Stumbling block on my way back to the church

[queenbix]

It took me quite some while to rediscover this powerful sacrament myself.

When you come back to God and when you experience Him as the One who loves you in such a deep, gentle, overwhelming and personal way, all you ever want now is please Him, be as close as possible to Him and love Him as much as you can.

But then you also realise that sin is the obstacle that separates you from Him. And you realise that sin is hurting Him and offends Him. That every sin, big or small, is denying Him, the One who loves you.

So it naturally follows that you are drawn to confession because your soul cries out to be freed from that sin, that any obstacle between you and God be taken away. And so you come before God, telling Him what He already knows, because He has been there all your life, ever ready to love you, ever ready to forgive you, if only you ask for it …

In the sacrament of confession, the Holy Spirit through the priest, in the sacrament of confession, cleanses and heals your soul. This sacrament allows you to come back into the state Adam and Eve were in before they first sinned.

Confession is full of healing, full of love, full of forgiving, it is full of God.
Just don’t let our pride and embarrassment hinder us from coming to God in this sacrament. Pray to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, and He will lead you through your confession. I can only recommend it, I had such wonderful experiences with Him.

 

[raaucoin]

The looming dead line has put me in a state of mind where I feel like my confession is being driven by a dead line instead of being led by the Holy Spirit. This has become a bit of a point of contention between my wife and I.
Am I wrong to feel this way?

In reading your story it sounds like it IS the Holy Spirit that is leading the way! Maybe God is so eager to have you reunited to Himself and the Church Sacramentally that He is exercising His prerogative to be the God of All things- even time! Get out of His way and let Him do His thing. Welcome Home and Peace to you and your wife.

 

[OraLabora]

Been there done that! Came home in 1997 after a 22 year absence. Like you I had numerous ugly stuff in my past. There is no need to go into gory details. Surely like me there’s even stuff you forgot. Just tell the priest the sins you can recall, and if applicable, that they happened once, or numerous times. Believe me they’ve heard it all. The priest that did my first confession in 22 years was kindly, and afterwards welcomed me back and, jokingly, to wait 22 years for my next confession!

This is a turning point in your life, not the filling out of some kind of ledgers dates, number of times and types of sin. The important thing is to get the big ticket items off your conscience, the ones really eating away at you. If you forget one or two, but you recall them later and they’re still bugging you (even though you’ll be absolved of all your sins if you genuinely confess those that you can recall and don’t willingly leave any off the list) you can always mention them at another confession.

Also, if you didn’t know something was a mortal sin at the time, then it wasn’t a mortal sin. To be culpable of mortal sin, it has to be grave matter, done with full knowledge that it’s a mortal sin, and with full consent of the will.

 

[spiderweb]

The devil doesn’t want you to go to confession. He will put every possible doubt into your mind, including that your not ready yet. If you listen to him, you will never “be ready”. The Holy Spirit has led you this far, don’t stop now. There is no doubt that it can be extremely difficult, but the benefit of being fully united to Christ is worth it.

 

[fred_conty]

I had to deal with another situation once, and I was really worried. A friend of mine told me “99% of the time it is never as bad as we blow it up to be”.

God is calling you so just prepare and leave the rest to Him. It won’t be as bad as our fears make it seem.

Glad to hear about your blessing.​

“O bless the Lord for every gift that comes to grace our way. And praise the God of faithfulness, who comes to light our day.” (hymn)