Confession

[NotWorthy]

I would say consider yourself lucky to have so many men of God around you.

And I try to make an act of perfect contrition, but often I find myself dreading the pains of hell and the loss of heaven, and I know this is imperfect contrition.

“Blessed the man who fears the Lord.”

Yes, you’re right. It’s not perfect, but God understands you!!! But, when you mourn your sins, is it ONLY because you find yourself "dreading the pains of hell and the loss of heaven"? I think you would be selling yourself short if you said that this was the only reason you have for regretting your sins.

 

[dnar]

“Blessed the man who fears the Lord.”

Yes, you’re right. It’s not perfect, but God understands you!!! But, when you mourn your sins, is it ONLY because you find yourself "dreading the pains of hell and the loss of heaven"? I think you would be selling yourself short if you said that this was the only reason you have for regretting your sins.

No, that is not the ONLY reason. I do mourn my sins mainly because I know God is not happy with me, and I know I am breaking his heart. I love God with my whole heart, and wish I didn’t sin, but its so hard.

 

[NotWorthy]

No, that is not the ONLY reason. I do mourn my sins mainly because I know God is not happy with me, and I know I am breaking his heart. I love God with my whole heart, and wish I didn’t sin, but its so hard.

I understand, my brother, and its exactly how I thought you would have felt.

 

[PJM]

=Mangy Donkey;5746898]While listening to a tape from a Catholic apologist he claimed that know where in scripture does it ask us to confess directly to God but rather to one another. I have done a search and agree it doesn’t seem to be there. Any thoughts?

He is correct in that nowhere in the Bible does it say to “Confess directly to God.” Even in OT times, God and the Jewish nation used priest as intercessors for the forgiveness of there sin. It’s it the book of Leviticus.

BUT these two verses; specific warning and instruction appear both in the Catholic Bible and the King James Bible [al lthough they are obviously given different understanding. Imagine that:shrug:]

Jesus speaking to His Apostles [we know this as there was at the time no other Church]. John 20:21-23 " 21"Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

**Mt. 16:19 Jesus speaking to Peter when setting up the Catholic Church: ** 19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,!!!”

Tie up the package with the balance of Mt. 16:19, and Mt. 18:15-18 and one would really NOT want to get the truth, not to get what Jesus intends. Dinal of God’s Divinely Inspired Word, is the SAME as Deninal of God Himself. Go figure

Love and prayers,

 

[alveolate]

Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of penance as the normative way to forgive sins.
Biblical basis as follows:

Jn 20:21-23 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me,
even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and
said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they
are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”

Acts 19:18 St. Luke writes, “Many also of those who were now believers came,
confessing and divulging their practices” before the apostles.

Mt 9:8 St. Matthew writes, God “had given such authority to men”
(Jesus entrusted the forgiveness of sins to His apostles and their
successors, as men)
1Jn 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

2Cor 5:18 St. Paul wrote to discribe this priestly gift, God “gave us the ministry of
reconciliation”

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another,
that you may be healed.”

Leviticus 5:5-6 says that a man guilty of sin, “shall confess the sin he has committed…
and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.”

Numbers 5:7 the Lord tells Moses that if anyone in Israel commits sin, “he shall confess
his sin which he has committed, and he shall make full restitution for his
wrong.”

Nehemiah 9:2-3 we see that the Israelites “stood and confessed their sins and the
inequities of their fathers” orally in the Temple where they also read the
book of the Law.

Baruch 1:13-14 the people who “have sinned against the Lord our God” are again
instructed “to make your confessions in the house of the Lord.”

Sir 4:26 “Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, and do not try to stop the
current of a river”

woohoo! i dub this “The Ultimate Scriptural Guide to Confession”. disseminate to your anti-confession friends today!

 

[KEVIN_WILCOX]

The Sacrament of Confession to an ordained priest arose in popularity and prominence outside the monastic life thanks to the effort of Irish missionary monks who found they could maintain control over a people if they were aware of their private life and intimacies.
(In the same way as the necessity of infant baptism lest an infant misses out on Heaven, and payment of Church tax)
Having discovered this it was easy to read back into Scripture justification for taking that position.
Control through the people’s own fear, superstition and ignorance.

