Could I bring a list into confession?

[The_Barrister]

## If you take a list, make sure you don’t leave it in the confessional

I brought a list into my first confession after 20+ years of apostasy. I closed the door and it was too dark to read the list!

Somehow, I made it through…

 

[BobCatholic]

I usually bring a list, and then burn it after confession.

After I finish listing the sins I’ve committed, I always add the following line:

I also confess all the sins I have forgotten and those which I have redefined in error.

This covers me either which way.

 

[PaulDupre]

George2:

you are offended by that joke???

Here is a better one.

A catholic dies and goes to heaven. He gets toured around his first day by St. Peter.

They go by one room full of happy Jews eating bagels and lox, complaining about the heat and playing shuffleboard.

They pass another room and there are bunch of Baptists, sober as judges but still having fun.

Many other rooms have groups of various faiths.

A the end of the tour, the man says to St. Peter "Thank you very much for showing me around heaven but why did we have to be very quiet as we stole past that last room full of serious, dour people.?

Oh, said St. Peter. “That’s the Catholics, they think they are the only one’s up here”.

Okay, that was funny - except in the version I heard it was the Baptists who thought they were the only ones in heaven. I just don’t like jokes that impune the sanctity of the confessional.
Paul

 

[kage_ar]

Before my son’s first confession (age 7), the kids were encouraged to make a list. That day, as I waited for my son – he burst from the confessional and ran to me with the biggest grin on his face, and handed me his list. I’d had my Bible in my hand and in that absent-minded mom way, just put it in the Bible. It is still there, occasionally I come across it and it is precious to me…

On a different note, my husband with through RCIA last year. When we went for his first confession (we went to confession as a family), I was waiting on one line, my husband was in another (long lines during the pre-Easter week!) I felt a tug at my purse and turned around, there was my husband. He put his hand-held computer in my purse and said he needed it, that he had his “list” on the computer. I could imagine what the priest thought when someone appeared to need a database for first confession!

 

[PMV]

A good reason to bring a list to confession is to make sure your nervousness (if any) doesn’t cause you to forget certain important sins to say, and you’ll *make sure *that you’ve come clean with every sin that’s irritated you.
Very good idea; to burn and destroy that paper full of sins after you’ve confessed. I believe that’s a very true sign of change that you’re indicating to God.

 

[SentimentalGent]

kage_ar:

Before my son’s first confession (age 7), the kids were encouraged to make a list. That day, as I waited for my son – he burst from the confessional and ran to me with the biggest grin on his face, and handed me his list. I’d had my Bible in my hand and in that absent-minded mom way, just put it in the Bible. It is still there, occasionally I come across it and it is precious to me…

On a different note, my husband with through RCIA last year. When we went for his first confession (we went to confession as a family), I was waiting on one line, my husband was in another (long lines during the pre-Easter week!) I felt a tug at my purse and turned around, there was my husband. He put his hand-held computer in my purse and said he needed it, that he had his “list” on the computer. I could imagine what the priest thought when someone appeared to need a database for first confession!

What a great story about your son. Does he know you still have his first confession list?

 

[Annunciata]

puzzleannie:

my offenses, truly I know them
my sin is always before me
ps 51

Well Annie I guess we really are ‘kindred spirits’
Annunciata

 

[kage_ar]

SentimentalGent:

What a great story about your son. Does he know you still have his first confession list?

Yes, at the ripe old age of 14, he grins when he reads it. Since I’d not meant to keep it, and did not come across it for a couple of years - my mommy heart could not throw that sweet thing away. Lord, that all our sins were those of a 7 year old!

 

[PMV]

You know how the sins you forgot to add to the list would be forgiven too? Well, what if later you remembered some sins that you forgot to add to the list; should you include them in the upcoming confession or were they already forgiven?

 

[Spatulate]

When I examine my conscience, using ncregister.com/features/confadult.htm, I make a list of my sins based on the commandments. I write it out in shorthand, and I use it as a guide while in confession.

My children use ncregister.com/features/confchild.htm or saintlouisparish.org/Sacraments%20-%20Confession%20for%20Children.htm or
domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/19990101/SCRMNTL/kidsexam.htm
and they, too, make a list of sins to confess. We are not scrupulous, but the list helps us to remember our sins, to prepare better for the sacrament, to pause and reflect about what we will confess, which helps us make a better confession. We destroy all lists ASAP after confession.
My two cents worth,