Will my confession of a checkered past ever end?

[ivecomeback]

This has probably been addressed in other threads, but here is the question:

After going to reconcilliation after an absence of 30+ years, I confessed everything I could think of. I have been going every 2 months or so ever since.

Now, dealing with the distant (30+ years ago) past, there is always a detail that comes up that I missed. I was wild, and confessed the sins in general, some specific, but there were so many that I couldn’t remember the details of them all. Now I do. I confessed them in a “bucket” that admitted the mortal sins - not out of a desire to hide but there were so many things to confess - but now I can see the contents of that bucket more clearly. And each time I go to reconcilliation, I bring up something from the past because these are mortal sins, there is a period of peace and then the memories of details come in again.

Where does this end? Does it ever end?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear friend,

First of all, when we go to Confession, so long as we don’t deliberately conceal any mortal sins, all of our sins (even the ones we have forgotten) are forgiven. Should we remember and un-confessed mortal sin, then we must mention it that next time we go to Confession as and expression of our sorrow for having committed it. But the sin itself is already forgiven.

If it is painful to remember such sins, then reflect on how painful it was for our Lord to suffer for them. Yet that is how much He loves you. Also, I suggest that you go to Confession every month. I do. We receive sanctifying grace whenever we are absolved. It strengthens us against temptation.

To answer specifically your original question: Yes, your confessions will eventually end, but His love for you will not.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.