Need advice on feeling guilt for sins

[Chrystal]

What do you do when you feel like you guilt is mitigated over your sins? Sometimes it makes me feel concerned even after I go to confession, or when I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet and/or Act of Contrition (at least until I can go to confession), that there might be a slight chance that I’m not forgiven. You have to be truly sorry and repent, which I do, but then maybe the sorrow is a little less.

 

[Trishie]

God had sent Jesus to forgive sins, but after his resurrection Jesus told the apostles, “‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (John 20:21–23).

Your sins in Confession have been given forgiveness and you have received absolution, and now must trust that God has indeed forgiven you through His priest as Jesus promised.

You don’t necessarily have to feel the emotions of guilt and sadness, so long as in my mind you have chosen to repent your sins. In going to Confession and having confessed your sins, *intending to *do your best with God’s grace to avoid these sins again, then you have made the choice to repent. In this case, there is no reason to feel guilt or worry about past confessed sins.

 

[LilyM]

God had sent Jesus to forgive sins, but after his resurrection Jesus told the apostles, “‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (John 20:21–23).

Your sins in Confession have been given forgiveness and you have received absolution, and now must trust that God has indeed forgiven you through His priest as Jesus promised.

You don’t necessarily have to feel the emotions of guilt and sadness, so long as in my mind you have chosen to repent your sins. In going to Confession and having confessed your sins, *intending to *do your best with God’s grace to avoid these sins again, then you have made the choice to repent. In this case, there is no reason to feel guilt or worry about past confessed sins.

I concur with my learned colleague - the very act of going to confession (voluntary as it is) shows that you are well aware that your sins deeply hurt God, yourself and others, and that you have a sincere desire to be free of them. That is more than sufficient for the sacrament to be effective.

I wouldn’t necessarily worry about not having the ‘emotion’ of guilt.