Would this be considered a serious or mortal sin?

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sparrowhawk28

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When I was 13 I was going through a rough time mentally, and for some reason I decided to write hurtful, anonymous letters to myself and plant them inside my school locker. I never placed the blame on anyone or made out like a particular person had written the notes, but I did deny writing them to my teachers and my friends. I never thought about it much until recently when I told my parents.

What I did is now weighing on my conscience. At the time, it didn’t really feel like I was sinning. I guess I knew that what I was doing was wrong in some way, but I wasn’t really in the right mental state to convince myself to stop. And lying to more and more people just made things worse for me. I was diagnosed with clinical depression the following year, and I think this incident could have been a cause for or manifestation of my feelings.

I pray to God for forgiveness in this matter, but I want to know whether it would be considered a serious sin that must be confessed to a priest.
I am willing to go to confession, but I’m being held back by a fear that the priest will tell me to tell my friends - and I don’t want to push the people I love away from me. Probably a very selfish thing to be concerned about, but I’m quite troubled by it. If anyone could advise me on what to do, that would be much appreciated.
 
It’s between you and God and just your priest, but clearly you needed help.
You would need to confess your lying and deception in Confession
The priest in Confession wouldn’t tell you to tell your friends. He himself must protect your privacy.
 
I understand how you feel. I think we’ve all been there before at one time or another. For a sin to be considered mortal three things are necessary. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1857, "For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.” Because “…at the time” you didn’t feel as though you were committing a sin,chances are you weren’t - at least not a mortal sin. However, since the past seems to haunt you, to put it to rest it and give yourself a sense of inner peace I would suggest that you go to confession and talk it over with the priest who is there not only to provide you with forgiveness but also to give you spiritual guidance. Besides, the priest is taking the place of Jesus. Who better to speak with.

Hope this helps a little.
 
Trishie and rtodaro, thank you for your kind, considerate and helpful words.

I think that Confession would help me, but for a while I have been held back by a fear which is only making me feel worse. I will make a serious attempt to talk to a priest sometime in the near future.
 
sparrowhawk28 said:
When I was 13 I was going through a rough time mentally, and for some reason I decided to write hurtful, anonymous letters to myself and plant them inside my school locker. I never placed the blame on anyone or made out like a particular person had written the notes, but I did deny writing them to my teachers and my friends. I never thought about it much until recently when I told my parents.

What I did is now weighing on my conscience. At the time, it didn’t really feel like I was sinning. I guess I knew that what I was doing was wrong in some way, but I wasn’t really in the right mental state to convince myself to stop. And lying to more and more people just made things worse for me. I was diagnosed with clinical depression the following year, and I think this incident could have been a cause for or manifestation of my feelings.

I pray to God for forgiveness in this matter, but I want to know whether it would be considered a serious sin that must be confessed to a priest.
I am willing to go to confession, but I’m being held back by a fear that the priest will tell me to tell my friends - and I don’t want to push the people I love away from me. Probably a very selfish thing to be concerned about, but I’m quite troubled by it. If anyone could advise me on what to do, that would be much appreciated.
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Go to confession. Explain about the clinical depression and the unhappiness and the letters and the lies. The priest will understand and you will feel better.

It should be confessed because it’s weighing on you. But, I think you will find the priest understanding under circumstances such as you describe. I’m not a priest, but the depression, the unhappiness, the fact that you did not feel you were sinning, and whatever else may have driven you to write those letters are for the priest to judge your culpability in writing the letters. In that context, the subsequent lies do have to be confessed because they are a part of the first sin(s).

We are required to confess to a priest for absolution and be sorry for our sins. I don’t know that a priest will require you to go back to the people who might have been hurt by these letters and confess to them – as to open old wounds for which you are truly sorry. You have told your parents.

God Bless. You will feel so much better.
 
I never understand why people agonize over whether or not a sin is mortal. Go to confession and be repentent and then be forgiven.

God knows your heart, He knows all the special circumstances. Go to confession and be reconciled.

Peace,
John
 
Yikes!! Similar situation for me too-age 13 in anger I cursed out God and gave Him the bird. I too suffer from depression and anxiety and 33 years later feel quite remorseful for it. Not sure if I’ve confessed it but will in my next confessional. I totally forgot about it until now, and may God have mercy on me…:eek::confused:
 
sparrowhawk28 said:
Trishie and rtodaro, thank you for your kind, considerate and helpful words.

I think that Confession would help me, but for a while I have been held back by a fear which is only making me feel worse. I will make a serious attempt to talk to a priest sometime in the near future.
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I too have experienced being “held back by fear”. Every priest I’ve ever gone to, in the confessional or out of it, has been both kind and helpful. Thank God that He helped me work through my fears and see the priest anyway. I’ve gotten many good insights, helps, answers, and blessings as a result. Please don’t let your fears hold you back. I know how real they can feel. But I promise, because I know whats happened to me in the face of fear and going to see father anyway, that your fear will melt away when faced with the warmth God’s compassion and forgiveness. The fear is just part of being tried in the fire. You’ll come out on the other side cleaner, closer to God and less fearful. Believe me, I know. 👍
 
Leegal said:
Go to confession. Explain about the clinical depression and the unhappiness and the letters and the lies. The priest will understand and you will feel better.

It should be confessed because it’s weighing on you. But, I think you will find the priest understanding under circumstances such as you describe. I’m not a priest, but the depression, the unhappiness, the fact that you did not feel you were sinning, and whatever else may have driven you to write those letters are for the priest to judge your culpability in writing the letters. In that context, the subsequent lies do have to be confessed because they are a part of the first sin(s).

