(no subject)

[la_rainette]

Thank you SO MUCH, carebearssparky ! *hugs* It's a lovely, lovely gift and I am very, very touched.

<3

Many thanks for the kind words, too. They mean a lot to me.

Froglet is in grade 2 and goes to a Catholic school, so she's doing her First Communion this year,  and last Wednesday, she and her friends had their first Reconciliation rite: they had to confess their sins to one of four priests present that evening, and then they read a few prayers and sang a few hymns, and that was pretty much it.

Froglet, however, had been worrying about the whole thing.

Froglet: What will I tell the priest?
rainette: I don't know, what do you think you will tell him?
Froglet: I am not supposed to tell YOU, I only have to tell him.

Right you are, my Froglet.

Froglet: J. is taking a lot of time.

Now, J. is an adorable little boy, but he has ADHD and can be a bit difficult when he hasn't taken his medication. 

rainette: Well, maybe he has a lot to say?
Froglet: Oh yes. He made a list of his sins.
rainette: Oh dear. Is it a long list?
Forglet: Oh yes. He has 82 SINS  to confess. We COUNTED.
rainette: ... 

I can only imagine what the list looks like.

Monday: 
- pulled my brother's hair. 
- Hid my friend's mittens. 
- Refused to eat my soup.
and so on...

Froglet's friend: I made a list too!
rainette: you did?
Froglet's friend: yeah, but I have only 15 sins.
rainette: That's OK.
Froglet's friend *very seriously* NO, IT'S NOT!  The priest only let me read the first two sins, and then he gave me absolution, but I didn't even read all my sins! Now my heart isn't clean and I don't know what to do!

Well. My friend Denis, who is now in his fifties and went to a Catholic school as a little boy, tells me that at the time, you had to confess your sins every week, and the priest wanted to hear every. single. one.

Denis: and you don't actually have so much to confess when you're eight.
rainette: I guess not.
Denis: so we used to trade sins. Whenever we found a good one, we'd share it with our friends. 
rainette: ...
Denis: well, we wanted the priest to feel like it was worth it! 

ETA Also, I apologise to the friend I was unfair to yesterday (you know who you are). I am tired. I know it's not quite an excuse, but it's all I have. I'll make it up to you at some point.

Comments

[notions.livejournal.com]

My stepmom used to have to go to confession every week when she was very young, and she always made up things to confess because she couldn't think of anything she'd done wrong.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Things haven't changed! (I have a bit more time this week and will get Mariiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaa on yousendit for you, I promise)

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Denis: so we used to trade sins. Whenever we found a good one, we'd share it with our friends.
rainette: ...
Denis: well, we wanted the priest to feel like it was worth it!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*is not Catholic and therefore confesses only on LJ*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I KNOW!

Yeah, it's hard to be Catholic sometimes :D

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

:D I really think this story is only truly funny to catholics who had to go through this.

I remember sweating bullets getting ready for my first confession, thinking that God was gonna be really upset if I didn't remember everything i did wrong.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*sighs* Froglet went through the same thing! She was terrified. She recently passed her first Preliminary Dance in skating (the Dutch Waltz -- don't laugh) and on Wednesday for her first confession she was like, "Remember how nervous I was for the Dutch Waltz? I am a lot more nervous tonight!"

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I always hated confession, because I was a good girl (no, really!) and could never think of any "sins" to confess. Also I knew the priest really well and was sure he could recognise people's voices. And also, the whole "do a bad thing, confess it, go and do *more* bad things and hey, its ok, repent and all is groovy" concept has always baffled me which doesn't really help.

Bet she will look a little angel in her white bride-like communion frock (I was a fat child in a home-made too-short dress surrounded by visions of loveliness, luckily I was too busy admiring them to realise how daft I looked! :> )

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, yes! I mean -- I don't know if we'll buy her the traditional White Dress, we might pass on this one, because they will all wear simple white robes on top of their clothes (so that nobody stands out just because they weren't able to afford the frilly white dress, you know? I approve of that, actually.)

