Goose is receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time this Saturday.  For those that don’t know Catholic speak, it’s confession.  Pray for him, will you?

He’s young enough that he isn’t really scared or freaked out by it.  Plus, he hasn’t really done anything too bad that would warrant uneasy feelings.  And I’m glad.  (About both.) There are kids who freak out about it, and that’s never good.  I should know, I was one of them.  In fact, despite the fact that you are supposed to receive this sacrament before receiving the Eucharist, I never did.  I managed to somehow slip through the cracks and nobody realized it until the next year.  Ha!  Even at age 7, I was pretty sneaky.

Confession is one of those things that is misunderstood by most people.  That includes most Catholics.  Nothing annoys me more than Catholics who brag about not going to Confession.  And I know that their relationship with God is their business, I just don’t understand why you would be Catholic if you don’t believe in the sacraments.  My issue isn’t with those that question the need for confession, it’s those that brag about not going.

My journey with confession got off to a very slow start.  After finally receiving the sacrament at age 8, I didn’t go again until I was 23.  I was traveling through Europe and thought of all places one should go to confession, it would be the Vatican.  Turns out I was wrong, it wasn’t a great experience.  After that I didn’t go again for another five years.  Since then I’ve gone on a very regular basis and am so grateful to finally get what this sacrament is all about.

So here I am bragging too, right?  Well, not really.  While not a big follower of rules under normal circumstances, there are some rules I consider sacred.  One is you don’t go to communion if you’re not in a state of grace.  While I didn’t “remember” that for many years, (read: while in college), I can promise that once I knew about that, I never went to receive communion again until I had gone to confession.  And quite frankly, at least I was going to mass during college.  At least, that is how I justified it.

Once I finally learned about confession and the healing grace you receive from the sacrament, I’ve been a pretty regular participant.  Here’s the thing though: not everyone who goes to confession comes out feeling different.  And those are the ones I admire the most.  They are still trying, they are going to confession even though they might not quite understand how awesome it really is.

So the lecture about confession is over.  I have one story to share though: two years ago the family went to one of those communal penance services during Advent.  Lance, Squirt and I each went to different priests.  I was probably confessing the longest.  Afterwards we all compared our penance.  I had to say two shorts prayers, Lance had to pray a decade of the Rosary and Squirt, well, he was scrambling for a Bible.  He had to look up two different scriptures and reflect on them.  Of course, after that Lance and I wondered what he had confessed!

Saturday our entire family will be there to support Goose, then Lance, Squirt and I will also celebrate the sacrament.

Goose is required to celebrate the sacrament three times before May when he receives his First Communion.  I challenge any Catholic to do the same before May.