?Making up sins?

[Rebelecka]

Has anybody got any real explaination for this one? I have talked to “cradle Catholics” who think the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so “stupid.” They comment that they have to “make up sins to confess.” This usually occured when they were kids, because as adults, they just don’t go to confession. I am an adult convert so I’m wondering if being a kid and a Catholic is what makes the difference. I certainly never need to “make up” sins!

 

[Joannm]

I don’t know about making up sins, but most kids, when I was a kid, had to go to confession every Saturday (so said the nuns) so we basically had a standard list that we repeated each and every week. SOmetimes we would make up the number of times for variety since who remembered how many times you “got mad at my brother.” WIth my brothers it was probably about 10 times a day. They loved to taunt me.

 

[Belle10]

I’m a cradle Catholic and I can tell you I’ve never had to make up sins.

I didn’t go to confession very often as a kid, but I’m making a point to now as an adult.

It’s a shame they aren’t going to confession as adults – they’re missing out on receiving forgiveness and grace from Jesus. How sad.

 

[puzzleannie]

Has anybody got any real explaination for this one? I have talked to “cradle Catholics” who think the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so “stupid.” They comment that they have to “make up sins to confess.” This usually occured when they were kids, because as adults, they just don’t go to confession. I am an adult convert so I’m wondering if being a kid and a Catholic is what makes the difference. I certainly never need to “make up” sins!

it usually means, as you rightly suspect, that one’s spiritual growth is stagnant and remains at an elementary school level, largely because one has not had frequent recourse to the sacraments during the years of maturation. So they still examine their conciences, if at all, by the standards of a 7 yrs old child, rather than as an adult. they never formed a habit of daily examination and contrition for sins, and quite likely may be in denial about an area of grave sinful habit in their lives. it is a form of spiritual dishonesty.

 

[Miserissima]

…quite likely may be in denial about an area of grave sinful habit in their lives. it is a form of spiritual dishonesty.

As usual, puzzleannie, you’ve hit the nail on the head with your post. But I take exception to your last statement. I truly believe that if someone is ignorant of the fruits of the Sacrament, they don’t know any better. I don’t think there is intentional denial, just gross ignorance.

Poor catechesis again!

Perhas they haven’t had proper guidance in adulthood, which may or may not leave them culpable according to the (true) contrition in their hearts for their sins. And I applaud those who make the effort to confess, even on a childish level.

I understand that these folks have an obligation to educate themselves (or listen to others) as they mature, and as it’s our job “To instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, and admonish sinners” under the Spiritual Works of Mercy, how does one do so tactfully?

How does one approach someone in a spirit of Christian charity? All I can think of is that one can place “cheat sheets” outside of the confessional which not only includes the formula of Confession, but also attach to it a more mature examination of conscience.

On the other hand, we’re on the outside almost looking in to one’s confession to the priest, which I think is a no-no. If they’re immature, perhaps a word to the pastor may be in order, in that he might address it during the homily (since it IS Lent and a time for reconciliation).

 

[MarieVeronica]

Has anybody got any real explaination for this one? I have talked to “cradle Catholics” who think the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so “stupid.” They comment that they have to “make up sins to confess.” This usually occured when they were kids, because as adults, they just don’t go to confession. I am an adult convert so I’m wondering if being a kid and a Catholic is what makes the difference. I certainly never need to “make up” sins!

I have an opinion on where this might be coming from. I remember when I was a child, and we were being prepared for our first Confessions; one of the well-meaning teachers gave us suggestions on how we might confess our sins. She said… “you might say… Father, I stole cookies from the cookie jar”. I don’t think that her “method” was a good preparation for my class. When I had my first confession… I said what the teacher proposed… “Father, I stole cookies from the cookie jar”… even though, I had not done this.

The point I’m trying to make… is that I don’t know if children are being taught how to make a good Examination of Conscience before Confession. And then, they grow up… not knowing how? This might account for the number of Adult Catholics out there, who claim “I don’t sin”. NONE of us are “without sin”!

