Should I bring this to confession?

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KimberlyAnn0218

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Thank-you to everyone who helped em through my post on 6/8/11 entitled 'Question about a blessing." Mixed responses to my post and I learned a lot. You may want to read that one before responding to this one.
Quick background…I attended a special Mass with a visiting Priest from Spain. He is an exorcist, but did a wonderful talk on strengthening your faith in God and the protections that gives one. What I was completely unprepared for was the blessing at the end–I knew he would pray individually over everyone–they did a quick discussion about when people “fall” from this, etc. I did not know enough to be worried or understand what they were explaining.

I watched as multiple people “fell” back and were caught and eased to the ground. I could not see well, and it was upper 80’s in the church easily of not 90’s. I assumed people were fainting and I couldn’t understand why they would just leave them on the ground and people would walk by them. 45 minutes of this went by and my anxiety heightened. I was torn between leaving and not receiving a blessing I had been looking forward to and participating in something that felt wrong for me. I chose to stay and experience what I now know is called “slaying” or “resting” in the Spirit. I prayed SO hard to not fall! I got closer and saw across the front of the church there were at least 6 people “resting” on floor at any given time–I made sure I could see them all breathing (I am a nurse). My turn came and I did not fall. I have never left a church so hastily in my life.

I find today, 3 days after this I am still bothered. 2 things bother me, Either: 1) I engaged in a practice that really is not sanctioned and I actually did harm to my faith. and/or 2) I started having some doubts about practicing my faith. Who are these people and why have I never seen this before? I went to a weekday Mass today and saw 3 of these people from that evening at church ( a different one) and I think differently about them; specifically I think they are a little weird now. Judgmental, I realize. That bothers me, too.

So bottom line I feel like either way I have done wrong: by participating in this practice and/or being judgmental and labeling people inappropriately and potentially being all around disrespectful. I am amazed at how much this bothers me. Should I bring this to confession?

Thanks!
 
In my opinion, and believe me I am no expert, anytime you have the question, “Should I bring this to confession?” the answer is always yes.

You may not have done anything wrong. But why live with any doubt?
 
adv1sor said:
In my opinion, and believe me I am no expert, anytime you have the question, “Should I bring this to confession?” the answer is always yes.

You may not have done anything wrong. But why live with any doubt?
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I second that.
 
God challenges us in very different ways. I think that He gave you an opportunity to better know Him and yourself. Do not be to hard on yourself and try to explore what your feelings are about. Our feelings might be triggered by some event but they are really due to something else in our heads. It is always a good idea to go to a priest and ask for spiritual guidance when we are not clear of where we stand with our conscience.
I do not know if the sacrament of confession is the appropriate thing here, but it is not going to hurt you for sure. If your confessor is in the habit of giving you spiritual guidance then you are doing the right thing. My point is that spiritual guidance is something the includes confession but it is also a much bigger effort to grow in our faith and to develop our conscience.
 
I may be reading this wrong or something, but it seems to me you attended a charismatic healing service/mass. If you are unfamilar with this movement, it does seem bizarre or scary. I went to a healing mass a couple of months ago as per an exorcist’s instructions and I had no idea what to expect. There was a mass that lasted a veeerrry long time but other than that, was a normal mass. Afterwards, the priest (who apparently had a healing charism) would lay his hands on people and pray over them. I noticed the same thing you did- that some of the people went slithering right down onto the marble floor, aided by people who were there specifically to catch them and then they just left them there. Just like you, I couldn’t help but pray that I wouldn’t fall either! I had no desire to experience that ‘resting in the spirit.’ I asked a girl by me what the heck was going on and why some people were fainting and she explained it to me. It is a common thing at charismatic healing services, meetings, masses- whatever you call the additional prayers and laying of hands after the mass. It’s suppose to be a wonderful, peaceful, tranquil experience- but I was too nervous and freaked out by it to want to go through it.

