Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob's Ladder
Welcome to Jacob's Ladder confession booth.
Please keep your hands in the booth while confession is in process.
Please come in, sit, and begin with answering the question below, and then confess your sins.
How long has it been since your last confession?
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If'n u gonna hear confessions, u should at least try to do it right.
As below......
When you get to confession, make some sign to signify that you are
ready to begin, such as making the sign of the cross out loud: "In the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen"
(saying something is especially important if you are confessing behind
a screen; the priest may not be able to tell when you are ready
otherwise, since he can't see your body language).
The priest will begin by blessing you. He may also read a Scripture
passage and say a few words of encouragement and exhortation.
Then you begin talking. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned" is
traditional, but there is no set formula of words. Then you tell the
priest approximately how long it has been since your last confession.
If it has been a long time and there was a reason (e.g., "I had been
in a different church for several years" or "I was in prison and there
was no Catholic chaplain"), let him know.
Now you name the sins you need to confess (see above). You should also
name any relevant circumstances (not all circumstances are relevant;
don't go into volumes of detail unless the priest asks for it) that
might increase or decrease your level of accountability for the sin.
To the extent possible, confess the number of times the sin was
committed.
As you do this, the priest may stop you at various points and ask for
you to clarify something.
He may also help you train your conscience by saying, for example,
"That's not a mortal sin" or "That is a mortal sin." And he may give
advice about how to avoid sins or deal with temptations in the future.
Don't think of the a sacrament as a psychotherapy session. You don't
need to go into great detail. It is sufficient simply to name the sins
with the relevant circumstances.
If the priest throws in bits of psychological advice, that's great,
but if you want a true counseling session, make an appointment with
him separate from confession. A counseling session has a different
purpose than confession, and it is good to keep the two separate.
Psychological counseling is to help your mental health; confession is
for divine reconciliation--to improve your spiritual health. The two
are related, but not the same, and so they follow different methods.
If you are not sure what you need to confess or if you need
psychological advice, it is a good idea to make an appointment with
him to have a counseling session followed by confession.
When you are done confessing, tell the priest. He will then assign you
a penance, which you do after you leave the confessional.
Don't be afraid of penances. They are often light since they are a
token expressing that you are sorry for what you did and that you
would like to make up for it.
They are not meant to pay the eternal price of the sin. Jesus did that
for you; you as a finite human cannot pay eternal prices. Instead,
they are meant to let you express your sorrow and gratitude by
shouldering part of the temporal results of the sin and thus to learn
your lesson by experience and not only by "head knowledge."
Priests try to match the penance to the sin (e.g., if you stole
something, give it back), but often this is not possible. In that case
they usually assign prayers for you to say.
You may make suggestions concerning what you would like to have as a
penance. For example, I often ask to be assigned Bible reading.
Priests like it when you do this since it helps them know what
penances would be meaningful to you.
Now you make an act of contrition--i.e., you tell God you are sorry
for what you have done and that you intend to make amends. There is no
mandatory formula of words for this, but a common one is: "Lord Jesus,
Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Now the priest absolves you, saying:
"God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his
Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among
us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church,
may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
You say, "Amen." He then gives you a blessing of dismissal, and that's it."
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