how often to confess

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Samuel63 said:
I like the idea of confession on the 1st Saturday of each month. Our Lady requested this indeed and not too long ago in the apparition of Fatima.

I supplement this with going again the 3rd Saturday for this reason. If you go to confession every two weeks you can always complete the work for a Plenary Indulgence and offer this to a holy soul in purgatory. On occasion you can apply the plenary indulgence to yourself. This is a good work of mercy that will be recognized at judgment.
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Yep! Gotta love those indulgences.🙂
 
This might sound harsh to some people, but we all deserve to burn in hell for our sins. It is only God’s mercy in Jesus that gives us the hope of anything more than that. I wouldn’t worry about others’ opinions of your goodness or badness, especially if you were only joking.

As for confession, I don’t think there’s a definite schedule that any one of us should follow. But when you consider that the sacrament of penance is encounter with Christ, and that it is an act of the humility that we are called to practice, there is absolutely nothing wrong with going daily. If you open yourself to Him, He will guide you through your conscience. Sooner or later you’ll know exactly how often you need to go.

God bless you!
 
Armor_of_Light said:
Pope JPII went weekly, and look how bad he was!

I try to go every 4 to 6 weeks…I have been doing this for about a year now. I see small improvements!

I think it is fair to say that I sin every day, athough venially. Go often!! It is a tremendous gift.
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I go weekly - sometimes twice a week , if I want to receive at daily mass -

and at my parish they have CONFESSION everyday - so its pretty nice - and the priest is super smart, for whatever my sins are he slams out a bible passage to me on command and writes it on a post it note and gives it to me -

anyways - im overall a good person but I want to receive the Eucharist and I want to do it in a state of grace - I think a lot of people don’t TRULY understand the Eucharist or we would have more people doing it properly - IMO

what i find hard to believe is people that go once a year if that and receive every sunday - i know some of them are receiving when they should not
 
My priest said it was important to go every 3 months. I generally go around that. Sometimes it’s four months. It depends on how the spirit flows.

You have been given a lot of information regarding the frequency, I think in the end, you need to pray to God and ask him to give you guidance regarding how often He wants you to go to confession. The church requires it once a year and generally during Lent. Your frequency will depend on where you go, how available is a priest and your own availability. I know some who go every day and it works for them, while I know others who only go a few times a year. It’s truly an individual thing. Some priests only hear confessions once a month while others its 15min before every mass.

In the end, confession is basically being accountable for our actions before God. If you have done something wrong to a person, it’s also important to say one is sorry to that person and go to confession as well.
 
I go every couple of weeks (at least), whether I “need” it or not.
I am looking forward to being there tomorrow. Reconciliation refreshes the soul.
Praise God.
 
I remember my sister, many years ago, when some people where she worked were discussing how frequently they bathed, said that she showered every day. Some of the people were shocked and one told her that she must be very dirty!

I see confession as similar to this. We do not wait until our bodies are filthy before we bathe. We shower or take a bath even when we do not really need it, if only to refresh our bodies and give ourselves the delightful feeling of being totally clean, fresh and sweet smelling.

It is the same with our souls, although we do not need to go to confession every day. even if we have not committed mortal sin, we do, every day, commit at least a few venial sins. Yes, venial sins can be forgiven in many ways, but no way is nicer and more refreshing than by confessing them to a priest and hearing the words of absolution.

The path to sainthood leads directly through the confessional! The longer we leave it before we go to confession, the harder it may be to go. Years ago, I was very lax about this. Eventually, when the grace of God pushed me into the confessional and I broke the wall I had built up, there was a landslide. At first, I went every two months, but then that seemed too long. Then it was every month. Still that felt like too long, so I went every three weeks. Now - usually it is no longer than 2 weeks, more often it is once per week. Confession is a sacrament we should embrace with great gratitude. Without it we could easily slip into despair. Our good God, knows us intimately and knows how easily we would turn away from Him without this beautiful sacrament.
 
Joan_M said:
I remember my sister, many years ago, when some people where she worked were discussing how frequently they bathed, said that she showered every day. Some of the people were shocked and one told her that she must be very dirty!

I see confession as similar to this. We do not wait until our bodies are filthy before we bathe. We shower or take a bath even when we do not really need it, if only to refresh our bodies and give ourselves the delightful feeling of being totally clean, fresh and sweet smelling.

It is the same with our souls, although we do not need to go to confession every day. even if we have not committed mortal sin, we do, every day, commit at least a few venial sins. Yes, venial sins can be forgiven in many ways, but no way is nicer and more refreshing than by confessing them to a priest and hearing the words of absolution.

The path to sainthood leads directly through the confessional! The longer we leave it before we go to confession, the harder it may be to go. Years ago, I was very lax about this. Eventually, when the grace of God pushed me into the confessional and I broke the wall I had built up, there was a landslide. At first, I went every two months, but then that seemed too long. Then it was every month. Still that felt like too long, so I went every three weeks. Now - usually it is no longer than 2 weeks, more often it is once per week. Confession is a sacrament we should embrace with great gratitude. Without it we could easily slip into despair. Our good God, knows us intimately and knows how easily we would turn away from Him without this beautiful sacrament.
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Great analogy.
 
