Nothing to confess

[BarbaraTherese]

Recently I went to my ‘spiritual advisor’ (whom I have only had two sessions with) and told him that I needed help with confession, that I wasn’t quite sure how to do a good examination of conscience and how to actually confess all those venial sins (how even to differentiate between mortal and venial in certain cases.) I was shot down! He told me that was between me and my confessor. Only problem is - in my Parish, our Rector no longer publishes who is offering Mass and we never know which Priest will be around for confession. It makes it kind of hard to have ‘a confessor’.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation can be made even harder by a lack of proper catechesis.

Hi Philothea…Apologies it has taken some time to respond to the above…here are some good (I thought) examinations of conscience:
beginningcatholic.com/catholic-examination-of-conscience.html

scborromeo.org/confess.htm

Dont be concerned if you cannot find a regular confessor for some reason…look upon it that for God’s own reasons, it is simply not meant to be, while keeping your eye out for a regular confessor and if you wish to have one, to ask God to send you a good one.

You are very right that I think most all of us are poorly catechised in certain areas, unless we set about to inform ourselves and nowadays with sites like CAF and also the info on the internet, it is far easier to inform ourselves than it used to be.

My advice would be to pick out one of the above examinations of conscience - or by typing “catholic - examination of conscience” into your browser, or Google it, you might be able to find one that you feel happier with. Dont get scrupulous over your examination of conscience…the only thing it is healthy to be scrupulous about is mortal sin and to avoid it if one can like the plague. If I cannot, then I humbly go to Confession with sincerity and sorrow.
Remember God never expects a person to know what clearly they do not know! …by the same token, if we become aware of something we did not know, then we have something of an obligation to inform ourselves.

Blessings and my regards…Barb