St Patricks Church, Sydney
I love to go to St Patrick’s Church in the City, for me it is a very, very special church. Every time I go there I go to Confession.
I went to Confession when the Holy Mass had just begun. I noticed there was a very nice, tall, elderly priest sitting in the Confessional.
I started talking to him, telling him a little story about myself and about my boys. All of a sudden in the middle of me telling him my story he said, “Stop!” I was in a bit of a shock.
He said, “Do you ever thank God for all the graces you receive from Him?”
I said, “Father, I don’t want to be too proud of myself.” He continued, “Do you know how many Graces you receive from God? Thank Him for His goodness. Thank Him every day. Thank Him every moment for what He gives to you.”
I was listening and thinking, “These are like words that I have heard before, from Angels or Saints that had visited me before.”
I looked down and as I raised my head to look up at the priest, all of a sudden I could see a glowing light around his face. He was all aglow in a beautiful light.
Out of embarrassment I said, “Father, I do thank the Lord every day for everything.”
“Maybe thanking Him is not enough,” he said.
I said, “Father, do you know how the stars in heaven shine, Our Lord Jesus told me that Priests and Bishops shine like the stars and they are the ones that give us light here on earth.”
“Oh, that is beautiful,” he said.
“For your penance I want you to say one Our Father, but think of what you say. Really, really slowly, word by word think of what you say, that is how you talk to God,” he said
Then the priest blessed me and I walked out of the confessional.
After Mass I asked my friend Maria if the priest said anything different to her when she went to confession and she answered me, “No normal.” That confirmed that it wasn’t the priest but our Lord through the priest.