Not confessing a forgotten mortal sin

[KidShellen]

You definately need to go to Confession again. I hope you did not receive Holy Communion after your last Confession.
By not confessing a remembered sin on purpose, you committed a Mortal Sin, and if you received Holy Communion afterwards, you committed another. Both of these sins are extremely serious, in that you insulted our Lord.
There are some exceptions, however. But, these can be determined only by a priest who is informed of the circumstances of the forgetfullness and omission. For example, I was away from the Church for many, many years. (over 40 years). I made a General Confession, in which I told the Priest that the only thing I hadn’t done was kill somelone, and that I had done these sins too many times to remember how often I did them. I received Absolution and became a regular Communicant again. I have since remembered some details, but have been told that since I was absolved, I did not have to confess them again, especially considering that memories are usually faulty.
However, one must never put oneself in the position of self delusion…which is very dangerous spiritually. Follow the old dictum: “When in doubt, Confess” Let the Priest decide. He knows what is best for you.

Fortunately, I haven’t received Communion. None of the above criteria fit my case, so looks I do have to go back to Confession. Thank you all for the very helpful replies

 

[CatholicKnight3]

I would highly encourage calling your pastor and asking for references to help with your scrupulosity. Fleeting thoughts, little missteps, and just feelings of anger are not mortal sins. Many are not even venial sins. Remember, one condition of a mortal sin is a DELIBERATE decision.

And no one is predestined to hell. This is called “double predestination”, which the Church has definitively ruled against. Remember that God wishes for ALL men to come to Him. And Jesus came into the world for ALL mankind, and to give His life for ALL people. Some people will choose not to follow Christ, but that is their choice. Salvation is there for them, if they will just turn towards Him.

Be at peace. Go to the sacraments, trust in God, and ask for help from your pastor to handle your scrupulous tendencies so that you can have the true peace of Christ within you.

Hebrews 6 :4-6 clearly says that if we have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit and WILLFULLY give into ANY SIN that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be brought back into REPENTANCE again.

That was pointed out to me years ago. I confess my sins, but I did not get into the sordid details. I know what I was confessing when I mentioned I fell into immorality or when I said I have been an utter disgrace. If that is not good enough then so be it.

I really do not care and I am sick of reading and listening to legalists in the church tying the burdens on peoples backs. If God is going to send someone to hell on some technicality then I want nothing to do with a God. Nothing. I already have to deal with the notion that he supposedly sends aborted babies to some place called limbo or a 2 year who dies to hell cause they were not baptized. Meanwhile the shoulder shrugging followers of His who are so at peace cause they must make every right step in their righteous lives are all at peace as they let people know they have not only committed one mortal sin, but TWO mortal sins cause they forgot to mention a mortal sin IN DETAIL in confession. All while ignoring that that the thief never confessed his sins in detail, while he was accepted into heaven from Christ Himself.

Either way I am done anyway. Cause like I said, I am in a perpetual state of mortal sin. Every stupid little thing I do is a mortal sin. Life is cruel. God is cruel. A lot more cruel than kind. That is they way I see it.

So, I will be avoiding church and church people in their glorious hypocrisy. I will certainly not be giving my self the DELUSION as if I would ever be going to heaven. Yes, there is predestiny btw. Not to say that is why I give into sins. I give into sins cause I like the sins I give into.

That is why. I am sick of pretending to try. It is all futile anyway.

 

[Lost_Sheep]

The bolded part is not true. If you do forget a mortal sin in confession, it is forgiven when the priest absolves you. If you happen to remember that sin, you should confess it at your next confession, but there is no need to rush to confession. You are not in a state of mortal sin as soon as you remember, as that sin has been forgiven. It would be a new sin to continue to conceal the original sin.

Maybe, maybe not. But if I were in that situation, that is how I would treat it.

 

[djchez]

I really do not care and I am sick of reading and listening to legalists in the church tying the burdens on peoples backs. If God is going to send someone to hell on some technicality then I want nothing to do with a God. Nothing. I already have to deal with the notion that he supposedly sends aborted babies to some place called limbo or a 2 year who dies to hell cause they were not baptized. Meanwhile the shoulder shrugging followers of His who are so at peace cause they must make every right step in their righteous lives are all at peace as they let people know they have not only committed one mortal sin, but TWO mortal sins cause they forgot to mention a mortal sin IN DETAIL in confession. All while ignoring that that the thief never confessed his sins in detail, while he was accepted into heaven from Christ Himself.

