Questions I would like to ask Catholics

benedictaoo said:

I like what Chesterton said... with the on set of Protestantism, no more confession, we saw the boom of psychologists.

Psychologist, counselling sessions, meeting to speak with your pastor, or a secular psychologist etc and so on... is confession but with out the absolution.

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WarriorAngel said:

Do you think it is easier to

• lay in bed at night and ask God to forgive you for the sins you've committed during the day?

OR

• Ask God to forgive you for your sins each night AND confess them to an elder/pastor in the Church who will help you by advising you about resisting your particular sins and suggest prayers and actions you ought to do to reinforce your determination to resist sin?

Assuming that God's grace is present in both cases and understanding that God's mercy is given to everybody who truly repents.

If my understanding is not too faulty then the first option is the norm among most evangelicals while the second is the ideal for most active Catholics.

I think that the second is the more difficult path to take. Confession is the more difficult way, even if ritual and standardised words are used it is still more difficult to repent and confess than it is merely to repent without confession.

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It is humbling indeed.
Confession we do one to another [priest] is mortifying - which is part of the penance.

It is easier to ask in privacy where none can know - and we have no embarrassing revelations to another our weaknesses.

Not only in scriptures were the Apostles told to bind or loose sins - forgive or hold bound...but also it says we must confess to one another our sins ... which is to say the ones who were given the ability to forgive or not forgive were the Apostles who ordained [also in scriptures] others to teach as they have...to take their place.

In order for the Apostles to hold a sin bound or forgive - they were obviously required to 'hear' out loud the sins first.

Now the early practice of the Church was to confess before all, but that practice evidently died away and i suspect it was probably because it caused scandals - especially to children present.
SO now it is in private whereas the members of the Church are neither scandalized nor can they judge us by our sins we struggle with.

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AniGequoti said:

To my Catholic brethren: I truly appreciate your willingness to answer my questions about Catholicism in this thread. I'm also grateful to see the civil dialogue taking place between Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians. But I'm finding it rather difficult to keep up with the answers to my personal questions. There is a lot of material for me to read and it's becoming a bit overwhelming. I may bow out of this thread (for now) and just send PMs to ask my questions about Catholicism.

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MoreCoffee said:

Not tasting, guzzling!

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Qoheleth85 said:

moarrrrrrrrr

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