First Confession...

[prairie]

musicman, I would bet that going a few times will put those fears to rest. I've never encountered anything but acceptance and gentleness in confession, even from a priest who is quite judgmental in his preaching.

[mllevaleur]

Prayers for you, musicman!! I bet you will feel so relieved when it is over...it's an amazing sacrament.

[Moodyblue]

I had my first confession last Wednesday and it went very well. Felt totally natural. But I think we are blessed with good priests for our RCIA. Like many others said, he guided me through the confession process. Plus the Deacon had given us a list to go by when we were doing our examination of conscience. It was based on the 10 commandments but was in modern day terms with examples. It helps me a lot. If anyone wants it, I can email it to you.

And yes the priests told us we were more than welcome to go another parish for confession. They said it was actually pretty common to do that and recommended just telling the priest we were in RCIA. For me, it was easier going to a priest I sort of knew though since I had some bad experiences in the past with Protestant ministers.

thanks for creating this forum! First confession (or any confession for that matter) is a little stressful for everyone

[Joseph the Worker]

It was based on the 10 commandments but was in modern day terms with examples. It helps me a lot. If anyone wants it, I can email it to you.

Congrats! That sounds wonderful as well. I'm almost jealous I can't do my first one over again

As for the 10 commandments, that's another thing I found to be REALLY interesting when I became Catholic. That's a very common way of making an examination of conscience, and I was shocked (if you get a chance to read or look at the Catechism, you'll see this also) that Catholic morality is based off the 10 commandments. Then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how that was sincerely how we should be. Even in the CoC, our basic moral values were based on the CoC (plus extra stuff thrown in from their tradition). Remembering how Jesus broke down the 10 commandments into the 2 commands that we must keep - Love God and Love Neighbor and how all the commandments fit into those categories was a big step. I dunno, I guess it just felt like in the CoC we were trying so hard to get away from the Old Testament that we ignored the source of our moral code.

[SuperDan]

Hello All,

I've lurked here for a while and this is my first post to the site. Reading through folks apprehension about Reconciliation moved me to finally register and post.

I was raised coC and finally decided last year to make the leap of faith and convert to Catholicism. I am finishing up the RCIA process right now and will be welcomed into full initiation with the Church during the Easter Vigil.

I made my first confession last night. Long story short, after learning about the Catholic faith, what the Eucharist truly is and the gift that is the sacrament of Reconciliation, my soul has hungered for them. Reconciliation is truly a gift given to us by Christ, and I believe wholeheartedly that it we should take full advantage of it. The Monsignor at our parish used a very good analogy to help the RCIA class understand why Reconciliation is such a gift. The analogy goes something like this...

Think of sin as a rusty nail and your soul as a beautiful wooden table. When you sin, its like taking a hammer and driving a big rusty nail into that beautiful table. You can go directly to God and ask for forgiveness (as any coC'er will tell you is the only way for forgiveness). When you do ask God for forgiveness, with a sad and repentant heart, you are forgiven and those nails are removed, but the table is still damaged and that damage is visible and can be felt. Reconciliation, along with the penance assigned by the priest, was given to us to help reverse the damage done to our souls.

I was excited to make my confession last night. I did freeze up a bit at the very beginning, but only because I couldn't believe I was about to admit to things that I've never told anyone on this planet. After I got started, I was amazed at how natural it felt. I decided to go face-to-face and I'm glad that I did. I was very surprised at how understanding and compassionate the priest was and how eager he was to help me feel comfortable with the process. Those of you about to make your first confession, I can safely say, you have nothing to be worried about! Once you finish, say your Act of Contrition and make your penance, you will truly feel like your soul has been renewed. What a beautiful gift we've been given...

When I was preparing my notes, I went relatively general with some things. There were, of course, quite a few things that have stuck with me throughout the years, but I asked for forgiveness for many general things as well. When I prepared my notes, I used the following as a general guideline...

- Sins against God
- Sins that negatively impacted relationships
- The Ten Commandments
- The Seven Deadly Sins
- The Beatitudes (I understand these are a message of grace, but its easy to miss this message these days.)

My prayers will be with each of you going through this process in the coming days. Understand that Reconciliation is truly a gift of love and grace and will bring you closer to Christ.

[Marcus]

Welcome SuperDan.

Could I talk you into making and introduction on the "Introduction" tread so that we can get an "official" "I'm here! "

[SuperDan]

Welcome SuperDan.

Could I talk you into making and introduction on the "Introduction" tread so that we can get an "official" "I'm here! "

I'm happy to do so... In fact, I just posted it there.