Do I have any right talking to God when

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Shae

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I have sins on my heart?

Is this the pivotal reason I feel like there is a brick wall someitmes when I am talking and praying to God?

Or is it not this straightforward? He will gently remind me I have sins, confess them and then we’ll talk.
Or is it plain common knowledge God will ignore until you have confessed.

I have a two part problem here. I will not ever confess sins of sexual nature against the self.
I believe priests are not perfect and have realised they are not.

I do not want to contribute possibly to their future sin. When someone tells you something private or not private, just anything you automatically get a visual idea of what is being said. I do not want this in the confessional Are phone confessionals even something that happens?
I will not confess sexual self sin to a priest, who abstains from any thing sexual.

This problem almost has me changing my religion that accepts my private confession with God and mysefl, not a human male in the middle. He is a priest and still a man.
 
Shae,

You can simply go to a parish in which the priest doesn’t know you. Even then, you can confess behind the grill without him seeing you. Simply say that you have committed the sin of impurity with self, and how many times.

Let the infinite oceans of God’s mercy pour into your soul.

Freedom.
 
Dear OP,

Confessors are skilled in refraining from deliberately drawing unpleasant images of sins confessed to them. You’re not handing him an illustration or a photograph. He’s hopefully taking all this in mentally, conceptually, and above all – spiritually, with a sense of upholding and restoring your dignity, while retaining his own. No need to protect the priest, or to use stated intention to protect him as an excuse to avoid confessing your sins simply and humbly.

Mortal sin does not make us inaudible to God, but because God wants so badly to restore us to communion with Him, he will use your prayers while you’re in mortal sin to draw you to confession, so that your prayer in a state of grace can be more fruitful.

Sins against purity and sins against charity are probably the two largest broad groups of sin, so welcome to the worldwide club. We are all in desperate need of His graces to engage in that honest examen, to have the courage to make it to confession, and the grace to complete the sacrament. Let your current prayers be directed toward that end.
Blessings, E.
 
Most priests abstain from stealing. Hearing someone confess that they stole does not tempt them to steal.
 
We cannot pick and choose which mortal sins to confess. You MUST confess every single one. The priest is not interested in your sins, he is there to give you absolution from them; chances are that there will be at least one or two other people there with the same sort of sins to confess (and worse!) as you. No more excuses! Go!
 
Shae,

Something else for you to consider, a proposal if you will.

You said you “have a two part problem here. I will not ever confess sins of sexual nature against the self. I believe priests are not perfect and have realised they are not”.

We don’t confess to a priest because he’s perfect and we’re not.

We confess to a priest because he is “in persona Christi”. His soul has been permanently changed through his ordination. God can use him in a special way to forgive us our sins. The priest provides an irreplaceable/un-substitutable link to the Body of Christ, His Church.

He is a priestly representative of Christ’s Church. So when we sin, we don’t just sin against ourselves, and others, we sin against God and against His Church. We confess to a priest to restore our relationship to God and His Church.

When we sin of a sexual nature, it’s not just a sin against ourselves…it’s a sin against our future spouse, it’s sin against God’s will, and it’s a sin against His Church.

Consider looking at Confession as restorative and preventative. Frequent confession can help us from falling into many forms of sin, especially those of a somewhat addictive sexual nature.
 
Prayers of repentance are always heard by God … * Isa. 55:6-7 = “Let the wicked forsake his [own] way, and the unrighteous man his [own] thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
  • 1 Peter 3:11 = “ … Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil … ”
    … but not so with other prayers … * Isaiah 59:2 - “ … But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear … ”
  • Proverbs 15:29 = “ … The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous … ”
  • Psalm 66:18 = “ … If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear … ”
  • John 9:31 = “ … Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth … ”
    … as far as not confessing to priests because they are not perfect, being perfect has nothing to do with lawful authority. Recall that Jesus referred to the Pharisees as hypocrites and a brood of vipers and yet in Matt 23:2-3 we see that Jesus commands the people to OBEY these same Pharisees because a person’s personal sinfulness has no bearing on their lawful authority.
We confess our sins to a priest because that is how Jesus set it up. In John 20:21-23, Jesus gives the Apostles and their successors the authority to forgive sins and commands them to go out and forgive sins saying that whatever they forgive, will be forgiven and whatever they retain will be retained. In order for the apostles to exercise this gift of forgiving sins, the penitents must orally confess their sins to them because the apostles were not given the power to read minds and in order to know whether to forgive or retain a sin, the sin must be made known to them by the sinner confessing it to them. The text makes this very clear.

Furthermore, in James 5:16 we read that our sins must be orally confessed to the priests of the Church (mentioned in the prior verses of James 5:14-15) and not just privately to God so that we can be spiritually healed.
 
Shae said:
I have sins on my heart?

Is this the pivotal reason I feel like there is a brick wall someitmes when I am talking and praying to God?

