(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

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.