Have you confessed face-to-face?

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Though I have gone to Confession both face-to-face and behind the screen, I do prefer the later because there are no distractions…it’s just dark and more reflective…
I personally find it much more fulfilling to imagine Jesus hearing me…forgiving me than when I actually see the face of the priest.
 
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BillyT92679:
I think face to face is fine if your situation is complex enough that it requires a “talk” with the Priest. That is, I only do it when I request confession at a different time. I think the traditional way is very appropriate and tends to be more pastorally kind to other penitents. Going face to face, for me at least, leads to tangents and longer discussions, and this takes time away from the other penitants.
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Ditto!
 
I always confess face to face and have done so since my first confession in the early 90s.
 
I always confess face to face. I can’t hide from God, I don’t see why I should then hide from the Priest who is Alter Christos. Plus when he knows my voice that reveals who I am it seems a bit redundant to kneel behind a screen.

I ‘face’ up to my sins and confess to my Priest face to face anywhere, in the confessional, in the street, in his lounge…

God Bless you

Teresa
 
I prefer to confess face to face, but since I don’t always end up at the same church when I need to go, I’ll use whichever method is available. My first confession after being away from the Church for around 20 years was face to face, and I’m sure the last confession I did before leaving the Church was also face to face as the whole grilled confessional thing really spooked me out when I was a kid. We had a scary priest behind the grille 😛
 
Growing up we only did the confessional. Now it seems my parish really only does face to face and it has been a good thing for all the reaons already posted. I like it better.
 
I’ve coffessed face to face b4… but I believed some people may not like the idea. especially to some priest they know…Can u imagine confess the wrongdoings to the pruest and maybe he thinks " oh… I see these are the sins you have commtted". That’s why some people goes to other priest that they do not know…

Maybe it’s psychological or what… we dun know… but having said that… I believe if one is sincere, humble and ready, any priest to him or her is not a big issue.
 
In Argentina all confession is face to face, I guess it is the same in other latin american countries.

I would like to do it like in the american movies, thru a screen.
 
I was kinda told to do it that way, but now I am kneeling instead because it makes it seem more between you and God.
 
I like the confessional better. Just me though.:whacky:

Kathleen Elsie Gibbs
Pray the Rosary and Divine Mercy daily
 
I went once when out of town over 10 years ago. Never again! It felt like two friends sitting down talking. Not at all like Confession at all. My own Parish now does it this way. So since then I travel to a neighboring Parish to go to Confession. I know many people prefer this, but unless for some reason it becomes the only way for Confession. I will seek out Traditional Confessions only even if I have to travel for miles.
 
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Sorbetto:
Have you ever confessed face-to-face? If so, why? Do you prefer one over the other, and why?

Along with this – why do Catholics have the choice of one over the other?
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:eek: It is bad enough doing it in private. I don’t know why, but everytime I go in to confession, I get butterflies. If I had to do it face to face I would probably collapse right there on the floor. then to have to look at him day after day, well, I think private is much better. It is not because my sin’s are horrible, although I am a sinner, but it makes me very shaky when I do have to go. I do have to say, that after it is all done, I feel so much better. :dancing:
 
betra2000 said:
:eek: It is bad enough doing it in private. I don’t know why, but everytime I go in to confession, I get butterflies. If I had to do it face to face I would probably collapse right there on the floor. then to have to look at him day after day, well, I think private is much better. It is not because my sin’s are horrible, although I am a sinner, but it makes me very shaky when I do have to go. I do have to say, that after it is all done, I feel so much better. :dancing:
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I agree fully.
Humans are visual. The Priest has a better chance of remembering my sins when he sees me again, if he sees my face as I confess.

Besides, who are you confessing to anyway. GOD! When we sit down and have a little chat with Father, it doesn’t seem that way to me at all.
 
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Sorbetto:
Have you ever confessed face-to-face? If so, why? Do you prefer one over the other, and why?

Along with this – why do Catholics have the choice of one over the other?
Click to expand...
It was a little weird the first time I confessed face to face. Mostly my own shame and knowing my priest would know it is truly ME with all of these sins.

However, he is In Persona Chrisi and so being face to face is like being with Jesus. If we can’t tell Jesus, who can we tell and confess too??

So I prefer face to face.

God Bless,
Donna
 
I’ve only confessed face to face. I’ve always lived in rural areas with smaller parishes. Just the one priest–if you go to Mass fairly often you’ll talk to him–I figure he’ll recognize my voice anyway, so I might as well pony up and do it face to face.
 
I’ve only ever did that twice, I prefer the confessional box, old dog new tricks, I suppose.
 
I do face to face everytime, but really because they usually don’t have a screen out…I used to be really uncomfortable about it, so I would go to a priest I didn’t know as opposed to our parish priest because I was afraid he would judge me…then it hit me. a: this is a man of God who loves me and would never judge, and b: what could I possibly tell him that he hasn’t heard before? Now I love going to our parish priest because he DOES know me, and can help me in and after the confession with more personal counsel and advice.

In Him,
Britty
 
I confess face to face with the priests I know. Infact, last time I was in I said, “Confess me Father for I have sinned. It has been, how long father two weeks?” and he said “yeah, I think so. Around there.” He knows who I am and knows what is going on in my life and family, so it is just like picking up where we left off at the last confession.
 
I only recently started going face-to-face. It came after God got a little fed up with my confession antics - namely, priest shopping in order to avoid any one finding a particular pattern. After years of confessing the same habits over and again, I felt God pulling me by the arm and out into the open.

He said to me (in my heart, of course), “Since there is no anonymity before Me, nor shall you have any before He who represents Me”.

Then I suppose he was fed up with the habits and he told me I had to dig deeper than I had before and made me tell Father about all of the attitudes that led to the behaviors.

That was session number one and it lasted a good long while.

A few weeks later, I went in and did the same thing with items God had brought forward from my past, into plain view.

I must say that face-to-face enables me to empty my closet and make a much more firm resolve to change my life than behind the screen. It’s a little more difficult to go in and confess the same sins over and again in such a situation because, in my case, showed a half-hearted effort. Its a little hard to look a priest in the face and tell him you didn’t try hard enough after sounding like a broken record week after week.

Count me among the converted to face-to-face.
 
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