Today, during the Hour of Mercy, we got some much needed rain in Texas.
I was standing in line, waiting to go to confession, and could hear the rain beating softly on the roof of the church. Afterward, I stepped out and took a picture of the statues that are on the parish grounds. This is a picture of my favorite statue.
I also started thinking how nature abhors a vacuum; this was reflected in the line of people for confession. About thirty people were in line for confession after Sunday Mass; half that many went to confession between Masses. I think that the more time a priest makes for confession, the more people will avail themselves of the sacrament. Certainly one to two hours on Saturday afternoon can not cover the size of most parishes.
St. John Vianney, and the late Pope John Paul II when he was assigned as a parish priest, spent many hours in the confessional. I think JP II used to refer to it as being a 'prisoner of the confessional.' St. John Vianney used to talk about the 'big fish' that would occasionally show up for confession after years away from the sacrament. Why did he not refer to the prodigal as the 'BIG DUCK?' Was he biased against ducks for some reason? This was never discussed in his biography.
For a middle aged sinner like me, it is wonderful to have the Sacrament of Confession available for frequent use. With frequent confession, one can work on eliminating bad habits that lead to sin, and take steps to develop a deeper spiritual life. What a wonderful thing, for a priest to have the opportunity to bring a sinner back into the state of sanctifying grace. And how many priests will find that mercy is bestowed on them because they saved sinners from damnation?
Pray for priests and for more vocations for the priesthood!
On a different note, the noisykids made these sculptures. I think they look like ducks, but they insist they are robots. Even the noisykids discriminate against ducks.
"But why you have a 'Scorpion Stalking Duck Blog' in the first place I'll never understand"
- Eldest daughter, second eldest of the noisykids
"A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country and in his own house and among his own kindred"
- Mark 6:4
dadwithnoisykids
No comments:
Post a Comment