Confession again

[Joy2day]

Does anyone have any encouraging words? What do u do if you keep going to.confession with the same sins? What if it seems that u arent making progress? Sometimes I think that the priest could easily just interrupt me & rattle off my confession for me…
Then I think, maybe my direction is not in being perfect, but in making progress in other ways eg. helping the poor/sick etc.
Can anyone relate to this?

 

[I_am_learning]

Obviously no one is perfect, and we are sinful people. All you can do is continue trying not to commit those sins again and again, talk to a priest about your situation and maybe he can help, and pray to God to give you strength to stay away from the same sins. I can relate, and I think i’ve gotten better but i’ll continue to get even better.

 

[Elizium23]

You need to examine the root causes of your sins and the reasons you persist in them. Develop tactics and strategies to halt these cycles. I came up with ideas on my own, with varying degrees of success. If you find some particularly burdensome and difficult to excise, meet with a trusted priest, or even take on a spiritual director, who can advise you in these things. Above all, strengthen your prayer life constantly. Do not give the devil a chance to work on you.

 

[Regina7]

Yes, I tend to confess the same few sins all the time. I’ve asked my priest during confession to help me with these particular sins, and he has been helpful. My penance is sometimes related to my sin (e.g. Reading a particular bible story, etc).

I think we all tend to have certain weaknesses, not just you.

 

[Joy2day]

I think part of the reason, is that there’s a mental battle about whether something is exactly a sin etc. For eg. we all know that ‘anger’ or malice is a sin, however there is also something such as ‘righteous anger’, and then there is the sin of gluttony where we eat too much - but how often do we eat too much? eg. at weddings, social gatherings, christmas, etc. We always eat too much in western societies. We are all glutons at times. I guess we / I rationalise that ‘another piece of cake isn’t so bad’.

another example; some would say that you have to fast for 1 hour before communion, but if you didn’t, do you really think that’s a sin… The battle is between what we / I know about what the church teaches, and what we think in our heads. Personally I believe the church is right, however I don’t always understand it. There’s the disconnect between believing the church and our own understanding. And then of course there’s the ever present views of the world which often bellow much louder than the voice of the church. the world will say ’ have a glass of wine to get rid of that anger’. The psychologist will say ‘take a pill or blame your parents re. your present behaviour’

Of course there is a disconnect between our belief in God and our understanding of God. We believe that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and so is that of other people; but how do we begin to understand such a thing? Its like how one of the prophets in the old testament thought that God wanted him to kill his son as a sacrifice; today we would say - of course God doesn’t want that, and its against the 10 commandments - but this prophet actually thought God wanted him to kill his son as a show of his love for God. That clearly was not right.

And the biggest battle of all - how to get a priest/spiritual director? they’re so busy, hard to find, and only human anyway - which in my experience has been the great excuse for many things.

And how best to spend your time? praying? working hard at your job / housework? or working out how not to repeat your favourite sins?

 

[Cory]

A couple of phrases come to mind.

First, keep on trucking.

Second, one day at a time.

You can’t change the past and you can’t predict the future. The only thing you can do is make the best decision you can in the present.

If you mess up, acknowledge it, then make the right decision next time. Be careful not to ever throw in the towel and think just because you messed up you might as well continue to mess up.

Do your best.

 

[Joy2day]

Thank you Cory for your advice. Yes, I keep on trucking. We can only do our best with an honest search for the truth. This is what St Augustine did. He did not arrive at the full Truth overnight. It took a while. But his search was honest, and I believe that’s the key. We’re given brains and reason to use them.

 

[HelenRose]

Thank you Cory for your advice. Yes, I keep on trucking. We can only do our best with an honest search for the truth. This is what St Augustine did. He did not arrive at the full Truth overnight. It took a while. But his search was honest, and I believe that’s the key. We’re given brains and reason to use them.

The Devil dances when we give up on ourselves.

Christ and the angels rejoice when we try again.