Standard Penances For Everything?

… Have you ever been to confession and poured out your heart and soul all over the floor of the confessional only to receive a halfhearted, almost perfunctory absolution like 3 Hail Mary’s?

I have such a hard time with this. If we have different types of sins, venial and mortal, shouldn’t we have different types of penances to reflect the nature of the sin? I don’t get how some priests can give the exact same penance for all sins regardless of their seriousness.

Just speaking my own personal experience, I have the hardest time forgiving myself when I feel the punishment doesn’t fit the severity of the crime. When this happens I am more likely to fall into the same pattern of sinfulness than if my penance is more fitting the grievous nature of the sin confessed.

What do you think about this? Without detailing what you’ve confessed, have you ever received a penance that you thought just didn’t measure up? How did this leave you feeling?

Talk amongst yourselves.