Confession

Dream · Jan 30, 2005

If one goes to Confession without actually feeling sorry for sinning, but rather confessing out of fear of damnation, will God still grant absolution?

InnerPhyre · Jan 30, 2005

One must be sorry for their sins and resolve not to commit them again. We must make an act of contrition during confession, which says that we are sorry for our sins. Imperfect contrition means we are sorry for our sins because we fear God's just judgment. Perfect contrition means we are sorry because we have offended God, whom we love. Imperfect contrition is enough for absolution, but we must firmly resolve not to commit those sins again.

D'Ann · Jan 30, 2005

Dear Dream Theater,

The Act of Contrition:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend You, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen

Before we go into the Confession booth... we are to meditate (hopefully bowing down on our knees) about what sins the Holy Spirit is convicting our heart about.

God knows what is truly in our heart and if we are sincere and truly seeking forgiveness or absolution. God also knows that we are human and sometimes are not sure what to confess or not sure how sorry we are. Maybe at the moment, we may not feel a great remorse for our wrong-doing, but once we step into the Confession booth and start saying what's in our heart to the Father... It's amazing the different kinds of emotions and thoughts occur during that moment in each of our lives at that very moment of confession.

As far as truly receiving forgiveness and absolution if we are not remorse over a sin? My first question would be that if we are not truly remorse, why would we bother to take the time to head on out to confess it? The fear of hell can inspire us to do this? Why doesn't the fear of hell prevent us from committing the actual sin before we do, and thus, the need to confess the sin wouldn't be?

What I do know, is that God knows what is truly in our heart and what is truly in our head and maybe at the moment we may not feel remorse, but who knows, down deep even unknownst to us, we may very well be in great pain and sadness and remorse and just afraid to acknowlege it because it is easier to ignore and deny then to deal and cope and figure it out.... Just my opinion.

God's Peace,

D'Ann

plainswolf · Jan 30, 2005

As long as you acknowledge your sins and have the resolve not to commit them again. You may not feel remorse in a 'physical way', but it's that you have contrition at least in your mind.

J.M.J.
plainswolf

plainswolf · Jan 30, 2005

D'Ann said:
As far as truly receiving forgiveness and absolution if we are not remorse over a sin? My first question would be that if we are not truly remorse, why would we bother to take the time to head on out to confess it? The fear of hell can inspire us to do this? Why doesn't the fear of hell prevent us from committing the actual sin before we do, and thus, the need to confess the sin wouldn't be?

What I do know, is that God knows what is truly in our heart and what is truly in our head and maybe at the moment we may not feel remorse, but who knows, down deep even unknownst to us, we may very well be in great pain and sadness and remorse and just afraid to acknowlege it because it is easier to ignore and deny then to deal and cope and figure it out.... Just my opinion.

God's Peace,

D'Ann

Best wisdom yet!

J.M.J.
plainswolf

Paul S · Jan 30, 2005

DreamTheater said:
If one goes to Confession without actually feeling sorry for sinning, but rather confessing out of fear of damnation, will God still grant absolution?

This is called imperfect contrition - a sort of being sorry you got caught, rather than truly being sorry for the sins themselves - and it suffices for Confession. Perfect contrition - sorrow for one's sins because they offend God, not because of the punishment of hell - is better, and can forgive mortal sins outside of Confession, if the sinner resolves to confess as soon as possible.

If you make an act of perfect contrition, resolve to go to Confession as soon as possible, and die before you can confess, you're still forgiven. Imperfect contrition doesn't do this.

Skripper · Jan 31, 2005

plainswolf said:
As long as you acknowledge your sins and have the resolve not to commit them again. You may not feel remorse in a 'physical way', but it's that you have contrition at least in your mind.

J.M.J.
plainswolf

Exactly. About a year ago I had a spirited e-mail discussion with a cyber-friend on this very topic. Contrition of the mind, of the will, is required, though it may or may not manifest itself in subjective "feelings" of sorrow . . . nor are the subjective "feelings" required.

plainswolf · Jan 31, 2005

Skripper said:
Exactly. About a year ago I had a spirited e-mail discussion with a cyber-friend on this very topic. Contrition of the mind, of the will, is required, though it may or may not manifest itself in subjective "feelings" of sorrow.

Yes! But you just explained it better than I did. Thank you!

J.M.J.
plainswolf

Skripper · Jan 31, 2005

plainswolf said:
Yes! But you just explained it better than I did. Thank you!

J.M.J.
plainswolf

If particular "feelings" were required, something which we don't have control of as we do the will, I think we'd all be in trouble, at least sometimes. Sin is, after all, primarily an act of the will, not necessarily the heart. Contrition is similar in this respect.

