Confession

[AugustineA]

Warning you ahead of time, I'm pretty much just waxing on about confession and becoming observant again in this thread. 

 

I went to confession tonight for the first time in three years. I've been considering coming back to the Church for a long time, at least half a year. Finally, this past Wednesday God must have finally had enough with me. I can't even put my finger on why or how it happened. I started praying from my old Catholic prayer book, not knowing it was Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lenten season. 

 

This afternoon, I purchased a new catechism since I couldn't find my old one. The cathedral was nearby, and I ambushed a priest into confession. It was the perfect gateway back into the Church. We went over why I stopped coming to Church, the other belief systems I studied, possible vocations in life, and finally the cartloads of sins I've committed these past few years. Sometimes I would think, well that's it, and he would gently say "..ah well.. what aboutt... this?" And all of a sudden I'd remember a torrent of things. 

 

Now I know why people have "confessors" that they're comfortable with, and I realized how robotic and cold I was last time I went to confession. It's actually a relationship.

 

Mass was amazing. The readings were beautiful, the fall of Adam and our salvation; I couldn't think of a more fitting night to return. While sitting there I realized how much I had missed the arched ceilings, history, and art of the cathedral as well, studying the faces of the martyrs and saints that decorate the ledges. I remember why I fell in love with it as a kid.

 

It doesn't matter what I do in my life, or what entire countries or empires do. The Church is the rock. It's still there putting away, remembering all the individual lives that passed through it. 

 

 

 

 

[ChristinaTherese]

Welcome home!