Misspeaking in Confession

[newbie9]

Recently I went to Confession. Usually I go with a list and did this time as well. I confessed that I played down my faith sometimes acting like it’s something I don’t truly believe in. During confession, I threw in that this was mostly due to shyness. In reality, if anything, it’s due to embarrassment and not really shyness or maybe a combination of both.Neither shyness nor embarrassment was actually on my list (although maybe you could infer embarrassment from my actual sin) so it was an off the cuff addition I didn’t fully think about. I didn’t really correct myself, but have been thinking ever since that maybe I was misleading or something to the point of sinning. \

I went over this a lot in my head (probably too much…) and don’t think it was a sin and convinced myself of that to the point of receiving the Eucharist. Did I do the right thing?

 

[DJgang]

Sorry, I see no problem in your confession. don’t suffer, telling why you sin is not necessary in confession, just part of your own conversion of figuring out why you sin…

Now you know what to pray for.

Are you scrupulous?

 

[jtodisco]

From what you’ve described I’d say you are over-thinking this one. Do not think that the Lord is the God of technicalities. He loves us and wants to absolve us even before we seek His forgiveness. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation if you confess your sins and are contrite (even if it is only imperfect contrition) the Lord will wash you clean of all your sins. There is no need to give a detailed explanantion of why you sinned to the priest (unless he asks) and in fact giving explanations often seems more like a way to give excuses. It may be better for you to simply state the sins you’ve committed next time instead of going into all the reasons behind them. The Lord knows all the reasons better than you do anyway.

The next time you are going to confession I would suggest re-reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I know it’s one everyone knows, but most people seem to be so familiar with the tale that they don’t stop to take full stock of its meaning. Sit down, and slowly read and ponder this beautiful but simple story the Lord tells us about God’s forgiveness. Imagine that the father in the story is God and that the younger son is sinful humanity (or even you individually) realize how far sin takes us from God (into a distant country where we think we will find fulfillment but in actuality find emptiness and spiritual starvation) and that once we realize our error even if it isn’t for entirely disinterested reasons (I’m sure the prodigal son’s groaning stomach played a part in his repentance) that when God sees us turning back to Him that even if we are a long way off He rushes out Himself to embrace us and restores us to being his sons and daughters with such joy that He and Heaven celebrate our return.

There are many other passages in the Bible that are very useful to meditate on before confession of course (i.e. the parable of the good samaritan, the parable of the sheep and the goats, etc.) but this is just one I thought of when reading your post. Hope all my babbling helped you a little.

 

[revert_jen]

I’m generally not a particularly lenient person, but I have to say I see no sin there.

First, it was an accident. You can’t sin by accident.

Second, the difference between shy and embarrassed in this context is very small. One of the things that a shy person feels in public situations is embarrassement. So instead of correctly identifying your problem as being due to the result of shyness, you instead called it shyness. There’s a lot of people out there who probably couldn’t tell the difference.

Third, your mistake wasn’t in relation to the nature of the sin, but to the cause of. it. AFAIK, it’s not even required to state the cause of a sin in confession. It is much more important to describe correctly what you did, rather than why you did it (as jtodisco mentioned).

And let me also mention that shyness and embarrassment are not sins in themselves. They are misfortunes that give us opportunities to overcome our natural tendencies or not. So you were correct to leave them off your list.

God bless you! If that’s all you’ve got, you sould definitely go to Communion tomorrow.

–Jen

 

[AdamC]

I’m not a Catholic, so I’ve never been to confession. BUT, I did read somewhere once that if it’s really bothering you, and you really feel guilty about something, you can mention it next time. The thing I read was about forgetting a sin and accidentally not mentioning it, and it said not to worry, because you’re still forgiven for all your sins, but if you feel you need to, then address it next time.

Again, though, I’m not a Catholic. I don’t know for sure.