We are required to confess to a priest for absolution and be sorry for our sins. I don’t know that a priest will require you to go back to the people who might have been hurt by these letters and confess to them – as to open old wounds for which you are truly sorry. You have told your parents.

God Bless. You will feel so much better.
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Thank you. It really is weighing on me. I’m 20, and I don’t want to have to go through the rest of my life suffering from guilt or regret. I have the feeling that things will improve once I speak about the issue with a priest. Telling my parents about it was difficult enough - so difficult that I had to write my confession rather than say it to them. I’m unsure as to whether I could physically or mentally cope with having to bring up the issue with my friends.
 
lauraabarlow said:
Yikes!! Similar situation for me too-age 13 in anger I cursed out God and gave Him the bird. I too suffer from depression and anxiety and 33 years later feel quite remorseful for it. Not sure if I’ve confessed it but will in my next confessional. I totally forgot about it until now, and may God have mercy on me…:eek::confused:
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Thank you for your reply. I’m sorry you’re going through a similar experience. I’ve prayed to God and know that He sees our hearts and forgives us, but still I’m not completely at peace.

I will pray that God will give you the strength to alleviate the pain you feel, and the ability to look to the future with optimism and peace.
 
KatDad said:
I too have experienced being “held back by fear”. Every priest I’ve ever gone to, in the confessional or out of it, has been both kind and helpful. Thank God that He helped me work through my fears and see the priest anyway. I’ve gotten many good insights, helps, answers, and blessings as a result. Please don’t let your fears hold you back. I know how real they can feel. But I promise, because I know whats happened to me in the face of fear and going to see father anyway, that your fear will melt away when faced with the warmth God’s compassion and forgiveness. The fear is just part of being tried in the fire. You’ll come out on the other side cleaner, closer to God and less fearful. Believe me, I know. 👍
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Thank you so much. Your words have filled me with hope and courage. 🙂
 
sparrowhawk28 said:
Thank you. It really is weighing on me. I’m 20, and I don’t want to have to go through the rest of my life suffering from guilt or regret. I have the feeling that things will improve once I speak about the issue with a priest. Telling my parents about it was difficult enough - so difficult that I had to write my confession rather than say it to them. I’m unsure as to whether I could physically or mentally cope with having to bring up the issue with my friends.
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God Bless. Once you go to confession you will be able to forgive yourself after 7 years. Your fears are because you have not been forgiven and because you cannot forgive yourself until you go to confession.

We are not required to confess our sins to others – but to God through his representatives here on earth – the priest.
 
Leegal said:
God Bless. Once you go to confession you will be able to forgive yourself after 7 years. Your fears are because you have not been forgiven and because you cannot forgive yourself until you go to confession.

We are not required to confess our sins to others – but to God through his representatives here on earth – the priest.
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Thank you =) I think you are right. Until recently it wasn’t a problem, it was sort of like I’d just pushed it to the back of my mind. But now it takes over my thoughts quite regularly. I think confessing will be beneficial, I’m feeling a bit of relief talking about it here.
Until I manage to see a priest, I will continue to pray and hope for God’s forgiveness.
 
After 35 years in the Medical sphere- a surgeon’ general who gets paid very little by the G’vt and the companies- I do life saving surgery cancer, breast cancer , appendicitis, diverticuliti

In Georgia Medicaid (welfare) pays more for an arthroscopy of the knee than it does for an appendectomy for appendicitis- why- because the knee scope can be denied but when I’m on call and a patient has appendicitis you have to take care of it.

I would love to see the liberals come out and say that -gee the people like the police, firemen, nurses and doctors who do work without compensation come up with a way to reimburse these people even though most of them are not union members
 
rdscheirer said:
After 35 years in the Medical sphere- a surgeon’ general who gets paid very little by the G’vt and the companies- I do life saving surgery cancer, breast cancer , appendicitis, diverticuliti

In Georgia Medicaid (welfare) pays more for an arthroscopy of the knee than it does for an appendectomy for appendicitis- why- because the knee scope can be denied but when I’m on call and a patient has appendicitis you have to take care of it.

I would love to see the liberals come out and say that -gee the people like the police, firemen, nurses and doctors who do work without compensation come up with a way to reimburse these people even though most of them are not union members
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Wrong thread? 🙂
 
sparrowhawk28 said:
Thank you =) I think you are right. Until recently it wasn’t a problem, it was sort of like I’d just pushed it to the back of my mind. But now it takes over my thoughts quite regularly. I think confessing will be beneficial, I’m feeling a bit of relief talking about it here.
Until I manage to see a priest, I will continue to pray and hope for God’s forgiveness.
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Now I’m not saying you should not confess it at the next opportunity, but if you have been to confession since the incident, but did not think to confess it, you were forgiven for ALL sins. So I would doubt that you are in a state of mortal sin now because of it.

Peace be with you,
John
 
JohnMPhilomena said:
Now I’m not saying you should not confess it at the next opportunity, but if you have been to confession since the incident, but did not think to confess it, you were forgiven for ALL sins. So I would doubt that you are in a state of mortal sin now because of it.

Peace be with you,
John
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Thank you for your reply. I have been to confession since, but it wasn’t in the forefront of my mind so I did not confess it. Hopefully I will be able to see a priest sometime during the Lenten season.
 
here we are over a year later~ hope you are doing well. Sharing my thoughts with you. When you go to “confession” pray for the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind what you in most need of having healed~ Then lLISTEN to the words of absolution! and believe them. We now call confession “reconciliation”~ as being reconciled with God- meaning we are aware that we even have a relationship with HIM…
 
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