Ten Commandments and today's interpetation for examination of conscience

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Fran_CR

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As a cradle Catholic, I was raised learning the Ten Commandments as the bases of making a “good” confession. Today, I see and hear many cradle Catholics such as myself, with comments such as “I have no sins to confess.” In defense of that statement, I am referring to the “childhood” description given to me and other cradle Catholics of the Ten Commandments. As a grown up, I have some of the Ten Commandments, especially the latter 7, grow up with me. But I was wondering what sins (other than venial or minor sins) could cause a Priest of the Pope himself to go to confession more often than I. Am I missing something??
 
of course the 10 commandments are the starting point of a good examination of conscience. Jesus imposed a new interpretation of how to apply those commandments in his teaching, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the Beatitudes. The laws of the Church, the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, are also relevant in determining not only were we have committed sin, but where we have avoided doing good we should do.

traditional Catholics are bound by the same commandments and moral law of Christ as all other Catholics, so I don’t know why this forum, rather than morality, is being used.
 
Fran_CR said:
But I was wondering what sins (other than venial or minor sins) could cause a Priest of the Pope himself to go to confession more often than I. Am I missing something??
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Maybe some of them are only confessing venial sins?

But anytime a person acts selfishly or craves earthly things or the like can be considered a form of violating the 1st commandment, i.e. not putting God first at all times. As I understand it, all sins are a form of violating commandment #1. So if priests or Popes have anger or inconsideration or laziness or whatever, they can always at least say: “I failed to put God completely first in such-and-such an incident.” Still those tend to be venial.

Perhaps that answers?
 
Fran_CR said:
But I was wondering what sins (other than venial or minor sins) could cause a Priest of the Pope himself to go to confession more often than I. Am I missing something??
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I think most of them go to confession often to gain the graces to avoid sinning.

I often confess thoughts and emotions that I don’t think rise to the level of mortal sins (i.e. fleeting thoughts I don’t dwell on or act on) in order to help myself resist these thought.

I think it is a good idea to confess our temptations, even if we don’t act on them. It helps in resisting.

God Bless
 
A priest I know, who is a sought-after confessor, tells me that in hearing frequent confessions of clergy and Religious, the quest is to eliminate faults and imperfections and to obtain the graces of the Sacrament towards that end. He comes to the Sacrament at LEAST once a week himself (since he is a Religious, he can do it more often if he feels the need – and sometimes he does).
 
Looking at the title of the thread, I thought it would involve new interpretations of any given Commandment, like for instance in one book written in the 1970s or 80s (in French), it sounded as though one could fulfill the precept “Keep the sabbath” by going to mass any given day of the week (Tuesday, for instance) on a regular basis, or something of the kind… unless it only meant to give a justification for us Christians to go to church on Sunday rather than on Friday night or Saturday during the daytime? This was not how I saw it then, and I was rather shocked at the time, I remember…
 
Actually, from the way the threadstarter started it, the title should have been something like: Preparing For Confession With The Ten Commandments Today… no?
 
If we do not have any big sins that we struggle with, it is best to examine our conscience according to the virtues. In other words, instead of asking “have a killed anyone”, we should ask “have I been impatient”, etc.

If we examine our conscience in light of the virtues, it will reveal more of our lesser faults.
 
Don’t forget that you can (and should, at times) confess crimes of omission.
 
mercygate said:
A priest I know, who is a sought-after confessor, tells me that in hearing frequent confessions of clergy and Religious, the quest is to eliminate faults and imperfections and to obtain the graces of the Sacrament towards that end. He comes to the Sacrament at LEAST once a week himself (since he is a Religious, he can do it more often if he feels the need – and sometimes he does).
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We are all called to holiness. Confession is not only for mortal sins. Though according to the Church teaching, only mortal sins are required to be confessed. As followers of Jesus, we are not just to do the minimum but to give our maximum. What you mentioned above is very right. Frequent confession is to gain God’s grace and to eliminate imperfection, a concrete way toward holiness.
 
A great book is The Sinners Guide ny venerable Louis of Grenada. I think it was written in the 16th century at the time of the reformation and was credited with over 1 million conversions soon after it’s release. It’s a great book to go thru and write down your sins as you go. Which is very handy if you get a spiritual director or change SD’s. You can keep your writings for a general confession Keep the list well hidden though.
When examining your conscience you can say, “Lord, that I may see.” As the blind man said to Jesus.
It’s very important to confess our venial sins in order for us to overcome them. You are obliged to confess all mortal sins, but if we don’t fight against the venial sins we most certainly will fall into mortal sin.
 
Even if you can’t think of any particular sins… mortal or venial… most of us do have weaknessess, flaws and shortcomings. I agree with the others, that this is a good starting point… in examination of one’s conscience.

When I do this… even though, (on rare occasions) I can’t recall any particular instance of sin… I can certainly begin to see where I have fallen short. And that is what I will discuss with the priest hearing my confession. Because I realize that these shortcomings have often caused “sins of omission” in my case.

I hope this helps. God bless. 🙂
 
Pax_et_Caritas said:
If we do not have any big sins that we struggle with, it is best to examine our conscience according to the virtues. In other words, instead of asking “have a killed anyone”, we should ask “have I been impatient”, etc.

If we examine our conscience in light of the virtues, it will reveal more of our lesser faults.
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That may be true, but what we are not to familiar with is the fact that many sins actually ARE against at least one of the commandments (not just the commandment about loving ang serving God with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole spirit and all our might). For instance, calumny goes against the commandment “Thou shalt not kill (or murder)”. Same with staying angry at your neighbor (brought up by the Lord Himself at the Sermon on the Mount, Mt 5 to 7.), and so on. All “small” commandments, it seems, derive from any of the Ten Commandments, and the last nine commandments derive from the first one! Great, isn’t it?
 
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