Frequent Confession and Forgiveness of Venial Sins

[Fizendell]

Ok, here’s one for those who are good at explaining these things:

Given:

A. We are encouraged to go to confession on a regular basis.
a. Going to confession is normally done to confess mortal sins.
b. If someone is living according to God’s will and is able, with His grace, to avoid mortal sin, then one can receive communion (say on a weekly basis) without going to confession weekly.
B. It is my understanding that:
a. We can examine our conscience on a daily basis and ask God directly for forgiveness of our venial sins;
b. At Mass through the Confiteor and receiving Communion, we are forgiven our venial sins;
c. It is not required to confess venial sins to the priest, but is certainly ok to do so.

Then:

If one is living according to God’s will and with His grace is able to resist mortal sin, and one goes to confession say every other week – does it become annoying to the priest (say you have a face-to-face regular confessor) that he hears only venial sins every time you go?

OR:

By confessing on a regular basis, and thereby examining your conscience on a regular basis, are you able to see patterns of repeated (unintentionally or not) sins or shortcomings and therefore able to grow deeper in your faith and all that goes along with that?

Thoughts?

Thanks
=)
Fiz

 

[atsheeran]

I do not know what annoys priests. However, priests do not have any business getting annoyed over the regular confession of only venial sins.

The Pope has advised to frequent the sacrament of reconciliation even if one has not committed any mortal sins.

 

[dumspirospero]

Venial sins cloud our judgement and by their nature makes us more susceptible to commit mortal sin…therefore it is good for us to confess as regulary as possible. Sin begets more sin…one of the greatest weapons we have against the devil is frequent confession. I try to go once a week…but sometimes I go longer.

Fizendell:

Ok, here’s one for those who are good at explaining these things:

Given:

A. We are encouraged to go to confession on a regular basis.
a. Going to confession is normally done to confess mortal sins.
b. If someone is living according to God’s will and is able, with His grace, to avoid mortal sin, then one can receive communion (say on a weekly basis) without going to confession weekly.
B. It is my understanding that:
a. We can examine our conscience on a daily basis and ask God directly for forgiveness of our venial sins;
b. At Mass through the Confiteor and receiving Communion, we are forgiven our venial sins;
c. It is not required to confess venial sins to the priest, but is certainly ok to do so.

Then:

If one is living according to God’s will and with His grace is able to resist mortal sin, and one goes to confession say every other week – does it become annoying to the priest (say you have a face-to-face regular confessor) that he hears only venial sins every time you go?

OR:

By confessing on a regular basis, and thereby examining your conscience on a regular basis, are you able to see patterns of repeated (unintentionally or not) sins or shortcomings and therefore able to grow deeper in your faith and all that goes along with that?

Thoughts?

Thanks
=)
Fiz

 

[RSiscoe]

Fizendell:

By confessing on a regular basis, and thereby examining your conscience on a regular basis, are you able to see patterns of repeated (unintentionally or not) sins or shortcomings and therefore able to grow deeper in your faith and all that goes along with that?

Thoughts?

Thanks
=)
Fiz

The purpose of a sacrament is to communicate grace to the soul. If a person is in the state of mortal sin, confession will bring them back to life (spiritually). If the person has only committed venial sins, confession will give them an increase of sanctifying grace and strengthen them so that they are stonger in resisting that which they confessed.

Many saints went to confession daily. I remember reading the story of one such saint who used to go to confession every day. When he was not aware of any sin, or fault, that he needed to confess, he would confessed a previous sin, or fault, that had already been forgiven, thus receiving additional grace to strnghten him in the area. I think those saints were very wise for taking advantage of the sacrament of confession that way.

I have personally gone to confession at least once a week since becoming a Catholic 7 years ago, and it has really helped me. I would encourage you to try to get into that habbit. It has definitely helped me see the pattern of faults, and sins, I commit, and to overcome them.

I have just recently come to realize that when I examine my conscience very closely, and thus confess very slight faults, I become noticeably more enlightened. I remember when I first converted I thought “if I could just overcome these two sins I would be doing very good”. Then, when I overcame those sins, I became aware of dozens of new, lesser sins, that I had not even been aware of. Then, as I began to make progress on those sins, small faults came to the surface - things I was completely unaware of before. It is as if big sins are on the surface, and small faults are deeper down. The more progress we make in the spiritual life, the deeper we get and the more aware we become aware of our lesser fautls. I think that by examining our conscience very closely, and confessing those small faults, it enables God to enlighten us (and comminicate his grace to us) on the deeper level, which may be why I become noticeably more enlightened after confessing small faults, than I do after a confession when I did not examine my conscience quite as closely.

If you haven’t already, I hope you begin the practice of going to confession weekly. In a short time I think you will see a lot of good fruits as a result.

 

[Sir_Knight]

I’ve had a priest (not at my parish but at a shrine that we were visiting) tell me that I was wasting his time with my confession and that there were people waiting in line whose souls were in greater jeapordy than mine.

 

[Tietjen]

Fizendell:

Ok, here’s one for those who are good at explaining these things:

Given:

A. We are encouraged to go to confession on a regular basis.
a. Going to confession is normally done to confess mortal sins.
b. If someone is living according to God’s will and is able, with His grace, to avoid mortal sin, then one can receive communion (say on a weekly basis) without going to confession weekly.
B. It is my understanding that:
a. We can examine our conscience on a daily basis and ask God directly for forgiveness of our venial sins;
b. At Mass through the Confiteor and receiving Communion, we are forgiven our venial sins;
c. It is not required to confess venial sins to the priest, but is certainly ok to do so.

Then:

If one is living according to God’s will and with His grace is able to resist mortal sin, and one goes to confession say every other week – does it become annoying to the priest (say you have a face-to-face regular confessor) that he hears only venial sins every time you go?

OR:

By confessing on a regular basis, and thereby examining your conscience on a regular basis, are you able to see patterns of repeated (unintentionally or not) sins or shortcomings and therefore able to grow deeper in your faith and all that goes along with that?

Thoughts?

I have heard several Priests say that they wished more people would come to confession. I even heard a Priest on EWTN radio last week expressing great joy over the fact that at the Parish where he is (I do not remember what city/state), every Saturday the pews are filled with people who are waiting to confess. Personally, I think it is rather sad that with all the bad things that are happing in society today, you can walk into a Church during confession and find only a handful of people. Either that handful is REALLY REALLY bad or the vast majority of people find confession to be a waste of time. Every week I ask my youngest son if he would like me to drive him to confession. Sometimes he says yes and sometimes he says that he does not have to go this week. I always ask though even on those weeks that I personally do not need to go. On average, I would say that he and I end up going at least twice a month. When I go, I confess everything that I can think of (mortal or venial). It may not be required to confess the venial sins during confession, but as long as I am there, why continue to carry them around.
God bless.

 

[Tietjen]

Sir Knight:

I’ve had a priest (not at my parish but at a shrine that we were visiting) tell me that I was wasting his time with my confession and that there were people waiting in line whose souls were in greater jeapordy than mine.

That is probably one of the sadest things that I have heard in a long time. Of course you do know that he was wrong to say such a thing don’t you? I hope he remembers it when he next goes to confession.
God bless.