Will my Confession be Invalid

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Last week I became distracted at Mass and began looking to see what hymns would be next (This is very unusual for me). During this time I knew I shouldn’t and as I allowed my self to remain distracted I began asking God for forgiveness. I then realized that I shouldn’t do that if I was choosing to continue what I was doing; so I stopped, I don’t believe I ever thought I’ll just confess this later and used that to justify what I was doing. When I go to confession tomorrow I’ll confess this, but does my attitude invalidate the confession I’ll make?
 
What I would say you do is tell the priest your thoughts on why you think your confession may be invalidated. He can make sure that it won’t be and help you understand what is going on in your heart.

I’m very sure it wasn’t but if you are unsure talk to the confessor.
 
I don’t see any reason why this would invalidate your confession. However, you can always mention it in your confession and then you don’t have to worry about it. 🙂
 
Scrupulosity is a terrible thing. Please get professional help for it (as has been recommended in many prior threads).
 
1ke said:
Scrupulosity is a terrible thing. Please get professional help for it (as has been recommended in many prior threads).
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no disrespect but allow this person’s confessor to make that judgement not you.
 
C794 said:
Last week I became distracted at Mass and began looking to see what hymns would be next (This is very unusual for me). During this time I knew I shouldn’t and as I allowed my self to remain distracted I began asking God for forgiveness.
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Do you get distracted during every day things? I do. I also get distracted during Mass. I don’t think it is sinful to be distracted or to even look at the next hymn… not perfect attention- but not sinful. I don’t know anyone with perfect attention to anything, even Mass.

Talk to your priest in confession or out of confession to see if this idea you expressed here is being scrupulous. He will advise you on how to handle your concerns.
 
Thanks. I wasn’t concerned about my distraction being sinful. I was more concerned by my attitude. In regards to my concern over the validity of my confession: in the past I have heard that attitudes similar to mine would invalidate a confession. For that reason I wanted to verify such claims using the situation I described.

Thanks again for the replies.
 
How would that be a sin and/or invalidate your Confession?
 
The reason I was told that it would invalidate a confession because it using it as an excuse to sin.

I just want to ask one last question one this topic. This will be the last time I ask a confession validity or mortal sin question. I’m really sorry for this. So today at confession while I was receiving my penance I had the feeling that I forgot to mention a sin. Since I was embarrassed to stop him and I didn’t remember the sin I forgot, I let him continue and did not attempt to remember any sin I may have forgotten (I had already interrupted him once while he was assigning the penance because I hadn’t finished confessing the sins I remembered). While saying the act of contrition a sin that I had thought about confessing popped into my mind. I quickly dismissed this as scrupulosity. Although, I wasn’t quite sure that my assessment was correct. I think I wanted to dismiss it so that I wouldn’t have to interrupt the priest; I was already embarrassed because of my first interruption. The action in question involved me doing something I thought would be mortally sinful, prior to the action, but the reason I thought this was purely do to OCD. So did my lack of mentioning this invalidate my confession?

PS. I have taken your advice to find a confessor, but it takes time and I’m not always able to ask a priest these questions. So this becomes the best place to ask.
 
C794 said:
This will be the last time I ask a confession validity or mortal sin question. So did my lack of mentioning this invalidate my confession?

PS. I have taken your advice to find a confessor, but it takes time and I’m not always able to ask a priest these questions. So this becomes the best place to ask.
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Actually the best place to ask is either outside of confession with the priest or during Confession with the priest. Your priest (even if its not the same one each time) will help you in a way that we can not. You must listen to what he says and do what he says.

He needs to see your mind running to… sin and question of sin and more question if the next thought is a sin or if it might be a sin or if it could be a sin…

We would all love to help you, but its not you thinking “mathematically, if you will”, meaning A = Sin and B does not = Sin. Its the OCD mind working over and over and over… which you do know and are aware of it happening.

You must take all of this to the priest and it would be good to ask your parents if you can see your pediatrician about OCD. Your doctor may find you a wonderful therapist to help you.

May God give you the strength to work with your priest and professional on your troubling thoughts.

Peace.
 
I’ll take this to a , but it will take time. The priest closest to me appears not to believe in mortal and venial sin. There is one a half hour a way, who seems orthodox. The problem is that this makes it difficult to meet with him and right now I don’t feel comfortable discussing this with him. I’m working on approving this situation.

I don’t believe that I’ll need to see a therapist for this. I know I don’t seem credible with this, but I have a lot of experience fighting OCD. I did see a therapist a few years back and from that I have a better handle on my OCD than ever before and it has continued to improve since then. I think the reason I struggle in this situation is that I have no knowledge of moral theology. As a result, I have nothing to refer back to to help my self think through my problems.My past experience indicates that once I learn what is worth worrying about and what isn’t I’ll be able to dismiss my scrupules. For this I think talking to a priest will suffice.
 
april32010 said:
the op in past threads has spoken of his scrupulosity .
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ok fine let a confessor deal with it not you.

a message board isn’t an appropriate medium to tell a man/women how to deal with a serious issue or problem in the spiritual life.
 
C794 said:
I’ll take this to a , but it will take time. The priest closest to me appears not to believe in mortal and venial sin. There is one a half hour a way, who seems orthodox. The problem is that this makes it difficult to meet with him and right now I don’t feel comfortable discussing this with him. I’m working on approving this situation.

I don’t believe that I’ll need to see a therapist for this. I know I don’t seem credible with this, but I have a lot of experience fighting OCD. I did see a therapist a few years back and from that I have a better handle on my OCD than ever before and it has continued to improve since then. I think the reason I struggle in this situation is that I have no knowledge of moral theology. As a result, I have nothing to refer back to to help my self think through my problems.My past experience indicates that once I learn what is worth worrying about and what isn’t I’ll be able to dismiss my scrupules. For this I think talking to a priest will suffice.
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do you only have 2 priests within 90 minuets of you? If so I would just go to the priest closet because as long as he doesn’t invalidate the confession you need the grace. Maybe your should try and find another priest who isn’t so far from you.

If I were you I would find your second closet parish and go to confession with that priest hopefully he is more orthodox then the closet priest you described.
 
C794 said:
The reason I was told that it would invalidate a confession because it using it as an excuse to sin.

I just want to ask one last question one this topic. This will be the last time I ask a confession validity or mortal sin question. I’m really sorry for this. So today at confession while I was receiving my penance I had the feeling that I forgot to mention a sin. Since I was embarrassed to stop him and I didn’t remember the sin I forgot, I let him continue and did not attempt to remember any sin I may have forgotten (I had already interrupted him once while he was assigning the penance because I hadn’t finished confessing the sins I remembered). While saying the act of contrition a sin that I had thought about confessing popped into my mind. I quickly dismissed this as scrupulosity. Although, I wasn’t quite sure that my assessment was correct. I think I wanted to dismiss it so that I wouldn’t have to interrupt the priest; I was already embarrassed because of my first interruption. The action in question involved me doing something I thought would be mortally sinful, prior to the action, but the reason I thought this was purely do to OCD. So did my lack of mentioning this invalidate my confession?

PS. I have taken your advice to find a confessor, but it takes time and I’m not always able to ask a priest these questions. So this becomes the best place to ask.
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What would I would do in the situation of forgetting a sin during absolution, kindly say to the priest, I forgot to mention a sin during the confession, and then let him speak. A priest doesn’t mind taking more time with you if you forgot to confess something. (should be the case but maybe there are exceptions.)
 
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