No Penance?

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space ghost:
Not sure if its a problem… My Priest 99 times out of a 100 gives me 1 whole Hail Mary… “the tyrant”… 🙂
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In my former denomination penances were always “creative” – matched to the besetting sin, often to pray a Psalm or perhaps some act of charity towards someone we had wronged. Coming into the Catholic Church, I dreaded the “one size fits all” Our Father or Hail Mary. Then I discovered Our Lady. That day, my confessor assigned as penance: ONE - HAIL - MARY. Dynamite! Took me three-quarters of an hour to get through it!
 
I’m always happy when I receive a penance that has a bit more ‘bite’ to it. I believe a penance should should be appropriate to the seriousness of the sin confessed. It’s not that I’m a masochist or anything, I just find it really cathartic. When I sin, even though I know God forgives me when I confess it, I feel this deep need to ‘make up’ for it and reciting a few Hail Marys and Our Fathers just doesn’t satisfy this need in me. I love praying and don’t find it difficult at all, so it’s hard for me to consider that a penance. In my mind I can’t separate the justice of God from the mercy of God and I feel sometimes, in the Sacrament of Penance, there’s a bit of an imbalance- too much focus on the mercy side of things and too little, if any, on His justice. I want to come away from confession feeling that I’ve been given something that will press home the seriousness of my sin and hopefully discourage me from ever committing it again. Most times I leave the confessional disappointed by the penance and on the rare occasion when I have asked the priest for a more challenging one, the look on his face, tells me he’s wondering if I might be some kind of scrupulous neurotic with a self-punishment fetish!!!:bigyikes:
 
Often what seems like easy penance is infact, very difficult…the hardest penance I ever had to do was writing ten good things about myself. It took almost every spare moment for nearly two weeks.
 
I said too harsh—i was just kidding—there is no penance too harsh for sin----the souls in purgatory would come back to suffer anything on earth rather than to spend a few moments in purgatory. my husband used to ask what Francisco (the seer at Fatima) had done to merit the fact that he didn’t hear our lady when she first came & also was told that he had to say many rosaries before he could get to heaven—Jesus died for our sins & we all know what He suffered so sin is a lot more serious than we want to believe.
 
Are pennances too formulaeic?
Why are they sometimes don in ‘formula’?
 
I voted too easy, my confessor is a excellent priest, but I always think I deserved a more “difficult” penance. I normally never get the same one (that’s good). I’m a sinner and I think I should be dealt a more severe penance. Just my opinion. :twocents:
 
After thirty years, I’m about to make a confession like never before. In the past, I would avoid the sordid details and purposely forget to confess the really bad ones. I’m going to a Tridendine church now and that is where I will be confessing my sins and I don’t care what the penance is, I’m just glad after all these years to be honest about my sins and go to communion with a clear conscience. I pray that Jesus forgives me for waiting so long.
 
it has been years and years since I heard the 5 OF 5 HM type of penance, I often get a suggested scripture passage to meditate with, or a concrete action to take. One of the best. without going into the actual sin, was to take a small box, drop a quarter in every time I felt temptation, and at the end of each month donate the money in the box to a specific charity, and also to serve at least an hour a week at that charity. The point being that since the sin was and offense against charity, let the punishment fit the crime. I examine my conscience frequently so that when it comes time for confession I can usually state the issue in one brief sentence. The priest usually zeroes in on the real basis of the sin and the penance reflects it and is appropriate, helpful in healing the problem. I don’t try to second guess the priest in confession in any case, he does his job, I do mine.
 
Its kinda weird for me, I have only been to confession 3 times since my consersion this easter.
 
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maria2334:
The most I have ever been given was to say a decade daily for the rest of my life. (This was a visiting priest, and I only have venial sins. Wonder what he would have given a mortal sinner?!)
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Maria, You may be OK with that pennance, but you need to know that if you cannot fulfill that duty, now or at some point in your life; any priest can make it go away. You also have the right to tell a priest that you cannot complete any given pennance.

When I was young, I was given a pennance to say one ejaculatory (never liked the term) prayer every minute until my next confession. I tried for a while, then got back in line…another line. :yup:
 
I said just right, because the hardest penance I could ever endure is asking the priest at work for confession, having him show up, examining my conscience, and then confess as my knees knock and I feel like I am going to fall off, right onto the floor. The few Hail Mary’s could never match the penance of the preparation alone.
 
