Statistics

I keep note of what Masses I attend, when I go to confess, and so forth; here are the results, such as they are, for the Year of Our Lord 2008:

• Masses in the Extraordinary Form: 175, plus 7 which I only attended part of, and the Good Friday Solemn Liturgy;

• Masses in the Ordinary Form: 44, plus 2 which I only attended part of, and a Communion Service (!) led by a Deacon;

• Byzantine Rite Divine Liturgy: 1;

Total Masses: 220, plus 9 partially attended.

I thus heard Mass about 60% of the time, or on average about 4 days a week - but of course sometimes I heard more than one a day, as while attending WYD with Juventutem...

While I have been for many years an almost daily Mass-goer, I have been a bit slack for three reasons: pressures of work, making it difficult to get to Mass or making me feel tired and disinclined to go; increasing dislike of the Novus Ordo, having become so used to the Traditional Mass to the extent that I didn't wish to attend the former if I couldn't make it to the latter; and sin, which makes one foolishly pretend to hide oneself from God, as Adam and Eve did in paradise after the Fall (Genesis iii, 8-10).

• Confessions: 60, or slightly more than once a week.

I am an habitué of the confessional, I must admit, and would wish that I spent longer away from it!  While it is excellent that Fr Rowe (and other priests) hear daily confessions in Perth, looking back I think I overindulged in the Sacrament of Penance; here in Tasmania priests hear confessions on Saturday only, which will present a useful discipline, especially as "frequent" confession is advised to consist in being shriven fortnightly or at the most weekly.  What I require is to be less of a lazy backslider and more a disciplined soul living ongoing growth in virtue, however...  Orate pro me.

Finally, my rule of prayer continues to principally consist in reciting the Divine Office, either in its modern or increasingly in its traditional form, from the Roman Breviary - occasionally earlier in the year, then daily from mid-May to the end of July, and from September onwards, tho' until Advent I very frequently substituted the modern Office of Readings for the older Matins, as being shorter.  (I also have the habit of saying the Angelus, and using some short morning prayers, etc.)

Now, for making some belated resolutions for the Year of Our Lord 2009...