In the year 1906, a classroom was filled with young children preparing for their first confession. Their teacher, Sister Irene, had given each one paper and pencil. With the catechism as a guide, the students were to write down their sins to make it easier to confess them the next day.

One of the girls, Cecy Cony, was particularly anxious that her soul would be clean and beautiful for Jesus. However, it was hard to focus on what to write, as she was seated right next to a very chatty girl.

This girl would point at just about every sin in the catechism, each time asking,

"Cecy, are you going to write down this sin?"

Each time Cecy replied,

"Sister Irene said that you should tell your sins only to the priest, but yes, I will write that down. It will be better that way."

Finally, their teacher made the talkative girl sit somewhere else, leaving Cecy in peace. She thought hard, and read the sins against each commandment. She recognized some that she had committed, others she wasn’t sure if she’d committed them or not - and the rest she didn’t even know what they meant. But it grieved her to think how much Jesus suffered from so many sins. She struggled to keep from crying, and, to console Jesus, told Him that she did not want to be bad anymore.

Cecy didn’t notice the time go by. Eventually, her teacher walked up to her, and said,

"Cecy, the others are nearly finished and you have not even begun."

So Cecy quickly started to write all the sins mentioned in the catechism. She thought to herself: "Our Lord knows the sins that I have committed, and those that I did not commit. By writing them all down, no sin, no stain of sin, will remain in my heart; and my soul will be as white as the little white Host that I am going to receive."

When all the students had finished their lists, Sister Irene took each list, folded it into an envelope, and wrote each student’s name on the envelopes. Then she sealed them and kept them herself for the time being.

The next day, Sister Irene returned the envelopes to each student. The priest would soon begin to hear their Confessions.

Much later in life, Cecy Cony described her first Confession thus,

"Finally the great moment arrived…I was not the first to enter the confessional box, for Sister Irene was there to line us up... Many times I repeated the Act of Contrition, feeling an enormous sorrow for having offended my heavenly Father.

"When my turn came, I had in my hand the long list of sins that meant so many big thorns wounding the sacred head of Jesus. I entered the confessional with my heart beating wildly. I was so anxious to tell my sins. I began to read them off. But suddenly the priest stopped me and asked me for the paper. I gave it to him and he kept it. Then I finished my Confession without the help of the paper.

"The priest questioned me about different sins, and I told him whether I had committed them or not. Even without the paper, which had seemed so indispensable to me before, I knew that I had made an excellent Confession, for I felt happiness such as I had never experienced before."

As she left the confessional, Cecy noticed a smile on the priest’s face. She thought he shared in her joy of a good Confession. Later, she realized that he must have been smiling at a little girl mechanically reciting sins she didn’t even know.