I arrived at the church early enough that I was able to go to the sacrament of confession, which I was happy to do, if ‘happy’ is the right word (I’m not certain that it is). Certainly I’m not happy when there are sins on my conscience. But the opportunity to express contrition for those sins, and to be absolved of them, and to do some penance for them (in the form of prayer), while intending not to revert to them (nor to the circumstances that occasion them), always produces in me a feeling that is not unrelated to happiness. Even if the chances that I will revert to them at some later date are, each time, so high as to be virtually assured.