Keeping track of things to confess between visits

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mrsdizzyd

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I’m just curious about how (if?) people keep track of what they want to/need to confess between visits.

I’m not necessarily talking about mortal sins only. I’m talking about anything venial or devotional as well.

Thanks.
 
I use a confession app that lists sins (pertaining to each Commandment) and you check off which apply. It also allows for one to add their own and keeps track of the last confession date. As I am new to confession, I find it very useful.
 
Many people seem to keep a written list, and then destroy it afterward. A small spiral notepad would work. No need to write great detail, just something that would prompt you to remember.
 
I think keeping a list is counterproductive as it keeps the focus on sin. If I were to keep a list I would list good works. I have little trouble thinking of a few venial sins to confess. Again I feel no need to list every venial sin. I try to focus on one or two venial sins and try to do better on them again with my main focus on good works. I feel the grace from good works helps me gradually to be less sinful!
 
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I use an app sometimes called ConfessIt. It’s free for android. It’s decent enough.

You basically work your way through the 10 commandments, and the precepts of the church checking off what sins you committed. This is the Examination phase. Next is the Sins phase where you review what sins you checked. Finally there is the Walkthrough phase which simulates how a confession containing the sins you selected would play out in the confessional. You could conceivably read it like a script from your phone to the priest.

The app gives you the ability to save your session and assign a password to it to keep your sins safe from prying eyes if God forbid you should lose your phone. It’s a neat app.

Having said all that I usually just write my sins down on a piece of notebook paper in pencil.
 
I have an Examination of Conscience pamphlet that I make check marks and notes on, and also keep a notebook. I destroy both the pamphlets and those pages of my notebook once I’ve been to Confession.
 
I agree. The priest at my former parish, (we unfortunately had to move out of state), actually discourages confessing from a list. He said that if you spend some more time praying and reflecting, you’ll find the underlying causes of your sins.

As an example, I once confessed that the stress I’d been under was making me snippy and impatient with others, and as a result, it was causing a lot of hurt. But I didn’t go down a list of every hurtful remark I made and regretted.
 
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I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me and to guide the priest.
The great note-keeper and carefully-organized person in my family is my husband. I’m fluffier-minded.
I figure if I do something wrong, I know about it. It makes me miserable if I hurt anyone. I’m more likely to offend by mistaken goodwill, which makes one feel terrible anyway. I go into overdrive trying to fix it. I don’t think we sin deliberately or willfully very often. There is sin, and there are the tendencies for sinfulness. We all have the latter, with some tendencies harder to overcome than others.
 
“For these sins, and any sins which I have forgotten, I ask the Lord’s pardon.”

One of the best rules of life is to know yourself. It is more important to know yourself than it is to know God. First of all, God is a mystery, but you are certainly knowable. Thus, being aware of those things which you routinely confess bescause you routinely commit them, you have a good idea of what to mention. If you unintentionally confess more sins than you committed, the Lord would rather hear that than a confession with sins omitted.
 
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PatK63 said:
I think keeping a list is counterproductive as it keeps the focus on sin.
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blackforest said:
I agree. The priest at my former parish, (we unfortunately had to move out of state), actually discourages confessing from a list. He said that if you spend some more time praying and reflecting, you’ll find the underlying causes of your sins.
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Interesting perspectives. Thank you. I do try to focus on root causes. I say those first. I do still like a bit of specificity though, so I like to list out some examples. So far, my priest hasn’t complained.

I’ve been making notes to myself in a locked document on my phone, but something feels a bit odd about doing it this way. That’s why I asked folks.
 
I keep a notebook and try to write things down. I have a short memory. It helps to write it down.
 
That’s kind of how I feel about it.

I do know people who find it very helpful to make a list. And I always bring it up as a suggestion to people who are nervous about making their 1st Confession because I can see how it would be helpful. But for me, I would find it distracting. Plus I’d be worried about losing the list. 😝
 
I recommend writing your sins down or using a confession app. I know a list would be helpful in the confessional, you don’t want to forget anything like I did.
 
I couldn’t find that for iPhone. Doing a nightly examan helps to know our sins, especially when working on root defects.
 
I use the app iConfess. It’s a little buggy but does allow me to create a list of sins to confess and it’s password protected
 
Instead of focusing on the negative by keeping a running tally of bad stuff - you could also just let it go…

Do an examen prayer for a half an hour before the confession… and then confess what you could remember… and, since you’d be deliberately intending to forget something, you could explain that you are sorry for anything you forgot and missed - perhaps even explaining why you would want to forget a lot of the lesser stuff…

I know that method may not appeal to some people, but, while I love confession perhaps as much as communion, I try to leave room to focus as much as I can in acting upon a positive expression of the virtues… because there is a positive side to our religion that scruples can hinder…

btw, if you are going to mass, you dont have to go to confession for venial sins, since Priests have told me the Confiteor will cover venial sins…

The advantage is, if you can get away with just confessing at the Confeteor, then you can save room for someone else in the confession line…

No kidding… Some people do need more time at confession, but, then, some scrupulous people, who actually just want Spiritual Direction (which is different than confession), may take up a lot of time, when they could just say the Confiteor and then see the Priest at a more appropriate time for Spiritual Direction…

I’m not trying to dissuade you from confessing or receiving a sacrament… just urging you to look at the positives… so you can receive all in the right way and for the right reason…
 
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