Confession

[Guardian2287]

The Church places a great deal of importance on Confession, yet confession is only offered on Saturday afternoons before the 5pm mass or by appointment. With our Busy society and crazy work schedules these days, why does the Church not have confession before each and every Mass anymore? Yes, I would like to go to confession more often, but I work a 3p-11p schedule which prevents me from going to confession on the “Churches Schedule”.

 

[Sr_Sally]

Confession schedules vary by parish. You can do a few things to be sure you get to confession regularly. First, speak to your parish priest and sk him to make confession more liberally available. Second, check the confession schedules of other parishes near your home or work, there may be a confession time that is more convienient for your schedule. Third, go ahead and make an appointment. You call the parish and ask for an appointment for confession at a time that you can make it. The priest will be in the confessional waiting for you (usually).

I agree that priests should make confession more available. The Pope spoke about this specifically when he opened the Year of the Priest; however, I think we as laity are also responsible for doing what we can to find a confession time when we need it–even if that means driving a bit out of our way.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Part of this is purely practical. When you have a single priest running two or three parishes, he’s lucky to be able to offer Mass in each church, let alone add confession time to his Sunday schedule.

I think in an ideal world parishes would coordinate with each other to offer confessions on different days and at different times. There’s nothing magical about Saturday afternoon, yet that seems to be the time that every parish in my area offers confessions. It would be nice if there were some weekday mornings or evenings added in to accommodate other schedules.

Having said that, there’s always the option of making an appointment. I’ve never heard of a priest being unwilling to hear confessions at a mutually agreeable time.

 

[hockeyfighter21]

I attend a traditional mass run 6 days a week by the FSSP in Harrisburg, PA (Located in the city close to the cathedral on state street www.hbglatinmass.com, and our latin mass community has been accepted by our wonderful bishop, even before the pope widened the opportunity for the latin mass). confession is available 20-30 minutes before every mass and the priest will frequently hear confession after the sunday mass. it is wonderful because most people will have no excuse whatsoever for not making confession somewhat frequently. I do not know if it is more of a traditional thing that confession is offered so frequently or if it is just our latin mass community.

 

[michaeldaniels]

Unfortuneatly, there are a bunch contributing factors…first, Catholics don’t go to confession nearly as much as they used two, which is a byproduct of two main things a) sin has become acceptable among our society and things that were once considered sins (and still are in fact sins) are no longer looked at as sins b) belief in The Real Presence has decreased among Catholics; secondly, it is unfortunate that some priest have the attitude of “I dont’ want to sit in that box for several hours a week”…not all, but some…and these two things, in my opinion are the two main reasons why confession is not offered more than it is. People just don’t show up like they used to and priest just don’t offer the Sacrament as much as they used to…however, if you look around, just about every Diocese has 1-2 churches that offer daily confession before either the morning or noon mass or both. Good luck in your search…God Bless

 

[maurin]

I attend a traditional mass …and …confession is available 20-30 minutes before every mass and the priest will frequently hear confession after the sunday mass. it is wonderful because most people will have no excuse whatsoever for not making confession somewhat frequently. I do not know if it is more of a traditional thing that confession is offered so frequently or if it is just our latin mass community.

It’s not just your community. The Sacraments, the Salvation of Souls is the Traditional Priests’ prime concern. Of course the Sacrament is offered as often as the Holy Mass is offered.

To be fair, though, I have never met a NO Priest who wouldn’t make time for me or for others if asked to hear one’s Confession.

ETA: yes, I just re-read what I wrote, and of course the Sacraments and the Salvation of Souls is also the NO Priests’ prime concern, forgive me, I did not mean to suggest otherwise, and I realize that not all NO Parishes only have Confessions just once a week. But there is another thread on the Traditional forum lamenting that Confessions are down-played in the NO .

 

[LilyM]

The Church places a great deal of importance on Confession, yet confession is only offered on Saturday afternoons before the 5pm mass or by appointment.*** With our Busy society and crazy work schedules ***these days, why does the Church not have confession before each and every Mass anymore? Yes, I would like to go to confession more often, but I work a 3p-11p schedule which prevents me from going to confession on the “Churches Schedule”.

You just answered your own question in the bolded portion. Priests ALSO have busier and crazier schedules than ever - there are fewer priests around these days, and each one is expected to do much more in terms of administrative and other work around the parish and the diocese.

Make an appointment - surely that’s more convenient for you as well as the priest?

