Must you tell a priest your sins to be forgiven

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I commited a mortal sin (I didn’t commit something as bad as murder but I still believe it id mortal) anyway after I commited it, i was so ashamed I started praying and I cried, I begged for the Lord’s forgiveness. Am I forgiven by Christ?
 
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Dph:
I commited a mortal sin (I didn’t commit something as bad as murder but I still believe it id mortal) anyway after I commited it, i was so ashamed I started praying and I cried, I begged for the Lord’s forgiveness. Am I forgiven by Christ?
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He has heard your sorrow and is waiting for you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
 
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Dph:
I commited a mortal sin (I didn’t commit something as bad as murder but I still believe it id mortal) anyway after I commited it, i was so ashamed I started praying and I cried, I begged for the Lord’s forgiveness. Am I forgiven by Christ?
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I used to think i didn’t need confession. I figured I could just ask God for forgiveness and that was fine. One day someone gave me some rosary beads and suggested I start praying the Rosary everyday so i did. Soon thereafter I started getting these inner urges to go to confession, so I did. I hadn’t gone in like over 10 years. It was the best experience ever. I go every week now, even if all I have are venial sins. There are few feelings better than walking out of the confessional after receiving absolution. 🙂
 
Jesus is waving you to Him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He wants you to visit Him in this special Sacrament. He loves you that is why He made this Sacrament, go to Him, for the love of Christ go to Him.
 
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Dph:
I commited a mortal sin (I didn’t commit something as bad as murder but I still believe it id mortal) anyway after I commited it, i was so ashamed I started praying and I cried, I begged for the Lord’s forgiveness. Am I forgiven by Christ?
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As I understand it, forgiveness is possible outside of the sacrament. It requires perfect contrition. That is, you are sorry soley out of love for God and not because of fear of punishment or disgust at the nature of the sin.

Perfect contrition of course is difficult to achieve which is one of the reasons for the sacrament. In the sacrament imperfect contrition is sufficient.

Scott
 
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Dph:
I commited a mortal sin (I didn’t commit something as bad as murder but I still believe it id mortal) anyway after I commited it, i was so ashamed I started praying and I cried, I begged for the Lord’s forgiveness. Am I forgiven by Christ?
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I believe that you are ashamed and that you regreted it, but you **must ** go for a confession.

Like Br. Rich SFO told you: **“He has heard your sorrow and is waiting for you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation”. **

If you have problems with confessions, I want to reccomend “Lord have Mercy” by Schott Hahn. That book helped me!

G.Grace
 
Scott Waddell:
As I understand it, forgiveness is possible outside of the sacrament. It requires perfect contrition. That is, you are sorry soley out of love for God and not because of fear of punishment or disgust at the nature of the sin.

Perfect contrition of course is difficult to achieve which is one of the reasons for the sacrament. In the sacrament imperfect contrition is sufficient.

Scott
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You still need to go to confession I believe.
 
In response to your question, I will quote what the Baltimore Catechism has to say on the subject:

“Christ never asked men to confess their sins to Him as He could read their hearts. He could see both their sins and their sorrow. However, He rarely gives the power of reading hearts to priests. He wants people to tell their sins since this humbles that pride which is the root of all sin. If we were to tell our sins to God alone, pride would not be humbled and would remain strong.”

Hope it helps~

Pax Vobiscum

-Stephen
 
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Genesis315:
You still need to go to confession I believe.
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Yes, normatively you do in the sense that you can’t go around saying that you will just work on acheiving perfect contrition. But not in the absolute sense. That is, if you commited a mortal sin, had perfect contrition and died an untimely death it would be forgiven.

Scott
 
T<<<here are few feelings better than walking out of the confessional after receiving absolution. :)>>>
AMEN!!!
 
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Dph:
I commited a mortal sin (I didn’t commit something as bad as murder but I still believe it id mortal) anyway after I commited it, i was so ashamed I started praying and I cried, I begged for the Lord’s forgiveness. Am I forgiven by Christ?
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  • No one knows whether you have been forgiven, I certainly hope so.
  • As Catholics we believe that God has bound himself to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If you partake of this sacrament with true contrition you can know that you are forgiven. If you don’t, you will not know unless he decides to tell you himself.
  • What else have you done to make reparation for your sin other than crying and begging? Actions speak louder than words.
Go to confession with a contrite heart and pour your soul out to Jesus as your act of contrition and listen as you have your sins absolved and He requests almost nothing from you and then tell me if your still wondering whether you are forgiven.

Phil
 
Stephen T:
In response to your question, I will quote what the Baltimore Catechism has to say on the subject:

“Christ never asked men to confess their sins to Him as He could read their hearts. He could see both their sins and their sorrow. However, He rarely gives the power of reading hearts to priests. He wants people to tell their sins since this humbles that pride which is the root of all sin. If we were to tell our sins to God alone, pride would not be humbled and would remain strong.”

