all can.

We're lucky that we have Confession available to us at our church all the time. I didn't go for a LONG time, like more than 20 years, but once Mike went through RCIA and before I got married, I went back and have been going regularly ever since. My sister goes now, too, which I think is lucky. I feel like we gained a lot by bringing Mike into the church, I feel like we got brought in a little bit more.

On vocations - Oprah had nuns on her show yesterday and they were so nice and sweet. They seemed so, so sure of their vocation and of course they weren't going to go on Oprah and cry about "I've made a terrible mistake" but I was jealous of them and their conviction. I do feel that I have been called to be a married person and I know that I have these kids and must be called to be their mother, but man. I am so, so bad at it. I was wishing I could just go to that damned cloister and play field hockey with those nuns and not have to be anyone's mother yesterday. I wish I felt more convinced of my vocation. Seven years those nuns have to go before they take their final vows! Seven! I am not even seven years into motherhood and already I feel like a failure most of the time, I wish I had ... what? Thought about it more? Prayed about it more? Ugh I don't know. They were nice, those nuns, is all. They seemed happy.