 

[Revelation_17]

who can forgive sins but God alone?

remnantofgod.org/666-CHAR.htm

 

[LilyM]

who can forgive sins but God alone?

remnantofgod.org/666-CHAR.htm

Who can save us but God alone?

Yet does not Paul speak on numerous occasions in his epistles about people that HE, Paul, has saved? "I become all things to all men, that by all means*** I ***might save some …’ (1 Cor 9:22)

Why should we be surprised that Paul and others can forgive, since they so obviously can also save?

The solution to the apparent riddle is Paul’s further statement that ‘it is not I, but Christ’ (Gal 2:20) that is the true accomplisher of all deeds of both forgiveness and salvation, even those done through human intermediaries.

 

[Revelation_17]

^

Paul led many to be baptised and to repent…which is what brought them under grace.

Paul did not save people by them confessing their sins to him so he could “relay the message” to God and ask them to do 30 “Hail Mary’s”… Paul did not take it upon himself to be the “forgiving priest” between man and God. He directed them by teaching them of the scriptures and sharing its infinite wisdom with them.

But I’ll meet you halfway. Paul was a mediator between man and God, but only to spread the Good Word, many times in the face of death, and many more time being jailed in the process. And Paul DID save these people, but not personally, rather, he pointed them into the right direction. The rest was up to them and their OWN personal relationship with The Lord.

 

[jmcrae]

The Church places a great deal of importance on Confession, yet confession is only offered on Saturday afternoons before the 5pm mass or by appointment. With our Busy society and crazy work schedules these days, why does the Church not have confession before each and every Mass anymore? Yes, I would like to go to confession more often, but I work a 3p-11p schedule which prevents me from going to confession on the “Churches Schedule”.

My sympathies are with you. I’m guessing you live in a small place. When I used to go to the village where my father used to live, it was a challenge to get the priest there to hear my Confession. He was of the opinion that anyone wanting to go didn’t really need to go; that those who really need to go are too hard-hearted to feel the need. :whacky:

With regard to Confession, I really do prefer the big city, because there are a variety of times available, and it’s relatively easy to go.

 

[maurin]

^

Paul led many to be baptised and to repent…which is what brought them under grace.

Paul did not save people by them confessing their sins to him so he could “relay the message” to God and ask them to do 30 “Hail Mary’s”… Paul did not take it upon himself to be the “forgiving priest” between man and God. He directed them by teaching them of the scriptures and sharing its infinite wisdom with them.

But I’ll meet you halfway. Paul was a mediator between man and God, but only to spread the Good Word, many times in the face of death, and many more time being jailed in the process. And Paul DID save these people, but not personally, rather, he pointed them into the right direction. The rest was up to them and their OWN personal relationship with The Lord.

take it to the apologetics forum. your folly is especially unwelcome here.

 

[Guardian2287]

My sympathies are with you. I’m guessing you live in a small place. When I used to go to the village where my father used to live, it was a challenge to get the priest there to hear my Confession. He was of the opinion that anyone wanting to go didn’t really need to go; that those who really need to go are too hard-hearted to feel the need. :whacky:

With regard to Confession, I really do prefer the big city, because there are a variety of times available, and it’s relatively easy to go.

Yes, I do live in a small community and our priest handles two small town parishes. It does keep him very busy and he is gone alot for diocesan meetings and other things. It’s a shame we have such a shortage of priest. Small communities may be small but the their spiritual needs are still the same as those in cities. Living in a rural community makes it a challenge to travel long distances to another parish for confession and even challenging to try to catch the priest around to make an appointment.
Thanks for all the imput. Pray for more priest!

 

[Sr_Sally]

Pray for more priest!

This Year for Priests is just the time to do it also! We should all always be praying for vocations and those who are single men should truly be open to the possibility of a vocation–even if you are not still college-aged.

 

[rfpapcun]

For the Sacrament of Penance, I would recommend an out-of-print book which is very hard to find, but more than worth the effort: Manual of Prayers for use of the Catholic Laity, by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, editions between 1930 and 1950 (not to be confused with a similar but vastly inferior prayer book of the same name published in the 1990s which does not have an extensive Sacrament of Penance section).

This book not only has a detailed examination of conscience, but has a collection of prayers before Confession seeking to arouse contrition and sorrow in the penitent, and which will do so even in the most hardened heart. Then post-Confession after the penance is said, there are many additional prayers in thanksgiving for God’s grace in forgiving the penitent’s sins and requesting the grace to avoid sin in the future.

Confession thus becomes more than a five-minute slam, bam, thank you ma’am service smacking of bare ritualism.