Why Don't They Have Confession Before Mass?

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Why don’t they have Confession before Mass? That way everyone could receive the Eucharist. When you go to confession on Saturday or after Mass you still have lots of time between confession and Sunday to fall into a state of mortal sin.
 
Melodeonist said:
Why don’t they have Confession before Mass? That way everyone could receive the Eucharist. When you go to confession on Saturday or after Mass you still have lots of time between confession and Sunday to fall into a state of mortal sin.
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Last week we were travelling and I saw the priest in the back of the Church. I had been wanting to go to confession but had trouble making the scheduled times. I decided to just go right up and ask him. He was very happy to hear my confession and it only took about two minutes. 👍

Some parishes do have scheduled confessions before Mass. But you can also *ask *a priest, too.
 
Melodeonist said:
Why don’t they have Confession before Mass? That way everyone could receive the Eucharist. When you go to confession on Saturday or after Mass you still have lots of time between confession and Sunday to fall into a state of mortal sin.
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The purpose of the sacrament of confession is not just so you can receive communion. Ideally the grace guides us as we avoid or resist temptation.

Where I live, confession is usually right before the Saturday vigil Mass, which is generally 4 PM or 4:30. I am not thrilled with this. Nowadays the priest hearing confessions is almost always the one saying that Mass. In my parish there are usually a few in line, so I wonder if the priest will have time. Ideally the priest should have nothing imminent after confessions. If there is a special situation, he should be available for as much time as needed, without worrying about that church filling up with people waiting for him to be on time. On Sunday morning there isn’t much time, the pastor says 3 Masses back-to-back.

In rural churches, the priest may only be at the church once during that week, so he has Mass right after confessions. I would rather Confessions after Mass. Luckily in my city we still have a religious order with daily confessions at their downtown parish. Sadly, the priests are all old, with no replacements coming out of the sem. God bless them for their service now.
 
I can think of a few reasons:

(1) A lack of manpower
(2) A lack of interest
(3) A focus away from Confession in certain parishes
(4) Genuinely wise and prudent pastoral decisions

But I think a lot of parishes staffed by, for example, the FSSP offer Confession before each and every Mass, and sometimes even before, during, *and *after. I also know of a diocesan parish some 70 miles north of here that offers Confession before each Mass on Sunday. But on the whole, you’re right, it’s kind of rare.

I agree with the idea, but to be fair, I don’t know what sort of person would have difficulty lasting fewer than 24 hours without actually committing a mortal sin. What comes to mind are addicts or people who go off into extreme rages or simply the scrupulous who think they’ve committed mortal sins but haven’t. There’s a lot of mitigating circumstances in the first two groups, and the third by no means should be trying to get to more Confessions. I guess another group might be those who aren’t really sorry for their sins anyway, and are just legalistically going to Confession without genuinely trying to amend their lives. But again, more Confession is not the answer, evangelization is.
 
commenter said:
The purpose of the sacrament of confession is not just so you can receive communion. Ideally the grace guides us as we avoid or resist temptation.

Where I live, confession is usually right before the Saturday vigil Mass, which is generally 4 PM or 4:30. I am not thrilled with this. Nowadays the priest hearing confessions is almost always the one saying that Mass. In my parish there are usually a few in line, so I wonder if the priest will have time. Ideally the priest should have nothing imminent after confessions. If there is a special situation, he should be available for as much time as needed, without worrying about that church filling up with people waiting for him to be on time. On Sunday morning there isn’t much time, the pastor says 3 Masses back-to-back.

In rural churches, the priest may only be at the church once during that week, so he has Mass right after confessions. I would rather Confessions after Mass. Luckily in my city we still have a religious order with daily confessions at their downtown parish. Sadly, the priests are all old, with no replacements coming out of the sem. God bless them for their service now.
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Exactly the same here. Our priest is very available for confession by appointment in his office as well.

Anyway, it may to a disordered notion of how things should go. We should be more and more distanced from the occasion of sin.
In Mexico, the priests tell people that they can only receive communion if they confess immediately before Mass.
While I understand the end result they want, in fact, it backfires. We have oodles of people who refuse to go into the Communion line because they feel they are so unworthy (we’re talking venial sin here) and they seldom receive, which, in the end is not good for their souls.

