St. Anne Church in Richmond Hill seats about 1,000. It was built this size with future growth in mind. We are a bedroom suburb of Savannah and we are at the precipice of an already booming growth becoming nuclear.
We had two Ash Wednesday Masses at 9 AM and 7 PM. There were about 300 at the 9 AM and about 800 at the 7 PM Mass, if not more.
My parochial vicar and I both heard Confessions after both Masses. Both Masses lasted slightly longer than an hour each. We finished Confessions after the 9 at about 11 AM and after the 7 at about 9:30 PM, about an hour after my bedtime.
Most of these Confessions were not like being stoned with popcorn but stones, as these were big Confessions for some powerful sinners.
Did your parish have Ash Wednesday Confessions?
10 comments:
That is wonderful to hear. Please praise these people for their confessions and encourage them to dwell on that relief they experience and to seek it frequently. And I praise God for you.
930 pm is about an hour after your bedtime? You must follow the old country saying, "don't let the sun catch you sleeping!"
Bee here:
Well, my parish (St. John Cantius in Chicago) is an anomaly, but usually 2 priests are in the confessional before every Mass on Sunday for about 45 minutes, and one of our priests has taken to staying in the confessional all through the earliest Sunday Mass and even after that Mass. I don't know how long he stays.
At our church there is almost always a line of 3 or 4 people. And on the first weekend of the month (to correspond to First Fridays and First Saturdays) there is almost always a LONG line (say 10 people) for most of the time. Most of the confessions are about 3 to 5 minutes long, which seems to indicate these are people who are probably receiving the sacrament regularly. But sometimes someone is in there for 15 or 20 minutes, and I assume that is someone who is doing some big time confessing and some serious stuff is going on. The priests discourage "spiritual direction" during confession time, and discourage someone using confession to talk to someone about their problems, so it's probably confessing some serious sins.
During Lent, especially during Holy Week, the confession lines are horrendous. I've seen times where all 6 confessionals are "manned" and every one has a long line, with more people coming as the lines go down. I try to plan my pre-Easter confession for some other time, like Sunday morning before Mass so I can get in!
So yes. My parish had confessions for Ash Wednesday.. :-)
God bless.
Bee
I get up at 4 AM and have done so since about 1991 or so. I am a morning person and think very well at that time. At night my brain is jelly. So anything I write on this blog that reads like jelly is done at night.
Jelly? Methinks marmalade....
No, our Parish Administrator was not even there for Mass. Daily confessions before Mass were dropped months ago, and now only once a week for an hour. Mass was packed.
We are currently in a progressive period here...
Anonymous at 10:28,
Sounds like a decline. Sad
No, but we could use some longer lines in Atlanta! Yesterday a House committee in Atlanta (Georgia House) passed a bill restricting abortion once a heartbeat can be detected (roughly 6 weeks), and a number of Democrats spoke in the morning legislative session today praying for abortion providers (not praying they will abandon their sordid practice but rather that they be "protected" while providing their "services"!!!) How far things have fallen......
No confessions at my parish yesterday, nor any others close by.
Mallen
We did have confessions on Ash Wednesday. At my traditional parish we have confessions 2 or 3 times every day of the year. At traditional parishes we go every two weeks so we will always (hopefully) be in a state to receive plenary indulgences.
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