Or is it not this straightforward? He will gently remind me I have sins, confess them and then we’ll talk.
Or is it plain common knowledge God will ignore until you have confessed.

I have a two part problem here. I will not ever confess sins of sexual nature against the self.
I believe priests are not perfect and have realised they are not.

I do not want to contribute possibly to their future sin. When someone tells you something private or not private, just anything you automatically get a visual idea of what is being said. I do not want this in the confessional Are phone confessionals even something that happens?
I will not confess sexual self sin to a priest, who abstains from any thing sexual.

This problem almost has me changing my religion that accepts my private confession with God and mysefl, not a human male in the middle. He is a priest and still a man.
Click to expand...
We always have the ability to talk to God. Period. IT’s called “prayer”.
 
I would say a time when you dont feel worthy to talk to God is when we need to be talking to God most!

Never give up on God and he won’t give up on you, God’s mercy and faithfullness is far greater than our own, try to think of the most forgiving, loving and faithful friend you can think of and multiply it by infinity.

I know how it can be living in sin and not having the courage to get out of it, but always strive for holiness and never stop praying. If you cant tackle one sin tackle another till you have the strength and grace to tackle the bigger one. Just never stop trying and never give up.

One thing to remember about priests and confession is that most priests go to prisons and hear confessions, and i doubt you can bring up anything as bad as there. Basically ya dont have to be a priest for long till youve heard it all. Plus he will never tell anyone ever!

If your still bothered you can be a lil vague like suggested above, you dont have to give extreme details, just something along the lines of I have “I have commited impure acts against myself” like Redclay said. Just make sure you say all the mortal ones and as many of the venial you can think of. (making a list on paper is ok)

Yes God hears your repenting sin, and Jesus has the authority to forgive sin, yet he also has the right to choose how he wants to go abuot doing it. It is plain in scripture that he choose send his apostles out to hear confessions and forgive sins, our priests are the direct decendents of the apostles and have thier God given authority to forgive your sins.

Remember its not about how you want to be forgiven, its about how God wants things to be.

God Bless you
 
More great replies here, but this is probably my favorite:
Redbaron998 said:
I would say a time when you dont feel worthy to talk to God is when we need to be talking to God most!
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And the OP doesn’t happen to know the priest’s sins. I’ve never met anyone in the world, including priests, who has not been ashamed of at least one major wrong in his life. Several others have told you that priests are sinners just like the rest of us. Most of them freely admit that to others. They are not there to judge you. They are there to receive your own self-judgment and to be the instrument of Christ, who embraces you. Christ can only embrace you if you’re fully honest in that confessional. A partial confession is not a confession, if you’re holding something back.

I recently committed a sin that I was really ashamed of. It didn’t happen to be sexual in nature, but I felt just as embarrassed nevertheless. I started off my confession with telling the priest that I couldn’t believe that I actually did this and that I was having to confess it. He was really great and just acted natural. He didn’t act horrified. Nor did I supposedly soil him by telling him this. He said that the most important thing was that I was there confessing it.

And as at least one other person said here, the more you keep away from the sacrament, while in a state of mortal sin, the more you will be prone to stay in a state of mortal sin. You will be with fewer defenses against temptation.

Hearing confessions is humbling for priests, when the confessions are honest, thorough, sincere. They gain graces from hearing such humility and contrition, and even shame. They respect penitents who are forthright and do not respect it when penitents minimize their sins, evade, or make excuses. (Why waste his time? Why try to deceive God, who knows our secret sins?) So you are doing the priest a favor to disclose fully.
 
Talking to God is only part of prayer. The other part is LISTENING to God. If you talk to God truthfully, with a sin on your heart, your prayer will be to ask God to forgive your sin. You then need to listen. Listen to what God has already said to us, very clearly, about how He wants us to seek forgiveness- through sacramental confession to a priest. I think that the reason that you feel the wall between you and God when you are praying is because you have put up the wall, because you are trying not to listen to what He has told you- go to confession.
 
I think you need to ask yourself why you really aren’t confessing these sins to a priest. It’s probably the same reason why so many of us really dread going to confession - we hate admitting our faults to another human being. We want everyone to think of us as perfect. It’s called “pride”, and we are all guilty.

But you have to understand, priests have heard everything in confession, and whatever you tell them, it’s not going to affect them. I’ve heard priests say that they think there is a special grace given to them in confession in that they never remember what they have been told. And as stated here, you are not confessing to the priest but to Jesus Christ, for he is the one forgiving your sins through the priest.

If you are having trouble praying, it could very well be that since you have purposely chosen not to confess mortal sins, you have cut yourself off from God. You need to confess all mortal sins in kind and number. That doesn’t mean going into great detail. As far as sexual sins, you need to merely say “I masturbated X number of times”, etc. Remember, when you are in a state of mortal sin, you are spiritually dead, completely cut off from God’s grace. That means you cannot receive the sacraments of the church, and if you should die in that state, unrepentant, you will go to hell.
 
