Ben's Big Confession

Ben had a big night last Friday night. He got to go to church and confess all his sins. Woo-Hoo, it was a wild and crazy fun. All kidding aside it was a pretty big deal. As a second grader at St.Matthew Catholic Church, Ben received the sacrament of reconciliation for the first time. (For all us lay people that's just a fancy way of saying he went to confession for the first time.)

Side Note: Can you guess what book we read all this time in this house from the statement above? If you have little girls you know it by heart.

I haven't always been impressed with the Faith Formation classes at St. Matthew but they really did a great job with First Reconciliation for the second graders. They made it fun and easy and light. The kids, 300 of them on Friday night... the other half was there on Thursday. Yes, you read that right. 600 Second Graders. Alone. It's a BIG parish. It's the only thing I don't like about going to church there. But that's neither here nor there.) Anyway, the kids got up on the alter and sang a very nice song that they had to sign along with as they sang. It was totally cute.

After the song they waited in the pews with us as ushers came and escorted them to one of the 13 priests waiting around the sanctuary. We could see Ben the entire time. He wasn't nervous at all. In fact he might have been a little too comfortable with the whole thing. He told me he could only think of two things he needed to be forgiven for.

TWO?? In your entire 8 years of life there are only TWO things you need to be forgiven for or need to work on?

Next time I will send him with a list.

The kids have been preparing for this night since September. They were told to talk to the Priests about things they want to improve on in their lives (eg. listening mom, sharing with siblings, helping others, thinking of others before themselves ...) and anything they feel truly sorry for doing and would like forgiveness for.

Ben came up with two. He only shared one of them with me ~ hitting Will so hard he cried.

I wonder what the other one was.

After the ceremony was over we went out for a cupcake at Dean & Deluca to celebrate. It really was a fun night. And we are very proud of Ben. He's a pretty fantastic kid.