Confession before Mass

[NFrancis]

I want to go to confession before the next time I attend Mass. However, I work on Saturday and am wondering if I can just go to a church before Mass on a weekday and just ask if the priest can hear my confession. It will be a short confession, but should I call and ask the priest or would most priests just be okay with an impromptu confession. And if I call will I have to leave a message because I would rather just talk to a priest on the phone rather than leave a message.

 

[Joannm]

If it is anything like my parish the presider shows up 5 miutes before mass begins and someone asking for confession at that point would delay the start of mass. I would call and either make an appointment for a convenient time or ask the priest if he could come over to the church earlier before Mass. To just pop up to him and ask for confession as he is preparing to celebrate Mass I think is a bit rude. He needs time to spiritually prepare for Mass.

 

[OraLabora]

Judge it by the situation. If the priest is there early enough before Mass, and it is a short confession, ask. I’ve done it; you are very unlikely to be turned down. If he shows up late (often because he’s said Mass elsewhere), then make a specific arrangement.

 

[NFrancis]

If it is anything like my parish the presider shows up 5 miutes before mass begins and someone asking for confession at that point would delay the start of mass. I would call and either make an appointment for a convenient time or ask the priest if he could come over to the church earlier before Mass. To just pop up to him and ask for confession as he is preparing to celebrate Mass I think is a bit rude. He needs time to spiritually prepare for Mass.

Ok. I was thinking it would be better to call and I didn’t know how long he would be in the church before Mass on a weekday. Ok. I guess I’ll call the priest.

 

[Scoobyshme]

Yeah, I’d call, just to make sure. I’ve done quick Confessions in all sorts of situations. Once, I caught one of the priests at EWTN walking on the access road toward the chapel, while I was driving my car to leave. I stopped, rolled the window down and asked if he had time for a quick Confession. He did, so I did Confession sitting behind the wheel of my car.

Another time, I was traveling for business, and got lost. I happened to pass by what looked like a large Catholic church in the Atlanta area, so, I figured, “Why not?” I pulled in and looked around for a priest. Finally found a secretary who hunted one down for me and I went to Confession. No problem.

What a wonderful Sacrament!

 

[NFrancis]

I want to call, but will I have to leave a message? It says office hours are 9-4 but does that mean a priest is just in a office 7 hours every day. I would prefer to not leave a message but talk to him on the phone.

 

[PAboy57]

leave a message if you can receive a private call. if privacy is an issue for you then wait to speak to someone.

 

[Catholic_C_1]

Have you checked confession times? The church I used to go to had confession every Saturday and often right before Mass. You should be able to find confession times for local parishes listed at masstimes.org/. However, if there are no scheduled hours (that you can attend), I guess you could see if a priest would be able to hear your confession. I’d probably check ahead of time, rather than just showing up, though.