Questions about the church

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Christmysavor

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I will be joining the church this Easter vigil service and I am really nervous about my frist confession I don’t know why I feel like this and I know that this will help me to get right with God so is it normal to get the nerves before I will be going to confession before the Easter vigil service and I will be talking with the priest in early March before the Easter vigil service I know from my experience in RCIA so far that he is Persona Christi while in the confessional will he hold my sins against me?
 
Hello, and welcome home to the Church 🙂
It’s normal to be nervous before your first Confession. My first Confession was decades ago and I still get a little nervous when I go.

The priest doesn’t “hold your sins against you”. From what I have read, priests do not even remember who did what sin because they hear so many confessions and are so busy, and also they have pretty much heard every sin anyone can commit, so sins are not that special. The priest will likely forget whatever you said by about 1 minute after you walk out of the confessional.
 
There is a screen to retain your anonymity. Why not use that? Many priests prefer it that way. As to confession, the priest takes your sins and bears them up to the Lord for destruction. He then does penance for your sins.

Confession, done right, is the most utterly amazing Sacrament. Many (incluing me) report that it felt like their feet were not touching the floor when they left the confessional. When you hear those words of absolution, you can be certain that your sins are gone.

And, if the assigned penance does not seem in proportion to your sins, it is a reflection of God’s mercy.
 
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It is normal being nervous before your first confession (or even the first ones) as it is something that is new to you. Telling someone else your sins is not something that we usually do in todays society. Unless we have to “fess up” when someone else “tells the whole world” in media what we have done to them.

Don’t listen to people who say: “You’ll feel so great, relieved etc after your confession!” They are giving you a feeling and if you don’t feel it that way you start to question yourself which is not what the sacrament is all about. God is not a fussy nice feeling but the creator of the universe.

Once I had to ask my confessor after a couple of days about something he had said to me during confession as it didn’t make sense. He couldn’t remember more than that he had seen me confessing in the last few days. Had I confessed behind the screen he wouldn’t have remembered at all I guess. One newly ordained priest that I know, heard confessions for two hours strait as people just kept coming. This was just before a gathering with students. He said it was a very humbling experience and I could see that his brains were fried afterwards as he was very tired and had a hard time focusing.

Make an appointment with the priest as your first confession is likely to take a bit longer than a monthly confession. Knowing that there isn’t anyone waiting is likely to help you to relax and concentrate on your confession and not “how bad everyone will think I am as my confession is so long”.

Preparing for a confession while doing an Examination of conscience is to accept for yourself that you have sinned and are a sinner in need of God’s mercy. I wrote down on a piece of paper (secret language notes that only I understood) what I needed to remember. I burned that paper after I came home from church on Good Friday.

I always bring my prayer book which has pages on confession in to confession. That way I know what to say etc if my brain goes blanc, I can just follow along in my book. Even though everyone says that there is an Act of contrition etc in the confessionals there aren’t. Discovered that in another country and the priest wasn’t too pleased that I translated into our common language what our “normal” words are in the country where I live. Next time I will say everything in my own language and my sins in our common language.
 
thank you all for your answers . So you can bring the short christian
prayers book into the confessional Great!!! I have short catholic prayers
and the one i mentioned here . YES I’m Happy to be finally HOME !!! 😂😂😂
 
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May the Holy Spirit guide and bless you in your first Confession
 
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