Quick Question... appreciate answer

[King of the Nations]

I have done that, I go almost every 2-3 days now, so my sins a pretty fresh in my mind..

I was going to say, raise your hand if you go to confession often enough that you don't need to write out a list of everything that's happened in the past year...

*Looks at Servus with a mock look of admonishment. Slides one pointer fiinger over the other in a "tsk tsk"*



(Teasing, of course.)

Just remember to rip up your list and toss it away after Confession!!

Destory the evidence. Exaaactly.



Greg

Oo. Almost time for me to get ready to go myself...

"Bless me, father, for I have sinnned..." *Pulls a few five hundred page journals out of his backpack and lops them down on the sill in front of him....*

 

[Dream]

Usually, I don't need to write down my sins. Instead of committing 500 different sins in a given week, I usually commit the same sins 500 times.

 

[bostonlass]

Hm. Well, just try not to get in too much of a hurry at any point and accidentally hand your "grocery list" off to family or friends, asking them to take care of it because you don't have the time, eh?

That could get messy.

"Wait a minute... ....My grocery list is right here. What did I give Susie...???"



Greg

Actually something similar happened a few years ago. I had written a rather sinful email to someone....back when I was not such a good Catholic:o ........and I was in the practice of writing my emails on Word first since my email system tended to crash at the most inopportune moments. Well yours truly got hit with a worm virus which sent random files to everyone on my email list.

Luckily my mom was not on my list, but the President of the Massachusetts Society of CPA's was.....

 

[King of the Nations]

Actually something similar happened a few years ago. I had written a rather sinful email to someone....back when I was not such a good Catholic........and I was in the practice of writing my emails on Word first since my email system tended to crash at the most inopportune moments. Well yours truly got hit with a worm virus which sent random files to everyone on my email list.

Luckily my mom was not on my list, but the President of the Massachusetts Society of CPA's was.....

See? Early warning...



Greg

 

[Tiny]

Greg,
Thanks for the positive response. I agree wholeheartedly of the need to confess our sins, and it is only by repentance and Gods grace that our sins are forgiven.

Please dont savage me, what follows is a genuine Q and no derision of your faith intended.

The bible says we should confess, where does it say we should attend a "confession"
It is my understanding that the priest assesses the confession, and then awards a "tariff" of prayer, to atone for the sins, ie the worse the sin the more prayer. is this true?

Feel free at this point to roll eyes or shake head slowly, if not already doing so

Cheers for the insight
Tiny

 

[ThankyouJesus]

To get back on the subject - yes I write them down in my head - I know what quilt is - thank my loving God - my sins have become less to where I do not need a pen - making me stronger and more obedient - and my Father in church is like a branch where I the as a leaf has started to grow without withering away.

 

[Maggie893]

Greg,
Thanks for the positive response. I agree wholeheartedly of the need to confess our sins, and it is only by repentance and Gods grace that our sins are forgiven.

Please dont savage me, what follows is a genuine Q and no derision of your faith intended.

The bible says we should confess, where does it say we should attend a "confession"
It is my understanding that the priest assesses the confession, and then awards a "tariff" of prayer, to atone for the sins, ie the worse the sin the more prayer. is this true?

Feel free at this point to roll eyes or shake head slowly, if not already doing so

Cheers for the insight
Tiny

Hope you don't mind my response although I'm sure Greg will return with a better response.

The priest hears our confession but it is our relationship with God, our contrite state and desire to completely repent, which is between us and God that "earns" our absolution. The priest, if he truly believes we are not repentant could withhold absolution for our own sake, although this is rare. The priests absolution is a present and real acknowledgement of the forgiveness which is given by God alone. If the priest grants absolution but we are not truly repentent and God knows that, we aren't truly absolved.

