Rediscovering the Sacrament of Reconciliation
One day, a couple of years ago I had two appointments to keep in London. I was going to have a little time to spare, so I asked myself how I might best fill the time. Some people would probably say that I should have gone shopping; but my itinerary didn’t really allow long enough for a decent shopping spree, and anyway I’m a Yorkshireman, so I didn’t want to spend any money! It occurred to me that I was due to make a confession. What better place to do it than London? With so many famous Anglo-Catholic churches, there was bound to be somewhere with a set time for hearing confessions where I could slip in and out anonymously. Just for interest, I picked up my copy of ‘The Church Travellers Directory 1973’ – which some of my readers will doubtless remember with great affection. It listed the churches in which at that time there was a Daily Mass, indicated by a letter D, where the main Sunday Service was always a Mass indicated by an S, where Confessions were heard regularly at fixed...