Greetings! I hope your weekend went well.
A most serendipitous encounter occurred yesterday.
On Saturdays, my husband and I like to go to Confession. This most underrated Sacrament is something we try to partake in weekly, though I start to feel the Devil gnaw at me if I go more than two weeks between Confessions. We used to go to the Cathedral to do that, as there was a Nigerian priest I was rather fond of who was a competent confessor. However, we stopped going there because the Cathedral is horribly understaffed. Since we frequent the other church which is staffed by righteous Carmelites, we started going there for Confession instead and are pleased with the quality of our Carmelite confessors.
Yesterday was like any other Saturday. We went to our other church for Confession, arriving just as a wedding finished and the guests were leaving to go and celebrate. As we entered the church, we spotted Canon Bill and his novitiate assistant in the Confession line! It was a bit surprising to see how our separate church spheres had crossed, but it was also a stark reminder that priests need Confession too.
As I walked towards the line to take my place, the person exiting the confessional was none other than our friend who we encountered on Thursday at the Cathedral! She reported that the exorcism of her friend was successful, but she told me something that made my jaw drop. On Friday, she and another friend took their possessed friend to the diocesan exorcist's office for another go after Thursday's attempt was unsuccessful. After undergoing the ritual, the possessed friend was delivered from the demon's grasp at the same time our tire blew out on the way to the grocery store! Our friend inquired if we were alright because, as she explained, even though I fulfilled her prayer request with something off the cuff for the success of the exorcism, my intercession pissed the demon off mightily and it was gonna get me for my help in its eviction. Coincidence or not, this revelation is making me rethink the blowout. There was no denying that the tire was worn and off balance, but for it to go as it did makes me wonder if the demon didn't just poke a hole in one of the weak spots as it whizzed past me on its way back to Hell...
After Confession and Penance, I got to thinking about the day's fateful encounters. I took it as a sign to keep up our current arrangement of alternating between the Latin Mass church and the other church. My husband agreed. We get the best of both the ancient and modern worlds with this setup. The Latin Mass gives us the old Mass, but the other church gives us more authentically traditional Catholicism. Before we went our separate ways, I advised the novitiate accompanying Canon Bill to familiarize himself with the Carmelites and their church. My husband advised the same to the priest. Canon Bill's predecessor held the Carmelites in high esteem, an assessment my hubby and I agreed with. Both men would do well to keep that opinion in mind.
And that was how I spent my Saturday.
**Note: The title to this post, O Fortuna, means "Oh Fortune". It was inspired by this song
A most serendipitous encounter occurred yesterday.
On Saturdays, my husband and I like to go to Confession. This most underrated Sacrament is something we try to partake in weekly, though I start to feel the Devil gnaw at me if I go more than two weeks between Confessions. We used to go to the Cathedral to do that, as there was a Nigerian priest I was rather fond of who was a competent confessor. However, we stopped going there because the Cathedral is horribly understaffed. Since we frequent the other church which is staffed by righteous Carmelites, we started going there for Confession instead and are pleased with the quality of our Carmelite confessors.
Yesterday was like any other Saturday. We went to our other church for Confession, arriving just as a wedding finished and the guests were leaving to go and celebrate. As we entered the church, we spotted Canon Bill and his novitiate assistant in the Confession line! It was a bit surprising to see how our separate church spheres had crossed, but it was also a stark reminder that priests need Confession too.
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| Yeah, funny how that works. Pic found here |
As I walked towards the line to take my place, the person exiting the confessional was none other than our friend who we encountered on Thursday at the Cathedral! She reported that the exorcism of her friend was successful, but she told me something that made my jaw drop. On Friday, she and another friend took their possessed friend to the diocesan exorcist's office for another go after Thursday's attempt was unsuccessful. After undergoing the ritual, the possessed friend was delivered from the demon's grasp at the same time our tire blew out on the way to the grocery store! Our friend inquired if we were alright because, as she explained, even though I fulfilled her prayer request with something off the cuff for the success of the exorcism, my intercession pissed the demon off mightily and it was gonna get me for my help in its eviction. Coincidence or not, this revelation is making me rethink the blowout. There was no denying that the tire was worn and off balance, but for it to go as it did makes me wonder if the demon didn't just poke a hole in one of the weak spots as it whizzed past me on its way back to Hell...
After Confession and Penance, I got to thinking about the day's fateful encounters. I took it as a sign to keep up our current arrangement of alternating between the Latin Mass church and the other church. My husband agreed. We get the best of both the ancient and modern worlds with this setup. The Latin Mass gives us the old Mass, but the other church gives us more authentically traditional Catholicism. Before we went our separate ways, I advised the novitiate accompanying Canon Bill to familiarize himself with the Carmelites and their church. My husband advised the same to the priest. Canon Bill's predecessor held the Carmelites in high esteem, an assessment my hubby and I agreed with. Both men would do well to keep that opinion in mind.
And that was how I spent my Saturday.
**Note: The title to this post, O Fortuna, means "Oh Fortune". It was inspired by this song
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