Confession before mass or only on Saturday night

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<<<I don’t think the renewal will come before we take confession out of the proverbial closet and put it front in center of the sacramental life of the Church. Once a week confession for 30 to 45 minutes for the average parish is just plain insufficient. Deemphasizing this beautiful sacrament has deemphasized the truth of sin in Catholic parish life. If people see that confession does not seem to be a priority they will assign it to just things done before VII. This has been a true tragedy that now everyone seems to go to receive communion (despite what state they might be in) and very few avail themselves of confession.>>>
I couldn’t agree with you more. It has finally dawned on me that the reason confession is not that people are not interested, it is because the modern church has downplayed it to the point that no one thinks it is important…I never hear anything about it from the pulpit, or any other place, for that matter.
**I, for one, cannot make it to Saturday evening Mass or confession…I am usually busy with my family (grandkids, mostly), and I just don’t think I should have to make an appointment for it…The sacrament needs to be more readily available. It would be wonderful if we had the Sacrament of Reconciliation available before each Mass…Then I think you would see more people availing themselves of it. **
 
It drives me a little crazy reading threads about people being turned away from confession because only half an hour was scheduled and there was a good deal of people. I have experienced the opposite problem–scheduled confession times are not kept because “no one shows up.” This happened twice in the past month, and I won’t even get into the times elaborate weddings delay confession times. Hours need to be expanded if you are blessed to have long lines and people are being turned away.
 
There was no true answer in the poll.

Both of my parishes have lots of confession times. The one has an hour before the 5:15 Mass on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (just right for catching the cubicle dwellers when they are let out for the day), the other has two hours every day excepr Sundays, Holy Days, and major national holidays, one hour before the noon Mass and another before the afternoon Mass. Both also encourage confession by appointment, and also the practice of having a regular confessor.

It helps that one is the Cathedral, and the other is a parish run by a religious order that still has plenty of priests, and a community charism including spiritual direction …

karen marie
 
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kmknapp:
The one has an hour before the 5:15 Mass on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (just right for catching the cubicle dwellers when they are let out for the day),
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Wow… those cubicle dwellers must be working right across the street from your church?

It can take me 15 minutes to walk from my desk to my truck in the company parking lot.

I wish that my church’s daily Mass was at 6:30am so that I could go to Mass and make it to work on time, too.

It was so at a different parish I attended in a different state… tons of people went to the 6:30am Masses very weekday. Not just the “stay at home parents” and the “retired folk” who make it to the 8:15am weekday Masses at my own current parish.
 
Veronica Anne:
Wow… those cubicle dwellers must be working right across the street from your church?.
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Pretty much so. One parish is at the east end of “downtown” and the other at the west end of “downtown,” and the weekday schedules at both of them are consciously set up to allow downtown workers to worship on their way to or from work, and at the one, during the lunch hour, a 12:10 Mass with short homily guaranteed to finish by 12:45 to gobble a sandwich and run back to the cubicle by 1:00. 👍

karen marie
 
I see I am of the unlucky few that belongs to a (soon to be ex) parish that does not offer confession except for just before Easter and Just before Christmas. I have tried to get my pastor to do it more often but he won’t do it so off I go to find another parish
 
Veronica Anne:
I wish that my church’s daily Mass was at 6:30am so that I could go to Mass and make it to work on time, too.

It was so at a different parish I attended in a different state… tons of people went to the 6:30am Masses very weekday. Not just the “stay at home parents” and the “retired folk” who make it to the 8:15am weekday Masses at my own current parish.
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I often wonder about this, what effect would “moving up” daily Mass times have on attendance. My cathedral parish is blessed to have both a 6:30 and 8:00 morning Mass each weekday (just 8:00 AM on Saturday), and the 6:30 is very well-attended. I’m afraid that daily Mass times past 7:30 AM rule out the workday commuter crowd who might go otherwise.
 
Every time I hear about only 30 - 45 minute confessions (or even an hour or two hours) per week, I wonder about all those who go to Communion. I would never consider going to Communion being in mortal sin - but I (and I think most of us on these forums) am in the minority.

Then again, I am fortunate in living in a parish in which confession times are quite liberal (in the positive sense). We have confessions in both my parish (and the one next to me) on a daily basis from the time the parish office opens in the morning until it closes in the afternoon. We also have confessions before every Mass both weekdays and weekends. While the before Mass confessions are generally scheduled for 30 minutes, the priests will generally ensure that everybody in line has a chance to confess (even if it means Mass starts 10 - 15 minutes late). And I have never heard anyone in my parish complain that the Mass began late because of confessions.

The parish next to mine (thanks to having sufficient priests) usually also has confessions up to the homily. I know of only a few parishes in my diocese that require an appointment to see the priest outside of official confession hours.

