when a catholic priest hears a confession,how do he come up with the number of hail marys a person is suppose?

Question

to recite?

i don't have a priest.i'm not catholic.

Answer 1

Forgiveness does not depend on penance.

When you ask God for forgiveness, with or without a priest, your sins are forgiven.

However, raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his (or her) own full spiritual health. One way to help restore your spiritual health is to do penance.

Penance can consist of prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbor, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all the patient acceptance of the cross we must bear.

Such penances help us be more like Christ, who alone makes amends our sins once for all.

The Code of Canon Law, Canon 981 states: The confessor is to impose salutary and suitable penances in accord with the quality and number of sins, taking into account the condition of the penitent. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3G.HTM

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

A penance does not necessarily have to be a series of Hail Marys. It can be any combination of prayers. Also, a penance might be to go do something charitable, maybe some community service.

The point is, I don't think there is a set guideline for a priest when handing out penances. The important thing for a repentant Catholic to remember is, whatever the penance, it's best they carry it out.

Answer 3

The penance is supposed to be medicinal to the disease of the sins committed and not just blabbing off Paters and Aves. The penance could be some other appropriate prayer or action that underscores sincere repentance and a firm purpose of ammendment. The absolution with some level of repentance is necessary for the sacrament and also usually the telling of the sins and times committred. Jesus is the one who gives the absolution in Confession(the Sacrament of Reconciliation).

Answer 4

In the name of Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful.

Only God almighty has the power or the authority to Forgive sins. As a Christian earlier i know now that this is the most
nonsensical idea of forgiveness of sins.You commit a
sin when you do something forbidden by almighty God by choice.Only God is pure and blameless.Priests are NOT!They do behind closed doors all the things that you and me do.Do you believe that uttering a few hail Marys and our
fathers will bring forgiveness .Forgiveness can be got only
by sincere repentance if you have wronged yourself ,but if the
sin involves the rights of others then merely being sorry would
not work.for example you eat up someones wealth, or cheat
some body and then go and confess to a priest who gives
you a quota of hailmarys to forgive you, will it work ? Islam
says that you will be held accountable on the day of judgment unless you repent and return the property you have stolen to
the rightful owners.We had a priest in our parish who used to
molest us when we were small and then some times we had
to go to confession and confess our sins to him, what a shame.I am not painting every priest with the same brush,But it goes to show that no human is beyond reproach and it is only God almighty who is the Forgiver and who accepts our sincere repentance.so turn to the one God almighty who is
our creator and despair not of his mercy for He is the most
merciful of all those who show mercy.

Answer 5

they carry a small book which has all the sins listed and hail marys to say for each sin. They also carry a calculator to add them all up. Just kidding. I think they just make up a number depending on how bad it seems. Like, lustful thought, 10, lusful action, 100. Just wait for Imacatholic2 to answer and you'll get the correct answer, not a guess like this :-)

Answer 6

Sometimes the penance is a number of prayers to recite. Sometimes it is a work of charity to perform.

Penance is an outward sign of internal conversion. Sin is an action or inaction, attitude, word or thought that is contrary to Jesus' command to love God with all of your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself. Penance is an action, word, thought or attitude that brings a person back to God.

A penance of Hail Marys is given to reconnect the person with the communion of saints. When we sinned, we moved away from the communion of saints. Asking Mary to pray for us brings us back to the community of believers.

Answer 7

ask your priest