Confession

[Ave Maria]

Hey everyone. When you go to confession, are you supposed to confess only mortal sins or both mortal and venial sins?

 

[New_Found_Faith]

I think that you are only required to confess mortal sins for absolution, but it cant hurt to confess your venial sins, too

 

[Benedicta00]

Hey everyone. When you go to confession, are you supposed to confess only mortal sins or both mortal and venial sins?

You are only obligated to confess mortal, not venial but it is a good practice and it aids growing in holiness if you do regularly confess venial sins.

 

[Ave Maria]

Ah okay cool! My only problem is that if I confessed all my sins, it'd probably take an hour! :o But then again, I do want to live a holy life and I will confess all of my sins when I do finally get to go to confession.

Also, can anyone give me an overview of how confession goes? I have no idea how it is done.

 

[Dream]

Ah okay cool! My only problem is that if I confessed all my sins, it'd probably take an hour! :o But then again, I do want to live a holy life and I will confess all of my sins when I do finally get to go to confession.

Like was said, you would be required to Confess all mortal sins, but Confessing venial sins is strongly encouraged and is good practice. If you don't have time to confess all your venial sins, you'd probablly want to pick the most important ones.

Also, can anyone give me an overview of how confession goes? I have no idea how it is done.

1. Enter the Confessional, make the sign of the cross
2. Say "bless me father, for I have sinned. It has been x weeks/years since my last Confession."
3. Confess your sins
4. When you are done, the Priest will probablly give you some spritual advice and words of wisdom
5. The Priest will then give you a penance
6. The Priest will then absolve you of all your sins on behalf of Jesus Christ
7. Thank the Priest for his time, and you're done. Do your penance at the next oppotunity you have and don't forget to praise the Lord for this great Sacrament He allowed you to participate in.

 

[Paul S]

Also, can anyone give me an overview of how confession goes? I have no idea how it is done.

You start off with "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been (how long) since my last confession."

Then you have to confess all mortal sins by type and number - "I skipped Mass twice", "I looked at inappropriate contentography three times", etc. If you intentionally leave something out, that's a mortal sin, and you'll have to re-confess everything plus the new sin of a sacrilegious confession. But, if you truly don't remember something, that's okay. You can't remember all your sins, especially if it's been a while since your last confession.

Then you end with something like, "For these and all my other sins which I cannot presently remember, I am truly sorry." (and you have to mean it )

The priest might ask you some questions, to find out whether your sins are truly mortal or not, and to help you avoid them in the future. Answer him truthfully.

The priest will then ask you to say the Act of Contrition. There's several of these, or you can make up your own. The important parts are sorrow for your sins and a resolve not to commit them again. I say this one:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.

The priest will then give you absolution. He must say "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." He'll say some other stuff, too, but if he doesn't say those words, you're not forgiven. There are, unfortunately, priests out there who try to play with the Sacrament, so you have to listen. I've never had it happen, but if it does, ask him to say these words.

You'll be assigned a penance, usually some prayers. And then all your sins are gone.

 

[Ave Maria]

Like was said, you would be required to Confess all mortal sins, but Confessing venial sins is strongly encouraged and is good practice. If you don't have time to confess all your venial sins, you'd probablly want to pick the most important ones.



1. Enter the Confessional, make the sign of the cross
2. Say "bless me father, for I have sinned. It has been x weeks/years since my last Confession."
3. Confess your sins
4. When you are done, the Priest will probablly give you some spritual advice and words of wisdom
5. The Priest will then give you a penance
6. The Priest will then absolve you of all your sins on behalf of Jesus Christ
7. Thank the Priest for his time, and you're done. Do your penance at the next oppotunity you have and don't forget to praise the Lord for this great Sacrament He allowed you to participate in.

What's a penance?

 

[Dream]

The priest will then ask you to say the Act of Contrition.

I forgot that to my list.

 

[Benedicta00]

Ah okay cool! My only problem is that if I confessed all my sins, it'd probably take an hour! :o But then again, I do want to live a holy life and I will confess all of my sins when I do finally get to go to confession.

Also, can anyone give me an overview of how confession goes? I have no idea how it is done.