Epiphanygirl · Jan 31, 2005

It is what "I am heartfully sorry for having offended Thee" means.

Benedicta00 · Jan 31, 2005

DreamTheater said:
If one goes to Confession without actually feeling sorry for sinning, but rather confessing out of fear of damnation, will God still grant absolution?

You have to repent sincerely. You can not feel as though the sin isnt wrong but you are going to confess it just because its the thing to do. That isnt repentance or contrition.

With that said, you can repent of the sin and fear hell over it and confess for that reason, this is imperfect contrition and the whole reason we have the sacrament of confession- to perfect what is imperfect.

Perfect contrition, is when we are purely sorry for offending God who is offended too much already, because we love God with all our heart and soul, mind, strength ect, and would never want to offended him, not because we dont want to go to hell but because he is good and deserving of all our love (we never love God when we sin, we love us.).

What people dont understand is, that when you have perfect contrition, you dont need confession, as Peter says, Love coves and multitude of sin but we can not judge ourselves to know if we truly are sorry for purely selfless reasons, so we must confess.

Imperfect human nature always tends to be self absorbed so God gave us confession- to humble us and through the ministry of the Church we receive the grace from this sacrament, in union with the entire prayer of the Church, the body of Christ, those in heaven those in purgatory and here on earth, the sacrafice of the Mass offered up for our sins and those of the whole world.

Carrye · Jan 31, 2005

Skripper said:
Sin is, after all, primarily an act of the will, not necessarily the heart.

As my priest said yesterday, "you can't sin on accident".

ShannonMcCatholic · Jan 31, 2005

St. John Bosco warns us of the 3 main ways in which Satan tempts us to make a poor cofession:
1. purposefully omitting sins or altering how many times it has been commited out of fear or embarassment
2. not having firm resolve to sin no more
3. not being truly sorry for our sins

Confession is of such great value to our soul, that Satan attacks it every way he can trying to steal the grace of this great gift of the Church- either by tempting us to stay away from confession for long periods of time or by making poor confessions.

Benedicta00 · Jan 31, 2005

As Dr. Laura says, put the behavior first and then the feelings will follow. (I know yall love theses non Catholic Dr.s I quote)

As long as repentance and a resolution to never do it again are sincerely willed feelings are secondary.

Again- the reason why we have confession, because after we put this behavior of repenting, confessing first then the feelings will catch up to the behavior and we will over time be delivered from the yoke of sin.

Benedicta00 · Jan 31, 2005

ShannonMcMorland said:
St. John Bosco warns us of the 3 main ways in which Satan tempts us to make a poor cofession:
1. purposefully omitting sins or altering how many times it has been commited out of fear or embarassment
2. not having firm resolve to sin no more
3. not being truly sorry for our sins

Confession is of such great value to our soul, that Satan attacks it every way he can trying to steal the grace of this great gift of the Church- either by tempting us to stay away from confession for long periods of time or by making poor confessions.

and after we have confessed, he tempts us to doubt our confession.

ShannonMcCatholic · Jan 31, 2005

Shelb5 said:
and after we have confessed, he tempts us to doubt our confession.

Yes! To make us think we weren't really forgiven, that we didn't really receive the grace to fight sin and decrease in our attatchments to sin...yes- he certainly does do that!

plainswolf · Jan 31, 2005

Shelb5 said:
and after we have confessed, he tempts us to doubt our confession.

DOES HE EVER!!

J.M.J.
plainswolf

geocajun · Jan 31, 2005

Skripper said:
Exactly. About a year ago I had a spirited e-mail discussion with a cyber-friend on this very topic. Contrition of the mind, of the will, is required, though it may or may not manifest itself in subjective "feelings" of sorrow . . . nor are the subjective "feelings" required.

sounds like you have some pretty darn smart friends!

Carrye · Jan 31, 2005

ShannonMcMorland said:
Confession is of such great value to our soul

I have to say that this isn't something I ever would have believed if I hadn't experienced it myself. It sounds so cliche, but it's so true!

I have never experienced the profound relief and finality that I have after going to confession. And God has certainly given me the gift of that cleanliness - I don't doubt that my sins have been forgiven, and really don't think about them again. I know that others struggle with that, and I pray for you all, but it's not something I've ever really known. He protects His weak ones.

There's just something about those words: "I absolve you from all of your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen".

There have been sins that I've confessed time after time, not really ever thinking that I'd be able to make a significant change ... though I firmly resolved to do so every time (and meant it). What I find absolutely amazing is that by His Grace, and only by His Grace, is that not only have they been forgiven, but I've actually been prevented from sinning in the same way(s) in the future. His graces are amazing. I don't even know what else to say - I can only sit here in my linguistic privation shaking my head.

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