Forgive Me Father, For I Have Sinned! I have some early memories of my religious experiences growing up in Howley. My family was Roman Catholic and I was told in the early days they would attend mass in some ones home when the priest would arrive by train. My Aunt Susan Connolly taught catechism as did my mother so I was drilled in religious teachings. My first church experiences were attending service in the old school. One of the classrooms had been converted to a chapel after the school closed in 1948. My great grandmother Anastasia Kelly had a special wicker chair that was reserved for her there. My own grandmother, Florence Kelly was born Methodist but christened by the Salvation Army. She was from Little Bay Islands and whatever clergy arrived first by boat would do the christening in case something happened to the child and fear of where the child may go if he or she died before christening. She married my grandfather, a Roman Catholic, and I saw her in church only at a few funerals. I always had a healthy respect for the Priest because after all we had to call him father and that must have meant he was really important. Attending mass at the old church was also an experience. The mass was done in Latin in those days and I often wondered what he was talking about. He would stand at the altar, with fancy robes, while doing communion and drinking wine. I was too young to try it but wondered what it tasted like. I attended the funerals of both my great grandmother and grandfather at this church and other family members as well. With Catholic burials they are all done the same way, even the Pope is treated no differently than anyone else. The Latin funeral mass with the burning of the incense to cleanse the soul at the end of the service was certainly a very memorable experience for a pre teenage boy. The next significant religious experience for me was getting ready for my first holy communion. The Sunday School teacher would drill us on the procedure and what we were to say. The priest would be in a little room and we would have to kneel and speak to him through a curtain. Our opening line would be “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned”. My mother told me the types of things you would confess to in the confession box as it was called. Walking into the confession box I was using my mind to plan what I was going to say at this event. There was no way I was going to tell him all the no good I was up to because that would take much to long and others were in need of cleansing their souls as well. He wasn’t going to hear about stealing apples, stealing damsons or carrots. He wasn’t going to hear about what I did with the fire crackers, the eggs or countless other things I didn’t want my mother to hear about. I kept the experience very simple and told him my edited version of my human digressions. After all, he wouldn’t be surprised if I told him that on only a few occasions I took the name of the Lord my God in vein. He asked God for my forgiveness and told me to return to my seat and say a few simple prayers for penance. The next major event for Catholics is the Confirmation Sacrament. It is supposed to be done when you are deemed to be old enough to recognize for yourself that you are accepting your parents’ gift of baptism. A picture of that event is below and I was selected to stand for my friends at that time as well. The Christmas Eve service is really a big event in the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholics and Anglicans are now sharing the one church in Howley and I remember a service I attended there. The Priest was Father Peddle and before the service he came down to where we were sitting and said Darryl I am going to ask either you or Bill Byrne to get up and do a reading. Given it was Christmas Eve, Bill and I had some purity syrup or possibly something else to drink before the mass. I said, very quickly, that is okay father you can ask Bill. To which Bill quickly responded that is okay Father, if Darryl got any trouble with the big words I will help him out!! Howley has people of many religious persuasions but they do work together and in harmony with one another. The bible says our Father’s house has many rooms. I believe there is a room for us all. I believe that one of those rooms contains a community of the very special souls so proud to have called Howley home!! God Bless You All!!
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 11:29:58 +0000
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