RSD said:
Talking to God is only part of prayer. The other part is LISTENING to God. If you talk to God truthfully, with a sin on your heart, your prayer will be to ask God to forgive your sin. You then need to listen. Listen to what God has already said to us, very clearly, about how He wants us to seek forgiveness- through sacramental confession to a priest. I think that the reason that you feel the wall between you and God when you are praying is because you have put up the wall, because you are trying not to listen to what He has told you- go to confession.
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Another outstanding point. 👍 And regarding the last sentence, that also resonates with me, as I’ve been thinking that the opening post revealed (possibly) the devil playing with him. And yet of course, this is what happens to us when we’re in the grip of mortal sin: we flirt with danger, with being prone to more sin. When I committed that sin recently, I found myself suddenly tempted in areas I had not been tempted in for quite some time. It was really clear what had brought me there, and I would say I was even conscious of the devil gleefully trying to have his way with me. I knew that things would get a lot worse if I didn’t get to confession a.s.a.p.

Yes, how important that listening is, and so often it comes in concrete ways, through other people, through a word encountered, etc.
 
And I would bet all those priests have committed the sin you are so afraid of confessing, maybe many times, and have had to confess it themselves and fight against it. So they won’t be at all surprised and will completely understand that this can happen. But how can you fight this sin and win out against it if you refuse to confess it the way Jesus has provided for you? There is so much grace available if you’re not too proud to admit your sins to the priest. Did you know that humbling yourself like that can even wipe out much of the temporal punishment due to this sin? And that, once you’ve confessed it, you’ve robbed Satan of the power to accuse you of it or hold it over you?

Confess to a priest who doesn’t know you, go behind the screen, close your eyes and blurt it out with no details, just the ugly truth. Beat down your pride and shame the devil. You will feel so free afterwards. You’ll be amazed how that will knock down that invisible brick wall that disobedience has put up between you and God. Think how much you will please God by doing this. Take courage, think how much God loves you, and do it before this Sunday. When you received Jesus you will be happy you did.

Surely you don’t think changing religions so you won’t have to do what Jesus wants you to do will please Him. He died so you could have the forgiveness He gives you through this sacrament. Yes, it’s hard; so was His death. Do you love Him enough to do this?

Come on, Shea, be brave. If I could do it when I was terrified of confession, you can do it too. Nobody likes to do it, everybody is embarrassed. Do it anyway, a moment of intense humiliation and then… glory! It’s really really worth it. It is!
 
And, by the way, all of us here on the forum now know what you did. You confessed to us and we can’t even forgive you. We’re not disgusted and we love you enough without even knowing you (and we identify with you) that we’re trying as best we can to push you into the loving arms of your savior. Do it, Shea. Make us proud of you. Come back and tell us you went to confession and we’ll all join with your guardian angel in praising and thanking God on your behalf.
 
Another thing that may be helpful to you making a confession of these sins is to consider and remember that priests hear these types of sins in the confessional all of the time, more than we can imagine.

May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen. :signofcross:
 
You always have a right to talk to your father. he created you and loves you with all his heart. do not ever be scared to talk to him.
 
Shae said:
I have sins on my heart?

Is this the pivotal reason I feel like there is a brick wall someitmes when I am talking and praying to God?

Or is it not this straightforward? He will gently remind me I have sins, confess them and then we’ll talk.
Or is it plain common knowledge God will ignore until you have confessed.

I have a two part problem here. I will not ever confess sins of sexual nature against the self.
I believe priests are not perfect and have realised they are not.

I do not want to contribute possibly to their future sin. When someone tells you something private or not private, just anything you automatically get a visual idea of what is being said. I do not want this in the confessional Are phone confessionals even something that happens?
I will not confess sexual self sin to a priest, who abstains from any thing sexual.

This problem almost has me changing my religion that accepts my private confession with God and mysefl, not a human male in the middle. He is a priest and still a man.
Click to expand...
If confessing sins againt yourself is just too much for the priest to handle, how in the world could he handle the sins of fornication or adultery in the confessional?

My apology for being blunt, but I think you are more interested in sparing yourself embarrassment than sparing the priest of anything.
 
I’d agree that the times when you feel furthest from God are the times when you MOST need to go to Him in prayer!

Imagine a wife saying ‘oh well, my husband’s somewhere half way round the world on a business trip, I’m too far away to get in touch with him’.

No way! I’ve travelled with my mother and without my father, and she made extra efforts to call him regularly when we were away! I’m sure most spouses would say the same.

Prayer is an essential part of rebuilding that relationship with God that has been damaged by sin, just as talking to a family member you’ve hurt is an important part of repairing your relationship with them.
 
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