Mortal sin again before penance completed

[CrimsonCatholic]

Hello,

I have really important question to me.

How do I go about this. I received a penance from my last confession, before I could complete it, I had committed another Mortal Sin.

Do I still continue to finish my penance, and than confess my sin, or is the penance no longer valid?

I am kind of lost on this. Please help!

Thank you!

 

[Bookcat]

Hello,

I have really important question to me.

How do I go about this. I received a penance from my last confession, before I could complete it, I had committed another Mortal Sin.

Do I still continue to finish my penance, and than confess my sin, or is the penance no longer valid?

I am kind of lost on this. Please help!

Thank you!

You may do the penance at any time.

You can go to confession again anytime too.

(You can mention if you want that you had not completed it… in the confession)

Do not wait…get thee to a Priest

(and make an act of perfect contrition now in the meantime)

 

[jmjconder]

Hello,

I have really important question to me.

How do I go about this. I received a penance from my last confession, before I could complete it, I had committed another Mortal Sin.

Do I still continue to finish my penance, and than confess my sin, or is the penance no longer valid?

I am kind of lost on this. Please help!

Thank you!

This is a moot question. If you had already committed another mortal sin prior to your penance you are still cut off from God. You did not give the penance an opportunity to restore your relationship with God…so the penance given to you had no opportunity for you to receive sanctifying grace since you committed another moral sin prior to the grace of the Sacrament to restore your relationship with God. You are still in the state of mortal sin - cutting yourself off from God loving mercy.

If you committed the same mortal sin that you had just confessed - an integral piece of penance is to commit to not repeating the sin again. We are all human and in the case of venial sins it is more difficult. However in the case of a mortal sin it is one of the parts of being absolved - you voice the promise to sin no more.

I promise prayers for you and rejoice at your honesty and willingness to admit your own struggles.

 

[Bookcat]

This is a moot question. If you had already committed another mortal sin prior to your penance you are still cut off from God. You did not give the penance an opportunity to restore your relationship with God…so the penance given to you had no opportunity for you to receive sanctifying grace since you committed another moral sin prior to the grace of the Sacrament to restore your relationship with God. You are still in the state of mortal sin - cutting yourself off from God loving mercy.

If you committed the same mortal sin that you had just confessed - an integral piece of penance is to commit to not repeating the sin again. We are all human and in the case of venial sins it is more difficult. However in the case of a mortal sin it is one of the parts of being absolved - you voice the promise to sin no more.

The fact that he committed a mortal sin again…does not mean he did was not restored to the state of sanctifying grace…such happened when he was sorry for his sins…confessed them (number and kind) and was absolved…

Yes one needs a firm purpose of amendment (to not commit mortal sins …in particular here)…but the fact that he fell again does not mean per se that he did not have such…

However he should mention I would suggest that fact of his falling so soon …to the Priest…in the upcoming confession.

 

[CrimsonCatholic]

Thank you for both of the replies!

I feel so horrible. The earliest I can get to a priest is Saturday. I am so fusterated with myself beyond reason. Very disappointed with myself!

You both helped me out so much. I know I am human, we sin. It is just so painful when you try so hard to repent, and correct, and you fall into the same sin. This is so painful!

 

[jtodisco]

Thank you for both of the replies!

I feel so horrible. The earliest I can get to a priest is Saturday. I am so fusterated with myself beyond reason. Very disappointed with myself!

You both helped me out so much. I know I am human, we sin. It is just so painful when you try so hard to repent, and correct, and you fall into the same sin. This is so painful!

CrimsonCatholic, though you should certainly feel sorry for what you’ve done you shouldn’t be excessively hard on yourself. I’ve had more than one confessor warn me against dwelling too much on sins committed prior to going to confession because they claim that by doing so we are spending time thinking about sin when we could be thinking of God and also because this is often a sign of wounded pride rather than true contrition. We run the risk of finding ourselves more upset by the fact that we aren’t perfect than by the fact that we’ve offended God.

Also, when people become slaves to particular sins and these sins become habitual it can be extremely difficult to break free. I know of people who have been in the same situation you are describing and my advice would be to make the act of penance prescribed to you by the priest anyway. Why? Because you agreed to do so when you received this penance from the priest in the confessional. It will still have value in the eyes of God as regards the sins you previously committed.

As for whether or not you were in a state of grace prior to when you committed this mortal sin after being absolved in the confessional, this is a bit of a silly question. *You received absolution when you confessed your sins to the priest and were sincere in your contrition *(even if it was only imperfect contrition, though perfect contrition is obviously preferable). Doing the act of penance a priest prescribes is not was gains your forgiveness from God and places you in a state of grace. That forgiveness and sanctifying grace took place when you made an honest confession, the penance is meant to help you make reparation for the temporal punishments still attached to the sins you’ve committed and to show your sincerity.

