Having your sins forgiven

[Reuben_J]

Can anyone describe for me what that feels like?

Is there even a feeling attached to it?

Or is it more of a ‘‘knowing’’, in other words, it’s something that you are aware of on an intellectual level, that you know your sins have been forgiven you.

Or is it an emotional feeling?

Or both?

If, in the course of your prayers to God, you tell Him you are truly sorry for offending Him in sin, does that have a different feeling attached to personally confessing to a Priest and receiving absolution from the Priest?

I’m asking because I can’t really imagine what that experience must feel like so any help with trying to understand would be welcome.

I’ve read a lot around the Sacrament itself so I have an understanding of the foundation, rational and theology behind it, but it was more the actual experience of it I was trying to get an insight into.

Sarah x

Good light hearted non theological question. The experiences vary no doubt but I can see the trend here, that is one of relief.

As for me it is both, intellectual and emotional. It is difficult to describe, one has to experience it in order to feel want it is like. The best description for me as some have said, it is like a weight being taken off my shoulder. My response varies too sometimes depending on the sins confessed and the mental and spiritual situation I am in. Thus I could cry, weep, smile and came out laughing and be joyful. It is also a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving. But in all cases, I would feel like a new person, as if a cloth being washed through the washing machine until it gets stained again. In the meantime, I bask in my cleanliness and feel happy. And when you are happy you can do lots of wonders.

About confessing to a priest, as a cradle Catholic I have no other experience other than the Confession so I am not sure how the other method feels like. I do confess to God in personal prayer but it is not the same until I go for the Sacrament of Confession. It is as if something is missing, something not complete without going for the Sacrament but then again that is perhaps because I was brought up that way.

What I want to say here, going for Confession is healing, not just the spiritual forgiveness of sin, something that we cannot see but it heals tangibly, emotionally. So to me that is its biggest effect in a physical and emotional way. Confessing one’s sins to a priest, especially one that you know personally is not easy for me. I would rather be anonymous.

Hope that helps.

 

[JRKH]

Atheistgirl.

Thank you for sharing that beautiful ritual with us. I am humbled by it.

You are already so spiritual that you put many of us to shame and I include myself in that.

As I read this beautiful piece, I could not help but think of a verse in Acts, where Paul was speaking to the Athenians.
For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. - (Acts 17:23)
You evidently already do so much that is pleasing to God - you just haven’t made the connection yet. No one has yet “proclaimed” to you in a way that makes the connection.

Please believe me though…you are soooo close.

Peace
James

 

[Pitcharan]

Thank you . I like this - especially the part I bolded. This is how I understand purgatory to work.

Peace
James

Purgatory is not an invention of the CC. It was always there and even defined in Judaism. It is called Sheol in Hebrew while Hell is called Gehenna. All the confusion and doubt exist because we treat sin and vice as the same. Sin may be forgiven; but a vice can only be PURGED. We can either pardon or punish theft; how sure can we be that it would fully cure the vice of stealing and there will be no more theft committed. Sin is only the effect, caused by the vice. It is much better to let vices be purged through suffering during our earthly sojourn and avoid the terrible purgatory.

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from Sheol. (Pro 23:13-14)

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. ‘For everyone will be salted with fire’.” (Mk 9:43, 49)

*It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices than to keep them for purgation in the hereafter. In truth, we deceive ourselves by our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that fire feed upon but our sins? The more we spare ourselves now and the more we satisfy the flesh, the harder will the reckoning be and the more we keep for the burning. *(Imitation of Christ, Book- I, Chapter 24)