Questions about confession from a newbie

[Scott84]

Just remember, when you go to confession you aren’t confessing your sins to the priest, but to Jesus Christ who stands inside the priest. The priest acts in persona christi. That means in the Person of Christ. Our Lord gave this authority to the apostles when he breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit. Who’s sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and who’s sins you shall retain, they are retained.” John, 20 22:23 Confraternity Edition

There is a story of a woman, oh gosh I forgot her name (forgive me), I think she may have been a nun. But she kept saying she had visions of Our Lord talking to her, and the bishop did not believe her. But she insisted, and he said to her “Okay, ask Our Lord what my last sin was.” She later returned and told the bishop that Our Lord answered “I don’t know.”

That is such a beautiful story. To me that illustrates Christ’s Divine Mercy. I like to think once God forgives our sins he forgets, because we are free of that sin and are in a state of grace once more!

 

[HeDa]

I am a recent convert and have been a sponsor a few times already. What I did and told the ones I was sponsoring was to prepare for confession by going through the school years and then working life decade by decade. What did I do or say that hurt the relationship to God, family and friends, other people and also myself. What didn’t I do that I know I should have done. There are guides to confession online as well as Examinations of conscience online or follow the 10 commandments.

After your Confession do something nice like buying or picking some flowers for the statue of the blessed virgin Mary Mother of God in your parish church or visit one of your elderly neighbours.

I set the paper with my sins on fire after coming home from church on Good Friday. I still burn my list of sins after I have completed my penance.

I had a chat with my sponsor just before I was going to my first Confession and she said: “I just confess the same old sins over and over and over again. I never seem to learn anything.” She had been retired from working life for a good number of years and I said “Don’t you think the priest would be concerned if you suddenly start confessing that you are beating old people to death and robbing them on the streets?”. She replied with a laugh: “If you look at it that way then I prefer to stick to my old sins.”

 

[JackMcCoy]

Better to confess the same old sins over again than to try some new sins.
All we can do is to be sorry, to confess, to ask forgiveness, and to resolve to try to do better.