How much detail should my confession entail?

[catholic0913]

I am planning on going to confession to reconcile with Jesus, but I am not sure how much detail I am supposed to inform the priest during confession.

For example, if I know that I had a desire to commit adultery, is it good enough to tell the priest that “I desired to commit adultery”? or do I have to be more detailed than that?
To be more specific, should I inform the priest on for whom I had desire to commit adultery (for example, if I was attracted to my teacher, should I say “I desired to commit adultery because I was attracted to my teacher” rather than simply stating “I have desired to commit adultery”)?

Thank you,

 

[Stephen_says]

I’ve always heard you need to confess the type of sin and the number of occurrences, and any other mitigating factor that might have increased the severity.

You could ask your confessor when you’re in there how much he needs to know

 

[TheAmazingGrace]

It depends on the priest. What I do is tell them the sin, and follow it up with,

“So, do you wanna hear the sordid details?”

Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t. It’s good to offer though.

 

[Herculees]

I am planning on going to confession to reconcile with Jesus, but I am not sure how much detail I am supposed to inform the priest during confession.

For example, if I know that I had a desire to commit adultery, is it good enough to tell the priest that “I desired to commit adultery”? or do I have to be more detailed than that?
To be more specific, should I inform the priest on for whom I had desire to commit adultery (for example, if I was attracted to my teacher, should I say “I desired to commit adultery because I was attracted to my teacher” rather than simply stating “I have desired to commit adultery”)?

Thank you,

I personally do NOT feel the need to tell the priest all the gory details! I, generally, do NOT even determine if a sin is venial (small) or mortal (serious) sin. I confess what I feel the need to confess and offer up the rest to God. God is a better judge of the seriousness of sin that I have committed than I am! I would recommend just confessing what and how much YOU feel the need to confess and leave the rest to God, having said this, I would give additional information IF asked. Lord have mercy on me a sinner!

 

[po18guy]

Type and number. This is not a counseling session (although that often occurs), nor is it an episode of the Jerry Springer show. It is the loosing of your sins by the authority of the Church.

 

[e_c]

The point here is to put the priest in the position to judge what is the remedy for you in terms of advice and penance. So you say what kind of sins, and about how many times. You can explain that some were habitual, as well.

Think about the situation as if you were a judge trying a criminal. What would you need to know for sentencing? Did he kill some people? Yes, 3. Okay, but was one of those people the king? That makes that instance a special crime.

You don’t have to spell out all the motivations and circumstances unless they substantially change the gravity of the sin itself. If you cheated on a test because your parents said they’d throw you out of the house if you failed, then this is something you would want to mention. You would not need to say “it was a math test on Tuesday and it was raining.”

 

[PureChaos]

I am planning on going to confession to reconcile with Jesus, but I am not sure how much detail I am supposed to inform the priest during confession.

For example, if I know that I had a desire to commit adultery, is it good enough to tell the priest that “I desired to commit adultery”? or do I have to be more detailed than that?
To be more specific, should I inform the priest on for whom I had desire to commit adultery (for example, if I was attracted to my teacher, should I say “I desired to commit adultery because I was attracted to my teacher” rather than simply stating “I have desired to commit adultery”)?

Thank you,

This is a really good little booklet that explains all you need to know to make a good confession - tanbooks.com/index.php/confession-its-fruitful-practice.html
You can also search for other books on confession on that site and find many other useful ones. Very good book site for Catholic literature.

But to answer your question simply, you only need to confess mortal sins, venial sins if you want(strongly recommend doing so since confessing sins gives you the grace to overcome them) and then confess the type and number of mortal sins, and only that which changes the nature of them, for example, lustful acts with a married woman, or, lustful acts with those of the same gender. etc. There are books which also go into detail about that, but just try to learn as you go, I’m sure your confessor will give you advice as well.

 

[MaryT777]

I personally do NOT feel the need to tell the priest all the gory details! I, generally, do NOT even determine if a sin is venial (small) or mortal (serious) sin. I confess what I feel the need to confess and offer up the rest to God. God is a better judge of the seriousness of sin that I have committed than I am! I would recommend just confessing what and how much YOU feel the need to confess and leave the rest to God, having said this, I would give additional information IF asked. Lord have mercy on me a sinner!

Well said. I am short and to the point confessing without gory details. My thought is if the priest is not certain about something he will ask for my details. That said lines are very long for confession and that’s why I do think out what I want to say ahead of time and try to be succinct.

Mary.

 

[Herculees]

Well said. I am short and to the point confessing without gory details. My thought is if the priest is not certain about something he will ask for my details. That said lines are very long for confession and that’s why I do think out what I want to say ahead of time and try to be succinct.

Mary.

I picked up the fact that you said: “and that’s why I do think out what I want to say ahead of time and try to be succinct.”

Hopefully we ALL do this because if we don’t think out what we want to say ahead of time then we are NOT examining our conscience. It is through the examination of conscience that we know what needs to be confessed. Of course you would examine yourself on the 10 commandments, and may wish to examine yourself on the 8 beatitudes, and how well you fulfilled your obligations in the world. Did you back talk to your supervisor?
Were you lazy at work and therefore got compensated without doing what you are supposed to be doing?, etc.

To make one’s confession easier I would recommend doing a General & Particular Examination of Conscience.

General Examination of Conscience:

Surveys all the morally significant actions of the day, so far as we can recall them.

Particular Examination of Conscience:

We focus our attention on one particular fault against which we are struggling and the corresponding virtue we are trying to cultivate (because the positive cultivation of a virtue is the most effective way of fighting against the vice it is opposed to.

The Particular Examination of Conscience should be done three times a day: morning, after lunch, and after dinner.

The General Examination of Conscience is best done before we go to bed.

This is a simple and easy way for self-awareness and continual conversion of life. We are ALL in danger of forgetting or even being totally ignorant of the areas of our lives in which we are in need of conversion. We are ALL, in the best of circumstances, notoriously lacking in self-knowledge. We can ALL use more humility and even humiliation to get the point across that WE are far from perfect and yet capable of improvement, with God’s help.

Both Particular and General Examination provide a kind of spiritual scaffolding around the day that can help us pay attention to our defects and make progress correcting them.
It does NOT need to be anything fussy or time-consuming about it: a few concentrated moments of reflection may suffice. WE are missing a great opportunity when we do NOT pay attention to how the day has gone and what we might of done differently or better!

I think doing the Particular and General Examination of Conscience each day makes it easier to remember what one needs to confess. This is of course supposing that you go to confession at least 1 - 2 times a month.

Herculees

 

[Reuben_J]

I am planning on going to confession to reconcile with Jesus, but I am not sure how much detail I am supposed to inform the priest during confession.

For example, if I know that I had a desire to commit adultery, is it good enough to tell the priest that “I desired to commit adultery”? or do I have to be more detailed than that?
To be more specific, should I inform the priest on for whom I had desire to commit adultery (for example, if I was attracted to my teacher, should I say “I desired to commit adultery because I was attracted to my teacher” rather than simply stating “I have desired to commit adultery”)?

Thank you,

In Confession, you only have to confess the sin in number and kind. Seldom do you need to elaborate. You know what your sins are and confess accordingly - what they are and how many times you committed each one after your last Confession.

Of course, no two penitents may have the same experience , so those are guidelines.

If you need to go into details, by all means. Hopefully that would not be a regular mode of Confession for you as you become more and more familiar with the Sacrament.