But I will certainly buy her a Very Pretty Dress for the occasion. :)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Oh I like the robes idea.. proud parents and grandparents can go a bit OTT and then the ones with less doting/suffocating families can feel a bit dowdy, which really shouldn't be the case for a flipping religious ritual..

Photos, mayhap? Before *and* after she gets into trouble and looks more like her impish self than a Very Pretty Angel ::grin::

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*laughs* You know her well! WILL DO! *grins* (First communion is not before end of April, though, and guess what? It's scheduled on the same weekend as Froglet's annual Ice Show! *headdesks* expect pictures of a pretty girl with HUGE circles under her eyes.)

[fizzylizard.livejournal.com]

I went to Mass for the first time last night - I'm no Catholic, and my first EVER look at the inside of a church of any kind was two weeks ago, but I went a formal Commencement dinner and Mass to celebrate the start of the academic year as recognised by the decidedly Catholic residential college where I now live.

Didn't confess, of course, but I'm not surprised Froglet is a bit nervous. I was too, not least because I wasn't at all sure what to do when it came to the bread-and-wine bits.

She'll be fine though. She seems like a basically good girl, so her Pile o' Sins can't be that huge.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Nah, it wasn't: she was back with us in no time ;) She is a good girl, most of the time, but you know, so is little J., despite his 82 sins. :D

It must be weird for you to live at a Catholic residential college. Are you expected to attend Mass regularly, or just the Occasional Formal Event?

[fizzylizard.livejournal.com]

It is kind of weird, and I can't deny that I'm deeply puzzled by some of the things I've seen my friends doing...but I'm still trying to work out which corner of the spiritual world I feel safe enough to explore in, so I'm not about to complain. I've often wondered what it might be like to have faith (any faith, not just Catholicism or even Christianity as a whole) playing a major role in my life. It's not something I grew up with in anything other than a nominal form, so I'm approaching this whole mess as a total novice. Everything is new to me!

I do think I need something, though. Not everybody feels the need for spirituality or faith of any kind - and as far as I'm concerned, that's a perfectly valid position - but for myself...I think I do. I'd like to have a guide sometimes.

I've wandered away from your question, sorry! I'll answer it properly now.

We're not 'expected' to attend Mass on anything other than formal occasions (at least four per year), but since they showed us where the parish church was on the first day, the chapel is always left unlocked, Father Michael moonlights as our college chaplain as well as being the priest at St Carthage's and the college is run by Loreto nuns...I'd say they certainly encourage it. They say a full grace every night before dinner, and most people visibly cross themselves at the end of it.

I'd feel pretty stupid crossing myself because I can't work out which shoulder you're meant to touch first and I don't want to do it wrong. That's not exactly respectful, and even if I don't fully understand the rituals and whatnot I do respect what lies underneath.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

HEEEE! I'm always scared I'll get something wrong, too. :D

You know -- as fas as I am concerned, faith is one thing and religion quite another. You can have a spiritual life and not belong to any Church or go to Church on Sunday.

The best part, however, is that since you grew up outside any kind of major influence, you get to figure it out by yourself! :) And you have all the time in the world to do so...

sign of the cross

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

*budges in*

It's left shoulder-right shoulder if you're a Roman Catholic, right shoulder-left shoulder if you're Orthodox Catholic.

Once upon a time I learned in religion class why the sign of the cross is done that way, but I've happily forgotten everything...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

*big hugs*

Buckets!

More when I am coherent. :D

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* Thank you.

[levi.livejournal.com]

<3<3<3<3<3

I heart you a lot.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

I heart you muchly, too. *hugs tight*

first confession

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

Kids = awesome.

I was upset as a kid when I got the same punishment as everybody else (one Our Father in Heaven and ten Hail Marys), because I worked hard on those list of sins, and I thought it was more impressive than my friends'!

I didn't even get advice to become less evil or anything X-D

I think one of my sins that I confessed at my first confession was "I think the worst of the world and other people." Sadly enough, it's *ahem* still often true >_>
Clearly this is the priest's fault for not taking my sin seriously ;-)

At my school we did confession at third grade and First Communion at fourth grade, IIRC. We unanimously agreed that the holy wafer tastes like cardboard.