AS IF my day couldn't get any better ^_^

[Daegus]

So I start off my day by going to the dentist (Not really relevant but I thought I’d say that). I have waited for about a year now to come back to the Church fully and make my confession. It was about a year that I skipped but I came back. Anyways, when I finally get to Church I walk in, sit at a pew, put my hat down and notice there aren’t many people, so I go in a confessional to make my confession. I started to tell the priest of my sins but then I got VERY nervous so I almost totally blanked out as I was confessing. The priest wasn’t very talkative however. I confessed my mortal sins and he said thanks for coming to confess and God wants you to have forgiveness etc… He then proceeds to giving me my penance of 10 Hail Marys without giving me any advice on how to stop my pornography habit (perhaps this is mostly because I was so nervous that the thought of telling him the frequency of my sins completely slipped my mind) and then he says something along the lines of “May Almighty God grant you forgiveness in the name of the Father… Son… and Holy Spirit” and as he was giving me absolution (or so I thought?) I JUST remembered something else that I was going to confess. After I left the confessional I went back to the pew I was at and after a while I noticed that my hat wasn’t there. I was thinking to myself “Where could I have put my hat?” and I looked all around me and I didn’t find my hat anywhere. After the mass that proceeded the confession session I looked everywhere and didn’t see it anywhere so I had to bus home in the bitter cold without a hat.

So now I’m left not even knowing if my confession was valid because I didn’t confess what I knew because the priest was already giving me absolution, and if it was, whether or not I even received absolution because the priest did not use the words “I absolve you…”. I’m also left a little bewildered after having been thrashed around by the bus driver’s ridiculously fast driving, thinking that I was going to die, and I’m angry that someone STOLE MY HAT IN A CHURCH when it’s bitterly cold outside!!! What is this world coming to…? Jeez.

 

[archangel04]

Well you can think of it this way, you lost a good hat, but you lost it in the Lord’s house, so think of it as a sacrifice or a penance for your sins. You confession is valid as long as you went in with a heart ready to ask for full forgivness and trully sorry for your sins. If you forget a sin or some, but still wen’t in with the intent of truly being sorry, then when the priest said “I absolve you from ALL your sins” it literally means all your since including those you forgot. If it really bothers you that much you can always just go back. The true sin is those that you hide, then that’s where you would have a problem.

 

[Catholic90]

Is it possible someone saw the lone hat and thought someone LEFT it, so they put it in the Lost and Found?

If they were getting ready for mass and someone walked past and saw just a hat sitting there, that may be what happened.

Can you return and check their lost and found area?

 

[Daegus]

Is it possible someone saw the lone hat and thought someone LEFT it, so they put it in the Lost and Found?

If they were getting ready for mass and someone walked past and saw just a hat sitting there, that may be what happened.

Can you return and check their lost and found area?

I could try that… Though I’m not sure as to whether or not the Church even has a lost and found area. I’m not very familiar with this parish and I often times go with my mother when I do go there.

Well… At least the good thing I got out of this situation was fulfilling my Sunday obligation and receiving the priest’s blessing at the end of the mass despite not receiving communion due to my incredulity.

 

[jmcrae]

… and I’m angry that someone STOLE MY HAT IN A CHURCH when it’s bitterly cold outside!!! What is this world coming to…? Jeez.

Could you have taken it with you into the Confessional, and accidentally left it there?

Most parishes have a large basket of some kind near the main entrance, but tucked out of the way a bit, where lost items are put - you might have to look around, or else ask.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

If you can’t find the “lost and found” try the parish office.