Posted on 04/01/2010 6:01:03 AM PDT by marshmallow
I hear a lot of Confessions. Not that I am complaining (at least most of the time). And it really heats up during Lent and Holy Week. I hear 3 to 5 hours a day during Holy Week. I want to ensure that there is no excuse for not going to Confession before Easter. (It also has the added benefit of annoying the liturgists. This is always a plus.)
One thing that I hear over and over again is people apologizing for confessing the same type of sin over and over again. First of all, let me assure you that we priests don't grade you on originality. We really don't want you to come up with new and original sins or combination to keep us entertained. Anyways, after 15 years I think it would be difficult to come up with something I haven't heard. Off the top of my head, I think the only things I am missing on my checklist are cannibalism and kidnapping.
Second, it is important to realize that most people do confess the same type of sin over and over again. It is not because they are not, with God's grace, working on conversion. It is because our characters are fairly fixed and rarely change. And the devil attacks us precisely where we are weakest. Is it any wonder that that is where we sin.
So don't give up! Keep working with God's help on strengthening those weak areas and don't worry about boring the priest.
How does confession annoy liturgists?
Thank you for posting this. It was just what I needed.
A "liturgist" is a lay person appointed in some parishes to "run the show". They are the ones responsible for a lot of nonsense like giant puppets, clown masses, goofy pop music, etc. They are almost always screaming liberals, because in an orthodox/traditional parish there isn't any "show" and no need to "run" it. The priest simply follows the rubrics ("Say the black, do the red.")
Because they are liberals, they loathe things like Confession and Adoration and Gregorian Chant. They want the Church to be white bread mainline liberal Protestant. They would be more comfortable with the Episcopalians, but they just won't leave.
It's a misunderstanding of the Missal. The previous 1970 and 1975 editions of the Missale Romanum (the Novus Ordo) said of Good Friday and Holy Saturday:
"On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments."
However, since this is in the Missal (the book for MASS), "sacraments" refers only to Holy Mass and not the other sacraments.
If they are liberal hippy-dippy liturgists, then they hate easter being spiritual, because they want folks to concetrate on the more important stuff like spectacle/singing/decorations, the things that you can look at or paticipate in without thinking too hard.
Besides, thinking about sin is icky and confession isn’t flashy, isn’t it all about the glitzy celebration?
At least that’s my take on it.
Freegards
Thank you.
Thanks.
Sacramentary. I always hated that word. I heard that we’re FINALLY going back to the proper name, “Roman Missal” when the better translation comes out next year.
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