Whoa, Father Harrison, I'm getting ready to hear a whole bunch of confessions, I hope.

We have in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, this little event we do.

We've been doing it for years now, I don't know how many years, but it's called The Light is On for You, a very warm and cozy kind of welcoming name.

But the idea is that from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. across the diocese, at least in every parish

grouping, confessions will be offered.

So by the time you hear this, I've hopefully heard a lot of confessions.

But I told the people today at Mass, I reminded them of it, I said, I will be bringing

a spiritual book with me. I hope and pray. I don't get a chance to read one word of it. But we'll see.

There's one of you, I heard confessions three hours straight. But the next two were like,

because we do this, I think once during Advent and once during Lent, I think is when we do it.

And a lot of times it'll be confessions for like an hour and a half.

And then you're kind of like twiddling your thumbs for the next hour and a half.

And like, a few people come in.

And of course, some comes in at, you know, 8.59.

And they have a half hour confession.

Right.

And I'd rather have that happen than them not come at all. And they have a half-hour confession. Right.

And I'd rather have that happen than them not come at all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it is a struggle with my humanity, right?

So it's like, and that's, hearing confessions can be very tough for me sometimes.

Because if I'm not, like, if I haven't prayed and prepared for it, or if I'm in a bad mood, or if I'm, like, I haven't prayed and prepared for it or if I'm in a bad mood or if I'm like worry about my homily I I struggle with I think I end up doing an okay job at it but one of the things I have to watch out for is like where is my interior life right now and how do I make sure that I don't throw that on the penitent and just am there listening and offer God's mercy. It's one of the big struggles, I think, in the priesthood is hearing confessions well.

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