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First Confession!

First Confession!

Bella's first confession

We were chatting with Father Matt after Mass today and as he was asking about how everything is going, we happened to mention that Bella had been preparing for her first confession and telling him she was about ready. And he jokingly asked if she wanted to go right now. And she immediately chirped, “Sure!”

She was so bright and confident and ready to go. Dom and I looked at each other and felt that we couldn’t not let her. We looked at each other and shrugged. So though Dom and I were more than a little surprised and Father Matt was clearly floored, I’m sure he expected her to recoil; but he went with it so beautifully. He’s awesome that way, always happy to give someone a blessing, to stop and pray with them right then and there.

So he asked about which version of the Act of Contrition she knew and she recited it right there (He gave her a high five.) And then they went into the sanctuary and she cheerfully sat down and made her confession while Ben and Anthony and Sophie ran up and down the aisles until I took them out to run up and down the ramp instead. Father Currie was hearing confessions in the confessional, so they couldn’t use the confessional, but that didn’t seem to bother Bella a bit.

And both Dom and I teared up. And fortunately he snapped a picture with his camera phone as they were settling to it.

When we got home Bella requested dance music so she could dance in the kitchen. I’m going to make her a cake this afternoon. Lemon cake, Bella says. It’s a great reason for a party!

My baby growing up and taking her first solo steps as an intentional Christian.

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4 comments
  • How lovely! Congratulations. We were planning some Advent activities and planning a family trip to confession which wasn’t quite as popular with some as with others. My youngest daughter was funny telling the older kids “I love going to reconciliation! You feel so good after.” Wish I could bottle some of that spirit!!

  • Congratulations to her and what I surprise for you! I am always more traumatized by their First Confessions than they seem to be. Which is good, I guess. Blaise’s First Confession was face to face and he doesn’t mind doing it that way still, but my others always did theirs behind the screen and that’s the way they still like it. We always took them for ice cream but lemon cake sounds like a great way to celebrate too!

    • I think if I’d scheduled it, had a long time to anticipate, I might have been quite traumatized. And she might have had time to get nervous. Heck she might have got performance anxiety just picking up on nervousness from Dom and me. As it was she didn’t have any buildup at all really.

      And I should probably add that as spontaneous as it seemed, there was of course a lot of long-term preparation behind it. We’ve been reading her catechism and talking about the sacraments and sin, etc.

      Dom said, next time we need to talk her through an examination of conscience. And of course we do need to formally teach that just to make sure we aren’t missing any areas. But I can think of several conversations that helped pave the way. Including one this week where I outright asked her if she’d thought about what she would confess when it came time. She immediately rattled off a list. She’d obviously been thinking of it.

      So looking at that, I guess I’m not really that surprised. In retrospect to looks rather natural. But at the same time, yeah not how I’d ever have thought it could happen.

      .

  • Congratulations to Bella! I think you’re right – sometimes the build-up can be more traumatic than the actual event – at least it was for a couple of my kids. We always try to celebrate after their first confession and sometimes second, third, fourth… with ice cream or something pleasant to keep the kids excited to go.

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