Confession

I can't believe how people seem to feel about Confession. I think a lot of people think of Confession as a very antiquated, old-fashioned thing that Catholics 'used to do'. I'm sure I felt that way, before Mike went through RCIA and I realized not only the importance of Confession, but the rule that says that you are supposed to go at least once a year. Our priest always suggests that you go four times a year, during Lent, Advent, and ... two other times that I am too harried to think of. When people tell him that they have nothing to confess, he always tells them that the Pope goes once a week! What do you suppose they are doing right that the Holy Father isn't doing? Ha! Nothing! We all need the grace given to us by going to Confession - it's a sacrament just like Holy Communion. Who are we to deny grace given by God?

I have a friend who is a Protestant and she is kind of mystified by Confession, as are a lot of people, Catholics included! The big thing, for people, it seems, is that you have to go THROUGH someone to get to God. Why, these people wonder, can't you just go to God directly? Well, of course you can, you can pray to God and ask God's forgiveness with no problem, obviously. But the sacrament of Confession is one that rules that you confess your sins to a priest - a priest, who is not the same as you. He is able to listen to your confession, to give you your penance prayers, and then to forget everything you said. I think it's amazing.

Ugh, I cannot STAND bold, bad Catholics. I mean, we are all sinners, I feel confident, but to just boldly ignore the rules of the Church and CROW about it on Facebook or whatever? It's rude and it's childish and it's annoying. I read this one woman who is always talking about how she'll just LEAVE the church if they 'make' them cover their hair, or if they 'make' them say different prayers. To that I say, LEAVE! BYE! My guess is that you are already ignoring the rules of the Church with the most famous transgression, practicing birth control, that you don't belong there anyway. No one even wonders about birth control anymore - no one even inquires. A friend of mine laughingly told me about how in her pre-cana classes, the priest had mentioned Natural Family Planning, and she and her husband laughed and laughed at the priest. Lovely.

But I wanted to say, about Confession, that I truly think that it is saving my spiritual life, ha, such as it is. The other day I went to church and it was PACKED. Some guy gave me his seat, but then a super old guy came in, so I gave him MY seat and I was standing out in the foyer, but it was freezing and there were a bunch of LOUD kids out there, so I figured I would just go stand online for confession. I wanted to go anyway and I figured that way I could stand and follow the Mass but also get to confession. So anyway, it was a visiting priest and I told him the usual, which is that I am impatient with my children and husband and that I worry that I have a severe lack of faith. He told me, among other things, that God loved me so much, that Gold wanted me to be very, very happy. And, I mean, I KNOW that, but it was something about hearing that sweet lilty voice say it, it really struck me. Or maybe I could just hear it more because I was on my way to being in a complete state of grace. I don't know, but following that Sunday, I had a very upsetting week and a lot of stuff happened and all I could think all week was that God loved me so much! That he wanted me to be so happy! I figured I better get on it, if that was the case, and it's really helped me. So far, so good.