Hope it helps~

Pax Vobiscum

-Stephen
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What a wonderful quote…Thank you. Yes, it is HARD to confess your sins. I don’t know about you, but some things are very embarrassing…However, I am lucky to have a confessor with whom I am never embarrassed…
 
You are probably forgiven, but the only 100% full proof of knowing you are forgiven is by going to confession.
 
Scott Waddell:
Yes, normatively you do in the sense that you can’t go around saying that you will just work on acheiving perfect contrition. But not in the absolute sense. That is, if you commited a mortal sin, had perfect contrition and died an untimely death it would be forgiven.

Scott
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Do you need the intent to go to confession to be absolved in the case of an untimely death?
 
I agree with Victor.
Confession and penance meets the justice of God. Being sorry is one thing, paying the consequences for sin is another.

Lets say you threw a rock through a window, and later, are sorry.
Who is going to pay for the window. God?

No. You are, or you are not really sorry.

Lets say its not practical to pay for the window, or make up to your friend for sleeping with his wife, or looking at porn longer than needed to determine whether or not it is porn, or whatever…

What will God accept as penance?

Prayer for one.

Who is authorized to determine what constitutes sufficient penance when action cannot be done?

The priest, as representative of the Church, who has the authority to bind and loose.

The confessional is like a shower for the soul…no…a deep dive into the waters of His love and forgiveness, not a torture chamber of guilt and shame. Those who claim we don’t need to confess sins to anybody usually have no problem confessing their neurosis to a therapist (a consequence of denial that we need to hear absolution and act on a penance).

Protestants have a higher suicide rate than Catholics. Guess why.

kepha1
 
Do you need the intent to go to confession to be absolved in the case of an untimely death?
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Do you mean a person intends on going to confession, and suddenly drops dead before getting there?

At what point did the father forgive the Prodigal Son? When he saw him afar, or when the son didn’t even get to finish his prepared speech? ( more the former)

Was the son sorry for offending his father, or because he was hungry? (hungry and stupid)

The name of the parable is a misnomer. It should be called, “The Parable of a Loving Father”.

God is so ready to forgive, he will even accept a lousy contrition, and out of His love for us, He has granted us a means by which we can be PURIFIED of all the broken windows of our lives we never got around to paying for. The doctrine of Purgatory is true, because it is logical and true to human experience.

To answer your question: No, not according to my understanding of Catholic teaching.

kepha1
 
We must understand that ultimately it is God who forgives our sins. The priest stands ready with the authority given to him to pronounce that your sins are forgiven. If one commits a mortal sin and immediately repents and has true contrition and prays the Act of Contrition, yes our sins are forgiven, but we cannot receive communion (and this is very, very important) until we have received the absolution from the priest. We must make every effort to confess all mortal sins, so that’s why an examination of conscience is important. If we go into the confessional with four mortal sins and deliberately omit one of them, we come out of the confessional with five sins. And if we go to communion we are then adding a greater sin to our souls. If we forget to confess a sin, (and this is an honest omission) then all of our sins are forgiven. However, it would be prudent to confess that sin the next time we go to confession.

Oh, and one more thing. I know in many parishes, the penitant has to confess face to face because that is only what is provided. But according to Canon Law 964 Par 2,"…confessionals with a fixed grille between penitent and confessor are always located in an open area so that the faithful who wish to make use of them may do so freely."

God Bless…
 
I look at confession from a human to human relationship. Say you offended your friend. Do you think if would be enough to ask him/her for their forgivness in your heart instead of speaking to them directly and meeting them face to face?
Once I heard this beautiful statement that to help one with confession, one needs to imagine that he is not speaking to a priest but to God’s ear.
 
i haven’t read the entire thread, so someone else might have said this already. if so, forgive the redundancy.

there IS such a thing as ‘perfect contrition’ in which you don’t have to go to confession to a priest for forgiveness. but this is only in extreme circumstances. if you CAN go to confession, then you SHOULD go to confession.

the simple fact that you’re asking means you should probably go. 😉

btw - God’s not going to get mad at you for going to confession even if He’s ‘already forgiven you’. so it won’t hurt anything - and your penance will probably be something good for you - mine always are. 🙂
 
Yes there is such a thing as perfect contrition. However, there is a “but” that we must abide by. Here is the prayer.
Code: 
   *Oh, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you
and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven
and the pains of hell*-----
This is an act of contrition. What makes it perfect is the following—

But most of all because I have offended you my God. -–
We should be sorry above everything thing that it is God whom we have offended.

And it continues
Code: 
   *Who are all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve with the help of your grace to confess my sins,
to do penance and avoid the near occasion of sin.*

There are other forms and many confessionals have it posted.
They all should have some wording that says we are sorry above all that we have offended God.
However, as I stated earlier, **BUT **we still **cannot **receive Our Lord in communion until we have received absolution from a priest through private reconciliation as soon as possible. If we have an accident or a heart attack or something before we go to confession, we more than likely will make it to heaven via a long stay in purgatory. To say that we do not have to go to confession because we have recited a perfect act of contrition is a misconception. That’s why we see so few people at confession, but everybody in attendance at mass goes to receive our Lord.
Code: 
  God Bless.
 
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