Must one "feel" sorrow and sincerity in Confession for the absolution to be valid?

[little_flower_1]

i just went to confession a couple of days ago. my problem is that i have social anxiety, and the moment i enter the confession, my mind goes blank and and i go into a sort of fight or flight state, lol. i e nd up mechanically reciting my sins and the act of contrition. i didn’t have any feelings of remorse or the like, but i have faith that God accepts my confession as is and has restored me to His grace, even if i don’t feel it.

like someone said above, i think the desire to be sorry for our sins, and the intention of not sinning again is good enough. the rest is up to God’s grace. i always ask the Sacred Heart to make up for any imperfections in my confessions.

 

[living_proof]

I’m reading an excellent book by Scott Hahn entitled, “Lord, Have Mercy, The Healing Power of Confession.” I am very moved by this book, and also very terrified. I’m looking for the sentence right now, but I can’'t find it. Anyway, to sum it up, he says that if you do not realize that you have offended God , and are not truly sorry for having offended Him (not just yourself or people in your earhly life) then the confession is not completely forgiven. You have to know and come to terms that you have helped beat the nails into Christ’s wrist, crush the Crown of thorns onto His prescious head, and spear his side with the sword. He died for Our sins and every time we sin, we are responsible for His anguish. We have to be truly sorry for having wounded our Lord. Once we fully understand what we have done, the He will justly forgive us our trespasses. Scott says in his book, “It’s impossible to understand sin unless we first understand grace. We can’t understand what we lose unless we first understand what we have. For grace is what we lose when we sin; and there’s no greater loss we can suffer.”

 

[PMV]

If the confession was invalid would I have to re-confess my sins?

When I went to confession I had the firm purpose of confessing all the sins I could remember, become forgiven and avoid sin afterwards to the best I could. However, I did not “feel” sorrow when saying the act of contrition, I did mean it, and try to please God. Although I did not “feel” the sorrow part, I did have sincerity when basically saying that I intended to sin no more.

Any thoughts about whether my confession was valid or not?

 

[JimG]

Your confession was valid. You do not need to re-confess.
Quit worrying!