How specific should I be during confession?

[The_Scott]

I was wondeirng, how specific should I be when confessing a particular sin? Could I simply say, for example, “I broke the seventh commandment several times,” or should I elaborate more, saying “I stole ___ from ____ once, and then I stole ___ from ____”?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The confessor needs to know what you did. That means he needs necessary details. Those details that are unnecessary, he does not need. In the case of theft, the confessor does need to know that the sin was theft (the seventh commandment is broader than that and could cover a number of sins), what you took, and (generally speaking) from whom. He needs these details to assess how serious the sin was. For example, stealing a cheap baseball card from a friend is a less serious sin than stealing hundreds of dollars from your mother.