mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!!!!!

Nunly has done it again…..managed to forget my place and in the process of writing what I thought was a light comment about the Stigmata on another blog…..clowing around, trying to be “cute”, I managed to actually commit a mortal sin….or at the very least a very serious venial sin.

I usually don’t discuss my sins with bloggers, or make them public, but after I realized what I did yesterday, I felt horrible. It’s kinda like realizing you said something hurtful to your husband, kids, or someone you love very much. In fact, it really didn’t hit me until a few hours later and I was in the car, that what I had done was indeed breaking the Second Commandment, which includes not only using the Lord’s name in vain, but also speaking disprespectfully of holy things. Yup, that’s what I did when I wrote that stupid little comment….and that’s what kept me up late, as I tried to fall asleep with this big ol’ hairy sin on my soul.

So, the first thing I did was get in line for Confession before morning Mass, this morning. There was no way I was going to try to pass this off as a venial sin and hope the Eucharist and my prayers of Act of Contrition would apppease the hurt that I caused my Lord. So…as I stood in line I kept trying to figure out how to confess this sin without takikng too long to explain because there was a long line and I didn’t want to hold the priest up. Somehow I found the words to say and as usual the priest was gentle and kind and most importantly, willing to absolve me from this sin.

Then comes the Penance. Again, he was very gentle with the penance, 3 Our Father’s, 3 Hail Mary’s, and 3 Glory Be’s. But then he added that maybe I should write a blog post discussing the Stigmata and how it was wrong of me to make light of it. Sigh…..so here I am. I don’t mind the Penance, I feel it’s more than fair, but it’s the first time that I publically took responsibility for my sins in public. Kinda like the wearing sack-cloth and ashes in the technical era.

STIGMATA: Most people have heard about it, especially Catholics, but not all people believe in it–whereas doctors of many fields have tried to belittle it or make it something which it is not….a psychological illness. What is is, is a Mystical phenomena, and is very rare. There have been many Saints who suffered this “grace” given by God. Yup, it’s a grace, not a punishment, not a joke as I had made it.

It has been known that some Saints have suffered the stigmata without the wound physically showing but the pain where the wounds would be was felt strongly by the Saint. This happened in the case of St. Catherine of Sienna, who at first suffered the outward physical traits of the stigmata but prayed that it be made invinsible due to her humility. She didn’t want to stand out as a “Saint” or anyone deserving of special treatment, so her prayer was answered.

The thing is, there’s quite a few saints who had this mystical gift. One very famous person in the Catholic World was Padre Pio. During his time, there are actual pictures of him leading the Mass with bandages of blood wrapped around his hands to hide the wounds. At one point, his superiors, refused to allow him to be seen publically with the wounds, wrapped or not. The other cool thing about Padre Pio is he had the gift of “reading souls”. Someone could come to Confession to him and if they were dishonest about their sins, leaving out the biggies, he’d yell at them to get out and come back when they were ready to confess that sin of adultry they’re hiding. Heh…..that shook up a few confessors! Sometimes I wish I knew a priest who could do that because I alsways have this fear that I’ve accidently left out a sin…I mean, we’re talking about Nunly here, the not always reverent faux nun on the blogosphere! On the other hand, I’ve always been a bit afraid of Saint Pio, because he looks like he could just set me aflame by a mere look of disgust. He’s a real interesting fellow and if you’ve never read about his life, it’s great reading. I would put a picture of him up in my room, but that might scare me, so I just say a quiet little prayer to him from time to time. I know…mousy behavior from this big shot faux nun, but I’m the type that can act tough and crumble like a stale chocolate chip cookie when under fire.

Now, I could have written this stuff on Randal’s blog (that’s where my sinful comment was made…..and I actually thought of telling the priest that Randal made me want to do it and shift some blame to him, but I didn’t. So here is the comment in full……

Nunly said: I’m not worried about getting the Stigmata because it would give me something to talk about on my blog….I’m running out of ideas.

I am working toward Sainthood, though. I want to be the Patron Saint of Slackers. I figure they won’t petition me too much to help them, so I can continue my slacking life-style in heaven with all the benefits of being a Saint. Makes sense, right?

and I leave it at that. No one really needs to respond to this post, I’m not expecting anything. Just trying to finish up my Penance and making sure that all is well in Nunly Land. I don’t mess around when it comes to sin, I have every intention of giving it all I’ve got to make it to the place where guys like the Apostle’s hang out and the Blessed Mother. I think I’ll have no choice but to bring my sense of humor with me, which may knock me into Purgatory for awhile, but I can’t help it…I’m Italian and we all are a bunch of smart-alecks.

Just for fun…..a little video with my favorite song on it.

Have a great day, everyone….stay out of trouble!

Love,

Nunly

(Note to Jesus: Dear Lord, I hope this was sufficient to fullfill my Penance. Enjoy the music, it’s not something we sing in Church but I like it anyway.)

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