 

[NotWorthy]

The Sacrament of Confession to an ordained priest arose in popularity and prominence outside the monastic life thanks to the effort of Irish missionary monks who found they could maintain control over a people if they were aware of their private life and intimacies.
(In the same way as the necessity of infant baptism lest an infant misses out on Heaven, and payment of Church tax)
Having discovered this it was easy to read back into Scripture justification for taking that position.
Control through the people’s own fear, superstition and ignorance.

Come again?

 

[jmcrae]

The Sacrament of Confession to an ordained priest arose in popularity and prominence outside the monastic life thanks to the effort of Irish missionary monks who found they could maintain control over a people if they were aware of their private life and intimacies.

Um - no, actually. The reason the Irish monks starting hearing private Confessions was because they were unable to persuade the new converts to make the customary public Confessions at the beginning of each Mass. (Which had been the norm of the Church up to that time.) So, in order to get the people to make any sort of Confession at all, they agreed to hear them privately, and promised with an oath not to divulge any of the contents, nor to act on them in any way.

Much to the chagrin of Church officials elsewhere, this “fad” started spreading through Britain and across Europe, and even throughout the whole Church, until it finally reached Rome, and (after circulating through the usual mounds of red tape) once there, became the norm of the whole Church.

(In the same way as the necessity of infant baptism lest an infant misses out on Heaven, and payment of Church tax)

Given that only adults ever paid “Church tax” or any other kind of tax, this makes absolutely no sense. An infant has no income or property. If the child waits to the age of seven to be baptized, he still has no property or income with which to pay a “Church tax.”

 

[diggerdomer]

Um - no, actually. The reason the Irish monks starting hearing private Confessions was because they were unable to persuade the new converts to make the customary public Confessions at the beginning of each Mass. (Which had been the norm of the Church up to that time.)

Public reconciliation was the norm in places and at times, but not public confession.

 

[PJM]

=dnar;5753949]What is one to do after committing mortal sin until the next available confession?

What if I commit a mortal sin and the priest is gone on vacation this week and I won’t be able to confess for a few weeks? Or my job doesn’t allow to make it to confession normally?

How am I to live after separating myself from God, and becoming dead in my sins? Should I live in sorrow for having offended God and pray that I stay alive until the next confession time?

A few suggestions:

Visit a near by parish for Confession and Mass

Make an SINCERE Act of Contrition, begging God’s forgiveness and vow to get to Confession at the very first opportunity.

Do NOT receive Holy Communion until you Confess

Love and prayers,

 

[AlegreFe]

I would just add that at Mass, we can confess our venial sins (silently, to God) and they are forgiven when we receive the Eucharist worthily.

Absolutely! This is true at the beginning of the Mass. When the Confíteor is recited, our sins are forgiven. Then when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, our souls are wiped clean!

 

[AlegreFe]

The notion that we need only to confess our sins to God is often supported by appealing to 1 John 1:9, where “he” refers to either God or to Jesus Christ and, though not stated explicitly, confessing to him seems to be implied but confessing only to him is something of a stretch and actually contradicts James 5:16:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Therefore confess your sins to one another… (James 5:16)

As Catholics we know we confess our sins to Jesus, but we do that through one of His ministerial priests who stand in His person. That is why Jesus told us to confess our sins to one another.

That verse that you have does not imply that we are to confess our sins to God (the Father). If you read the verses before the one you have you will see that we are to have fellowship with one another. And in doing so, we are forgiven for our sins; if part of that fellowshipping includes confessing your sins.

And I do not think this verse is contradictory to James 5:16. No verse in the bible contradicts another verse in the bible. The Holy Spirit is not confused.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and
walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar,
and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:6-10 DR-V

 

[diggerdomer]

Absolutely! This is true at the beginning of the Mass. When the Confíteor is recited, our sins are forgiven. Then when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, our souls are wiped clean!

