Dear Paperwight - you state:"If somone is used to going to confession frequently, there’s the danger that the power of the Penitential Rite at the start of Mass is overlooked.
We are absolved of our venial sins in that way - there is no need to take up the priest’s time in confession.
I am not talking about mortal sins, obviously.
A previous poster mentioned the Me generation. Could it not be argued that expecting an overworked preist to spend time listening to venial sins so that the penitent can ‘feel wonderful’ afterwards is an abuse due to the Me generation?"
Isn’t this kinda minimalistic? I mean if a person didn’t want to go to Confession except when their sins became mortal and followed a pattern of using only the means available in the Mass itself as the way to purify themselves so as to be able to receive Communion, how long would it be before they fell into mortal sin and wouldn’t they be very vulnerable to doing so? Might their thinking tend towards justifying away there little sins and saying “Oh well, the Pentitential rite will take care of this and that.” And you also say poor Father is so overworked he just can’t possiblly listen to all the poor sinners Confess their
venial sins and slams the Confessional doors shut until they’ve commited Mortal sin and then they can bother him again…
…Where’s the love in that? Is that the way Jesus wants his flock tended? Oh and let’s not leave out the feeding of the gossips who hang out at Church to keep track of whose going to Confession and who isn’t. Wouldn’t they just love it if the *only sins *that made it to the Confessional were Mortal ones!
Dear Paperwight, thanks for sharing.
How about this. Person goes to Confession and has been working on his faults and sins for a while. The grace of the Sacrament has been helping him along with his own efforts to grow in a sanctifying way. The Mass begins and he is brought to the Lamb of God through the Liturgy in a deeper way than merely being “sinless” for a few moments at the beginning of Mass. His Communion is as God wills not his sins and a minimalistic mindset that keeps him barely sinless not to mention the effect this has on those around him who have to put up with his merely venial, washed away by the pentitential rite, day in and day out…never improving one bit sins. Suppose the person he is constantly venially sinning against is his boss at work and the boss is on the verge of firing him because his business is being disrupted by the venial sin of being late to work so often others can’t do their jobs because they constantly have to make adjustments for the late guy who has minimalized away his personal responsiblity for his sins and thinks every one in his life has to just put up him…BAMM! Guess what? Boss stops his venial sins with a note that says you’re fired! Pack it up and hit the pike! Oh dear? Then what? He gets overwhlemingly despondent because now his whole family is threatened because he justified away his lateness to work every Sunday at the Penitential rite and never acted on any of the promptings of grace that nagged at him each time he showed up on Sunday, (late as usual too, after all it is only a venial sin) He goes to Father for help and Father has absolutely no idea on earth where the guy is coming from because the guy only bothers with Confession once or twice a year so when the guy tries to talk to Father, he gets blown off and told to see sister or something like that and he is so upset because he’s fired and his poor family will be homeless soon…but that’s okay, he and the family can hang on till the mortgage gets behind and then their sins *may become *mortal because they can’t afford their payments anymore, but the usual justifying process that kept them in a minimalistic mindset has now devastated a whole family and perhaps those whose businesses where dependant upon the payments the poor man’s job got them. OH NO! There’s more! The man gets really crazy after tying one on with his buddies at the VFW who are trying to comfort him while this is happening and he gets into his car after a few beers with the boys at the hall, (all venial sins BTW) and crash! right off the cliff into the kudzu. Will the insurance payment to the widow right all those venial sins? NOPE. But the Penitential rite is there to help steady her hands at the next Sundays’ Mass while she clings to her now orphaned children who have no idea how things are going to go from there and all are pretty grief stricken.
Gee, maybe if the poor guy had gone to Confession regularly and Father had heard for the let’s say tenth time the guy confessing being late for work father being moved by grace says something like,“you need to make an effort to get to work on time…” and the poor sinner hearing the Voice of the Sheperd in Father’s voice does exactly that and never losses his job, doesn’t get drunk with the boys and wind up doa after getting his wrecked Ford hauled out of the kudzu by the highway patrol who have to tell the widow and children where daddy’s body is at and could she please come and identify the body…
Nah. Forget about it. Don’t listen to me at all. I’m only a silly stupid nutbag of a widow with too much time on her hands today.
Peace,
Gail
P.S. Paperwight, do you perhaps envy those who are obviously given consolations as their willpower co-operates with the grace of the Sacrament of Confession?
