MERGED: Do you ALWAYS confess EVERYTHING?/What to confess?

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I try to confess everything I remember. Someone once told me a good practice is to confess the embarrasing things first, so that you get them out of the way and everything else seems easy.
 
I have found that confessing sins anonymously,as opposed to face to face,I am less nervous and able to make a complete confession. I have been going more frequently and have begun to look forward to this Sacrement and the peace I feel afterwards.😉
 
DaveBj said:
I spill everything. Better to be embarrassed now in the confessional than to hear “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity” from the Throne.
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Exactly.
I personally like face to face.
 
Jeanne_S said:
I have found that confessing sins anonymously,as opposed to face to face,I am less nervous and able to make a complete confession. I have been going more frequently and have begun to look forward to this Sacrement and the peace I feel afterwards.😉
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I divide my confessions between the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (traditional confessionals) and our parish (option of screen or face-to-face). I always go face-to-face with Father Patrick. He is a retired Army colonel; I seriously doubt that there’s anything he hasn’t heard before 😛
 
When I converted and I had to give my first confession I asked the priest that. He said not to be embarrassed because he has heard it all and he forgets right away. He also said he only concerned with getting your soul right. So let it all out and be totally clean…at least for a little while:o
 
When I converted and I had to give my first confession I asked the priest that. He said not to be embarrassed because he has heard it all and he forgets right away. He also said he only concerned with getting your soul right. So let it all out and be totally clean…at least for a little while:o
 
fakename said:
The latter things are not types of penances are they?
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Sure prayer can be penance etc …but it is not that one is simply “doing penance” for the effects of sin --one is seeking forgiveness (which yes it is true comes too under penance).
 
CCC

1458 Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church.59 Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the gift of the Father’s mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is merciful
 
Bookcat said:
Sure prayer can be penance etc …but it is not that one is simply “doing penance” for the effects of sin --one is seeking forgiveness (which yes it is true comes too under penance).
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So one’s can both perform penance and have one’s venial sins forgiven by the same act (prayer)?

And one’s acting to get forgiveness through prayer (since such prayers forgive such sins) is itself a penance?
 
fakename said:
So one’s can both perform penance and have one’s venial sins forgiven by the same act (prayer)?

And one’s acting to get forgiveness through prayer (since such prayers forgive such sins) is itself a penance?
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Yes…but remember it may take more penance than the prayer by which one may be forgiven the venial sin …to remove the temporal effects of ones sins.
 
JohnnyK said:
if you knowingly do not confess all of your sins, you have just added another sin (mortal)
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You forgot a word for clarity

if you knowingly do not confess all of your mortal sins, you have just added another sin (mortal)
 
I don’t see the point of confessing, if I’m not going to include everything. However, we don’t need to give many details. If I’m confessing to gossiping about my co-workers, I don’t need to say exactly who or what about, or count up every single conversation. I can say “I’ve gossiped about several co-workers every week this month.” If my priest needs me to be more specific, he will ask. Usually he doesn’t.
 
AlwaysCurious said:
I remember reading a book when I first became Catholic that encouraged penitents, when it comes to venial sins, to only confess a handful that he/she is seriously devoted to overcoming. In this way, assisted by God’s sacramental grace in the confessional, you make steady progress against certain sins until they are much less of a problem, or even non-existent. Then you focus on yet another sin or two to overcome. In this way you steadily grow in holiness…overcoming one or two persistent sins at a time. Ideally this growth also helps you to identify more areas in your life where sin may exist that you didn’t recognize before.

But if you confess every single venial sin you can think of, every time you go to the confessional, so the logic goes, you are less likely to really make any headway against any of them in the future. Then time passes, and you come back to confess the same laundry list that you made no progress with. And then you get bored and frustrated with the whole process.

Personally I’ve taken a halfway approach and confessed more than I was probably willing to really focus on, but not every single nitty gritty detail I could think of. I’ve made some noticeable progress in some areas, but could be doing much better! Just my :twocents:
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Interesting suggestion. I do have certain sins that, while venial, I would dearly love to be done with. I think I’ll try this and see how it goes!
 
Bookcat said:
One is *obliged *to confess all mortal sins in number and kind (and circumstance that changes things – like it was your brother you murdered!)

(To deliberately hide a mortal sin is a to add the grave sin of sacrilege and invalidates the confession…no sins are absolved…)

So --“no” one may not --if it is Mortal

If one forgets a mortal sin but one was contrite etc and were seeking to confess all ones mortal sins --it is indirectly absolved --but one is obliged to confess it in the next confession (if it is remembered of course…)

Venial sins are recommended to be confessed. They can also be forgiven in many other ways.

(Now I will note that those out there who are scrupulous …they need to a regular confessor and not scruple about confession…)
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This. Bookcat, you should save this post in Word so you can just cut and paste it. It is excellent - clear, complete, to the point!
 
Mrs_Sally said:
I don’t see the point of confessing, if I’m not going to include everything. However, we don’t need to give many details. If I’m confessing to gossiping about my co-workers, I don’t need to say exactly who or what about, or count up every single conversation. I can say “I’ve gossiped about several co-workers every week this month.” If my priest needs me to be more specific, he will ask. Usually he doesn’t.
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Such is fine with venial sins of gossip. One need not even give any number (though one may and it can be good if your focusing in on overcoming that venial sin)

I will note for readers that if one of course committed mortal sins of gossip (detraction for example) then one would confess the number according to what you know. If you know it was 3x you say it was grave detraction against one of my coworkers 3x …though of course if one does not know the exact number for mortal sins one can approximate according to what one does know – it was around 5 or so times…it was several times…it was a couple a few a week for the last month…it was many times…
 
fakename said:
So to summarize: always confess all mortal sins, and it is always better to confess all venial sins but it is not a sin to not want to confess all venial sins?
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Not always better to try to hunt down every venial sin…

It is not sinful in itself to omit venial sins.
 
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