How far out of my way am I expected to go?

[Ziggamafu]

To go to confession, either before mass or after sin, how far out of my way am I expected to go? To drop everything and search on the internet until I can find the home address of the nearest priest and bang on his door until he comes? To drive to another state if need be? Or is it enough to just wait until my local parish’s next confession time? If I died while waiting for next Saturday, would I go to Hell?

This is all hypothetical. I am not in a state of mortal sin. But I am trying to figure out what the Church’s stance is, here.

 

[Fergal]

I would suggest that each and every reasonable avenue for confession is explored before approaching the sacrment of Holy Communion. If your conscience is heavy and your desire to receive great then go to a local Priest if one is available. (I have asked at 10.15pm once for Confession as I wanted to go to Mass the following morning and receive!) If no priest is available then what?
We must go to Canon Law.

The Church teaches the following in Canon Law:

Can. 916 Anyone who is conscious of grave sin may not celebrate Mass or receive the Body of the Lord without previously having been to sacramental confession, unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, which includes the resolve to go to confession as soon as possible.

What is this grave reason mentioned above??? There are 2.

1. Unavailability of a confessor - When we speak here of the unavailability of a confessor, we must not understand this to mean the absence of one’s usual confessor or the one whom one simply prefers….It means the unavailability of an authorized confessor at that time and place or the impossibility of reaching him elsewhere due to circumstances beyond one’s will or control.
2. Urgent necessity - Both canonists and moralists give, an as example of urgent necessity: the possible case of a lay person who, just on the point of receiving Holy Communion, remembers an unconfessed mortal sin, or also the extraordinary case where one must save the Eucharist from profanation.

 

[Ziggamafu]

Awesome. Thanks.

 

[Joan_M]

A very good thing to do is to make sure you know where (and when) you can get confession - not just in your own parish, but in others - and keep a list of the places and times.

Your parish or diocese website is a good place to start. Besides that, there may be other places, such as monasteries, or chapels where order priests are.

You should have a regular confessor, if possible, but there may be times when he is not available, and this is when the listing of where confession is available comes in handy. It will ensure that you do not need to panic if you find yourself in a state of mortal sin - you will know where you can go to confess.

Your own peace of mind is very important. Even if you have to drive miles out of your way, you will be very happy when you are back in the state of grace.

 

[puzzleannie]

Expected by whom? Who is placing expectations upon you? Yourself? “the Church”? The Church defines and teaches the doctrine, as revealed by God, sets the practical disciplines for us to adhere, ordains the bishops and priests to make our adherence possible and confect Christ present in the sacraments. The expectations to live up to our baptismal call are ultimately set by ourselves. Your question has been well answered by the wise people above. Your tone is one I think we sometimes fall into when we take a minimalist approach to spiritual life, looking for the easiest way out, are content to be “C students” as Catholics. The way you phrased your questions is, at least for me, a great way to force us to look at the difference in what we profess to believe and how we behave, and I thank you for it.

 

[Ziggamafu]

puzzleannie:

Expected by whom? Who is placing expectations upon you? Yourself? “the Church”? The Church defines and teaches the doctrine, as revealed by God, sets the practical disciplines for us to adhere, ordains the bishops and priests to make our adherence possible and confect Christ present in the sacraments. The expectations to live up to our baptismal call are ultimately set by ourselves. Your question has been well answered by the wise people above. Your tone is one I think we sometimes fall into when we take a minimalist approach to spiritual life, looking for the easiest way out, are content to be “C students” as Catholics. The way you phrased your questions is, at least for me, a great way to force us to look at the difference in what we profess to believe and how we behave, and I thank you for it.

Very much so the opposite, although I thank you for your superior judgment, as it forces me to humble myself and contemplate my many flaws. The flaw in question is my problem of scrupulosity and extremism. I yearn to wake up the nearest priest whose address I can find on the internet at 3AM if I’ve intentionally gone five over the speed limit coming home that night. Not a grave matter, some might say. But I would reply that you never know who could be harmed by exceeding the speed limit, besides the fact that you are not obeying the civil laws and setting a bad example of Catholicism. Tearing the tag off a mattress. Spitting on the sidewalk. Saying a sarcastic remark during a time of irritability. Etc. Whenever such a flaw, mistake, or sin occurs, I immediately realize that I did so knowingly. And I feel like it was mortal. So I immediately want to run to Confession. If I’m at work, I yearn to walk-out, quitting if need be, to get to Confession right at that moment. Nobody available? In frustration and fear I want to hunt down a home address of the nearest priest - even if that means the next country over - and bang on his door until he comes down to give me Confession. That is the extent of my scrupulosity. That is the extent to which I demonstrate **“a minimalist approach to spiritual life, looking for the easiest way out”. **

May God bless you.

 

[NightRider]

I sympathize with your scrupulosity. I didn’t realize you were scrupulous when I first started reading this thread. Your original question was *How far out of my way am I expected to go? *At first I thought this implied that you really didn’t want to go at all! I certainly misunderstood, but after reading your last post I see you are recognizing you are scrupulous.

What is so great about these threads is there is so much we can work out about ourselves on here through the process of writing. Sounds to me like you are really getting down to what is at the root of your concerns. That’s pretty awesome.

A trusted priest can really help with scrupulosity. And there is another thread on here somewhere asking *What is scrupulosity? *I don’t remember which forum it is on but I would recommend that you search for it–there is some excellent information in it provided by many posters.

God bless!