Wondering about details in confessional - disguised language

[TwoNames]

First, let me tell you, that I tend to be scrupulous sometimes. This morning I unfortunately had to confess a sin of impurity with myself - with pornography.

I did an examination of conscience before going to confession and stated my mortal sin both in kind and number. But I was also feeling guilty of how this sin was committed, because of the details of my sin (doesn’t include any objects or toys or anything like that. it is just where it all …ended… in the heat of the moment (I can not get in much details - forum rules)). So, because I also wanted to confess this part of my sin, I did that by saying “I mastrubated x times with pornography, I am very sorry for that, and I am also very sorry for all the other impure things I did to myself”.

Was that enough details?

I was confessing to an old bishop and he did not have any more questions regarding my sin. Before giving an absolution he even told me that how I made a good and sincere confession. That’s when I told him that I am afraid, that I wasn’t specific enough. He asked me why I think so? I told him that I fear sometimes that I don’t make a good confession. He told me that this is the work of the evil one and that we must not listen to the evil one and that I made a good and detailed confession.

Then, when I said an act of contrition, I was not very concentrated, becuase I was already scared and stressed about the details.

Any advice? I have like an anxiety attack because of my fears and am afraid. The more I analyse my confession, the worse I feel about it.

God bless you all.

 

[Catholic1954]

Peace be with you! If your confessor needs or wants any more details, he will ask. My advice is to stop worrying about your confession and trust the priest. He is standing in for Jesus, who knows all about your sin.

 

[Trident_H]

First, let me tell you, that I tend to be scrupulous sometimes. This morning I unfortunately had to confess a sin of impurity with myself - with pornography.

I did an examination of conscience before going to confession and stated my mortal sin both in kind and number. But I was also feeling guilty of how this sin was committed, because of the details of my sin (doesn’t include any objects or toys or anything like that. it is just where it all …ended… in the heat of the moment (I can not get in much details - forum rules)). So, because I also wanted to confess this part of my sin, I did that by saying “I mastrubated x times with pornography, I am very sorry for that, and I am also very sorry for all the other impure things I did to myself”.

Was that enough details?

I was confessing to an old bishop and he did not have any more questions regarding my sin. Before giving an absolution he even told me that how I made a good and sincere confession. That’s when I told him that I am afraid, that I wasn’t specific enough. He asked me why I think so? I told him that I fear sometimes that I don’t make a good confession. He told me that this is the work of the evil one and that we must not listen to the evil one and that I made a good and detailed confession.

Then, when I said an act of contrition, I was not very concentrated, becuase I was already scared and stressed about the details.

Any advice? I have like an anxiety attack because of my fears and am afraid. The more I analyse my confession, the worse I feel about it.

God bless you all.

Buddy. God loves you. He really does. You’ve given way more than He even asked. I mean God knows your heart. Confession’s supposed to be for US. It’s supposed to give US a release from the stuff that holds us down. It’s supposed to give us a way to stay accountable. It’s supposed to give us a way to wash our souls. But God KNOWS you feel awful. He KNOWS you’ve gone to confession and will try super hard not to do it again.

That’s all that matters man. You’ve already got the keys of this down. I mean you’re like the guy who already won the pot at poker worrying about whether he should’ve used a different strategy to have won. It’s a side show. Let it slide buddy.

Peace TwoNames. I love you man. :hug1:

-Trident

 

[Exsultet]

I was confessing to an old bishop and he did not have any more questions regarding my sin.

Call it a feeling, or a sixth sense, or just a bit of intuition—but I would highly suspect that His Excellency knows how to properly hear Confession and how to adequately judge your words. I would encourage you to trust him.

Please read these two excellent posts:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=13890814&postcount=2
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=13893268&postcount=12

 

[RPRPsych]

Buddy. God loves you. He really does. You’ve given way more than He even asked. I mean God knows your heart. Confession’s supposed to be for US. It’s supposed to give US a release from the stuff that holds us down. It’s supposed to give us a way to stay accountable. It’s supposed to give us a way to wash our souls. But God KNOWS you feel awful. He KNOWS you’ve gone to confession and will try super hard not to do it again.

That’s all that matters man. You’ve already got the keys of this down. I mean you’re like the guy who already won the pot at poker worrying about whether he should’ve used a different strategy to have won. It’s a side show. Let it slide buddy.

Peace TwoNames. I love you man. :hug1:

-Trident

 

[RPRPsych]

Buddy. God loves you. He really does. You’ve given way more than He even asked. I mean God knows your heart. Confession’s supposed to be for US. It’s supposed to give US a release from the stuff that holds us down. It’s supposed to give us a way to stay accountable. It’s supposed to give us a way to wash our souls. But God KNOWS you feel awful. He KNOWS you’ve gone to confession and will try super hard not to do it again.

That’s all that matters man. You’ve already got the keys of this down. I mean you’re like the guy who already won the pot at poker worrying about whether he should’ve used a different strategy to have won. It’s a side show. Let it slide buddy.

Peace TwoNames. I love you man. :hug1:

-Trident

Very well said!

 

[catholictiger]

First, let me tell you, that I tend to be scrupulous sometimes. This morning I unfortunately had to confess a sin of impurity with myself - with pornography.

I did an examination of conscience before going to confession and stated my mortal sin both in kind and number. But I was also feeling guilty of how this sin was committed, because of the details of my sin (doesn’t include any objects or toys or anything like that. it is just where it all …ended… in the heat of the moment (I can not get in much details - forum rules)). So, because I also wanted to confess this part of my sin, I did that by saying “I mastrubated x times with pornography, I am very sorry for that, and I am also very sorry for all the other impure things I did to myself”.

Was that enough details?

I was confessing to an old bishop and he did not have any more questions regarding my sin. Before giving an absolution he even told me that how I made a good and sincere confession. That’s when I told him that I am afraid, that I wasn’t specific enough. He asked me why I think so? I told him that I fear sometimes that I don’t make a good confession. He told me that this is the work of the evil one and that we must not listen to the evil one and that I made a good and detailed confession.

Then, when I said an act of contrition, I was not very concentrated, becuase I was already scared and stressed about the details.

Any advice? I have like an anxiety attack because of my fears and am afraid. The more I analyse my confession, the worse I feel about it.

God bless you all.

You don’t need to go into great detail in the confessional, simply saying the number and kind of every sin is really enough.

My suggestion next time you start thinking back to your confession and thinking I need to confess more, just stop yourself and say Thank you God for forgiving me my sins. I know it may feel like you need to confess more but you know where it will lead you if you keep on thinking about the confessional. Do your best to stop your mind from overanalyzing your confession experience.

But also you may want to go talk to a priest about this stuff, the fact that you had an anxiety attack because of thinking about your confession can be problematic (not sinful in anyway.) Hopefully he can lead you in the right direction.

one more simple question: have you talked to anyone about your scrupulosity before, about your anxiety, other issues surrounding this?