Offering up confessions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Merrick
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No. Confessions are for the forgiveness of the penitent’s sins only.
 
I know they are only for my sins. But can’t they be offered up? The Communion I receive is for me but I can offer it up.

Certainly I can offer up any humility or angst I experience in confession for the poor souls in purgatory.
 
No, you cannot offer up your confession for someone else. It is for the forgiveness of your sins, not for the forgiveness of the sins of others. That’s what “offering up” is: offering up a communion, a rosary, a sacrifice, etc. for the salvation of someone else. YOUR confession is for YOUR salvation.

If it makes you feel better - double your penance and offer the second one for someone else.
 
I am not understanding. I do not offer them up for others’ forgiveness. And Holy Communion is for my salvation. I’ve heard of priests offering up confessions although not as penitents.
 
Merrick said:
I am not understanding. I do not offer them up for others’ forgiveness. And Holy Communion is for my salvation. I’ve heard of priests offering up confessions although not as penitents.
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Like the others that have responded, I was a bit confused about your question when I first read it. My first thought was to agree with them and say, no, you can’t “offer it up”. You certainly can’t offer up your confession for someone else in the strict sense of offering it for someone else (as if you were confessing their sins, in their place). But, you may be able to offer up all the fear and anxiety that you might be feeling before you step into the confessional, especially if you wish to offer it for someone else that might not want to go to confession, at all, due to having those same fears and anxiety. I think that could be acceptable. You might want to check with your Priest to be sure, first. I’m really not positive that it would be OK from a theological perspective, but it might be.
 
Merrick said:
Certainly I can offer up any humility or angst I experience in confession for the poor souls in purgatory.
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Yes, but don’t forget that you’re not offering up humility or angst or any other suffering, as if they themselves were meritorious.

You offer up love to God in the midst of such sufferings, while patiently enduring them, and while joined to God through love.

This is what has merit.

This is what St. Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
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Thank you.
InNomineDomini said:
Yes, but don’t forget that you’re not offering up humility or angst or any other suffering, as if they themselves were meritorious.

You offer up love to God in the midst of such sufferings, while patiently enduring them, and while joined to God through love.

This is what has merit.

This is what St. Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 13:
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