John
 
You are so lucky…As I have stated here before, our parish of about 3,000 families has confessions exactly one half hour each week…just before the Saturday evening Mass. It’s a very bad time for most people…I think more would go if it were emphasized from the pulpit, and held at more convenient times.
 
we do things a bit differently.
we have a pastor and asst pastor. while one begins a liturgy, the other remains available for confessions for much of the service, except the readings, until shortly before the consecration when he’ll go to vest so that he can assist at communion.
however, as i noted in another thread, i’ve also interupped our pastor’s family’s dinner with an urgent plea for forgivness. its just understood that sometimes Jesus can’t wait.
again, thanks for listening, love and peace, terry
 
At my parish, confession is scheduled from 6:30 p.m. until 7:15 p.m. on Wednesdays; from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays; and by request. We have two reconciliation rooms, so two priests are available to hear confessions during each scheduled time. If there are still people in line at the end of the scheduled time (which is not uncommon), at least one of the priests sticks around as long as necessary. Since we are blessed to have four priests at our parish, it’s not too difficult to confess “by request” either.
 
At my parish we have only 1 priest. He hears confessions for 30 min or so on Wed. and 30-45 min on Sat. before Mass. I haven’t gone to confession at my parish as it is 30 min. away from my home. I go to the parish in my town for confession as it is only minutes from my home. They schedule confessions for an hour on Thurs evenings and an hour on Saturdays before Mass. The only time that I have seen lines is during Holy Week. What a shame that more people don’t take advantage of this beautiful sacrament! But yet you see lines and lines of people going to receive Jesus in communion. I guess we are living in a great time of saints in our midst !?! :rolleyes:
 
I answered that my parish has confession before Mass, but this is not accurate. At our parish, confessions are heard after the 5:15 p.m. Mass on Wednesdays, Thursday, and Fridays. Confessions are also heard on Saturday mornings after the 8:00 a.m. Mass and again on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
 
I love it that my parish and most of them around my area that i sometimes go to give confession 15 minutes before Mass. At my parish we are now getting more involved in confession before Mass so now that when they have an overflow before Mass they leave a priest in there during Mass.
 
My parish has confession before the vigil Mass, before Sunday evening Mass, and upon request.
 
At our parish we have the Sacrament scheduled for 45 minutes every Saturday before the Mass, + “by appointment” and a couple of penance services (Lent and Advent). This averages out to about 50 hours per year, or 3000 minutes. We have about 2500 in our parish, so - say - 1500 are of “confession” age, that’s 2 minutes of Confession time per year.

Our sister parish has it even worse: 30 minutes EVERY OTHER WEEK (whether we need it or not!?)

When I want the Sacrament I usually have to go to a Dominican parish 60 miles away which has the Sacrament before every Mass + Saturday afternoons.
 
I can’t imaging how difficult it is for most of our priests to hear all of our confessions throughout their entire lives. Wow! They really are christs. I can honestly say that I have a deep love for all of our priests in general - even if many are confused - just like many laypeople. Anyway, I think that we need to deepen our gratitude for all the priests who are willing to listen to our confessions. Of course I wish and pray that there were more opportunities for Confession. However, we are also very fortunate to have Mass almost every day at so many places. At other points in history and currently in other countries because of Christian persecution, there are not such frequent opportunites for Mass and Confession. Maybe this is why the Precepts of the Church don’t actually say that we must receive every Sunday. There are many times that I need to go to confession but haven’t and I have to abstain from the Blessed Eucharist.

In the Love of Christ our King,

Sean.
 
this post of mine is coming from my heartfelt feelings- a homosexual who practiced the life style and a lax catholic and owes it to our lady and her scapular and her rosary for rescuing me.

Here is how i think of it. Confession and communion go together like peanut butter and jelly-the communion peanut butter would be too dry and you would choke , but with confession jelly it sweatens the taste and makes it go down smoother. In the same way we choke from receiving communion (peanut butter) in mortal sin if we don’t put confession (jelly) on it-the jelly signifies also the grace we receive in confession to enable us to receive grace in communion with a clear conscience. Kind of silly but i thought its a good analogy. every confession gives us more grace to sin no more

Incidentaly-i goto communion and confession daily-and to tridentine masses which i prefer now…and the priest actually told me that i shouldnt goto confession everyday unless i sin -I find that sad-if Jesus Christ was sitting in the confession do you really think he would tell me that i should go away and come back when i really have a sin? we all have daily faults.

Priests-how dare you become lax in a sacrament of the church which christ instituted-Padre Pio listened to confessions for the better part of an entire day sometimes-the least our priests can do is sit and have confession for 20 min before every mass. what do priests do in their daily routine that prohibits them from doing this?

Bishops-How dare you become lax and not even care that this ( and a great many things that are going on) happens. I feel that it is your duty to sheperd the flock of the diosese and it should be based on 2000 years of catholic tradition, instead of trying to find a way to renew things that do not need to be renewed and concerned with modern area and secular concerns. God is eternal and doesnt need to be reformed by eliminating and not even caring about confession any more. people need to know this and should be preached from the height of a rooftop and encouraged

i i am sorry if i offended anyone-but i feel it is my God given duty and right to let the church and everyone know to wake up and tell people these things and to return to tradition-just because the scapular was a thing started 800+ years ago doesnt mean it is invalid-has the majority of the church even tried to fix the problems going on with traditional methods-no. All we see is disunity and 50 different opinions for 1 specific problem. bottom line. no one in the clergy is trying hard enough
 
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