Word: communion
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...blackness of a narrow cubicle and talk to a shadowy figure behind a grille. "I disobeyed my parents"; "1 told a lie"; "I said a bad word." The ritual was required. Without it one would not be permitted to reach the bright day of his first Holy Communion. Later, if one went on in parochial school, it became a schoolday habit: the herd march into the pews for an afternoon of fidgeting or perhaps nervously inventing sins, waiting for one's turn in the dark confessional and the familiar-if not quite inevitable-"three Our Fathers; three Hail Marys...
...childhood formulas: veteran confessors recall adults as old as 65 who still confessed to disobeying their parents, even after the parents were dead. Even those who grew into a healthier understanding of the sacrament often consciously tied it to the sacrament of the Eucharist, feeling unworthy to receive Communion without confession (which is required only once a year, for those in serious sin). Explains the chancellor of a California diocese: "It was a case of too much, too soon...
...suggest a separation between the child's first encounters with the two sacraments. A Dutch bishop was apparently the first to put the idea into practice, nine years ago, and a number of bishops in the U.S. and Canada adopted the innovation during the late 1960s. First Communion continued to be given at about the age of seven, or even earlier, when the child could understand the difference between ordinary bread and the sacred bread of the Eucharist. Confession, on the other hand, was introduced later, with more extended preparation; most children involved in such experimental programs...
...clairvoyant witches, he has also underlined the Christian milieu in which his characters live. In fact he had framed his production with a mimed prologue and epilogue, both laid in church. Accompanied by the ringing of bells and the chanting of plainsong, the show opens with King Duncan receiving communion and ends with his son Malcolm being crowned. The officiating priest, crosier in hand, also functions as the Old Man who talks with Ross, and later as the Messenger who urges Lady Macduff to flee with her children...
...class and gave the commencement speech when he graduated from the University of New Mexico law school this week. He will join a prominent Albuquerque law firm, where he may handle suits to protect the water rights of the poor in the Southwest. Shannon does not take Communion now because he was automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church for marrying without Rome's permission, but he and his wife Ruth, a Protestant, attend Mass regularly. Says Shannon: "The Catholic Church is the only home I've ever had or ever will...