And if you are forgiven for all your sins automatically whether you are able to confess them or not, then what's the point of listing all of them? Is it necessary? Is it one of those "It's the thought that counts" sort of things?
2007-01-02 08:50:25 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
How am I being a smart alec? I'm serious...sheesh...I can't get a break today.
2007-01-02 09:11:42 · update #1
As long as you are honest and sincere, it is no big deal.
This is one way how to go to Confession
+ Get yourself ready by making your examination of conscience.
+ After the priest greets you with the Sign of the Cross make the Sign of the Cross and say: “Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been (say how long) since my last confession. These are my sins…”
+ Tell your sins simply and honestly to the priest. Don’t be embarrassed.
+ When you are done listing your sins please say: “…I am sorry for these sins and all the sins I can’t remember.”
+ Listen to the advice the priest gives you and accept the penance from him. Then make an Act of Contrition for your sins:
My God,
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
And failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Amen.
+ The priest will then conclude with the words: “Your sins are truly forgiven, Go in Peace”. You respond: “Thanks be to God.”
+ Perform your penance as soon as possible.
With love in Christ.
2007-01-02 15:45:16 · answer #1 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Forgiveness and justification are two separate concepts. Your forgiveness is between you and God, however, justification comes through the Body of Christ, which is the Church Militant.
Even the Bible says that if you have a sin, you are to confess it before the whole congregation. It is not God the priest is sitting in for, it is as a witness for the congregation. The priest is not there to tell you that you are right with God, he is there to tell you that you are right again with the community.
There is an obligation to list all mortal sins, and manditory to mention at least the venial sins. If a full-faith effort is made to do this, the confession is valid, even if some are sincerely over looked by the penitent. God is not petty, nor is the Body of Christ.
Intentionally concealing a sin, however, is itself a mortal sin, and nullifies the justification of the confession.
2007-01-02 08:58:10 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
in case you're assume to stay via the hot testomony. Then why do catholics base there maximum of there faith on the previous? Purgatory,praying to the lifeless, saints, and so on. is all interior the previous testomony. Purgatory isn't interior the hot testomony. Rev. 21:27 states that no person unclean can enter heaven. Purgatory cleans your heart. the rosary isn't mentioned interior the bible. Regardless, it somewhat is a prayer meant for honoring Jesus' resurrection from the lifeless. How is a prayer unbiblical? It says interior the bible to not call your all and sundry yet god. "father". so why call a clergyman faller? Father refers to all and sundry who's smart and takes when you. what approximately confessionals? it says all sins are forgiven, you will desire to precise regret with a repentant heart. maximum catholics I ask say you dont would desire to bypass to confessionals. yet once you have been to ask a clergyman. the priest could say your not catholic. so yeah i'm perplexed. Confession cleanses the middle and soul. it somewhat is wiser to bypass to Confession than to easily pray for forgiveness, yet there are various exceptions.
2016-10-19 09:14:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'll be honest. The last time I confessed was when I was 8 for my first communion. But a person isn't forgiven automatically, they have to repent and vowed never to commit that offense again. It's not a "get out of jail free card". In the bible, it said "confess your sins amongst yourself" so the Catholic Church encourages confession for people to find relief. If the person forgets their sins, then they'll just pray for those sins to be forgiven when they remember it.
2007-01-02 08:56:25 · answer #4 · answered by cynical 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your situation is like a baby and some bathwater.
It looks like the kind of confession you are describing does work, though not perfectly. If it is working for you why not keep doing it the way your church prefers?
Isn't the main idea to restore forgiveness? Let's compare that to keeping the baby.
The details of how forgiveness is expresssed varies. Some prefer a more factual approach that shuns the symbols and rituals that you are used to. Let's compare that to the bathwater which is used in different ways and is eventually replaced with cleaner water.
Shouldn't the main objective to keep the baby? By that I mean staying in a forgiven state most of the time.
2007-01-02 10:17:57 · answer #5 · answered by far from perfect but forgiven 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The "confessional" is a tradition of man. It had a good intent, but since it is of God, there are always problems.
Sometimes it helps to confess our sins to someone we trust, just to get the sins put behind us. But God is the only one who needs to hear our sins.
Once we have confessed our sins to God.....they are GONE.
He says:
Jer 31:34
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."
(from New International Version)
AND FURTHER: St. Paul gives us the right way to think about old sins which make us doubt God's love for us:
Phil 3:12-16
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
(from New International Version)
Ego absolvo te. Pax vobiscum.
2007-01-02 09:24:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is important to confess all of the sins that you can remember. It is important to verbally state what sins you have committed. It is an act of humility before God that is necessary to be forgiven. I think that most non-Catholics object to Reconciliation because they do not want to humble themselves before God or a priest.
If a person honestly confesses all of the sins that he or she can remember since his or her last Reconciliation, then the sins that are honestly forgotten are also forgiven.
2007-01-02 08:58:22 · answer #7 · answered by Sldgman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
OK, THE BIBLE SAYS, CONFESS YOUR SINS ONE TO ANOTHER. SO WE CONFESS TO A PRIEST,
hE ABSOLVES US, BECAUSE God HAS ALREADY DONE SO AS SO9N AS WE CONFESSED.I'm not yelling. did not see the green light. Some times its like getting nervous before a test and something slips your mind. So you ask for forgiveness for what ever you have forgotten, God wants to forgive. And he knows what sins we have. If He chooses, nest time we start to do one of them He will give an inner nudge, NONO. And we have the choice to not sin. That is my answer to you. I am a converted Catholic. There are lots of books with better answer.
2007-01-02 08:57:05 · answer #8 · answered by swamp elf 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The 'counting' of sins is not really part of the sacrament of Confession now. One can "talk" with the priest about which sins are the most troubling or the sins one needs to "work on."
In my case, it's patience. I loose my patience with people at work - not colleagues, but the public. I need to work on that. So, I would seek counsel from the priest.
2007-01-02 08:53:07 · answer #9 · answered by Malika 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God expects you to do what you can, not what you can't. Pray to the Holy Spirit, asking His assistance in remembering and to help you make a good confession. Confess the sins you do remember, and add, "and any sins I may have forgotten." If you intentionally neglect to mention a serious sin, your confession is invalid.
2007-01-02 09:01:26 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