It seems like we get these threads from time to time, when people have already confessed sins and been forgiven and absolved, but they don’t feel like they confessed them well enough or weren’t sorry enough or something, so they want to do a general confession.
We don’t re-confess sins that we already confessed and had absolved. Unless there is some new occurrence of a past sin that you haven’t confessed yet, you should not be scheduling a confession to go over old previously absolved sins again.
Furthermore, “general confessions” are usually for people who are trying to cover many years’ worth of sins because they’re new converts or haven’t been to confession in 10 years, that sort of thing. It’s not meant for Catholics who confess on a regular basis to go back over old, previously confessed sins.
Once the sin is confessed and forgiven and absolved, it’s gone. It doesn’t matter if you still feel bad about it or feel like you weren’t sorry enough or whatever. Feelings don’t somehow make it confessable again. I would also worry about being overscrupulous when you’re not accepting God’s gift of forgiveness, but instead saying, “Well that absolution wasn’t quite good enough because I just didn’t feel a deep enough sorrow for the sin.” Let’s face it, NONE of us are ever going to be able to possibly have enough sorrow for our sins, not even the great saints. God’s forgiveness and mercy are gifts to us.
I would suggest that you mention to your priest in a regular confession, after listing your current, unconfessed sins, that you don’t feel you have enough contrition over past, already confessed and absolved sins and see what he says. I would not do the general confession because it’s not appropriate in your case, as the sins you’d want to bring up there were previously confessed, previously absolved and thus gone.
