Has This Happened to You in Confession?

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pray4peace

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I usually go to confession behind the screen, less distraction for me mostly and I feel calm. I can picture Christ sitting on the other side while I am confessing.
Well, this last time we had a lenten retreat at our church and I went to one of the priests who came in for the retreat. I started out behind the screen and after I confessed my sins he said, “Would you please come around to the other side and sit in the chair?” I have never had this happen before. I was very much surprised by this and it made me kind of anxious. He was very kind and wanted to talk and advise, which was nice. I did have a problem relaxing, as I am used to being behind the screen. I have never heard of this. I was surprised he did not respect my wishes of being behind the screen and just let me be. I did not think it good to tell him no, so I didn’t. I was so nervous that I almost messed up the Act of Contrition when it was time to say it, plus the newer form of the Act of Contrition was written on the kneeler behind the screen and I was used to reading that. After all said and done it was a good confession, but now I will be wondering if I will be asked to go around to the other side.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

Blessings
 
Nope, I’ve never had that happen. You always have the right to remain anonymous so don’t be anxious about declining to confess face to face if asked by a priest.
 
Haven’t been to confession in awhile,but I would have definitely told the Priest that I wanted to confess anonymously.Only went to a face to face confession once in my life and felt very uncomfortable.And I didn’t know that there is a new act of contrition,as I am recently returning to the Catholic church.
 
No. I haven’t had that happen.

But what strikes me is that the priest must have felt very strongly your virtue and so it must never have occurred to him that you had any need to hide. I think he may have been trying to show you this out of love.

You must never feel you *have *to show yourself, however.

All you need have said is: With all respect, I prefer to remain here, if that’s alright.
 
No, and I always confess behind a screen. I don’t know what I would have done, but I would have ended the confession as soon as that happened and asked for absolution. If it was not granted, I would come back at another time, if I had expressed my views on the matter sufficiently to the priest - you may be meek without knowing it and have put up little or no objection. Going to a traditionalist Church, especially one with a lot of Hispanics, as I do, the normal course of action is behind a screen - both sides of the confessional have screens in them.
 
It has actually. I never confessed face to face until I went to confession with a priest I had never met, and now very much admire. I was too uncomfortable to sit in front of of him and say all the things I needed to confess so I didn’t. However at the end he said very nonchalant… well you sound very nice, and its nice to meet you…I then promptly popped my head around the curtain to introduce myself and say… hello father… then sat in front of him to hear a bunch more of his advisement on the matter. I like you, also felt compelled to sit face to face after he extended the “offer”. At the time it was hard and I did it because I was convicted to do so. Looking back I know why now I felt that way and I could go into greater detail about how the H.S. worked through him to change me, and bring me even closer to the Blessed Trinity but that can be discussed later if needs be. However I try to approach situations that seem to be hard, or a trial, or uncomfortable, with this in mind…(I emphasize TRY)… What is it God is telling me? What is it He wants me to learn, and take away from the experience with greater FAITH? Now I don’t know you…and I was not there so my post might have no validity at all for you. However I know one thing. It has effected you enough to post it on this sight and ask for feed back…so to speak. So as I sit here thinking about this, I remember a homily this life changing priest made one time. With in it he discussed confession. In so many words he said… confession was not supposed to be easy, was not supposed to be comfortable. That if it became effortless at any point in time somethings missing. Happenstance and coincidence do mot exist just like luck doesn’t. You had this experience for a reason…Every experience we have is for a reason. I personally can’t tell you why, but I certainly can pray for you to know.

Dios Te Bendiga
:blessyou::blessyou::blessyou:
labarrios
 
Something is wrong with a priest like that. You should have told him “no thanks.”
If he insisted, you should have reported him to the bishop.
 
Sometimes I confess behind the screen but other times the priests positions himself in between the pews where we celebrate the mass and here we make our confessions face to face. most times we make face to face confessions:yup:
 
onyuka said:
Sometimes I confess behind the screen but other times the priests positions himself in between the pews where we celebrate the mass and here we make our confessions face to face. most times we make face to face confessions:yup:
Click to expand...
I was under the impression that it was not permissable to insist that penitents go face-to-face. I wonder if anyone knowledgeable in Canon law can help here.
 
Once a visiting priest came to hear confessions, but he did not have the key for the confessional. He asked if I would mind confessing over in the pews (at a discrete distance from the others waiting in line). I had no problem with that even though I usually prefer confessing “behind the screen.”
 
I don’t think the priest meant anything by it…perhaps it is his “style”, if you had respectfully said " no thanks" most likely he would have respected that.

