Confession and imperfect contrition

[samuraisedge18]

I feel that everyone’s goal in life should be to get to heaven. I’m not feeling sorrow for myself but in my short life i’ve had a few tastes of hell and i would not want to spend eternity there. When i’m at my lowest, i think of the peace and presence of the Lord in heaven, and that after i pass from this world, i will be admitted there forever. I sometimes feel that the promise of heaven is the only thing that keeps me going. It’s the only thing i want. However i feel that this is selfish, so i pray to God to want to do his will during my life. In another thread i learned that imperfect contrition is validated through confession. Should i go to confession every week or go more often? Anyone have any advice?

 

[leonie]

I feel that everyone’s goal in life should be to get to heaven. I’m not feeling sorrow for myself but in my short life i’ve had a few tastes of hell and i would not want to spend eternity there. When i’m at my lowest, i think of the peace and presence of the Lord in heaven, and that after i pass from this world, i will be admitted there forever. I sometimes feel that the promise of heaven is the only thing that keeps me going. It’s the only thing i want. However i feel that this is selfish, so i pray to God to want to do his will during my life. In another thread i learned that imperfect contrition is validated through confession. Should i go to confession every week or go more often? Anyone have any advice?

Weekly confession is sufficient unless you are in mortal sin. I would suggest an hour of adoration daily if it fits your state in life. I think that you will bask in peace and presence of the Lord in Adoration.

Everything I do is imperfect, including my contrition. I ask the Blessed Mother to purify everything for me.

I also think that you should think about monthly spiritual direction.

 

[samuraisedge18]

Weekly confession is sufficient unless you are in mortal sin. I would suggest an hour of adoration daily if it fits your state in life. I think that you will bask in peace and presence of the Lord in Adoration.

Everything I do is imperfect, including my contrition. I ask the Blessed Mother to purify everything for me.

I also think that you should think about monthly spiritual direction.

I’m not sure what you mean when you say “unless you are in mortal sin” Are you saying that if i commit a mortal sin between two acts of confession, my imperfect contrition is denied. Doesn’t recieving confession free you of mortal sin.

 

[murphdog261]

The first response isn’t saying that one act of contrition is invalidated because of mortal sin.

When he says “sufficient”, he means enough for your spiritual growth with Christ. If you were in mortal sin, then weekly confession may not be sufficient for you to properly grow as a Christian. In the case of mortal sin, it should not just be weekly confession, but confession at the next possible chance you can go. If you were not in mortal sin, then confession once a week is usually a sufficient number of times to go in order to properly grow as a Christian.

At least that’s what I thought he meant.

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!

Murph

 

[leonie]

The first response isn’t saying that one act of contrition is invalidated because of mortal sin.

When he says “sufficient”, he means enough for your spiritual growth with Christ. If you were in mortal sin, then weekly confession may not be sufficient for you to properly grow as a Christian. In the case of mortal sin, it should not just be weekly confession, but confession at the next possible chance you can go. If you were not in mortal sin, then confession once a week is usually a sufficient number of times to go in order to properly grow as a Christian.

At least that’s what I thought he meant.

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!

Murph

yep, that’s what I meant

 

[samuraisedge18]

i’m still a bit confused. Are you saying that if i committed a mortal sin every week than that confession wouldn’t help my spiritual growth.

 

[andreas430]

I believe he’s saying something like this:

Let’s say you go to confession every week on Saturday. This is sufficient if you are not committing mortal sins. However, if one week, you commit a mortal sin on, say Wednesday, then you should try to get to confession ASAP rather than just waiting until your weekly time of Saturday.

Regardless of whether you’re committing mortal sins, confession is going to help your spiritual growth, it’s just that if you do commit mortal sins, it might be a better idea for you to go more than once a week.

I hope this helps, and if I misinterpreted what was said, say something.

 

[samuraisedge18]

so do you think we should all go to confession every week?

 

[francesco920]

so do you think we should all go to confession every week?

I’ve heard more than one holy priest say so, and I think so too. However, I think going every other week or once every month is also good. (Unless you have mortal sins, then you need to go more.) Heck, if every Catholic were going to Confession once a month at least, things would be A LOT better in this world, not to mention once a week!