How Would You Describe Your Most Common Disposition at the Moment You Step out of the Confessional?

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  • Relieved/ Unburdened?
  • Grateful
  • Ashamed
  • Pensive/Lost in Thought?
  • Determined to Go and Sin No More
  • Teary-Eyed?
  • Really Happy
  • None of the Above
 
Hmmm…I wish this was a multiple choice poll, I would have chosen “really happy, unburdened/relieved, and grateful.”
 
I don’t feel unburdened, remaining temporal punishment due to sin and all, but I feel ready to commit to a life of penance and to keep myself from near occasion of sin.
 
anp1215 said:
Hmmm…I wish this was a multiple choice poll, I would have chosen “really happy, unburdened/relieved, and grateful.”
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Yeah. I forgot multiple choice was an option.

I chose relieved/unburdened, but sometimes I feel ashamed, especially if it is for a repetitive sin. And then I determine to not go in for the same thing again. Kind of like I can’t believe I had to go to confession for this thing again.

So if the poll was multiple choice, I would select three things. 🙂
 
All of those except ashamed, all at once. It is rare for me to leave the confessional without tears of gratitude and relief in my eyes. I voted “grateful” because that might be the uppermost emotion I feel. How people live without the grace of absolution, I cannot imagine. Well, I lived without it for over 20 years, but I took a huge risk of ending up in hell if I had died during that time.
 
For me, I most often feel:

Relieved/ Unburdened
Grateful
Teary-Eyed
Really Happy
 
It really depends on how I felt going in. If I was tortured going in, I come out feeling unburdened. If it was a typical day though, I come out focused on not forgetting to say my penance well before I leave the building. Also, because I am who I am, I will often come out replaying what I said on some irritating loop until I manage to make it stop. Thats just my life burden.
 
I put relieved/unburdened, but I guess it depends what I went in for, and my emotional state at the time.

Often too I go in without hope but thanks to a wonderful confessor, come out full of hope.

He can be pretty amusing; he’s over 80 and a Benedictine monk, once I went in, mentioned my sin, and we got sidetracked on a discussion about faith, prayer, etc., then at the end he went “umm, was there something you mentioned for which you need absolution?”; then I repeated the sin and he went “oh, right, forgot!” and absolved me. Once we got onto the topic of acedia and I clearly struck a cord (it’s an issue with monks), and when I left I realized he forgot to absolve me (I thought that’s what I was suffering from), but he did talk at length about how monks deal with it.
 
Seldom do I feel unburdened/relieved, although I think that’s the most common with many people. Usually, I am grateful that we have access to such an awesome sacrament and grateful for a wonderful confessor and grateful for a merciful God who does not deal with us as we deserve.
 
I’m usually concentrating on what my penance is and finding a pew to complete it.
 
I would say most of the above all at the same time. Most of all, I feel alive. 🙂
 
definitely: Relieved/ Unburdened
also: Grateful
and: Determined to Go and Sin No More
sometimes:Teary-Eyed
always :Really Happy 😃
 
Just basically grateful for a grace that’s been lovingly given that I don’t deserve, that I’m meant to trust.

By the way, I also think this was a really good idea for a poll. 🙂
 
I chose “none of the above”, because my most overriding feeling upon being absolved and leaving the Confessional is “Peaceful”, especially if there was a mortal sin weighing on my conscience beforehand.

“Unburdened” is close, but what I typically feel is deeper than that, I suppose. I used to have a great fear of death, until God gave me the grace and courage to start making full, 100% honest Confessions. The peace that comes from being unafraid is…well, it’s what makes life worth living, for me.
 
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