We received this Holy Week Schedule (pic below) in the mail yesterday, and I couldn't help but smile after reading it.
Notice the list of CONFESSION times!!!
This schedule is from San Secondo d'Asti Catholic Church. It is the Church where we were married, and attended frequently until the TLM was available close by (it's a 45 min drive for us), but I wish we were able to get there more often.
The Church itself is 150 years old and it has the ambiance you would expect from a Church that old. But that is not the main reason we wanted to be married there...
The Pastor, Fr. Marx (yes that's his last name, people actually call him by his last name), Is very Traditional in his teaching and administering the Sacraments (as you can tell). Now I'm sure some would think "if he's that traditional he must be rather stern", or something along those lines, but that's so far from the truth, Fr. Marx is the kindest, most soft-hearted man I know, during his sermons he refers to the congregation as "my dear ones".
When I see something like this schedule for Confessions I know he "gets it", he gets what's really important. I know that because this schedule is not unexpected. His Parish offers Confession every day of the week, and before every Sunday Mass.
This post is not meant to say no other Priest takes the Sacraments seriously, especially one as important as Confession is, but this morning I went online to the websites of our near by parishes and most have already had their Penance services and will not have any other scheduled Confessions before Easter.
I hope you will join me in praying that in years to come (sooner would be great!!) we see more Holy Week schedules like the one from San Secondo d'Asti...
