Messing up in confession

[ccc18]

Hi guys!
I can be quite perfectionistic when it comes to confession, I’m working on it!

Anyway, I was wondering if you confess for example: Not paying attention in mass for x amount of days/months/years etc. At the next confession you remember that you looked at your phone a few times in the past. Would this be covered by confessing not paying attention or would you have to confess that separately ( if the phone thing didn’t occur between your two confessions).

On another note, what if you are thinking something, maybe a song gets stuck in your head with not the best lyrics and you realize you keep singing it in your head. Or you just blurt out a thought in your head like “wow now that’s a hot guy!” without really thinking about it. Is that a mortal sin?

I also tend to kind of black out in confession and say the wrong frequency of things…sometimes i correct myself and sometimes i don’t. Usually its the difference between a few and multiple. or a few and many, but not like 5 times and 1000 times. thanks!

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

I have a longer post pending (I assume because I used the word 'd@mn") but I’ll just say you need to discuss scrupulosity with a priest, and your whole understanding of mortal v. venial sin. For example, saying, “Wow, he’s a hot guy” isn’t mortal sin even if you did it very deliberately. It’s not grave matter. If you pulled that guy into an alley and had sex with him, that would be a different story. But simply commenting that someone is attractive is nowhere near grave enough to constitute mortal sin.

 

[pianistclare]

You need to drill it down to
“not properly focusing on the liturgy”.
Period.
What BoomBoom said.

 

[Brendan_64]

If you make a Confession in good faith and you forget sins you had meant to confess or neglect to mention sins you had forgotten at the time then, as a very good priest once said to me, what you forget is forgiven.

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

This sounds like scrupulousity for sure. I’d make an appointment to talk this out with a priest. Not these specific instances, but your whole understanding of sin and confession.

For example, your later two examples (singing a song with off-color lyrics and commenting on a guy being attractive) are almost certainly not mortal sin at all, even if you did it after really thinking about it. Mortal sin requires grave matter, i.e the thing itself has to be serious. Saying someone is hot is not particularly serious. Do you really think you would cut off your relationship with God because you said, " he’s attractive"?

 

[Wolfie]

My friend told me he ends every confession by apologizing for sins he does not know, or has forgotten.

 

[Dlee]

Also, go in with a written list. This helps you with self examination and not having to rely on memory.