{"id":852,"date":"2014-05-20T17:26:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T22:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=852"},"modified":"2015-08-11T18:14:31","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T23:14:31","slug":"when-should-you-go-to-confession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/05\/when-should-you-go-to-confession\/","title":{"rendered":"When Should You Go to Confession?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"File:21475040.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s topic: What are the pitfalls of the grab-a-priest method of securing a sacramental confession<\/a>, and if not that method, when should you go to confession? First some basics. You need to go to confession if you\u2019ve committed a mortal sin.<\/strong>\u00a0 And you should do it ASAP.\u00a0 In the meantime, make a sincere act of contrition, that is to say: Pray to God and tell Him you are sorry for committing that sin.\u00a0 Example: God, I am very sorry for doing _______.\u00a0 Please forgive me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then get your rear end into the confessional as soon as you possibly can. This is a drop everything and make confessing a top priority situation.\u00a0Show up late to the barbeque, go without a gallon of milk until Monday, whatever you need to do in order to get yourself in line and in front of a priest.<\/p>\n

\u2013> If there is truly no Catholic priest available, but there is an Orthodox priest who will hear your confession, confession to an Orthodox priest works as an emergency back-up plan.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t talking, \u201cI can\u2019t be bothered to turn out at 4:30 on Saturday, and anyway the Orthodox are cooler, look at those beards . . ..\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re talking, \u201cHere in rural Siberia, next train to a Catholic priest comes on the 5th of the month, I sure hope I don\u2019t die before then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before you accost some innocent cleric with an emergency confession, do a reality-check to make sure you actually committed a mortal sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>

How you feel has nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n

Allow me to repeat:<\/p>\n

How you feel has nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n

You could be in the depths of despair over the blackness of your soul because you failed to smile cheerfully at the grocery store lady, and you have not committed a mortal sin.<\/em><\/p>\n

You could be utterly indifferent to the fact that you just raped and killed someone, guess what, doesn\u2019t matter how you feel, guilty as charged.<\/p>\n

Three conditions for a sin to be mortal, and if these apply to you, head straight to confession:<\/p>\n

1. It concerned a serious matter.<\/strong> Killing or seriously injuring an innocent person.\u00a0 Stealing very valuable items or large sums of money. Full-on drunkeness.\u00a0 Adultery, contraception, fornication, bigamy, IVF, artificial insemination.\u00a0 Stuff like that.<\/p>\n

No matter how wicked you felt doing it, small sins (venial sins) are, though worse than the measles, not mortal sins.\u00a0 A mortal sin kills the life of the soul.\u00a0 A venial sin damages your soul and strains your relationship with God, and poses all kinds of dangers to you and to others, but it is not a situation in which emergency confession is needed.<\/p>\n

2. You knew it was wrong.<\/strong>\u00a0 So you choked when I put \u201ccontraception\u201d up there as a mortal sin, because you\u2019re thinking geez louise, everybody does that<\/em>.\u00a0 Well, now you know better.\u00a0 Before you didn\u2019t, now you do.\u00a0 If you know something is a serious sin and you do it anyway, you are culpable \u2014 guilty \u2014 of a grave offense against God.<\/p>\n

If, on the other hand, you just walked off the compound in which you were raised, and truly had no idea that __________ was a serious sin, you aren\u2019t culpable for what you did before you knew better.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good habit to confess in this situation, for a variety of reasons I won\u2019t belabor.\u00a0 But true brainwashing actually is a mitigating factor.<\/p>\n

3. You freely chose to do it.<\/strong>\u00a0 The things you do when the bad guys have a gun to your head, or in your dreams, or when you are recovering from surgery and still under the influence of those really good drugs they give you . . . those are not freely-chosen actions.\u00a0 That said, Father\u2019s going to ask a few pointed questions if you insist that it really was an accident when you slept with that hot male nurse post-op.\u00a0 The drugs wear off, Father\u2019s no dummy.<\/p>\n

Likewise, accidents are accidents.\u00a0 Sin always involves a choice.\u00a0 {\u2013> Pastoral aside:<\/strong> If you accidentally kill or maim someone, go ahead and seek out sacramental confession to put your mind at ease.\u00a0 No sane priest will refuse to hear your confession under such circumstances.}<\/p>\n

If these three apply to you, it is reasonable for you to approach a not-in-the-middle-of-something priest, and say, \u201cFather, I\u2019ve got a mortal sin to confess, do you have 60 seconds to hear my confession?\u201d\u00a0 And if he says, \u201cYes, actually I can give you a full 70, let\u2019s go, In the name of the Father . . .\u201d, there you are.<\/p>\n

Make it snappy: \u201cBless me Father for I have sinned, it\u2019s been 48 hours since my last confession.\u00a0 I committed the act of bestiality three times, murdered two small children (noisy ones), and stole $10,000 from an impoverished widow.\u00a0 For these and all my sins I\u2019m truly sorry.\u201d Father\u2019ll take it from there, and if he wants to spend extra time with you he will.<\/p>\n

But Father might not have 45 seconds even, and will instead direct you to a better time and place to hear your confession.<\/strong>\u00a0 Show up.<\/p>\n

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<\/h3>\n

On the Fly Confession of Venial Sins<\/h3>\n

There are priests who are good with the P.E.G-endorsed method of random acts of sacramentality<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay to ask a priest who is not busy, and who is visibly open to crazy questions, \u201cFather, do you happen to be available for an unscheduled confession right now? It\u2019ll take me about ______ minutes.\u201d Learn to accept no for answer.\u00a0 Father might be practicing his fake smile, but actually he has twenty-seven things to do in the next hour.\u00a0 His throat might be sore.\u00a0 His ears might hurt.\u00a0 He might be drop-dead tired.\u00a0 He might still be in therapy for the trauma he experienced last time he agreed to such a request.<\/p>\n

<\/p>

Things You Don\u2019t Need to Confess<\/h3>\n

Why would Father grow wary of on-the-spot confessions? Because he meets a lot of crazy people.\u00a0 You might be one of them if you:<\/p>\n