Going to Confession

[mercygate]

TheRam:

Well, it is official…i did it, and i feel full of Grace…lighter!

Every single word you told me, was right. I simply had to get over my fears of telling a stranger my sins.

However, i was not aware of the mortal sin of not going to church, and ther lac of confession meant that if not confessed, i was not able to enter Gods kingdom. And with this on my plate of sins, i was not rightfully recieving the host…oh what a quandry to be 41, to have never left the church, and not know these things.

I thought that it was simply a more special, or wonderful way to do things, and i was fine with being brave enough to not hide from them and face my Lord daily. I really thought you had a choice, and me being an introvert, i chose to go it alone.

But now i understand, and now it is up to me to get myself there, and confess regularly…this is powerful and thought turning information. I listened to a CD given to me by someone who has helped me dearly on these threads.

It is Father Larry Richards speaking on Confession…put out by The Mary Foundation…that was what tought me the sin/not going to heaven relivance…it turned my world around, and made so much of what other posters urgency meant.

I will never be the same…Thanks be to Gods Mercy!

You were surrounded by the prayer of many here with you. Your story is truly one of the most remarkable examples of God’s personal “finger” pointing at your heart and working miracles of grace in a VERY short time. You have been profoundly blessed – I pray that you will carry this grace to others who are exactly in the same position you were in – sitting in the pew, without a clue! Praise God!

 

[mercygate]

mainelyned:

I’ve got another question for comments. Can a non-Catholic go to confession? Would a priest absolve him of his sins if he confessed? Would it be valid? …or is confession ONLY for Catholics??
Comments??

Part of the deal here is believing all that the Catholic Church teaches. So a non-Catholic cannot receive absolution. I know “becoming” Catholics who have entered a confessional, told the priest they were not yet Catholic, were allowed to confess, but the Priest explained that he could not give absolution. If a person feels so drawn to the Sacrament that he would even ask this question, he should be encouraged to look further into the Catholic faith. This could be God’s working in his soul in a very personal way to draw him closer to himself in his Church.

 

[TheRam]

mercygate:

You were surrounded by the prayer of many here with you. Your story is truly one of the most remarkable examples of God’s personal “finger” pointing at your heart and working miracles of grace in a VERY short time. You have been profoundly blessed – I pray that you will carry this grace to others who are exactly in the same position you were in – sitting in the pew, without a clue! Praise God!

Mercygate,
How can things like this happen? How can a person for so many years go looking, ask priests and church bound people for help and for so many years, be turned away and “patted on the head.”

So many years i asked, and so many years i was given the first urgency…to be listened to, and then told to go home and pray.

Well i believe that i had trusted the institution to help me to it’s fullest. In life i have learned, and this is a good example, but to persist, especially as the participant in a group of people…i have learned that it is ok to ask the questions, to search, and to hunger for the Lord.

Unfortunately, the hunger has to be dealt with, with kid gloves. There are ten standing in the wings ready to tell me how wrong i am, because they feel they have been educated in some mannor. Then there are those here that are more interested in having me stay…interested in my actual soul…and not being right. This thread has stopped, listened, and gently taught…guided and prayed…as if they loved me dearly. It was real, it was the love, the prayers and the hope you instilled in a person. It did make a difference!

Those encounters have happened, and i tried, perservered, and then this thread and a few friends that I have to talk to in the dark, and wisper…like it is forbidden (private posting, because talking openly is fobidden when you speak of experiences. I am suprised i have not been silenced, but at the same time so very very grateful i have gone un-noticed, because this thread DID make a difference! I simply saved my soul!

Amen!

 

[hilde_the_dog]

The Ram

Confession is fun. I understand that feeling of weightlessness. I still get every time. I love confession beause then I can have Christ in me at communion. It’s no longer time to whisper, time to sing.