Often joked about, the feeling of guilt exists among many of us who have been raised Catholic, whether it’s warranted or not. As I work on downsizing my belongings I am coming across various and sundry religious items that I neither want nor know what to do with. I know I’m not supposed to just chuck them in the trash can; I’d be struck dead if I did, I am quite certain. So, what is one supposed to do with unwanted medals, rosaries, scapulars, holy cards, missals and the like?

As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog, I am a recovering Catholic, meaning that a lot of the dogma shoved down my throat when I was a child hasn’t resonated with me for a long, long time. The last mass I attended was at a relative’s wedding a few years ago, and I have’t been to confession since I was about 19. When I truthfully filled in the blank in the precursor,

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was ________________,”

I was admonished by the priest sitting on the other side of the confessional for “not coming in sooner.” That event completely changed my attitude and outlook on the religion in which I’d been raised, and, in fact, organized religion generally speaking.

I researched and discovered many suggestions to my dilemma, and the one that made the most sense was selling them on eBay since I’ve had good luck there. There are pages and pages of the above-mentioned items, plus a whole lot more; it’s really intriguing. On one hand, it seems sacrilegious to sell these things and yet the recycling aspect of it seems almost altruistic. “One man’s trash” and all that.

This discovery casts a new light on the downsizing process: the importance of sorting. This concept, I’m sure, is nothing new to most people, but to me it was a Eureka! moment. Until now, I’ve just been putting things to discard in a pile…which has already toppled over a couple of times.) From what I’ve seen on eBay, items presented in lots are much more appealing than single items.

It’s reassuring that I am not alone when it comes to situations such as this. Thank God for the Internet! It’s just that this juncture of the downsizing process has resurrected all kinds of latent memories I thought were buried. It’s funny; when I started cleaning out my closet, I didn’t expect my head would get cleaned out, too.