Confessions on Saturday only?

[Anne1964]

In my area Saturday confession seems to be the norm. Most parishes offer it for a half hour or hour on Saturday afternoon. Our pastor hears confessions for an hour on Weds. evenings and an hour on Sat. afternoons.

Like some other posters have mentioned, you can always call and make an appointment. I have done that on occasion when I didn’t want to wait until the scheduled times.

 

[debraran]

My church St.Mary’s (Dominican) is a rarity but I LOVE it. We have confession every day but Sunday, at 11:15-11:45 and 4:15-4:45 and it usually runs over.

It’s hard to say you can’t get there.

 

[CarolAnnSFO]

My church St.Mary’s (Dominican) is a rarity but I LOVE it. We have confession every day but Sunday, at 11:15-11:45 and 4:15-4:45 and it usually runs over.

It’s hard to say you can’t get there.

Unless you’re at work and can’t pop out (or your job is too far away from the church).

Now, I wish we had confession before our 7:15 AM daily Mass (even if it was just one weekday per week) – that, I could make! As it is, we just have the Saturday afternoon time. If you’re not available on Saturdays, you end up having to seek out other parishes that have a more convenient time.

 

[debraran]

That’s true,but being in a big city, a lot of people walk. I like the 11.on Saturday’s and make that or the 4:30 most of the time.
We also have 3 daily masses a week, 7:30, 12:05 and 5pm Monday-Saturday. (adoration on Friday afternoons 12-4:30)

 

[silentdeb]

I would encourage you to go to confession as soon possible. If you were baptized Catholic and have fallen away from the church, then you are just one confession away from being fully back in the church! If you grew up in a different faith, than you’ll need to contact your parish and find out the steps to take to be received into the church. Usually you’ll take a course at your parish (RCIA) and be baptized (if necessary) and confirmed and receive Holy Communion at the Easter Mass.

I’m in the latter group, and I’ve never been baptized… our family is definitely not Catholic, and my mother lives with me, so I’ve been putting off starting RCIA until I can have The Big Talk with Mum. It’ll be interesting.

 

[silentdeb]

Canonically (that means, according to canon law, the law that governs the administration of the Church, as opposed to the moral laws) the pastor is the priest appointed by the bishop to share the bishop’s role as pastor or shepherd of the flock in a particular parish. a parish is a geographic designation and includes all Catholics of that area. (a parish can sometimes be set up on other lines, such as old ethnic parishes, where you have the Italian parish, the Slovenian parish etc). The pastor literally shares the role of the bishop, under is authorities. He may have other priests assigned to assist him. They used to be called curates, associates, or assistants, depending on time and place. In this diocese they are called parochial vicars, vicar meaning someone who is kind of a vice-pastor (same root word) who like a vice-president, has some specific duties and fills in for the pastor when he is not available, or shares some of his work.

Wow, thank you - that fills in a LOT of blanks in terminology for me!

confessions should be available by appointment in every parish, simply call the office and tell the secretary you need to speak to the priest to make an appointment to discuss a pastoral matter.

And it’s that easy? This is sounding better all the time!

most cities also have some churches, shrines or other big or famous churches where confessions are offered more frequently.

Yeah, from what I’ve seen they’re all in Vancouver proper, alas … I’m out in the suburbs, and while that’s a trek I wouldn’t hesitate to make on a Sunday morning, I’d be looking at an hour’s trip each way the rest of the week.

the initials, I have no idea, and I forgot the rest of your question. there are no stupid questions

Only stupid people! grin Thank you SO much for all your help!

if you are a newbie, or thinking about becoming one, welcome home.

:hug1: What a wonderful thing to say - thank you so much! This definitely DOES feel like home - it’s a shame it’s taken me 40 years to find it, but I’m just grateful I did at all.

 

[silentdeb]

My church St.Mary’s (Dominican) is a rarity but I LOVE it. We have confession every day but Sunday, at 11:15-11:45 and 4:15-4:45 and it usually runs over.

It’s hard to say you can’t get there.

Nice. I’d like that very much!

 

[silentdeb]

In my area Saturday confession seems to be the norm. Most parishes offer it for a half hour or hour on Saturday afternoon. Our pastor hears confessions for an hour on Weds. evenings and an hour on Sat. afternoons.

Like some other posters have mentioned, you can always call and make an appointment. I have done that on occasion when I didn’t want to wait until the scheduled times.

There has to be a reason for the Saturday-afternoon-only bit … perhaps we’re less likely to really go wild Saturday night after Confession Saturday afternoon?

 

[Ravyn_Guiliani]

There has to be a reason for the Saturday-afternoon-only bit … perhaps we’re less likely to really go wild Saturday night after Confession Saturday afternoon?

