I was recently asked for advice on what to do to about a possibly adulterous second marriage. A lady friend of someone very close to me asked for advice regarding her second marriage. She was married the first time in the Church. She and her husband eventually became estranged, separated and lost touch. She met another man and got married civilly. A few years ago she asked to come to our SSPX priest for confession and to receive absolution. When she finished she was very upset and said the priest would not absolve her unless she separates from the man she currently is civilly married to. She did not quite understand, and pretty much left it at that. Recently though, she got word that her husband from Church died. And now she wants to try to go to confession and receive absolution. I told her if she is truly contrite, and wishes to make amends, she should do so immediately, as she is very fortunate as it is to still be alive to do so. I told her that many others do not have the opportunity to make amends. She got very upset at my statement, and said I should not have said that to her. Where did I go wrong? I thought all along as she was asking for advice and had been very candid and casual about discussing her predicament that I was free to be casual with my comments and not as reserved as I would normally have been. Should I have just referred her to the priest and shut up?
Here's what I think happened:
You alluded to the fact that she is still alive, and mentioned that other people are not alive. Your ladyfriend, IMHO, is superstitious, and believes that when you say something that touches on her mortality you are thereby TAKING AWAY YEARS from her life, because when you say "you will die someday" or anything like that (you said she's fortunate to still be alive) you injure her karma or whatever.
This is a pagan superstition but just the same there are people who believe in it.
What I would do is to gently tell her that it's superstitious and has no basis in truth, and she has much more important things to think about, so she's best off just forgetting about jinxes and hoaxes like this.
It's not 7 years bad luck to break a mirror or to walk under a ladder or to cross the path of a black cat. But don't say all that at once because it might be too upsetting for her!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA
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