We should not view Confession as a spiritual shower, but a vehicle for the grace to avoid sin in the future and make our lives more holy. Yes, more people COULD receive, but really…would they? Do people really desire a reconciliation of the relationship with Christ?
More education on the worthy reception of Eucharist AND the need for the sacrament of Reconciliation would be more beneficial than shifting confession times.
 
My parish has confession before each weekend Mass (not before daily Mass though there is confession for several hours on Thursday).

Recently I traveled out of state and was looking for a place to attend Mass, and very few of the churches even had regular confession and those that did were 1/2 hour a week.

Of course I understand the lack of priests to hear confessions, but it makes me wonder whether some less- educated people might see little/no scheduled confession as something that’s just not a priority.
 
Some parishes do, but usually if there is more than 1 priest. Our priest is in charge of 3 parishes with 5 masses. He doesn’t have the time.
 
There are confessions at my church for about half an hour before Mass.
 
My Church holds confession for an hour and a half before the Saturday evening mass. I attend regularly.
 
Melodeonist said:
Why don’t they have Confession before Mass? That way everyone could receive the Eucharist. When you go to confession on Saturday or after Mass you still have lots of time between confession and Sunday to fall into a state of mortal sin.
Click to expand...
This is my complaint as well. I usually can’t make the Saturday confession time at the local parish, so typically have to travel to another church that offers Sunday confession times or schedule an appt. outside normal hours. Before Sunday mass seems like the “normal” time for confessions. Just my opinion.
 
I do wish that more parishes offered confession on Sundays before Mass… though some do. One local parish, served by Dominican friars, offers confession before AND after all 7 Sunday masses… each friar spends hours in the confessional each Sunday. Its awesome and my go to parish for Sunday confession needs. The cathedral offers confession 3 times a day daily but only Monday to Saturday, not on Sundays. Between the two parishes I’m covered 7 days a week morning, afternoon, or evening.
 
My parish offers Confession a half hour before every Mass.

Our pastor simply has a sacristan prepare everything before Mass while he is in the confessional. He exists just in time for Mass.
 
We do at our parish, if there is a priest available. The confessionals are in the back of the church, so they continue during Mass if there are many people in line.
 
Our abbey has confessions 1/2 hr before Sunday Mass. Since there are many priests concelebrating, it doesn’t matter if a confession goes into overtime. Usually it is the same monk doing the confessions every week. I occasionally see him sneaking into his stall after Mass has started; clearly some confessor needed extra time and he gave it.

While our rural parish does not offer regular confessions before Mass (the priests are stretched pretty thin and usually cover some kilometres speeding from Mass to Mass, and yes I do mean speeding, I was tailgated by the priest once, on my way to Mass), on several occasions I have felt a need to confess and was never refused when I asked before Mass.
 
Quit sinning!!!

(For pete’s sake, I’m just joking.)

Tell the priest to get his act together.

That is true. when they don’t allow enough time it can be very hard. One priest told me that if he didn’t leave the confessional soon, they would start the mass without him. Of course, we wouldn’t want that.
 
I meant this message for someone, but it blipped off the screen.

The devil must be doing that.
 
Melodeonist said:
Why don’t they have Confession before Mass? That way everyone could receive the Eucharist. When you go to confession on Saturday or after Mass you still have lots of time between confession and Sunday to fall into a state of mortal sin.
Click to expand...
Completely impractical in our parish. We have 10 Masses every Sunday. No way could Confession take place on Sundays.
On the other hand we have Confession 6 days a week (Mon - Sat) so there should be no excuse for not going if in need.
 
Melodeonist said:
Why don’t they have Confession before Mass? That way everyone could receive the Eucharist. When you go to confession on Saturday or after Mass you still have lots of time between confession and Sunday to fall into a state of mortal sin.
Click to expand...
Well, our priest drives 15 miles each Sunday to be at our mission Church by 8:00 a.m.

He does come on Tuesday to hear confessions though.
 
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