What to do if committed mortal sin before penance

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live_lion

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Hello, I just have a question I really wanted to ask. I previously just went to confession where I confessed my sins and the priest gave me penance to do, however before I could complete it, outside of the church, I did two things that I think could be mortal sins. The things I did were some of the things that I confessed in confession. What do I do if I committed a mortal sin before completing penance? By that I mean, do I have to re-confess the entire confession plus the fact that I failed to do penance before committing mortal sins and confess those, or do I just confess the two sins that I did before completing penance or something else?

Thank you!
 
Assuming you received absolution in the confessional, everything you confessed is gone. You don’t need to confess any of it again.

You doing your penance has nothing to do with your absolution. Even if you didn’t bother to do your penance at all, your confessed sins would still be absolved and do not need to be reconfessed.

If you have committed new mortal sins after confession, then you would need to confess those new sins.

I am skeptical that you managed to commit two mortal sins right after confession outside the church. Please discuss this with your priest.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I am skeptical that you managed to commit two mortal sins right after confession outside the church. Please discuss this with your priest.
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Agreed. Even though the penance doesn’t have a bearing on your absolution, you should still mention to the priest that you have an unfinished penance if you return to confession before you can complete the penance. They usually want to know these things to better judge what you’re dealing with and the proper advice, etc.
 
Three things are required for a mortal sin:
  1. Grave matter
  2. Full knowledge of the sin to be committed
  3. Full consent of the will.
If you “think you might have” committed mortal sins while standing outside the church, then you didn’t. You would be certain if you had.
 
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