Question about completing Penance

[Zenkai]

When I went to Confession on Saturday, the Penance that the priest assigned me was to branch out and talk to people, etc. to make some more friends so that I’m not just sitting in my dorm most of the day.

When does this penance have to be completed? Is there any time limit? I plan on joining the Catholic group at my university. I think this will complete my Penance.

Also, I went to confession again today and was assigned to say a few prayers. I already prayed them, but, for future reference, is there any time limit on when a Penance like this must be completed? ie: right after Confession, after Mass, when you get home, the next day, within the week, etc?

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Couple of things:

Usually it is best to do your penance as soon after confession as possible. If your penance is to say certain prayers, you can do that right then in the church. Otherwise, you should try to complete it within a few days. Sometimes a penace might be to read some scripture or another Catholic book, that could take a bit of time divided over a few days.

The penance about making new friends doesn’t sound like something that should be “completed” but should be used as ongoing advice for your life.

Finally two thoughts: If you are not yet Catholic, you do not need to go to confession unless your priest has invited you as part of RCIA. And even when you are Catholic, going to confesssion several times in a week could possibly be a sign of scrupulosity. Please speak to your priest about how often he recommends sacramental confesssion and then follow his advice. Also, please stick with one priest only for confession so that he can help guide you in how often and for what you should confess.

 

[Zenkai]

Couple of things:

Usually it is best to do your penance as soon after confession as possible. If your penance is to say certain prayers, you can do that right then in the church. Otherwise, you should try to complete it within a few days. Sometimes a penace might be to read some scripture or another Catholic book, that could take a bit of time divided over a few days.

The penance about making new friends doesn’t sound like something that should be “completed” but should be used as ongoing advice for your life.

Finally two thoughts: If you are not yet Catholic, you do not need to go to confession unless your priest has invited you as part of RCIA. And even when you are Catholic, going to confesssion several times in a week could possibly be a sign of scrupulosity. Please speak to your priest about how often he recommends sacramental confesssion and then follow his advice. Also, please stick with one priest only for confession so that he can help guide you in how often and for what you should confess.

Thank you for replying.

I’m in RCIA now and my first Confession was the 13th.

And yes, I’m scrupulous. But the first two times I had to confess stuff that I knew were mortal. Today, I’m not sure if they were mortal, but I also had some other things to confess that I didn’t remember the last times in Confession.

 

[Zenkai]

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