I don’t need bereavement counseling!
This is what I said to myself the day after Sumio, my husband, went to heaven. It’s not that anyone suggested that I attend. I never thought about it.
I don’t want to express my feelings about the death of my husband with a group of women who have the same loss.
I stopped going to confession in the Catholic Church when they started group confessions. Why should I sit with a group of people and confess my sins?
Confession should be private. I remember confession in my Catholic elementary school, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH).
Line up outside of the confessional box, keep your hands folded, and don’t talk to anyone in line. Wait for the person in front of you to exit the confessional box. Enter quietly, kneel on the kneeler, wait for the priest to open the window, and confess your sins for the week.
My sins: I disobeyed my mother ten times, hit my brothers twenty times and lied fourteen times.
We weren’t allowed to see the priest’s face and he couldn’t see ours. It was a secret. We would receive our penances and quickly share them with the others waiting outside for their turn. We went to confession every Friday.
