First Confession (or Reconciliation as the Kids Call It These Days)
This is my church. I was married here. My children were baptized here. I taught CCD (religion classes) here last year to first graders. A lot of lovely memories. Tonight, we made a new one. G made his first confession this evening. Officially called "First Reconciliation", this is an 8-year-old's first chance to say "Bless me Father for I have sinned..." and later rattle off the freshly-memorized Act of Contrition before bolting the confessional. Oh, and to be absolved his sins. He had three choices of confessional priest tonight. Two sat in chairs in far-off niches of the church and took confessions face-to-face (or really shoulder-to-shoulder so the kids wouldn't have to actually confess their heinous second-grade sins while looking a priest in the eye). One sat in a traditional screened confessional behind the red velvet curtains. (Not our church but the confessional looks basically like this one.) G picked Priest #3 behind the curtains. Of course. For th...