Another first

Faith had her first reconciliation tonight (first confession for the non-Catholics like me). She was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but there's nothing like practice, practice, practice. I have played the role of "priest" for a couple of weeks now...and yes, I know the irony is rife here.

Confession isn't really like you see on TV anymore. No going into a dark closet with a strange man (a situation in which we would normally tell our kids to run like hell). Instead, all the kids doing first confession sit in the church pews waiting their turn to go up to the front of the church where there are two chairs facing each other, one for the priest and one for the kid. The kid says her confession and then gets a penance from the priest, says a prayer, and that's it.

I took Faith as George had a speaking engagement in Toronto. Being Anglican, this was my first exposure to this particular sacrament, so I guess Faith and I were both in the same boat. But, when it was her turn to go up, she did great (at least from the body language I could decipher).

After she was done, she came back to our pew and I gave her a hug. Then, I asked her the penance. She gave me this look and then said, "I forgot."

In twenty steps she forgot her penance. "OK..." and I'm thinking what do we do now?!?

"Was it a 'Hail Mary'?"

"I don't think so. I think it was an 'Our Family'."

OK...this one I didn't recognize. We went with a Hail Mary. Hopefully she's covered.