Help! i want to make a good confession

[followerofGod]

I have recently gone to confession due to a sin I committed. It completely destroyed. I have grown so far from God in my life and only since this incident had I realized how horrible I have been and now see where my salvation is and that I must return to God for he makes me whole.

God works in mysterious ways, I know this now because of how he came back into my life. after committing this sin I felt the need to confess, it was my only redemption and all I wanted was Gods love again. I could not live anymore. I had made an appointment with a wonderful priest who helped me confess this sin and a few other prominent ones in my life. Having been away from the church so long I had forgotten how to do a good confession. I was absolved for my sins and given my penance. It was not the end though. this was only the beginning of my purge of sin.

I felt weight gone but not all of it. Everyday from this point only about a week ago have I become more and more enlightened by the truth behind my sins and why I have felt empty and have fallen into more and more sin and denial of its moral and spiritual wrongs. I have been praying and God has been answering, I am beginning to feel whole again and I now see what is important and how God loves me and everyone and only wants us to come back to him. I see that it is us and our sin that keep us from God and I am ready to return to him with this new restored faith and knowledge of his love. Nothing and no one can love us like God and God is who I love before anyone or anything.

I have been praying and thinking so much this past week. I have decided that I needed to throughly examine my conscious and return to confess all my sins after this careful reflection.

I have made this examination and am ready to offer up everything and I pray that God forgives me these sins as well as the others that my reflection did not uncover but most likely are there. I want to be free of all my sin.

now I want to know from any of you how and what I need to do in order to make the best confession I can. Let me know of prayers I should know and how to go about doing my confession in a way that will express my truest want and need to forever leave sin and to do Gods work and return to his love forever in this life and in the next.

quick question?

~ when confessing sin should one state the actual action or would the word that it is covered under be acceptable. Like adultery not only stands for the act of sleeping with someone else when married but like viewing pornography is considered to be under adultery. so would you say i have committed so many acts of adultery or would you state I have viewed pornography this many times… or would the Priest just ask you to go into depth if it mattered?

Thank you and God bless.

 

[jpjd]

My personal preference is not to hide behind categories. I just state my sins in plain language. After all, the confession is private, the priest can’t repeat it, and it is absolved. What more can you ask for? Just say what it is and be done with it. If you are too embarassed for face-to-face, confess behind the screen

Most priests don’t ask for more depth. They get the idea.

 

[Maria1212]

I have recently gone to confession due to a sin I committed. It completely destroyed. I have grown so far from God in my life and only since this incident had I realized how horrible I have been and now see where my salvation is and that I must return to God for he makes me whole.

God works in mysterious ways, I know this now because of how he came back into my life. after committing this sin I felt the need to confess, it was my only redemption and all I wanted was Gods love again. I could not live anymore. I had made an appointment with a wonderful priest who helped me confess this sin and a few other prominent ones in my life. Having been away from the church so long I had forgotten how to do a good confession. I was absolved for my sins and given my penance. It was not the end though. this was only the beginning of my purge of sin.

I felt weight gone but not all of it. Everyday from this point only about a week ago have I become more and more enlightened by the truth behind my sins and why I have felt empty and have fallen into more and more sin and denial of its moral and spiritual wrongs. I have been praying and God has been answering, I am beginning to feel whole again and I now see what is important and how God loves me and everyone and only wants us to come back to him. I see that it is us and our sin that keep us from God and I am ready to return to him with this new restored faith and knowledge of his love. Nothing and no one can love us like God and God is who I love before anyone or anything.

I have been praying and thinking so much this past week. I have decided that I needed to throughly examine my conscious and return to confess all my sins after this careful reflection.

I have made this examination and am ready to offer up everything and I pray that God forgives me these sins as well as the others that my reflection did not uncover but most likely are there. I want to be free of all my sin.

now I want to know from any of you how and what I need to do in order to make the best confession I can. Let me know of prayers I should know and how to go about doing my confession in a way that will express my truest want and need to forever leave sin and to do Gods work and return to his love forever in this life and in the next.

quick question?

~ when confessing sin should one state the actual action or would the word that it is covered under be acceptable. Like adultery not only stands for the act of sleeping with someone else when married but like viewing pornography is considered to be under adultery. so would you say i have committed so many acts of adultery or would you state I have viewed pornography this many times… or would the Priest just ask you to go into depth if it mattered?

Thank you and God bless.

There are a lot of excellent “examiniation of conscience” sites posted here at CAF. Try doing a search and reading over a few. It is best to state what your sin actually was, rather than just state the commandment. I usually try to say how I broke the commandment. For examle, " I failed to honor the sabbath" by missing Mass on Sunday." If it is sexual in nature you can say “I sinned against chastiy by viewing pornography” or something like that. The priest does not need explicit details, but he does need to know what the sin you commited was so he can advice you on how to turn away from that particular sin in the future.

When you are finished listing your sins, you can say “For these and for all my sins, I am truly sorry.” That signals to the priest that you are done, and covers sins you genuinely forgot to list. If you purposely do not confess all of your grave sins, your absolution will be invalid. For example, if you hold back a grave sin because you are embarrassed etc.

I prefer confessing behind the screen but have done face to face as well. If you are going to need a long time, I recommend making an appointment so the priest wont feel rushed, and you wont feel rushed.

Finally, once you make a good thorough confession, please do not dwell on past sins. You are forgiven, even if you do not feel like it. You can continue to repent, but doing acts of charity toward others etc, but you are already forgiven,

Welcome home! I have been away from confession at some points in my life, and it makes a huge difference when you return. The grace that God blesses you with is amazing. You may not feel it right away, but it is there.

Sincerely,

Maria1212

 

[puzzleannie]

you confessed your sins, sincerely, and were absolved. you absolutely must accept Christ’s own assurance that you have been completely cleansed of these past sins. the next time you go to confession, confess only what has occurred since your last confession. It is a wonderful thing to be convicted of your sin and to meditate on the Lord’s passion in light of them, but it is unhealthy to think your sins are more than He can forgive, or more than He will forgive, or worse than those of anyone else.

If you tend toward scrupulosity, search the spirituality forum under that keyword, for many links and helps, and above all, never ever discuss your confession with third parties, here or elsewhere.

when confessing you need only tell the priest the kind and number of sins, not the backstory. If he needs more information he will ask for it.

 

[followerofGod]

Thank for your replies, I am happy to to tell you that I have set up an appointment for confession tomorrow. I am excited and nervous. I have so much disgusting dirt to wash of from my past. I am ready to boot my sins once and for all, Now that I’m not so clouded by the true nature of sin I can see all the love I have been missing from God. I reflect back on my thoughts of past wrongs and wonder how I ever found the excuse to think it was ok to do such things. I am ready to go back to God.

It’s scary how sin and the temptations and evil depictions disguised as fulfilling paths pervert our minds. It is scary how with even a little loss of care or by letting people or malicious ideas and images entangle us that we get lost in this false destructive and impure lifestyle. I pray that everyone can one day find the light of God, his light that is all truth. It is then that we can see the true and evil nature of sin and how it destroys what is real and what is good. I pray that everyone will be able to open themselves enough to experience Gods love for them and that through it they realize that his is the only true and pure love we will ever need.