Hello,

I have only been to one confession and that was towards the end of RCIA this year. And our whole group was confessing, of course, one at a time. And I thought the penence was too easy. He just gave us all a scripture to read. I do not have the nerve to confess again because I am afraid of what the Priest might think of me. I know I need to confess again. But I tend to avoid uncomfortable situations. What is really hard is we have to confess face to face. There is no screen to hide behind. And then I am confused how to confess and what to confess. So I just don’t do it. And since I was a Protestant Christain, I continue to confess to God like I used to. This has really been bothering me. Because now that I am Catholic, I want to act like a Catholic and do what I catholic does. In spite of this I continue to receive the Eurcharist. Ana
 
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Ana_Reus:
Hello,

I have only been to one confession and that was towards the end of RCIA this year. And our whole group was confessing, of course, one at a time. And I thought the penence was too easy. He just gave us all a scripture to read. I do not have the nerve to confess again because I am afraid of what the Priest might think of me. I know I need to confess again. But I tend to avoid uncomfortable situations. What is really hard is we have to confess face to face. There is no screen to hide behind. And then I am confused how to confess and what to confess. So I just don’t do it. And since I was a Protestant Christain, I continue to confess to God like I used to. This has really been bothering me. Because now that I am Catholic, I want to act like a Catholic and do what I catholic does. In spite of this I continue to receive the Eurcharist. Ana
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As as convert as well, I can relate. My first confession was after my baptism and I had no instruction in RCIA on what to do. I told the priest it was my first confession and he chastised me for not going before my baptism. I was mortified. I have since learned that it was not necessary but I had no clue back then.

I nearly gave up on whole idea of confession after that. But, by the Grace of God I did not.

You just need to get used to it. If you don’t like confessing face to face find another church in the area that uses a screen. You actually have a right to the screen, so if you have the guts you can even request it of your current confessor.

I have found that the more I have gone to confession, the more at peace I am with it. I realized that it is not supposed to feel good. You are admitting to God that you screwed up. But when the priest says the words of absolution and makes the Sign of the Cross over you, then you can be at peace with yourself knowing that all is forgiven. There have been many times I have walked out of the confessional and knelt in prayer afterward and found myself in tears because I was so thankful for this incredible sacrament.

I hope one day you will find a good confessor and feel the same way.

P.S. Are you the same Ana Reus on the Le Catecombe board. I’m under the ID Navy Trad.
 
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BobCatholic:
Compared to the early Church, today’s penances are WAY too easy.

Many had to confess orally in front of the entire congregation. Then the penances went for years, in the meantime, no communion.

Praise God for His Mercy!

Again!

Again!
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Hi Bob,long time no see. 😃 Maybe if that was done today like the early church there would be less sin commited. I wouldnt want to face the audience. 😃
 
I’m not able to confess yet, because I’m still in RCIA. At least that is what I heard. I’d actually like to, but I think I have to wait. Does anyone know if that is true or not?
 
AmaSimp,
Yes, I am the same person on the Trad site. Hello, since I wrote that article, I have gone to another confession, and in my opinion, I was fortunate enough to get the older Priest who seems a little more Traditional.
I was trying to get him to help me make a decision of what I should do in my personal family life. Do you know what this Priest did to me? The first actual confession, that I went to, I was in RCIA. But this was my first confession as a Catholic. He told me to go home and pray the Our Father for an hour, asking him to give me an answer to my problem of what I should do. Talk about hard! Maybe this would scare some new catholics away from confession, but I am not complaining. I would rather have it be that way than a penance that was too easy. Actually it rather surprised me, because my first penace was just a scripture. But of course it was a different Priest.
AnaReus
 
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Romani:
I’m always happy when I receive a penance that has a bit more ‘bite’ to it. I believe a penance should should be appropriate to the seriousness of the sin confessed. It’s not that I’m a masochist or anything, I just find it really cathartic. When I sin, even though I know God forgives me when I confess it, I feel this deep need to ‘make up’ for it and reciting a few Hail Marys and Our Fathers just doesn’t satisfy this need in me. I love praying and don’t find it difficult at all, so it’s hard for me to consider that a penance. In my mind I can’t separate the justice of God from the mercy of God and I feel sometimes, in the Sacrament of Penance, there’s a bit of an imbalance- too much focus on the mercy side of things and too little, if any, on His justice.
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I went to my first confession at the beginning of Lent in preparation for receiving my first Holy Communion. I had 35 years worth of “gunk” to unload, from the time I was baptized at 15 to almost 50 now. And we are talking many serious sins over **many **years… I had no idea what kind of penance I would receive but I was prepared for anything and would have willingly done anything.

No one could have been more surprised than I was when he told me that my penance would be to go to Mass, receive Communion, and offer up the Mass for my sins. I actually laughed out loud at the thought of being “punished” by being required to receive Communion (something I had been looking forward to for months!). Then I saw the look on the priest’s face as he reminded me that the Mass was a “re-presenting” of the same sacrifice Christ had made on Calvary. And it suddenly dawned on me that his assigned penance was entirely appropriate considering the nature and quantity of the sins I had confessed. There was simply no way I could have ever “made up” for all that I had done and even come close to satisfying the requirements of God’s justice. The **only **thing I could do was kneel at the foot of the Cross and plead “Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And what better time or place to do that than at Mass?

It was a penance I will never forget and I am so grateful for the wisdom of the priest who gave it to me…
In His love,
Rhonda
 
I’ve often thought that the penance I was recommended was too easy. Then again, the whole point is to have a repentant heart and spirit. If you already have that, you’ve probably beaten yourself up spiritually enough already.
 
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