Oh My - Never been to confession before

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Ghosty:
Other people are giving great advice for what to do to prepare, so I’ll stick to some general encouragement.

Confession is definately hard at first, and sometimes it’s still hard, but I have to say that in many ways it’s my favorite Sacrament outside of the Eucharist. I know that nothing compares to leaving the Confessional and receiving the Eucharist again. It’s like taking a nice, hot shower: it burns a bit, but you feel so clean afterwards. Then receiving the Eucharist is like slipping into a nice, soft bathrobe and relaxing afterwards.
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HAHAHAHA! That is a great comparison! :clapping:
 
First of all, I want to say congratulations for starting to go to confession. I was basically in the same boat. I had stayed away from confession for over 20 years. I got a lot of good responses from this forum. Everyone here is giving you good advise. For my particular story, I requested a face to face confession with the priest. Before I went, I made a list of all the sins I could possibly think of. Of course, I had no idea how many times I committed some of them and I told that to the priest right off. He told me not to worry about because God already knows how many time I did those sins. I found many references of things that are considered sins. I wrote them all down. Some sins I didn’t know they were sins until I read they were. My “list” of sins was a few pages long, so it took me awhile to go through them all. The priest was very considerate and had lots of patience. After I confessed my sins, I read the Act of Contrition from a prayer book I took with me. When I left, I felt the whole world was lifted off my shoulders.

I went to a lock Catholic Book store and bought the book, “How to Make A Good Confession” by Fr. John Kane. It has some good guidelines. It is a rather inexpensive book. I think I paid $6 or $7 for it.

Good luck and God Bless you. You are in my prayers.

Mark
 
I made my first confession in 1999 and I too was quite nervous while waiting “my turn” to go into the room.
But while there, God gave me the grace to confess everything I could remember and you know what? It was WONDERFUL.
I love going to confession now.
Relax, you’ll be fine.
God bless,
Jaypeeto4 (aka Jaypeeto3)
 
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scared:
Hi All:

Thank you for your encourgement.

Well, it is done. An no I am no less scared than before. I have a hugh headache, still shaking like a leaf, but know that it is done, I tried my best. He didn’t guide me through it I kind of stumbled, but got to the end. I know I am forgiven,have done my penance, and did I get off light, but he knows my circumstances. I did forget a couple, which hopefully before the next 17 years goes by I will beable to do.

scared
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Bravo, scared! You may not realize it now, but you ARE less scared! Wait till it sinks in. Receive the Body of Christ with a pure conscience . . . God love ya!
 
My problem with confession is that after 27 years away from the Church I only remember the format we used as children such as

"Bless me Father for I have sinned " then how long since our last confession. And if we had not sinned since our last confession we used to say " For all the sins of my past life "

Now it appears that has changed and I do not know what to say.

Can anyone help me.

Neil
 
Danzerob said:
My problem with confession is that after 27 years away from the Church I only remember the format we used as children such as

"Bless me Father for I have sinned " then how long since our last confession. And if we had not sinned since our last confession we used to say " For all the sins of my past life "

Now it appears that has changed and I do not know what to say.

Can anyone help me.

Neil
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Just say: You can use the old form. It is still fine. But you could also just say "Bless me father, for I have sinned. It is 27 years since my last confession. Can you coach me through this?

I would also advise doing a deeply prayerful and exhaustive examination of conscience and perhaps making a private appointment. Sometimes a “big” confession like yours takes a little longer than is “polite” for Saturday afternoon when others are waiting . . .

God bless you!
 
scared said:
I am shaking in my skin.

Tomorrow is my first confession since baptism 17 years ago.

I may die from fright!!!

I maybe there for the next 17 years getting all I have done out.

Boy am I scared

Scared
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I will assume that since it is your first Confession in 17 years. That you are a Candidate who will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in the next few weeks. The priest knows that he has several first Confessions and will be expecting you. Not that he expects you personally, but that there will be several First Confessions and will be able to help you along. Hopefully your instructors have arranged some type of Reconciliation service prior to individual Confessions to also help with examination of conscience.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
I will assume that since it is your first Confession in 17 years. That you are a Candidate who will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in the next few weeks. The priest knows that he has several first Confessions and will be expecting you. Not that he expects you personally, but that there will be several First Confessions and will be able to help you along. Hopefully your instructors have arranged some type of Reconciliation service prior to individual Confessions to also help with examination of conscience.
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Br. Rich – the OP is over 2 years old.
 
Oh my gosh that guy grave-digged. This an over 2 year old conversation. I guess it can still be good though.
 
Try to keep this in mind. It is not merely a priest who sits before you, but Christ Himself - rejoicing that you have come back after 17 years!

I once heard a priest say that most people fear confession because they’re afraid the priest will admonish them in some way, when in reality, what the priest really wants to do is celebrate the victory over sin when he says those beautiful words of absolution which wipe your slate clean.

Good luck to you and imagine how glorious you will feel after it’s all over.
 
Because most of the time in life when you “confess” something someone is angry because of it. (Braking a window, and confessing). Most expect the same from the priest.
 
Scared, I will pray for you tonight during my hour of Divine
Adoration. Several years ago I made my first confession in 33 years.
My heart is filled with joy for what you about to do. Heaven is rejoicing. You have accepted Gods gift of grace.

In Christs name, I wish you peace.
 
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