Bless Me, Father... and Could Ya Hurry it Up?

I'm what I call a recovering Catholic. Don't ask. Just know that I fully appreciate the tradition with which my younger years were shaped, I'm glad I was initiated into the important early rites of the religion, and I sure benefited from all the memorized catechism and lengthy sermons when I became an English major and was able to find the Trinity symbolism in record time in all the major works of literature.

So because I'm a bit of a fallen-away type, please excuse me if I'm coming late to this ashes-to-go phenomenon. I'm amazed! Tomorrow's Ash Wednesday, and if I want to go Episcopalian (known as "Catholic Lite – same rituals, half the guilt!") I can find a drive-through where I can get ashes and free coffee (a bona fide ash-'n-dash) and still get to my destination without missing a beat! Does that mean that we can soon compress confession into a McDonald's-type lineup, where we speak our sins into a receiver and by the time we get up to the window, we are handed our penance and just drive on out? Will they have "value confessions" we can pick from posted as we weave through the line, so if we don't have our thoughts together, or we don't like the sins we came with, we can just pick a set that seem like a fit?

I'm going to give that some thought while I'm waiting for my hot coffee and ashes. (I sure hope that adjective is in the proper place, or I'll have to write another post from the emergency room.)

© 2015 A Bit of Brie/Anitabrie