Bless Me Father, for I Have Sinned. It's Been 30 Years.
A scene from my re-entry
“Where’s the priest?”
The website clearly said confession was Saturday at 3 pm.
“I’m rusty at this.”
It’d been a while.
“Ah, they do it in the parish hall.”
I stood in line behind an older woman and patiently waited.
When it was my time, fortunately, my muscle memory returned. I made the sign of the cross and sat.
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been 30 years since my last confession.”
“What!?” cried the priest.
He was an older Filipino man who looked in need of sleep. My comment changed that.
“It’s been HOW long since your last confession?”
“30 years,” I said, a small smile on my face.
As I confessed my sins, which took a while, the priest stopped me no fewer than three times to confirm just how long it’d been.
“30 years,” I kept replying.
At the very end, after he gave me my prayers to say, he told me:
“Welcome home, my son.”
“God’s been waiting for you.”
This really touched me. “I’m rusty at this” feels so real. That is often how a return begins: not confidently, but honestly.
And “Welcome home, my son” is just beautiful. What a mercy for someone to hear those words after so many years. Thank you for sharing this.