CatholicKnight3, In all due respect and charity, it seems to me that you are flailing at a straw man. You are the one placing undue burdens on yourself. At the very best, what you say above is a very distorted view of what the Church teaches, and really, I don’t find anything true in it at all. Take the advice of zz912 and talk with your pastor. God’s Mercy is greater than anything you have said. Contemplating Jesus hanging on the cross before him was enough for the thief to be repentant. This was enough for Jesus who already knew the man’s sins.

 

[zz912]

Hebrews 6 :4-6 clearly says that if we have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit and WILLFULLY give into ANY SIN that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be brought back into REPENTANCE again.

That was pointed out to me years ago. I confess my sins, but I did not get into the sordid details. I know what I was confessing when I mentioned I fell into immorality or when I said I have been an utter disgrace. If that is not good enough then so be it.

I really do not care and I am sick of reading and listening to legalists in the church tying the burdens on peoples backs. If God is going to send someone to hell on some technicality then I want nothing to do with a God. Nothing. I already have to deal with the notion that he supposedly sends aborted babies to some place called limbo or a 2 year who dies to hell cause they were not baptized. Meanwhile the shoulder shrugging followers of His who are so at peace cause they must make every right step in their righteous lives are all at peace as they let people know they have not only committed one mortal sin, but TWO mortal sins cause they forgot to mention a mortal sin IN DETAIL in confession. All while ignoring that that the thief never confessed his sins in detail, while he was accepted into heaven from Christ Himself.

Either way I am done anyway. Cause like I said, I am in a perpetual state of mortal sin. Every stupid little thing I do is a mortal sin. Life is cruel. God is cruel. A lot more cruel than kind. That is they way I see it.

So, I will be avoiding church and church people in their glorious hypocrisy. I will certainly not be giving my self the DELUSION as if I would ever be going to heaven. Yes, there is predestiny btw. Not to say that is why I give into sins. I give into sins cause I like the sins I give into.

That is why. I am sick of pretending to try. It is all futile anyway.

I think you inserted the word “any” into that passage of Hebrews. I checked several different translations and didn’t see it written the way you described.

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the holy Spirit 5 and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to bring them to repentance again, since they are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt.

And this is the REASON that Christ built a Church. So that we can KNOW what is meant by this passage. And the Church has told us explicitly that this refers to mortal sin. And the Church has described the 3 conditions for mortal sin.

As for confession, you have to confess the matter and kind. You don’t need to go into explicit or graphic detail. Sometimes it is necessary to give a minor amount of additional detail if it changes the nature of the sin (i.e. you stole $20 from someone, and that person is very poor. This is more serious than stealing from someone who is comfortable financially.)

As to legalists, most of the posters in this thread, and myself included, are trying to calm you down, and help you with your scrupulosity. NOT try to burden you with guilt. As to your claims that 2 year olds go to hell, that is just simply FALSE. That is not a teaching of the Church. I don’t know how to state it more plainly that this. It is NOT a teaching of the Church. And the concept of Limbo is speculation that those who aren’t baptized, but have no personal sin, go to a state of perfect natural happiness, as opposed to super-natural happiness of the full Beatific Vision of God’s Presence. But it is an OPINION. It is not official Church teaching. There are others in the Church who are of the opinion that they do go to Heaven.

As to those who walk around not committing any mortal sins. I don’t know who you are referring to. It isn’t me. I fail all the time, and struggle mightily. And when I fall, I go to Christ for forgiveness in Confession. I am a horrible sinner, but I am always of good cheer because I know that Christ is ALWAYS READY to forgive me as long as I keep turning back to Him.

As to your claim about the mortal sins not mentioned. If you re-read the thread, the sin forgotten WAS forgiven. But when he remembered it, he INTENTIONALLY refused to mention it in the next confession. It wasn’t about how DETAILED the confession was. It was that he refused to even confess it.

As to the rest of your post, I’m sorry you feel so helpless and despondent. I hope you call your pastor and ask for help. You sound like a person who is hurting, and needs the healing and love of the Church. PLEASE go talk to your pastor.