Reminence of Sanctity

Gone are the days when people compared educational institutions to religious places and the holiness of the former was epitomized therein. But as the wheel of time has rolled ahead, the sanctity of these places has not only been undermined, in some cases even demeaned. The reasons for this are numerous and the purpose of my writing is not to delve into those.

I attend a Catholic College, run by reverred nuns we learn discipline which is synonymous with their personality and etiquette follows close at hand. Out of sure habit, I step into the church which stands tall outside my college building, everyday.

I step in, bow my head, murmur a word of prayer and leave. I seldom sit down to pray for long because those few minutes make me feel peaceful enough.On some days, I see a group of students in the church, as they attentively hear the Mass proceedings as a priest conducts them. These are the students from the school, which shares the campus with our college.

This morning, as I entered I was greeted by a rather unusually pleasant sight. One that I had seen: in movies, read about: in books, alone. I had never experienced such a scene and it was a splendid one at that!

I saw little girls, most probably girls in class four or five, at the Confession Boxes. They knelt keenly by the 'window' and spoke eagerly with the Father on the other side. Even that practise had a disciplined conduct because the girls stood in a line on the side and maintained safe distance so as not to eavesdrop!

It was probably not extraordinary, but the fact that I don't see it regularly, made it so!
I started to think what these little ones would have to share with the priest. How strange are the ways of the world, we can tell strangers what we can't tell our dear ones.
My trail of thoughts led me on and I realized that maybe psychiatrists came into being from this practise itself. I think it is nice for the children to be exposed to such experiences. It goes a long way, in their life. I can say that because I didn't go to such a school where we had someone with whom we met for the sole purpose of lightening the load of our conscience. I am not complaining, because undoubtedly we had wonderful teachers who fit into this role very well. But what matters is when you tell your mind: "Ok, so this is it! Such-and-such day and so-and-so time we shall unload our heart to this person" because we sometimes feel closer to the people we don't know at all.