You do not have to give a long list, just state the mortal sins, and do not give details, just say ‘I have sinned by doing ___’ then say how many times you did it, if you do not know how many times then say that you do not know but approximately ___. Then you can confess venial sins but I find confession the underlying sin- one of the 7 deadly sins, pride envy, anger, etc is more potent because it isn’t what you did so much as it is what is causing what you did. If you threw a fit, then confess that you through a fit because you gave into anger. If you were ugly to someone then say you were ugly to someone because you were jealous, something along those lines.

You go to confession by kneeling behind a screen or sitting down with the priest, usually you will have a choice and you say, “Bless me father for I have sinned” and then you say- ‘It was (how long) since my last confession.’ for you it would be ‘this is my first confession’ and you just state what sins and how many you do not have to make it long and drawn out. Since it is your first confession (provided you will someday go) the priest will help you along.

When you are finished you say, ‘for these and all the sins of my past life I am truly sorry’ and then he will council you, ask you questions, what ever, and then absolve you by saying, after the prayer of absolution, “I absolve you in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Your sins are forgiven you, go in peace.”

 

[Paul S]

What's a penance?

Something to do to show you're sorry. The usual penance is several Our Fathers and Hail Marys, but some priests get more creative.

My pastor has the "coffee penance".

 

[Ave Maria]

You start off with "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been (how long) since my last confession."

Then you have to confess all mortal sins by type and number - "I skipped Mass twice", "I looked at inappropriate contentography three times", etc. If you intentionally leave something out, that's a mortal sin, and you'll have to re-confess everything plus the new sin of a sacrilegious confession. But, if you truly don't remember something, that's okay. You can't remember all your sins, especially if it's been a while since your last confession.

Then you end with something like, "For these and all my other sins which I cannot presently remember, I am truly sorry." (and you have to mean it )

The priest might ask you some questions, to find out whether your sins are truly mortal or not, and to help you avoid them in the future. Answer him truthfully.

The priest will then ask you to say the Act of Contrition. There's several of these, or you can make up your own. The important parts are sorrow for your sins and a resolve not to commit them again. I say this one:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.

The priest will then give you absolution. He must say "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." He'll say some other stuff, too, but if he doesn't say those words, you're not forgiven. There are, unfortunately, priests out there who try to play with the Sacrament, so you have to listen. I've never had it happen, but if it does, ask him to say these words.

You'll be assigned a penance, usually some prayers. And then all your sins are gone.

If you can't remember one of the sins and are not intentionally not mentioning it, will you still be forgiven of the sin you couldn't remember?

 

[Benedicta00]

Oh and I forgot- after that he will assign you a penance to do.

 

[Ave Maria]

Something to do to show you're sorry. The usual penance is several Our Fathers and Hail Marys, but some priests get more creative.

My pastor has the "coffee penance".

Ah okay. Thanks Paul S. I'm just curious though. What is an act of Contrition? I saw that term earlier and am totally unfamiliar with it.

 

[InnerPhyre]

If you can't remember one of the sins and are not intentionally not mentioning it, will you still be forgiven of the sin you couldn't remember?

Yes.

 

[Paul S]

Ah okay. Thanks Paul S. I'm just curious though. What is an act of Contrition? I saw that term earlier and am totally unfamiliar with it.

It's the prayer I posted, although there's slightly different ones, too.

It's basically a prayer telling God you're sorry and you resolve to avoid sin in the future.

 

[Ave Maria]

Yes.

Oh well that's a relief. I tend to have a bad memory. :o

 

[Ave Maria]

It's the prayer I posted, although there's slightly different ones, too.

It's basically a prayer telling God you're sorry and you resolve to avoid sin in the future.

Oh okay! Thanks!

 

[Carrye]

Holly, you haven't been baptized yet, right?

 

[bigsierra]

Then you have to confess all mortal sins by type and number - "I skipped Mass twice", "I looked at inappropriate contentography three times", etc. If you intentionally leave something out, that's a mortal sin, and you'll have to re-confess everything plus the new sin of a sacrilegious confession. But, if you truly don't remember something, that's okay. You can't remember all your sins, especially if it's been a while since your last confession.

So would the priest recommend getting rid of the inappropriate contentography, or is that just assumed, by the act of contrition?

 

[Paul S]

If you haven't been baptised, all your sins will be forgiven in Baptism. You'll only have to confess sins you commit from then on.

And you should never re-confess a sin, since this is telling God He didn't get it right the first time. But if you forgot a mortal sin, and later remember it, you should confess it.