How should we dress for the Sacrament of Confession?

[FrancescaMaria]

Aside from modesty for obvious reasons, how should we dress for Confession? I always felt like wearing something simple, plain, penitential, but my daughter recently had her First Reconciliation, and her Catholic school teachers instructed all the kids to dress up in their most beautiful and festive dress to show the importance of the occasion. So, are we supposed to dress up for Confession? Thank you.

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Certain occasions are more dressy than others. At first communion the boys usually wear suits and the girls wear white dresses but we don’t dress like that to receive communion every week. In the same way, asking kids to be all dressed up for their first confession doesn’t necessitate they dress that way for every confession.
Our attire when going to church should always be respectful of the fact that when we are before the tabernacle we are in the presence of God. This doesn’t mean we have to wear our most expensive suit every week but flip flops and muscle shirts are certainly inappropriate.
If we go to confession prior to Mass then our Mass attire would be worn to confession so no need to worry there. If going to confession at another time, we should (if possible) dress appropriately since in the sacrament we do encounter Christ. However there can be reasonable exceptions if going to confession was a last minute occurrence or if the only time we can go to confession is in between other events. God would rather we come to confession in whatever we’re wearing then not come at all because of what we’re wearing…