Confession Question

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Hi…I’m a newbie here and have a question about confession.
first a little backgound info:
I am a baptized Catholic and strayed away from attending mass for almost 20 years(complicated life style) with the exception of xmas and Easter.
In the last couple of months I came back to the chruch.
I prayed for Jesus to come back into my life…now I love going to mass again.🙂 …I found a wonderfull book “Awake my Soul” and I’m hungry for more information.
now the question:
How often should one go to confession? once a week? once a month? only when one sins?
thanks all and God Bless!
kayla
 
kayla said:
How often should one go to confession? kayla

At least once per year.

The Holy Father goes to confession once per week. So by his example the more the better.
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Hey, I just wanted to say, “AWESOME!” Welcome back.

If you are getting back into the Church after that period of time, I’d recommend going over to the Mary Foundation at www.catholicity.com and getting their free audio tapes/CDs. All of them are good, but specifically they have a tape on the sacrament of confession by Fr. Larry Richards.

Great insights into the sacrament. And a nice refresher on how to do a good examination of conscience.

When I went back to the Church after a time away, I really didn’t get the benefit and graces that I could have received from confession, because my examination of conscience was fairly superficial. Thus, although my sins were forgiven, I kept finding myself trapped in repeating my sins because I hadn’t confessed everything I should have.

Good luck.
 
kayla said:
Hi…I’m a newbie here and have a question about confession.
first a little backgound info:
I am a baptized Catholic and strayed away from attending mass for almost 20 years(complicated life style) with the exception of xmas and Easter.
In the last couple of months I came back to the chruch.
I prayed for Jesus to come back into my life…now I love going to mass again.🙂 …I found a wonderfull book “Awake my Soul” and I’m hungry for more information.
now the question:
How often should one go to confession? once a week? once a month? only when one sins?
thanks all and God Bless!
kayla
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Ditto,welcome home! The priests in my parish are always encouraging our parishioners to go often. Once a week is great because it doesn’t give sin much chance to hide and take hold. It also keeps our relationship with our dear Lord before our eyes as does all prayer and the Eucharist, of course. My parish, is fortune to have somwhat, a Cure d’ Ars as its pastor. The priest who celebrates daily mass hears confessions every morning before mass making it very possibe for us to follow his great advise. And believe me the people do. There are people on the lines every morning. You should see it on Easter and Christmas and during Lent. Hope your that fortunate.
 
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Joanna:
Ditto,welcome home! The priests in my parish are always encouraging our parishioners to go often. Once a week is great because it doesn’t give sin much chance to hide and take hold.
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I agree. I would love to go once a week, but find making it about 2 times per month is what I can do.
I would recommend also doing an examination of conscience every night to bring to light and confess all those little venial sins that really drag us all down. Then going into confession, you’ll know you’ve really cleaned house!! 😛
 
Sacramental confession is really for mortal sins (which are quite tough to commit), whereas venial sins are absolved by going to Mass, reading scripture, good works etc.

Sure you can throw them all in the pot each week and confess to a priest, but then often we don’t see the underlying nature of these sins - why they are attractive, in what circumstances are they committed, how can I develop habits towards the virtues, etc. Often in weekly confession we can stick to one way of examining our conscience rather than as a response to the Lord in scripture and in liturgical celebration.

Maybe going before major feast days, eg. Easter, Pentecost, All Saints, Christmas, Annunciation and reflecting on those mysteries as a way to examine your conscience can be a satisfying way of celebrating the sacrament liturgically and scripturally (ie responding to the Lord) as well as becoming less tedious, for both penitent and confessor.
 
Speaking for myself I go to confession whenever I feel the need.

It could be once every 2 or 3 months to once every 2 or 3 weeks. I have been delving more and more into my past to find more sins I am sorry for, so I can confess.
 
Welcome Home!!!

May God be praised and glorified!

And give a big hand to your guardian angel who had to watch you suffer and agonize while you were away! I know mine was pretty happy when I first walked into the Rectory and asked about RCIA! I can almost hear him go “Phew!” but I think the real word is alleluia!

I go to Confession pretty often, usually every two weeks but sometimes things just don’t work out that way. I went today in fact. I love the Sacrament. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not mired in mortal sins, thanks be to God! The type of Confession this is is called “devotional” and is MIRACLE GROW FOR THE SOUL!!! I made my first Confession two weeks after I was received into the Church and have been pretty regular since. I can’t stand having all that nastiness hanging on me. UGH!

I think the first thing you need to do is get a clearer understanding of the difference between mortal and venial sins. Mortal sins are death blows to the life of grace in a soul. Venial sins don’t necessarily have to be Confessed to a priest, but folks tend to fall little by little like it says in Sirach. They weigh you down and work against grace. Get your hands on the Catechism and a good guide to examining your conscience. It is worth it.

Peace and all good,

Thomas2
 
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ceh47:
Sacramental confession is really for mortal sins (which are quite tough to commit), whereas venial sins are absolved by going to Mass, reading scripture, good works etc.
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I’ve heard a priest or two try to tell me that too. :o Personally I just don’t think venial sins should be taken lightly. These sins are the ones that, if not confessed, could definately lead us to the bigger ones, the mortal sins.
Proper formation of conscience requires knowledge of the difference and how is one to know that without the counsel the sacrament provides?
 
Hi all,

Here’s another thought on Confession:

Each and every Sacrament is a special encounter with the living Jesus. Just as the Eucharist is a meeting with Him, so too, the Sacrament of Confession has its encounter with Jesus too. If you love Him in the Eucharist, why not meet Him more often in the confessional? I’ve always kept in mind that there are three people in that little dark box - me, the priest and Jesus! The merciful and loving Lord waits for all His people in that dark corner of our world and it is there that sin is defeated and grace abounds. Why hold back? Fear is useless what is needed is faith! 👍

Peace and all good,

Thomas2
 
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ceh47:
Sacramental confession is really for mortal sins (which are quite tough to commit),
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LOL, you must be much holier than I am. I have regularly confessed mortal sins, including my confession yesterday.
 
RFK -

Yikes! :bigyikes: Am I mis-reading the “tone” of your post in that you are proud of your repeated Mortal sins? I pray not. Please explain! I’m praying for you.

Peace and all good,

Thomas2
 
Kayla,

My story is similar to yours. I suggest reading the diary of St. Maria Faustina, “Divine Mercy in My Soul”. According to Mother Angelica of EWTN, you should go to confession once a week but at the very least once a month. Never take commuion if you have commited a mortal sin! If you read the diary you will know why! It has helpled me greatly. I never took confession seriously until now. You can buy the book at marian.org/directory_flash.html.

Also, any books written by Scott Hahn are great for re-discovering your faith! I suggest the “Lamb’s Supper” and “Hail, Holy Queen”.
 
Excellent advise George! Divine Mercy In My Soul is an excellent book and St. Faustina is an incredible intercessor on behalf of God’s generous and loving Mercy! It was a Mercy Mass some nine years ago that began the tears flowing for me and started me on my journey into the Church. May God be praised!

Kayla, I’ll second George’s suggestion that you get your hands on the book and read it. Jesus is a gentle healer and He does this via Divine Mercy. I think this book is so important, it is a must read for every Catholic. 👍

Peace and all good,

Thomas2
 
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