This was the third book I did in the Monastery. It is available on Amazon either as a Paperback or Kindle. All paperback sales go to support the monastery while the Sisters have graciously allowed Kindle sales to go to me.
Won’t Go to Confession
by Daniel A. Longland – Sidmouth, Devon, England
I am a priest in the Diocese of Plymouth in England, and for seven years I was the Catholic chaplain in a rather large local hospital there. One day as I was visiting patients, a man told me he did not want to see me. I said, “Okay, that is all right.” Each day as I passed his bed, I would greet him and then walk on.
On one occasion he called me and said, “Listen, if I wanted to receive the sacraments again after more than sixty years, I know I would have to go to confession and I cannot do that.” I assured him that going to confession would be quite easy, and that I would ask him the questions. We talked for a long time and finally he said he would go to confession. I made an appointment for him for three days later.
The following day as I passed his bed he called to me and said, “Sorry, but I cannot possibly tell you what I have been doing all these years. I won’t go to confession.”
I sat at the foot of his bed and asked him, “What are you afraid to tell me?”
To my amazement, he told me about all the sins he thought he could not tell in two or three days’ time! When he finished talking, I asked him, “Is there anything else you have to tell me?”
He said, “No, that is everything.”
I asked him if he was truly sorry for all these faults and failings because he had now confessed everything! Then I told him about God’s love for him and for all of us. I gave him absolution and anointed him. He was so happy!
The next day when I went to the hospital, I was informed that the man had died during the night. All I could say was, “God is so great! His love is beyond understanding.”