It is SO important for all Catholics to know how to make a good Examination of Conscience. If we are prepared well by our teachers on HOW to make a good Examination of Conscience… it will follow, that we will also make a GOOD CONFESSION. Parents, if you’re not sure that your kids are being taught how to make a good Examination of Conscience, you might want to make sure of it… yourself; Teach them how, at home. Here is a link that might be helpful. God bless.

scborromeo.org/confess.htm

 

[InLight247]

1 John 1:8 - 10
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

We are all sinners. If a sinner thinks he has no sin and has to make up sins to confess in order to go through the formality, there is a problem. The problem could either be the ignorance of proper way to examine one’s conscience or the sin of pride.

As time goes by and one matures, one doesn’t sin as before.
Or I should say, for a person who consistently strives for holiness, he or she will not sin much.
But that does not mean that person has no sin to confess. All the Saints go to confession often.

For a spiritually advanced person, a venial sin, though far less serious than a mortal one, can never be taken lightly. Because of the close relationship with the Lord, and the person’s full knowledge of the standard of holiness, a venial sin or an imperfection for an advanced person will be confessed sincerely. No one will run out of sins to confess wherever he is on his spiritual journey.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I went to Catholic School and taught by nuns, before Vatican II.

Thanks to the nuns, we had no need of making up sins, we were well informed about the sins we committed.

Jim

 

[jmcrae]

Has anybody got any real explaination for this one? I have talked to “cradle Catholics” who think the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so “stupid.” They comment that they have to “make up sins to confess.” This usually occured when they were kids, because as adults, they just don’t go to confession. I am an adult convert so I’m wondering if being a kid and a Catholic is what makes the difference. I certainly never need to “make up” sins!

I have heard this too. I put them into the same category as people who claim that they were never taught to spell, or weren’t required to know the multiplication tables. I think ( don’t say), you might not have learned those things, but opportunities to learn them were certainly present, and if you got through without actually learning them, it’s because you had a compensating skill or work-around for situations that would have normally required these skills - it’s not because your teacher didn’t care.

When I was teaching First Reconciliation last fall, the examples I used when demonstrating the formula for the ritual were taken from the poem “Jabberwocky,” so that, if any of the kids came under the impression that they were supposed to say exactly what I was saying in the example, the priest would be alerted straight away that something was not quite right.

Of course, I have no way of knowing whether anything like that happened.

 

[JRKH]

Has anybody got any real explaination for this one? I have talked to “cradle Catholics” who think the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so “stupid.” They comment that they have to “make up sins to confess.” This usually occured when they were kids, because as adults, they just don’t go to confession. I am an adult convert so I’m wondering if being a kid and a Catholic is what makes the difference. I certainly never need to “make up” sins!

I am a cradle catholic - Revert and I never thought that going to confession was “Stupid”. If I had, that would have been the first sin I would need to confess.

I remember watching a “Journey Home” program on EWTN a while back that touched on this. The guest was a former Anglican priest who converted to RC and became a RC priest. what I gleaned from the discussion was this.
In the Anglican Church Confession isn’t a requirement so those that do use it are quite serious about it. Also they don’t confess in the same way that catholics are taught to. They don’t confess how many times they did this or that, but rather look for the underlying causes for the various sins and confess/discuss those with their confessor. As a matter of fact, according to this priest, occasionally he would get a catholic who would mistakenly come into the Anglican Church and go to confession. He could always tell they we catholic because of the way the confessed -they always had their list of offenses.

The upshot of this conversation was that we - as catholics are taught to go to confession in a certain way when we are in the 2nd or 3rd grade, and we never grow past that regimen. So as we get older, and we understand our sins more (at least hopefully) it can seem silly to go in time after time and just list off our infractions. Obviously, if we give some thought to these infractions we would find more serious root causes that our confessor could help us with.

Peace
James

 

[Miserissima]

The upshot of this conversation was that we - as catholics are taught to go to confession in a certain way when we are in the 2nd or 3rd grade, and we never grow past that regimen.

Oh my…yes, there was a group of us “mischief makers” in the same class who would suddenly need to go to Father’s office and “confess” before a test or gym class…I don’t recall making up sins, but I do remember confessing the venial ones.

Especially before First Friday Mass, we were serious about not receiving the Eucharist with mortal sins (i.e. I stole my mother’s lipstick or something we knew was wrong) we’d have to leave class to go to confession.