I always confess face-to-face although I have to admit I usually keep my eyes turned downwards when confessing.

Hopefully, it wasn’t too stressful for you.

God bless,
Bryan
 
labarrios said:
It has actually. I never confessed face to face until I went to confession with a priest I had never met, and now very much admire. I was too uncomfortable to sit in front of of him and say all the things I needed to confess so I didn’t. However at the end he said very nonchalant… well you sound very nice, and its nice to meet you…I then promptly popped my head around the curtain to introduce myself and say… hello father… then sat in front of him to hear a bunch more of his advisement on the matter. I like you, also felt compelled to sit face to face after he extended the “offer”. At the time it was hard and I did it because I was convicted to do so. Looking back I know why now I felt that way and I could go into greater detail about how the H.S. worked through him to change me, and bring me even closer to the Blessed Trinity but that can be discussed later if needs be. However I try to approach situations that seem to be hard, or a trial, or uncomfortable, with this in mind…(I emphasize TRY)… What is it God is telling me? What is it He wants me to learn, and take away from the experience with greater FAITH? Now I don’t know you…and I was not there so my post might have no validity at all for you. However I know one thing. It has effected you enough to post it on this sight and ask for feed back…so to speak. So as I sit here thinking about this, I remember a homily this life changing priest made one time. With in it he discussed confession. In so many words he said… confession was not supposed to be easy, was not supposed to be comfortable. That if it became effortless at any point in time somethings missing. Happenstance and coincidence do mot exist just like luck doesn’t. You had this experience for a reason…Every experience we have is for a reason. I personally can’t tell you why, but I certainly can pray for you to know.

Dios Te Bendiga
:blessyou::blessyou::blessyou:
labarrios
Click to expand...
The good thing that came out of it is it helped me open up and to clarify some things that were going on with me. These priests that come are from Poland and they like to counsel and talk face to face. This is the first time I have been to confession to them in our church and used the screen. The retreats are usually somewhere else and there is no screen, so you either go face to face or not at all. I have gone face to face because I didn’t know until I walked in. There are definitely pros and cons to both ways of going to confession.
 
Yes, it happened to me once, and I respectfully said no thanks, and the priest was very apologetic for asking. He was just trying to be helpful.

I find that it is distracting to be face-to-face, though sometimes I do it anyway.

By the way, you have the right by canon law to go behind the screen. Actually, some people point out that this also protects the priest’s rights, since he might find it easier to forget what he hears in there if it’s not attached to a face. After all, priests interact outside of confession with people from the parish oftentimes…
 
pray4peace said:
I usually go to confession behind the screen, less distraction for me mostly and I feel calm. I can picture Christ sitting on the other side while I am confessing.
Well, this last time we had a lenten retreat at our church and I went to one of the priests who came in for the retreat. I started out behind the screen and after I confessed my sins he said, “Would you please come around to the other side and sit in the chair?” I have never had this happen before. I was very much surprised by this and it made me kind of anxious. He was very kind and wanted to talk and advise, which was nice. I did have a problem relaxing, as I am used to being behind the screen. I have never heard of this. I was surprised he did not respect my wishes of being behind the screen and just let me be. I did not think it good to tell him no, so I didn’t. I was so nervous that I almost messed up the Act of Contrition when it was time to say it, plus the newer form of the Act of Contrition was written on the kneeler behind the screen and I was used to reading that. After all said and done it was a good confession, but now I will be wondering if I will be asked to go around to the other side.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

Blessings
Click to expand...
No , and I would not confess face to face.
 
I have been asked to confess face-to-face twice, but not in the way you describe, it was for different reasons.

The first time, I went to Mass in a church I don’t normally attend. I wanted to go to confession before Mass and saw a priest sitting in one of the pews. Going into the pew behind him, I asked if he could hear my confession. His reply was “Yes, but this isn’t my church, so I can’t use the confessional, but I can hear your confession here, in the pew”. As I was in the pew right behind him, I knelt down and he sat in his place just in front of me. Things went OK except that somebody, not realising he was hearing my confession, walked over and tried to talk to the priest while I was confessing, and he had to quickly wave them away.

The second time, I’d been away from home over the weekend, and as I was making my way home on the Sunday evening, I stopped off at a church where I knew there was evening Mass. Again, I wanted to go to confession, but the priest was still in the house, so the sacristan suggested I went to the house to ask for confession. When I went to the house and spoke to the priest, his response was, “Yes, I don’t mind hearing your confession but I’ll do it here rather than in Church. If people see me going into the confessional at this time before Mass, I’ll end up with half the congregation queuing up for confession”. So I made my confession there and then, in his house.
 
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