Hmmm… Assuming that weekly confession is being held up as the ideal, a little calculation.

Our two priests are looking after 1800 parishioners. If each of those parishioners went to confession weekly, and took only two minutes each, that would come to 3600 minutes, i.e.60 hours in the confessional. If they only took one minute (hardly feasible) it would still come to 30 hours. I honestly don’t think the average priest has that time to use per week.

Venial sins are forgiven in many ways, as has been stated. Although it can be comforting to hear the words spoken one-to-one, it surely shows more faith in God and His church to accept forgiveness less directly, as part of the congregation at Mass, for instance.
 
A lot of food for thought here. Thank you.
Its true that there is a shortage of priests so perhaps that is also something I should take under consideration.
I guess I will know more as I go in my journey. I have that " I want to know NOW" thing going on lol. I suppose that is true of all us converting.
I feel so much better about confessing more often, thanks!
 
paperwight66 said:
Hmmm… Assuming that weekly confession is being held up as the ideal, a little calculation.

Our two priests are looking after 1800 parishioners. If each of those parishioners went to confession weekly, and took only two minutes each, that would come to 3600 minutes, i.e.60 hours in the confessional. If they only took one minute (hardly feasible) it would still come to 30 hours. I honestly don’t think the average priest has that time to use per week.

Venial sins are forgiven in many ways, as has been stated. Although it can be comforting to hear the words spoken one-to-one, it surely shows more faith in God and His church to accept forgiveness less directly, as part of the congregation at Mass, for instance.
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Your math assumes that every parishioner is going to actually go to confession weekly. That’ll never happen, and using this kind of calculation to discourage people is a bit, well, silly, don’t you think? We don’t go to confession to hear the words spoken one-to-one, we go for the sacramental grace. Sorry, but you just don’t get that sacramental grace anywhere but in the sacrament. I think that it shows faith in the sacramental economy that God set up for us to accept the grace offered in the sacraments.

Each person needs to find their own balance. For the new Catholic, I would suggest starting with once every two or three weeks, perhaps four. You’ll know pretty soon if you need to go more or less. I go every two weeks, sometimes every week, because I need the grace of the sacrament.

I’m also going to predict that long lines for confession will cause holy priests to jump for joy, and add more confession times. Ours did just that, and is getting ready to add another weekday evening. A holy priest isn’t wondering “has that guy been twice this month, why’s he taking up my time?” He’s thinking “another soul returned to Christ, alleluia!”
 
Go as often as you need to (i.e., as often as you commit mortal sin). Because confession is itself a source of sacramental grace, I recommend going at least once or twice a month. I go every two weeks, minimum. There are bad times where I might feel the need to go more often than that, but the longest I’ve ever gone without confession, I think, is three weeks. For some reason I cannot bear to be without the sacraments much longer than that.
 
Going as often as I need to seems right to me thanks.
I so look forward to the sacraments! Although a bit nervous lol
 
Go to Confession any time you sin as soon as you reasonably can. Otherwise don’t be receiving Communion. Worst thing you can do is desecrate the Lord by receiving Him unworthily with mortal sin weighing on your soul. Every time I go to Confession I see so few people going, yet there are so many receiving Communion. I have a hard time believing that 100% of these people went to Confession at an earlier time or simply haven’t mortally sinned. Not saying that’s not true for many of them. But “all” of them is a stretch given mankinds fallen nature. Hopefully I’m just being cynical. I hate thinking of people arrogantly receiving the Lord if they know they are in a state of mortal sin.
 
paperwight66 said:
Venial sins are forgiven in many ways, as has been stated. Although it can be comforting to hear the words spoken one-to-one, it surely shows more faith in God and His church to accept forgiveness less directly, as part of the congregation at Mass, for instance.
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This is the part that confuses me. Assuming one goes to confession once a month and has only venial sins to confess, does he confess all the venial sins he committed since the last time he went confession (the previous month) or only the venial sins he committed since the last mass where he received forgiveness less directly?

I asked a similar question in the “Ask an Apologist” section several few weeks ago but there has been no answer; forgive me if it ever turns up there in the future!

Anyway, my parish in Tokyo does not seem to encourage confessions more than the required times each year, and I was wondering if I should be a pest and request the priest to hear my confessions on a monthly basis. However, that notion has been put on the back burner because our English speaking priest has left Japan, and we only have one overworked priest who speaks only Japanese.
 
paperwight66 said:
To clarify (see Canon Law 989).
Confession once a year is not a blanket requirement for all. Confession is only required for mortal sins. If a person is not conscious of having committed mortal sin, they are not required to go to confession.
However, confessing venial sins is highly recommended,
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Well yearly confession is one of the precepts of the Church, even though Canon Law is as you have stated.

As for me, I go to confession about every 2 or 3 weeks, unless I am in need of more frequent confession. I find that frequent confession helps keep me away from mortal sin and so I am less likely to fall into sins of concupiscence. And if I do sin gravely I strive to get to confession within 48 hours.
 
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