It can be of the most sacred and personal of encounters for Catholics. It occurs in the shadowed space of the confessional. It is there that the faithful may choose to unburden their troubled or broken hearts. Protestants sometimes call this "giving it to God." In fact, every faith has a way of offering followers a path to bring our darker secrets into the light.
Of course, we all carry secrets. Some are beautiful and nurturing. Some are open wounds struggling for healing. We seek not only forgiveness but a place to put the pain of secrets that burden us.
I wrote a sentence-poem about where our secrets are held, using the sun and moon as metaphors for God and for our hearts. (I took the photograph while walking along the Atlantic shore.)
When we give our troubles to God, Love sends back rich gifts.
Secrets of the Moon
You tell me that the moon understands a broken heart; that he was flung into existence to absorb our pain & whisper that we are loved.
How tired he must be, how scared with killings & soaked in torture’s tears.
I’ve sent the moon enough of my own small woes & know he
must have tucked them into his back pocket with other minor complaints.
It's all scattered on that dark side, isn’t it? You ‘round the corner from that shining grace & there they are – the embers of broken hearts,the wreckage of betrayal, the frozen bones of every disappointment, the ugly edges of ridiculed dreams.
The moon's shine is all reflection.
Yet, some heart must live within this servant of the sun. He is as patient as you say. Hands in his pockets, he watches us now, holds our secrets in his silent turning as he receives the sun & sends it along.
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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