Is it possible to confess at a different parish than the one you go to? I can’t imagine making eye contact with the priest after confession.
To begin with, confessionals have a mandatory screen with a veil or a grid through which your features are not identifiable.
Second: you are confessing to Our Lord Jesus Christ as His priest acts in persona Christi Capitis. Even if you change man, the one you are confessing to is the same and at one point in your life you will have to make eye contact with Him who made your soul as pure as that of a newly baptized infant, if anything to thank Him.
Third: the humiliation that you speak of (especially if you happen to confess the same sin repeatedly to the same priest) is very spiritually healthy for you. I have had times in which my whole self urged me out of shame - that is, out of sheer pride - to go to another priest, but the Spirit in my heart said, no, commanded to swallow my pride, forget my own self, and go to my confessor without finding the easy way out.
Fourth: don’t think that you are a particular sinner, nor think that your confessor sees you as a saint. Nobody is special. The priest knows that we are all sinners in need of repentance, and he has heard almost everything if not everything being confessed to him.
Finally, consider the following: your embarassment is nothing compared to his own when he confesses to a fellow priest or a bishop…after all, if you are called to holiness as a lay faithful, imagine him, ordained a priest of Christ, who of course is also a sinner. In fact, in the old form of the Mass, the Canon was recited in a low voice, and the only time the priest would raise his voice enough to be heard by the congregation was while striking his breast and pronouncing the words “
nobis quoque peccatoribus”, “
to us, who are also sinners”, which was very humbling for the priest, as he professed before the congregation that he, too, was a sinner. Furthermore, the bells would be rung when the priest struck his breast three times pronouncing the words: “
Domine, non sum dignus”, “Lord, I am not worthy”. Believe me, priests know about that which you feel, so you have no reason to be ashamed.
Besides, just wait until you first confess. The experience is unlike any other, and you cannot imagine or predict how you will feel or act.
In my case, suffices to say that my first confession in adulthood was powerful enough to change my life and lead to my full conversion and completion of my Christian Initiation. And to this day, Confession is oftentimes such that I come out of there not just fine, or with less than a burden on my shoulders, but even exhuberant to the degree that I have to make an effort to restrain my joy. And I know others who feel the same way. So cheer up!
for you!
o also agree that the spiritual exercises of st ignatius are a great tool. Also, just wanted to ad a wise phrase the priest at my church said: the devil is like a dog with babies chained to a post. If you stay away from.him he won’t be able to bite you but is you get close then he will bite and won’t let you go. How do.we stay away, exactly as lady love described: with God, prayer, sacrifice, mortification, the rosary and remaining obedient.