Confession through prayer

[LMReggcellent]

I’m not asking for advice, only the opinions of others. I want to know what you believe about apologizing to God on your own, in place of the sacrament of Confession in front of a priest. Do you believe God would forgive you for your sins and provide you with some of the things you ask for in exchange for that one-on-one time with Him? Thank you for reading.

 

[JosephdeMaistre]

I choose to cling to Christ’s words in John 20:21-23:

21 He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 23 Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

…

Hence, I believe a necessary part of forgiveness includes receiving absolution from a priest. The Apostles were the first priests, Peter the first Pope. And they went across the known world forgiving sins, and also making priests of other men.

Now, what if all of the people the Apostles met simply said, “I don’t need to be forgiven by you because I have already asked God for forgiveness”? What good is the power Holy Ghost gives the Apostles to forgive sins then? Christ says, “As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.” So, God sent Christ in a special way, and Christ sends the Apostles in a similarly special way. In a way that we cannot replicate of our own volition, but that we must access in order to obtain forgiveness.

 

[Lycorth]

When I was a nondenominational Protestant for a short time, I did the “instant confession” thing. It didn’t help me to overcome some sinful habits in my life; only the pressure of having to bring the same shameful sins to my confessor time and again helped to achieve that goal. I was otherwise very closed off to God’s grace; it’s very easy to instantly confess in a quick prayer and turn around and do the same sin again - it’s another thing to hear a priest you know and respect admonish you for not breaking that bad habit. You really learn about what it means to be truly penitent, ie, sorry.

Needing to go to Confession is important; if we assume that all we need to do is ask God by ourselves for pardon, then Christianity becomes all about us and our personal opinions and approaches. Christianity becomes a religion of one instead of a community religion wherein everyone needs to depend on his or her fellows. We’re not islands unto ourselves.