Was my confession invalid?

[christinam08]

Hi.

I went to confession yesterday and I brought a list. It was a big list since recently I had thought back to all my sins during the past few years and when I was in high school, I did A LOT. Though, I was extremely nervous and started crying. I skipped around my list a lot and generalized a lot of my sins whereas in my list they were very specific. I can’t remember how specific I was and if it was necessary to tell the priest what exactly I was did when I was involved in a certain thing or if I could just tell him that I was into it. And after I left the confessional, I realized that I left out a lot on my list. Also, I left out some because I was afraid of being scrupulous and confessing things that I wasn’t sure were sins. Will I be prevented from receiving communion on Sunday? I have been keeping from receiving it because of this insane amount of guilt I feel for my sins.I would love it if someone could help me. I really need someone to tell me something to help me get rid of this paranoia I have. I don’t want to constantly think on my sins like I do now. Thanks.

 

[Cristiano]

Hi.

I went to confession yesterday and I brought a list. It was a big list since recently I had thought back to all my sins during the past few years and when I was in high school, I did A LOT. Though, I was extremely nervous and started crying. I skipped around my list a lot and generalized a lot of my sins whereas in my list they were very specific. I can’t remember how specific I was and if it was necessary to tell the priest what exactly I was did when I was involved in a certain thing or if I could just tell him that I was into it. And after I left the confessional, I realized that I left out a lot on my list. Also, I left out some because I was afraid of being scrupulous and confessing things that I wasn’t sure were sins. Will I be prevented from receiving communion on Sunday? I have been keeping from receiving it because of this insane amount of guilt I feel for my sins.I would love it if someone could help me. I really need someone to tell me something to help me get rid of this paranoia I have. I don’t want to constantly think on my sins like I do now. Thanks.

1-If you intentionally left out mortal sins than the absolution was not valid, if you just forgot them then the absolution was valid.
2- If you were not sure that the sins were mortal probably they were not because of different reasons. However, you need to learn what a mortal sin is really about, that is your obligation as a Catholic. Choosing to stay ignorant is sinful by itself.
3- Abstaining from Communion is not a bad practice if you think that you might not be in a state of grace. However, being scrupulous is not a a healthy spiritual behavior.

From what you stated I would assume that your confession was valid. I would still encourage you to go back for frequent confession. That is a good way to grow spiritually instead of living with the concept of guilt about everything.

 

[gelsbern]

I went through a similar situation. Might I suggest you go see the priest again, face to face, explain the situation, let him view the list, ask for absolution and then burn the list.

 

[DJgang]

Hi.

I went to confession yesterday and I brought a list. It was a big list since recently I had thought back to all my sins during the past few years and when I was in high school, I did A LOT. Though, I was extremely nervous and started crying. I skipped around my list a lot and generalized a lot of my sins whereas in my list they were very specific. I can’t remember how specific I was and if it was necessary to tell the priest what exactly I was did when I was involved in a certain thing or if I could just tell him that I was into it. And after I left the confessional, I realized that I left out a lot on my list. Also, I left out some because I was afraid of being scrupulous and confessing things that I wasn’t sure were sins. Will I be prevented from receiving communion on Sunday? I have been keeping from receiving it because of this insane amount of guilt I feel for my sins.I would love it if someone could help me. I really need someone to tell me something to help me get rid of this paranoia I have. I don’t want to constantly think on my sins like I do now. Thanks.

Well, it’s going to be really hard to answer you question.

Let’s say you confessed having sex outside of marriage…that would cover all kinds of sex outside of marriage, you wouldn’t have to detail out the types, etc…make sense?

Let’s say you confessed involved in the occult…that would cover reading a book, going to a pagan circle, etc…make sense?

You can be general about your confession and not give details…now, if you left out a mortal sin on purpose, then, yes, your confession was invalid…

This happened to me at my first confession and if you wish to speak privately, I would be happy to do so.

God bless…Dana

 

[christinam08]

Thank you all! If I did omit sins is it necessary to confess the entire list again or only the ones I omitted? It was really difficult to read the list the first time but I’ll do it if I really need to. The reasons that I omitted certain sins were because I thought they were too specific and it would be redundant to state them after I stated a similar sin.

 

[Cristiano]

Thank you all! If I did omit sins is it necessary to confess the entire list again or only the ones I omitted? It was really difficult to read the list the first time but I’ll do it if I really need to. The reasons that I omitted certain sins were because I thought they were too specific and it would be redundant to state them after I stated a similar sin.

Talk to the priest about it. The bottom line is that if the confession was not valid then you have to confess all the sins again. None of them has been forgiven. If the confession was valid all of them have been forgiven even the ones that you did not mention. However, you still have to bring up the ones that you forgot at the next confession or that will be a new sin by itself.