Penance

“Make a U-turn when possible.” Your GPS says it without judging, and that is exactly the sense of the Greek word the Gospels use for repentance: metanoia, a turning around, a change of mind and of direction. A penance emoji should not show someone beating themselves up, but someone turning back toward God. It is more accurate, and frankly more encouraging.

Penance has its seasons and its gestures. On Ash Wednesday the priest traces a grey cross on the forehead, saying: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” Lent follows, forty days in violet, with fasting, prayer and almsgiving. And there is the more modest penance given at the end of confession, often a prayer or a concrete act, which older Catholics remember reciting on their knees at the back of the church, with the distinct feeling of having got off lightly.

For now, the keyboard only offers 🧎 or 🙏, which suit everything. We can imagine better: an arrow making a U-turn toward a small cross, a forehead marked with ashes, a violet heart turning red again. Draw penance as a fresh start rather than a punishment, and send it to us below.