In short, listen to Bookcat not jmjconder.

 

[Bookcat]

Thank you for both of the replies!

I feel so horrible. The earliest I can get to a priest is Saturday. I am so fusterated with myself beyond reason. Very disappointed with myself!

You both helped me out so much. I know I am human, we sin. It is just so painful when you try so hard to repent, and correct, and you fall into the same sin. This is so painful!

your welcome…

make and act of perfect contrition…and pray “Jesus Good Shepherd…come for your sheep”…he loves you.

and one can call any Priest…one need not wait til scheduled confession…

 

[Brooke449]

This is a moot question. If you had already committed another mortal sin prior to your penance you are still cut off from God. You did not give the penance an opportunity to restore your relationship with God…so the penance given to you had no opportunity for you to receive sanctifying grace since you committed another moral sin prior to the grace of the Sacrament to restore your relationship with God. You are still in the state of mortal sin - cutting yourself off from God loving mercy.

If you committed the same mortal sin that you had just confessed - an integral piece of penance is to commit to not repeating the sin again. We are all human and in the case of venial sins it is more difficult. However in the case of a mortal sin it is one of the parts of being absolved - you voice the promise to sin no more.

I promise prayers for you and rejoice at your honesty and willingness to admit your own struggles.

You are wrong. The penitent was absolved of his sins and forgiven before when the priest gave him the sacrament of reconciliation. Penance is not required for absolution.

 

[Maureen1125]

Absolution restored you to a state of grace, failure to do you penance has no effect of that. Penance is to be done as soon as possible, but sometimes it can not be helped but be delayed. I was once given the penance to spend time in Adoration…as Adoration is only offered 1x a month at my parish, I really had no choice but to wait and obviously was at risk of sinning again in the intrim. Still complete you penance when you can, but you also need to return to confession.

The beauty of our faith is that God’s forgiveness is infinite and while you stumbled and fell - just as Jesus did under his cross - you got back up and you are willing to work hard and continue to struggle with your own cross.

 

[jmjconder]

**Each Sacrament needs valid form and matter. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation the valid form is absolution (priest).

The valid matter concerns the penitent and has three acts. They are contrition, confession, and satisfaction (CCC1450). These acts are called the matter of the sacrament.

There was valid form * however there was invalid matter.*

 

[Bookcat]

**
There was *valid form *** however there was invalid matter.

Your conclusion here is in correct as I have explained above.

 

[jmjconder]

The fact that he committed a mortal sin again…does not mean he did was not restored to the state of sanctifying grace…such happened when he was sorry for his sins…confessed them (number and kind) and was absolved…

Yes one needs a firm purpose of amendment (to not commit mortal sins …in particular here)…but the fact that he fell again does not mean per se that he did not have such…

However he should mention I would suggest that fact of his falling so soon …to the Priest…in the upcoming confession.

**

I disagree with your statement:

“The fact that he committed a mortal sin again…does not mean he did was not restored to the state of sanctifying grace…such happened when he was sorry for his sins…confessed them (number and kind) and was absolved…”**

The two part of a valid sacrament were not met. The sacrament was not valid. Not sure why we who are feverent Catholics arguing about semantics. The only charitable answer would be for the OP to get back to the Sacrament now…not to rely upon an act of “perfect” contrition.

As I have read and studied the faith I know I would not assume any mortal sin to fully forgiven until matter and form are valid and honored. When we are commenting on the state of one’s soul it is always better to error on the side of caution…

Many posts seem to be responded from the point of who is right and who is wrong. In this case we have one person whose soul is hurting.

CrimsonCatholic please receive the Sacaremetn today and not read any more of these conflictint post on the state of your soul. I will pray extra for you and your desire to be in union with God our Father.

 

[Bookcat]

**

I disagree with your statement:

“The fact that he committed a mortal sin again…does not mean he did was not restored to the state of sanctifying grace…such happened when he was sorry for his sins…confessed them (number and kind) and was absolved…”**

The two part of a valid sacrament were not met. The sacrament was not valid. Not sure why we who are feverent Catholics arguing about semantics. The only charitable answer would be for the OP to get back to the Sacrament now…not to rely upon an act of “perfect” contrition.

The fact that he did not yet do his penance…does not effect the validity of the Sacrament. He accepted the penance and intended to do it.

At the moment of absolution (presuming he was contrite etc) he was restored to the State of Grace. And hence he could go directly to Holy Communion. It does not happen when he does his penance…

Such is the long understanding within the Catholic Church.

I have a degree in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville and have studied well the Sacraments (to the praise of my Dominican Professor…)

That said…the fact that he has since fallen into mortal sin…of course means he needs to go again to Confession (I went into more detail above).