Confession

I was going to write about my Catholic journey today, but this evening I saw something wonderful and I decided to write about that instead. Perhaps I will write about myself at work tomorrow (my boss gave me some extra time before graduation).

This evening was a reconciliation service at my (Illinois) parish. Many years ago we went to one of these and it was one of those general absolution deals which I guess really weren't allowed and Cardinal George has since told them they can't do. But those general absolution things really ruined the sacrament of confession since who would want to do a face-to-face confession when you thought you could just stand in a group and get it.

Well we went to this service this evening because we knew thats when they were offering confession. They had a couple readings, a couple of songs, and then a "homily" of sorts. It was to examine your conscience. The priest went through each of the 10 commandments and told you various things that would be breaking that commandment or not living up to it. It was quite a lot to think about. Then he pointed out that there were going to be 6 priests throughout the church hearing confessions.

I was sort of expecting that many people would leave, thinking that the service had counted. But lines formed. Long lines. I was actually in the quicky-line, but as I looked around it was so beautiful to see so many people going to confession. Usually right before Christmas on the Saturday before they offer confession before mass and there is usually only a few people there. But this was wonderful.