I forgot if I confessed it verbally

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neutrafacex64

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Hi! I just had confession, and I felt good afterwards. Yet, after an hour a “What-If” thought came: What if I wasn’t able to say my last sin?

Here’s the context. After a diligent examination of conscience, I was able to list down my sins that I could possibly remember, with no intention of withholding some. Then, when I got into confession, I used my list to recite my sins to the priest, but now I am not certain that I said the last one on the list!

What I could remember, however, were the facts that (1) I wasn’t able to say “That’s all I can remember”—which was the last note on my list; (2) I didn’t had this “what-if” thought after my confession; it just occured to me an hour after the confession while overthinking; and (3) I’m certain that I did not intend to hide any sin that I could remember while both doing examination of conscience and in the actual reciting of my sins.

Yet, now I’m just thinking that did I just make an invalid confession? Or is this me being scrupulous?
 
Sounds like scrupulosity. However, know that forgetting to mention a sin doesn’t invalidate your confession. If the priest absolved you have trust in that. Just mention the forgotten sin in your next confession.

If you’ve been given other instructions by a priest in the past, say for dealing with scrupulosity, take your priest’s advice instead.
 
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The devil is putting such thoughts in your mind. You went into the confessional with the intention of confessing all your sins. There’s a good chance you did confess all your sins. Be at peace.
 
To quote a priest who is a member here @edward_george1

"If you’ve been to confession since then, it’s already forgiven, since it’s doubtful you chose to withhold it.

The best thing to do is to stop asking these kinds of questions on the internet. That won’t help you. It’ll only make you second guess more. Mention it at your next confession, but don’t worry about it.

-Fr ACEGC"
 
Thank you so much for your reply. I am teary-eyed after reading this as it gave me the peace of mind that I needed. God bless you!
 
Our God is a God of justice… but also of mercy. God isn’t sitting around waiting to play a game of “gotcha!” with us and our sins.

The devil, on the other hand, is always trying to find the loophole, the “gotcha!” to make us doubt not only ourselves, but also to doubt God’s love and mercy. The devil always wants us to feel that our efforts are fruitless and that we are never good enough for God. Despair and doubt are the devil’s favorite tools.

Look at the divine mercy image, and say “Jesus, I trust in you” and trust in the gift of the sacrament of reconciliation that He left us.
 
As a person who suffers from awful scrupulosity and often over-analyzes confessions after the fact and gets worked up about them, I can say this sounds to me like scrupulosity.

One of the rules of the scrupulous is do not confess doubtful sins—and this is a doubtful sin. According to many old moral theology texts, the scrupulous person can decide in his or her own favor when there is a doubt whether an action was performed properly, etc.

This post reminds me of many post confession experiences, where immediately afterward I do my penance and am good, but then later little doubts creep into my head and soon I am trying to recall every detail of the confession to analyze it and trying to decide if I need to go back in the box…

It is a miserable cycle. Stay strong, decide this doubt in your favor that you did everything you were supposed to do, and leave it in God’s hands.
 
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I also tend to be scrupulous and it was making me miserable. I found a small booklet in electronic form online by Fr. William Doyle, S.J. titled “Scruples and Their Treatment”. It rather helped me a lot. As was mentioned if you have a chink in your emotional or spiritual armor, the devil knows just how to exploit it.
 
Consequently, on leaving the confessional, let the scrupulous soul observe the two
following directions:
  1. To refrain from any examination under any pretext whatsoever, either as to
    the confession itself, or any of its accompanying acts, such as preparation, contrition,
    etc.
  2. In spite of the “gravest reasons” he may have for suspecting the validity of his
    confession, contrition, etc., once he is not as evidently certain as he is that two and
    two make four, that this sacrament was unworthily received, he must boldly decide,
    and this without examination, that his confession was entirely good in spite of
    contrary impressions.
 
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