I think the saturday afternoon confession is because some people go to saturday night vigil as their sunday obligation…

our parish has it 3PM-ish until the priest has to get ready for vigil at 5:30PM and there are always atleast 6 or 8 people waiting. the cathedral in the next larger town has more than one priest doing them, but they are done at the same time as our parish and the parish on the other side of town too. so we don’t have the choice of going at another time unless we make an appt to do so, but we can be almost anywhere and get to one.

I do prefer to go to my own priest tho, he told me that he is given a ‘grace’ that he does not remember the confessions and he purposely does not look at who is waiting so he does not know who is confessing. He said the only time he might remember someone is if they mention something somewhat outrageous in confession and then mention it again outside of confession, but he says it is a gift he is given so he can be completely confidential.
I find that very comforting.

 

[silentdeb]

I think the saturday afternoon confession is because some people go to saturday night vigil as their sunday obligation…

That, of course, is sensible - I shouldn’t have been flippant about it, sorry.

our parish has it 3PM-ish until the priest has to get ready for vigil at 5:30PM and there are always atleast 6 or 8 people waiting.

Goodness, two and a half hours, really?

I do prefer to go to my own priest tho, he told me that he is given a ‘grace’ that he does not remember the confessions and he purposely does not look at who is waiting so he does not know who is confessing. He said the only time he might remember someone is if they mention something somewhat outrageous in confession and then mention it again outside of confession, but he says it is a gift he is given so he can be completely confidential.
I find that very comforting.

grinning I think that WOULD be a very good quality to have … even if one isn’t a priest. Imagine NOT remembering anything bad you’ve heard about your co-workers … that would be marvellous!

 

[chicago]

There has to be a reason for the Saturday-afternoon-only bit … perhaps we’re less likely to really go wild Saturday night after Confession Saturday afternoon?

Actually, some would argue that when confession was more prevalent, all the “good catholic boys and girls” would party Friday night, go to confession Saturday, Mass on Sunday. And, maybe, they’d even get drunk Saturday night “in between.”

The whole Saturday afternoon thing is a remnant of previous decades when Saturdays and Sundays were dealt with differently in culture. At that time, you could hardly find a store open Sunday, save a pharmacy, maybe, part of the day. Saturday was different, also. It was often slower paced and more of a day to get things done without worries. So offerring Satuday confessions in preparation for Sunday communions (the former of which was more common and the latter less frequent) seemed sensible. It was an efficient way of accomplishing matters. What often remains at many parishes which have minimalized the sacrament, pushed it’s primary celebration off to twice a year (Advent and Lent) “Pennance Services”, or just not gotten up with the times and culture is the half hour or whatever is still around Saturday afternoons.

 

[silentdeb]

Actually, some would argue that when confession was more prevalent, all the “good catholic boys and girls” would party Friday night, go to confession Saturday, Mass on Sunday. And, maybe, they’d even get drunk Saturday night “in between.”

There goes that theory up in smoke.

The whole Saturday afternoon thing is a remnant of previous decades when Saturdays and Sundays were dealt with differently in culture. At that time, you could hardly find a store open Sunday, save a pharmacy, maybe, part of the day. Saturday was different, also. It was often slower paced and more of a day to get things done without worries.

Good point … and it’s strange how quickly that changed… well, maybe not - now that I think of it, it WAS 21 years ago that I was a cashier and horrified that the shop I worked in was going to open for half-days Sunday …

So offerring Satuday confessions in preparation for Sunday communions (the former of which was more common and the latter less frequent) seemed sensible. It was an efficient way of accomplishing matters. What often remains at many parishes which have minimalized the sacrament, pushed it’s primary celebration off to twice a year (Advent and Lent) “Pennance Services”, or just not gotten up with the times and culture is the half hour or whatever is still around Saturday afternoons.

THAT makes great sense. Thank you so much for the historical perspective … I like know WHY things are the way they are, and how they came to be that way!

 

[ASimpleSinner]

My parish has confession every day except Sunday. However, I don’t have time to go to confession at my parish, I go to the cathedral next to where I work.

Mine does too. Well actually, I think they do hear them Sundays between the 9 and 11 am mass.

I know some places are begining to offer regularly scheduled (like monthly) services in the weekday evenings where they get 5-10 priests from surrounding parishes/monasteries/schools and make it known to folks in the area. I think this is a REALLY good thing.

It solves the problem for people who are uncomfortable knocking on the rectory door to ask for it face to face, or who are always working on saturdays.

If I ever strike gold when pulling weeds in my back yard, I would build a little chapel and shrine somewhere where Catholics could go for adoration and have confession all day long.

Maybe call it Ss. Pio & John Vianney shrine.