As for penance, it is not a punishment. Penance is an offering. A gift that the priest recommends which will bring us closer to God and help to ensure our repentance. In other words if the priest says, "Say 3 Our Fathers", the act of saying these prayers would in fact bring us closer to God because we are praying and the prayer itself invokes God to "lead us not into temptation, etc" so it helps ensure by grace our commitment to repent. I seldom receive that kind of penance. The priests I go to are very creative in their means of helping me move closer to God. They truly are awesome and offer wonderful means of unifying with the Will of God. Just as a person in the OT who sinned would repentant, they also would offer both a sacrifice for their sin and a sacrifice of thanksgiving for the gift of forgiveness. They offered this "penance" willingly and it brought them closer to God.

 

[King of the Nations]

Hi Tiny,

Greg,
Thanks for the positive response. I agree wholeheartedly of the need to confess our sins,

Oh, ok...

and it is only by repentance and Gods grace that our sins are forgiven.

Ok. Your last post gave me the distinct impression that you were of the opinion that repentence was not necessary because our slates are already wiped clean in advance by Christ. Thank you for clarifying.

Please dont savage me, what follows is a genuine Q and no derision of your faith intended.

*Unlocks closet and peaks inside to verify that all torture equipment is ready...*

The bible says we should confess, where does it say we should attend a "confession"? It is my understanding that the priest assesses the confession, and then awards a "tariff" of prayer, to atone for the sins, ie the worse the sin the more prayer. is this true?

Feel free at this point to roll eyes or shake head slowly, if not already doing so

No, that's....*weighs the statement again*...pretty much right on.

In John 20:21-23, we see Jesus imparting the Holy Spirit to the apostles in a particular way and informing them that they now have the power to forgive sins (in his name). By Christ's own words we understand that it is the apostles (and their successors) to whom we are to go to confess our sins, especially those which are grave/"mortal" (See 1 John 5:16-17). The Church's teaching is that we do not have to go to confession for sins that are "venial" (not mortal) if we don't want to (which does not mean that we don't have to repent of those sins, only that sacramental confession is not required). But we do have to confess all mortal sins to those whom Jesus gave the power to remit sin and then they, as our spiritual fathers, as you say, "assess" our confession and either grant absolution of sin or not (not doing so is very rare and would only take place when the priest is convinced that your contrition is not genuine, which almost never happens) and then prescribe a penance to help us to atone for the damage our sins have done and to help, if necessary, increase sorrow for those sins.

It may seem preposterous, the idea that men have the same power as God to do something like forgive sins, but that, really, is the way God works. He seems to enjoy collaborating with us, His children, in his work of redemption. Look, for example, at the original work of bringing people to Christ to begin with. Who brings people to Christ? Us? No. The Holy Spirit does. "Unless the Father draws him..." And yet, do we men and women "bring people to Christ"? Yes, because God has secondarily granted us such an ability, we too have our role. While God's power in this is, of course, greater and pre-eminent and ours less and completely conditional upon his sovereignly granting it, note that He does indeed grant it and, like I said, seems to enjoy having us collborate with Him in His work.

I hope this has been helpful.

Cheers for the insight
Tiny

Cheers.

Greg

 

[Gwendolyn]

Before I go to bed I always examine my conscience. Sometimes it is formal, other times I just look back on the day and see how I treated others in word, act, and thought. I have made a list only a few times, but generally by the time I get myself to confession I've gone over my sins many times so I don't forget them. I don't think it's weird to make a list - if you want to be thorough, and if it helps you, then I don't see anything wrong with it, necessarily...

 

[marciadietrich]

Servus, I write down mine and then rip the list up after confession. I think its a good practice.

Since I go just before Mass, and tend to stuff things like that in my pocket and also my donation ... I believe one day I put my list in the collection plate with the cash. So I've stopped writing it down, lol.

 

[marciadietrich]

My thought is spend the time and effort you give to writing a list of "sins" into praising him for the fact that your sins are forgiven, by his grace.

I think we do that as well.

And I tend to also within the act of contrition give thanks for all that I have and I ask for grace and things like that as well.

So it is more than just listing out your sins, but also gaining the forgiveness, the grace, advice from your priest, being reconciled to the Body of Christ.

Marcia