What was my penance?

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This may be a lame question, but here it goes.

I was out of town last weekend, and went to Confession at a Church I’ve never been to. Everything went fairly normal at first. I confessed my sins; the priest gave me some suggestions to avoid those sins in the future, etc. What was a first for me was that he didn’t say “…and for your penance…” do this, or say that. Instead he gave me absolution, and then asked me to pray an Act of Contrition afterwards. So my question is this: Do I consider the Act of Contrition my “penance” even though it wasn’t stated as: “… and for your penance say the Act of Contrition…”

Most of the priests I have ever gone to ask me to say an Act of Contrition AFTER telling me what my penance is and BEFORE absolution. This just seemed a little strange to me. But maybe others have experienced this?

Thanks in advance for the posts!
 
Well, since he didn’t specify anything other than an act of contrition, I’d say you are home free. Maybe he just forgot. You can give yourself a decade of the rosary if you like, just to ensure that you do a penance in connection with that particular confession.
 
I went ahead and said some prayers at the Church before I left. It was just a strange experience for me. I’m curious if he did just forget, or if there are priests out there that do that as a norm. :confused:
 
AMDG3141 said:
I went ahead and said some prayers at the Church before I left. It was just a strange experience for me. I’m curious if he did just forget, or if there are priests out there that do that as a norm. :confused:
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I’ve had that problem lately, but I don’t really blame the priest. The priest speaks Korean, I speak English. I translate my sins ahead of time and read it in Korean off of a sheet, and he tries to give me my penance and absolution in English. It’s a very awkward process that I don’t enjoy at all, and I doubt he does either. I just have to trust that God understands that we’re doing the best we can in a difficult situation.
 
I’ve had a somewhat similar experiance regarding penance. I went to confession and it was the usual ritual but the priest who is a Carmelite (don’t know if that makes any differnce), said “I’ll do your penance.” and that was the end of that.
 
AMDG3141 said:
This may be a lame question, but here it goes.

I was out of town last weekend, and went to Confession at a Church I’ve never been to. Everything went fairly normal at first. I confessed my sins; the priest gave me some suggestions to avoid those sins in the future, etc. What was a first for me was that he didn’t say “…and for your penance…” do this, or say that. Instead he gave me absolution, and then asked me to pray an Act of Contrition afterwards. So my question is this: Do I consider the Act of Contrition my “penance” even though it wasn’t stated as: “… and for your penance say the Act of Contrition…”

Most of the priests I have ever gone to ask me to say an Act of Contrition AFTER telling me what my penance is and BEFORE absolution. This just seemed a little strange to me. But maybe others have experienced this?

Thanks in advance for the posts!
Click to expand...
I’ve had this happen with Jesuit priests in the past. They merely said to remember that God loves you and absolved me. They usually didn’t even ask for an act of contrition.
 
I went to Confession one time to a very spiritual and reverent priest who spoke to me beautifully about my sins, and then said “You take life too seriously. For your penance, I want you to get together with someone and go out and have a good time.”:confused:

So I did. But I thought it was rather strange. And yes, he is an orthodox priest. Nothing liberal about him. But I must say, he had me pegged.
 
The Priest has a right to assign penance or no penance as he sees fit. St. John Vianney even used to do the penance for his parishoners.

The penance does NOT affect the absolution. As long as you approach confession in the right state of mind, you are absolved when the Priest speaks the words of absolution.

So you’re fine. Don’t worry. 🙂

God Bless
 
Penance is an important part, but I think we sometimes don’t see the forest through the trees. Often times, as Catholics, we feel we must have a penance to be forgiven and often loose sight of God’s mercy and loving nature. I think that the most important part of confession is entering the confessional truly penitent and being honest with yourself, the priest, and more importantly, God.
I think if you go in with a humble and penitent heart, and have been obsolved, we should be offering God thanksgivings for his mercy and grace instead.
Notice I used satements of " I think." This is solely my opinion.

Peace to all.
 
Thank you everyone for all the replies!
I do feel better about that experience! 😉
 
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