There Are Difficulties...

...in the walk of faith that are so personal that they can never be treated from the pulpit. There are conflicts that are so intimate and at the same time so devastating that they require both a more radical and more merciful treatment than the public proclamation can ever given. Therefore, the Church invites troubled souls to seek advice and help and absolution in confession. Even here she is the merciful mother, who has a heart for her children's troubles, both the smallest and the largest. -- Bishop Bo Giertz, *Life by Drowning* p. 17