I don’t see anything in your post that you neccesarily need to confess- unless I am missing something. It just sounds like you were freaked out by what you perceived to be the bizarre behavior of others and now when you see them you are looking at them crossways. I wouldn’t worry about it- just understand what it was that you attended and give it a few days to process it.🙂
 
This was a charismatic service and what happened is not at all condemned by the Church. However, your response is the important thing. If you felt that this was wrong, you did not willingly participate and did not even know what would happen. Sin always invoolves a deliberate choice to do what a person believes is wrong, which did not happen in your case. I have seen serious liturgical abuses myself, and if you felt your very presence was wrong, maybe next time you can simply leave when you see something you consider very seriously out-of-line. But I suggest that you ask the priest about it when you go to confession next time, if this was a sin–I am simply someone sending a message and you have no idea who I am.
 
Cristiano said:
God challenges us in very different ways. I think that He gave you an opportunity to better know Him and yourself. Do not be to hard on yourself and try to explore what your feelings are about. Our feelings might be triggered by some event but they are really due to something else in our heads. It is always a good idea to go to a priest and ask for spiritual guidance when we are not clear of where we stand with our conscience.
I do not know if the sacrament of confession is the appropriate thing here, but it is not going to hurt you for sure. If your confessor is in the habit of giving you spiritual guidance then you are doing the right thing. My point is that spiritual guidance is something the includes confession but it is also a much bigger effort to grow in our faith and to develop our conscience.
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I agree-I am not sure confession is the right time/place for this.
 
I thought this was already discussed in another thread

what you witnessed was entirely licit, a means of praying that is part of Charismatic services. the Catholic Charismatic renewal is an entirely orthodox spirituality that has been endorsed and supported by all recent Pope’s. It should have been explained to the congregation what to expect, but maybe it was lost in translation. There is absolutely nothing illicit about what you saw.

Even if there was, if you were at a Mass where there were several sad abuses, in no way, shape or form would you be guilty of anything. The congregation does not bear guilt for anything the priest does or does not do properly.

just because we see something that is outside our experience of church does not by definition make it wrong, neither does it mean we should feel forced to participate outside normal Mass participation.
 
wild_thing said:
I don’t see anything in your post that you neccesarily need to confess- unless I am missing something. It just sounds like you were freaked out by what you perceived to be the bizarre behavior of others and now when you see them you are looking at them crossways. I wouldn’t worry about it- just understand what it was that you attended and give it a few days to process it.🙂
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I think you had it right…to really “boil it down” I felt that this was not an appropriate practice and I stayed and participated anyway (I now understand what this was and know it is not an illicit practice and these people aren’t crazy) but the feeling I had when I left the church was horrible 😦 . I felt like these people were “crazy” and was questioning my practicing in the Catholic faith.Now that I am more informed I know at this point in my faith journey this is not for me and seeing as it is not a common or required practice I think I am fine 🙂 Thanks for responding.
 
puzzleannie said:
I thought this was already discussed in another thread

.
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Yes it was discussed in another thread…I started out saying that in my original post…my question here was getting at the fact that at the time I did not know what was going on, I was uncomforatble and felt that this was wrong and I stayed and participated anyway 😊. It made me question my ability to choose wisely. What if it would have been something illicit? That is all I was getting at. The fact that this feeling was still with me days later prompted me to post.

I have prayed about it and this forum helped me understand what it was, validated that it is not unusal to get “creeped out” when you don’t know what is going on, assured me nothing was innappropriate and I did nothing wrong. I feel much better and I don’t think these people are crazy anymore 😃
 
it is important since you have asked twice about it that you understand even if there were something going on at Mass that is not right, you are not the priest. he is in charge of the Mass, and in no way can you bear any guilt for what he does or does not do. I am concerned when people go looking for sins that are not there and beat themselves up about it.
 
puzzleannie said:
I am concerned when people go looking for sins that are not there and beat themselves up about it.
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Not really beating myself up, this was a completely new thing for me. More like deeply contemplating 🙂 Anyway, this forum helped alot. I will let it go now and just not search for experieinces like that.
 
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