Blog: Don't ask what the priest said at Confession, How I encouraged spiritual reading, St. John Bosco's novel approach to Confession

Don't break the seal of confession
Last week, the parents of the first communicants were required to attend a lecture from the pastor about the sacraments.  It reminded me not to ask my kids about what the priest would say to him because, that is a violation of the seal of Confession.


St. John Bosco made saints by confession
One of the novelties of St. John Bosco's method is that he encouraged his boys to go to confession as ofter as the church allows i.e. once a week.  That was a novelty back then and is even now.  But it works because there are over 30 people on the way to canonization because of this.  The theology is that you get grace every time you receive the sacrament.  So, would you rather get it once a week or less frequently?


Spiritual reading for my boys
My boys, 10 & 7 yr. olds, keep asking me for jobs to earn money because they do not have an allowance.  I give them extra jobs on top of their chores like weeding the garden or mopping the house.  Tonight I saw my 10 year old boy finish a 100+ pages of Harry Potter and that gave me an idea to encourage spiritual reading.  I offered all of them a penny per page for extra reading  and 2 cents if it is about the saints or the Bible.  I told my son not to read about witches but try the Hardy Boys instead.  He is open to the idea.


Not martyr material yet
During our marriage preparation classes, I recall being told that sometimes you have to pull back from your kids to recharge yourself.  On Saturdays, I function as the butler/dad to my 4 kids - specially with my 2 year old.  Today was a little hard as she would pull me from bed to the dinner table.  After I have served her with a glass of milk, a bowl of cereal, a banana and some juice, she still pulls me beside her as though she wanted me just to stand next to her.  But I was really exhausted - mentally, emotionally and  physically.  I recalled the lesson and took some time for myself to recover by locking myself in the bedroom to take a nap.  Later, I told my wife about it and she said that my daughter might be missing me a lot.  She does call me at work during the day and babble.  She's 2.