Confession: sins that you don't remember

[Blackbog]

I’m about to go to confession after having lapsed for about half a year or more. What do I do about sins which I don’t remember specifically, but I somehow feel confident that I’ve committed?

For example, the sin of doubt. I don’t remember how many times I committed the sin of doubt from the time of my last confession to now, but I do know over the course of that time I fell away from the faith, and rejected belief in it. So what do I do, guesstimate how many times I probably committed doubt or only say X number of times for every time I can remember specifically?

(I’ve always had a hard time with confession, and it was somewhat more manageable when I was going once a week or so. Pray for me. )

 

[FrDavid96]

I’m about to go to confession after having lapsed for about half a year or more. What do I do about sins which I don’t remember specifically, but I somehow feel confident that I’ve committed?

For example, the sin of doubt. I don’t remember how many times I committed the sin of doubt from the time of my last confession to now, but I do know over the course of that time I fell away from the faith, and rejected belief in it. So what do I do, guesstimate how many times I probably committed doubt or only say X number of times for every time I can remember specifically?

(I’ve always had a hard time with confession, and it was somewhat more manageable when I was going once a week or so. Pray for me. )

If you’re confident that you comitted them, then confess them. If they’re very minor venial sins, confess them in a general way.

For venial sins something like “many times” would be fine.

Please don’t post more specifics because your sins are not anyone’s business, but to address what you’ve already said:

I don’t think that doubt is the type of thing that exactly gets “turned on and off” for lack of a better way of putting it. I don’t know that it’s even possible to count the “number” for that sin. Just confess the sin itself, and perhaps refer to a period of time; “having doubts about X over the last year” would probably suffice. If the confessor needs you to be more specific, he’ll ask.

It also depends very, very much on just what it is you were doubting and to what level that doubt rose. Doubting a specific dogma of the faith is one thing, outright apostasy (rejecting the entire faith) is something very different. Ask your confessor for guidance.

 

[kyrie80]

Church teaching is that you confess all known mortal sins. Confessing sins that you think are possible and/or likely, but you honestly are not sure of, might be overly scrupulous. I tend to be overly scrupulous as well.

However, if it makes you feel better, you can explain to the priest that you are not sure, but think it is likely you committed A, B, C, etc, and that it would bother your conscience if you didn’t mention them. The priest as persona Christi will take it from there.