I confess(ed)

I went to have confession the other day. I had been meaning to go for some time now, but it was quite hard to find a chance. In fact, I did not even go to any parish, but I just took advantage that my boss at the school is a priest.

You would imagine that in the "Catholic Ireland", which sent missionaries by the hundreds all over the world, you could just go into any church any time and find priests confessing. This is not the case. In most churches confession is available only on Saturday mornings for about 30-45 minutes, depending on the demand.

If you are not so fortunate as to have a priest boss (which is not always an advantage), you really need to plan out well your penitential day. My wife and I like to organize it this way. The whole family goes to church for mass. Mom goes to confess, dad takes the kids to the playground, who can't wait in silence anymore after mass. Then mom hurries to playground, dad runs back to church as fast as he can to find the priest in the confessional. This works most of the time. We like to organize our confessions on the same day. It is definitely a great way to strenghten our marriage.

As for this time, my wife went to confession alone today. And I did not have to break a sweat for my absolution either.