Yet this does not replace nor should be confused with the sacrament of Reconciliation

 

[JoeyPio]

I love the sacrament of confession. Just submit to it and experience God’s presence. That way, there are no other words that you should look for explanation.

 

[jmcrae]

I love the sacrament of confession. Just submit to it and experience God’s presence. That way, there are no other words that you should look for explanation.

Me, too. I went last night, and it was so indescribably beautiful.

 

[JoeyPio]

WHO DOUBT the SACRAMENTS of the Roman Catholic Church? Look again.
…in the beginning is the WORD… and the WORD was GOD…(came the new testament)… and the WORD - who is - GOD became FLESH… the FLESH dwelt AMONG US.
We humans are FLESH - material and physical. GOD is SPIRIT, intangible yet eternal. How can we comprehend HIM unless He manifest in the way that we are - the WORD became FLESH… and dwelt AMONG US.
When JESUS - GOD manifested FLESH… PUT UP the church - He DWELT AMONG US. He established the SACRAMENTS as HIS physical-material manifestation so that even when he returned to his original spirit being… HE STILL DWELT AMONG US! WE STILL MET GOD WHO IS SPIRIT IN A PHYSICAL-MATERIAL WAY THRU THE SACRAMENTS. GOD never left us really - HE WILL ALWAYS DWELL AMONG US. Is not that so wonderful? Both redemptive and salvific.
So that even the devil tries to misled us, he can not match the SACRAMENTS because the SACRAMENTS are physical-material manifestation of GOD.
SO, WHAT YOU MUST DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE DEVIL? EMBRACE GOD BY EMBRACING THE SACRAMENTS WHO IS GOD!

 

[KEVIN_WILCOX]

I love the sacrament of confession. Just submit to it and experience God’s presence. That way, there are no other words that you should look for explanation.

The way of confession, of being enclosed in a small room with a priest, when sexual molestation and rape has taken place between clergy and laity, is not comforting for some people. Especially when the experiences have failed to be addressed by the Church.

For myself I spend days ‘working up to’ Confession-more than once to be told I have “no sins”,that I’ve only “popped in for a chat.” And left feeling disappointed feeling I’ve not been heard . As full of scruples as I had been when I entered. It disappoints me.

 

[NotWorthy]

The way of confession, of being enclosed in a small room with a priest, when sexual molestation and rape has taken place between clergy and laity, is not comforting for some people. Especially when the experiences have failed to be addressed by the Church.

For myself I spend days ‘working up to’ Confession-more than once to be told I have “no sins”,that I’ve only “popped in for a chat.” And left feeling disappointed feeling I’ve not been heard . As full of scruples as I had been when I entered. It disappoints me.

I’ve had this problem before. I find a different priest. As a creature of habit, I’ve taken nearly identical failings to two different priests and had an entirely different experience out of it. Although I was forgiven in both instances, and just the sheer immensity of that should be enough, one of the priests counseled me and helped me out a great bit.

 

[juliamajor]

The way of confession, of being enclosed in a small room with a priest, when sexual molestation and rape has taken place between clergy and laity, is not comforting for some people. Especially when the experiences have failed to be addressed by the Church.

For myself I spend days ‘working up to’ Confession-more than once to be told I have “no sins”,that I’ve only “popped in for a chat.” And left feeling disappointed feeling I’ve not been heard . As full of scruples as I had been when I entered. It disappoints me.

aren’t you the bitter one.closed in rooms are forbidden now they are glass enclosed and open to view.that is how that problem was addressed.I’ve never been told that i had no sins-that just doesn’t sound kosher to me.I can’t help but think that this is a trolling expedition.

 

[AlegreFe]

Yet this does not replace nor should be confused with the sacrament of Reconciliation

I agree. The forgiveness at the beginning of Mass is for venial sins. Since Nita stated venial sins, I agreed. I guess you didn’t read that in Nita’s post? The only way you can be forgiven for mortal sins outside of Confession is when you have a “Perfect” Act of Contrition. I don’t know if many people are capable of that.