Both were known to hear confession for as much as 17 hours in a day!

 

[silentdeb]

I know some places are begining to offer regularly scheduled (like monthly) services in the weekday evenings where they get 5-10 priests from surrounding parishes/monasteries/schools and make it known to folks in the area. I think this is a REALLY good thing.

I like that idea - you KNOW you’d get a chance to confess!

If I ever strike gold when pulling weeds in my back yard, I would build a little chapel and shrine somewhere where Catholics could go for adoration and have confession all day long.

If I strike gold, I’ll help out - and it can be all NIGHT long, too. Insomniacs would love it.

That would be perfect … imagine having it there whenever you might need it …

Maybe call it Ss. Pio & John Vianney shrine.

Both were known to hear confession for as much as 17 hours in a day!

:bigyikes: THAT is dedication - how wonderful of them!

 

[Petergee]

chortling Well, having not been to confession yet, I probably shouldn’t have a preference … but it seems to me that having to tell someone I know - even slightly - about my sins is going to properly impress upon me the gravity of them… and I figure that’s important if I’m going to truly be contrite…

…or maybe I’m just weird.

No you’re not weird at all, IMO you’ve got exactly the right attitude. Also it’s a good idea if possible to find a priest whom you find suitable as your “spiritual director”, to whom you can confess regularly (not necessarily identifying yourself by name, you might use just your Christian name or a pseudonym or remind the priest “I’m the one who’s been discussing with you my struggles with overcoming the sin of (whatever it is)”.

Some Catholics get so uptight about their anonymity that they go to some lengths (sometimes literally) to go to a priest who they’re sure won’t know them. As they are perfectly entitled to do; any Catholic is perfectly free to choose any priest he wishes to hear his confession. And everyone has the right to give his confession anonymously (through a screen etc) rather than face-to-face if he wishes. And hey at least they are actually going to confession. But as I said I think you’ve got a better approach.

Re the priests offering only limited hours for confession “because so few people come” or “sometimes there’s quite a few and sometimes there’s no-one”: Maybe if the priests mentioned occasionally from the pulpit the great benefits of frequent confession and urged people to go, many more would turn up and they could have more sessions. The only time I ever hear them urging confession is re the Second Rite celebrations in Lent and Advent. Sometimes I sense that, as with contraception, all the trenchant secular criticism has “spooked” priests away from talking about confession.
I hope that the priests are not refraining from urging confession or expanding the times for it because they are “too busy”; next to saying Mass, hearing confessions is the most important part of a priest’s job.

 

[NMJenny]

My church (which happens to be the bishop’s Cathedral) offers the traditional one hour on Saturday afternoon. There are usually somewhere around 25-30 people, which sounds good at first sight, but when you consider that the parish includes over 1,000 families that changes the way it looks!

My youngest daughter attends a large church in another city–a very orthodox NO parish, with an excellent parish school which both of her sons have attended. I think the best indication of what sort of parish this is, though, can be recognized from their Confessions schedule:

Daily: 8:30 to 9 a.m.; 5:30 to 6 p.m.
Sat: 8:30 to 9 a.m.; 3 to 4:30, 6 to 7 p.m.

And my daughter says there are long lines no matter which time you choose…

 

[KathleenElsie]

Thank you for responding, Ann. I just looked at another website for another church close by, and it’s similar … 20 minutes bunged in Saturday afternoon.

That surprises me - it doesn’t seem to encourage people to go to confession, does it?

Well, good for me to know, anyway … thanks for letting me know that!

If you want to go a general confession for any reason then it is best to make an appointment. One of the wonderful things with the TLM is the fact of confession prior to Mass.

No they do not make it easy for people to get to confession. But in some cases there are a few parishes in the area and they usually have vary different hours for confession. (oops I should have said minutes )

 

[KathleenElsie]

A half hour to an hour of scheduled confession time once a week (usually Saturday) seems to be the norm these days, unfortunately.

You are in a state of grace as long as you haven’t committed a mortal (serious) sin since your last good confession.

If the scheduled times are not convenient, most priests will hear your confession if you make an appointment. Sometimes I just ask when I happen to see him, and if he’s not busy he’ll do it right away. Of course, if you want your confession to be anonymous, that might not be the best approach!

I believe a priest is obligated to hear someones confession when asked.

 

[chicago]

I believe a priest is obligated to hear someones confession when asked.

Within reason, yes.

 

[Petergee]

One of the wonderful things with the TLM is the fact of confession prior to Mass.

That is not anything to do with the “TLM” in particular. In many places especially rural churches in Australia and I’m sure other countries, the priest only visits for a couple of hours each Sunday (or maybe only once a month) on his “rounds” of his big parish, and people go to confession immediately before Mass.