In this post, I want to share my three best tips for a meaningful Lent.They are:
1. Go to confession.
2. Go to confession.
3. Go to confession.
And, if I haven't mentioned it lately, I also think going to confession would be a good thing to do.
If you love going to confession, good for you. Keep it up.
If you hate going to confession, consider giving up "not going to confession" for Lent.
If you hate to go, but love having gone, you may be a Dorothy Parker fan. (Of her profession, she said, "Hate to write ... love having written.")
I am a Dorothy Parker sort of confessee. Hate to go. Love having gone. Love going regularly, even though I hate going. (And, although it has no place in this post, I'll share another Dorothy Parker quote: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." Love that, although it's completely out of place here.)
And, finally, one more Dorothy Parker quote that does have a place here:
“It's not the tragedies that kill us, it's the messes.”
Confess the mess.
And, that's the last of Dorothy Parker I can share. If I repeat her most famous stuff, I'll have to head straight to confession.
7 comments:
I was just thinking about confession the other day and wishing I could go when I had laryngitis or something. You know, just slip the priest a little note instead of having to actually say the sins out loud.
And yes. Hate, hate, hate to go but love having gone.
Karen, I have quoted Dorothy's Parker's word "hate to do...love having done" for writing presentaions for children many times. I loved seeing how you wove that into this post on Lent. And true, so true. It's been a little too long for me and it's time. Thanks.
It's also a precept of the Church - failing to go at least once a year (usually during the Lent or Easter seasons) is itself grave matter. Pope John Paul II clarified, to the contrary of some bulletin messages in our neck of the woods (though of course not at my parish), that this actually also applies to those not otherwise conscious of grave sin.
D'oh! Actually, Karen, I should have researched before posting - your spiritual director says he's never heard of any such decree/clarification by JPII. I'll have to investigate further.
Not to get too academic here, but the "Commentary on the Code of Canon Law" and the law itself both describe this precept as applying only to grave sin. (Cf., Can. 989) The Catechism is less explicit, but its reference to Can. 989 is deliberate. A strict reading of the law does not seem to apply this to those in only venial sin. That being said, there are likely few to whom this applies over an entire year.
Damned funny Karen. I love Dorothy Parker, and her words fit perfectly. I haven't been to confession in ages...I just may go.
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