Face to face confession--my experience today

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Elizabeth502 said:
A powerful encounter with any human being can reveal, or create, an experience of immediacy with Christ. Three things make this possible, converging in time: a spiritually attuned priest; a very receptive/open/prepared penitent; the action of the Holy Spirit.

I know exactly what the OP is talking about. It is as if (the priest, in this case, but in can be other people in other cases through whom Christ is acting directly) the priest is momentarily transformed for the benefit of the penitent. I don’t think actually that the priest is transformed, but that we are transformed: transformed to see, hear, experience, receive.
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*Yes, this is what I meant…but I also think that peary was talking about a different post. But, I of course know that the priests are acting in the persona of Christ. 🙂

I would honestly say that I felt for that moment, a brief silence, a twinkling in the priest’s eye…a moment where I thought something transforming was happening…I have felt moved like this before in anonymous confessionals, so it can happen in those instances also.

Elizabeth, I read your post, and I think it’s awesome that you had a similiar experience! I can only imagine what people felt actually having encountered Jesus in the flesh, you know? I love how you worded that you saw ‘‘mercy’’ face to face. What a beautiful way of putting it! :o Yes, that is what happened. The strange thing was, this confession took place in a room with see-through glass out looking out into the line for the other confessional. People could watch my confession, so at first, when I walked in to sit down it felt a little unnerving. Then, it is as though there was this unbelievable silence…like I could only hear and see the priest. It was amazing. *
 
^ It was actually even beyond that. The reason I know that was a genuine Christ-experience is that I barely had gotten the words of my sins out, and it was as if the priest was finishing the sentences for me – but not in a trained, pastoral way (as if he had heard it a million times, that sort of thing). Literally it was as if the priest knew my sins before I spoke them (kind of a Padre Pio thing), but he didn’t speak them; it’s hard to explain. It was as if the instant I walked toward him he already knew my sins. All his responses were with ‘intimate foreknowledge’ as if he had already anticipated what I had to say. I was so stunned that at one point I was literally speechless, and similarly speechless at the simulatenous open mercy. It was certainly the most powerful single experience of the sacrament I have ever had.

Tonight I went to a retreat that prepared us all for confession, which I’m going to tomorrow evening.
 
Elizabeth502 said:
^ It was actually even beyond that. The reason I know that was a genuine Christ-experience is that I barely had gotten the words of my sins out, and it was as if the priest was finishing the sentences for me – but not in a trained, pastoral way (as if he had heard it a million times, that sort of thing). Literally it was as if the priest knew my sins before I spoke them (kind of a Padre Pio thing), but he didn’t speak them; it’s hard to explain. It was as if the instant I walked toward him he already knew my sins. All his responses were with ‘intimate foreknowledge’ as if he had already anticipated what I had to say. I was so stunned that at one point I was literally speechless, and similarly speechless at the simulatenous open mercy. It was certainly the most powerful single experience of the sacrament I have ever had.

Tonight I went to a retreat that prepared us all for confession, which I’m going to tomorrow evening.
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:eek: *That’s so awesome, Elizabeth! Please say a prayer would you, that my son (who is 17) keeps his promise to go over Christmas break off from school. I went alone on Sat, my daughter had music lessons, and she usually attends with me. My husband was working…so, I asked my son, and he said…I promise, I will come over break. Please pray for him that he keeps his promise, Elizabeth. He doesn’t go as often as I’d like him to, probably 3x per year. *
 
I promise to pray, during my day today and this evening in church.
 
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