Okay, so lately I've been getting a lot of questions about Catholicism, yes, I'm Catholic. Anyway, so first I'm going to answer some questions about Confession (a.k.a. Reconciliation).
Q: Why confess to a priest?
A: Priests are simply the earthly representatives of God. Some people prefer to confess to a priest because they actually get to hear someone say, as Jesus did, "Go in peace, your sins are forgiven you." However, it's perfectly fine for someone to confess directly to God if you're not comfortable confessing something to a priest.
Q: What happens afterward?
A: After you finish confessing your sins, the priest will recommend something called "penance". Usually, a penance often consists of a certain number of prayers (e.g. three "Our Father"s, two "Hail Mary"s, etc.), doing something nice for someone else, or community service. However, there are sometimes variations. The stuff I listed are just some of the more common ones. Now, penance isn't one of those things that if you don't you won't be forgiven, it's just a way of showing that you're truly sincere in your apology for your sins.
Q: What happens during confession itself?
A: When you enter the confessional (the small room where confession takes place) you have two options. One is that you can choose to either confess face to face, and your second option is to confess behind a screen. After that the priest welcomes you and then you say the Act of Contrition, including how long it has been since your last confession. After that you confess your sins to the priest, and every so often he contributes his own insights. When you're done, he then offers a penance and he blesses you, and your confession is over. Now, you don't have to tell the priest everything during confession if there are some things that you would rather keep between you and God. Now then, priests are trained to forget everything you told them as soon as you leave the confessional, and even if they didn't they are forbidden from ever revealing what someone told them in confession. So, you could confess that you killed someone and the priest would be unable to inform the police. You could say that you were going to bomb an orphanage and the priest would be unable to inform the police. Everything that goes on in confession remains between you and the priest.
Alright, I suppose that about covers it. If you have another question, leave me a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment