Fr. Barron comments on the Return to Confession – http://www.wordonfire.org

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13 COMMENTS

  1. Dear Father;

    I just saw t\your commentary about the power of confession and do graetly agree with you. I just have one question in which I would gadly appreciate your feedback. I am or was a practical catholic I say am or was because for about three years I have been unable to partcipate from the holy sacraments. This is because I married my wife in a episcopal church. This church reconizes the Roman Catholic Church the the one and only. However, the Catholic Church does not reconizes the sacrament of marriage from other churches. Although in my heart I fill Catholic the men who guide the Catholic Church on earth do not let me practice what my Heart and soul want me too. Ever sinnce I have been unable to participate particully from eucarist and confession I feel EMPTY. What can I do? maybe this is why people confess on talk shows such as the ones you mentioned. Please reply. Thank you, Isaac

    • Dear Isaac,

      I am not an expert on this matter, but I believe that if you approach your parish priest and tell him about your situation, he can and will help you. I kind of sort have the same problem and our parish priest is helping us get our marriage ‘convalidated’. Like yourself, I cannot currently receive any of the sacraments… at least not until after the sacrament of marriage.

      Good luck to you and your family. Please remember that the Church is here to help us become holy.

      Annie

    • I was married in Protestant church, but both of us brought up Catholic. We finally decided to return to the Catholic church and participated in all the Sacraments. It was 4 years later that we had our marriage blessed in the cnurch. you need to talk to your priest, you do have options. Do not let your heart feel empty.
      I also know of many mixed marriages and the Catholic spouse still practices. Please do not walk away. talk to your priest.

      • Isaac, I was married outside of the Church when I was a member of the Episcopal Church. I recently converted to Catholicism. All that was done is the Father at my Parish Blessed my Marriage and made it a Sacramental one. You can do the same. Come back to the Church. Your heart is telling you something. Listen!

  2. So, Father, are you saying that it’s a nice ‘idea’ to come back to confession?? Does this mean that the Church no longer considers it a mortal sin to NOT get to confession at least once a year?

    • The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) statement “after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year” (CCC 1457) includes a footnote reference to the Code of Canon Law (CIC): “After having reached the age of discretion, each member of the faithful is obliged to confess faithfully his or her grave sins at least once a year” (CIC 989). So, “serious sins” is to be understood “grave sins”.

      Keep in mind that for a sin to be mortal (serious), three conditions must be met: grave matter, full knowledge, and complete consent (cf. CCC 1858). A sin of grave matter which lacks either of the other conditions in not a mortal (serious) sin but rather a venial sin. In such a case the matter is grave but the sin is not. The catechism explains, “One commits venial sin… when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent” (CCC 1862).

  3. Interesting link of confession to today’s popular culture. Recently I watched a short clip o The View and listened as Meryl Streep confessed to stealing the finger towels on her visit to the White House. She had no remorse and all joined in the laugh. I was truly bothered knowing that this will influence others to believe it okay to steal.

    I have finally found a priest I feel comfortable confessing to, what a liberating feeling. Sadly, this sacrament is not spoken of positively within the parish I attend. It is stressed that receiving Communion forgives sins. I feel this discourages people from celebrating Confession.

    I attended your session last year at R.E. Congress and we will be starting our Catholicism Series next week. God bless you for your gift to our faith

  4. I am not a firm believer of confessing my sins to a parish priest & God sees and knows our sins. if we pray to Him, ask forgiveness we are resolved by God himself. No parish priest is holier than Thou and lives accordingly. Be true to yourself and your God

    • Dear Madeline, if you believe that God has anointed his power to have priest consecrate the holy Eucharist then why should a priest be thought of any less? Our priest devote their lives to our heavenly father and we should truly believe they are the vessels of God hear to help forgive us of our sins. When you confess to a priest the experience is so much more different then you confess on your own. A weight is really lifted really lifted off your shoulders when you confess to a priest…yes is takes us out of our comfort zone but its necessary for us as human beings that constantly living in a world of sin. May God continue to bless us all!

      Love,
      Jennifer

    • Sure, Madeline, you can confess to God without a priest, that’s not a bad practice. But Jesus gave Peter the power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven. That power is passed to our priests through apostolic succession. And we’re told to confess our sins to one another. And we’re told that there are sins we can pray for/about but not deadly sins – those are treated differently (the Letter of James, I believe). Sacramental Confession is the ordinary way God forgives sins. I’ll continue the practice as that’s the way God set it up.

  5. God keep you and yours, Father,

    So what do we do with a priest that has been found to be revealing people’s confessions for such banal things as sex with their partners? There is a good example with a case that is on in the Criminal Court in rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    So what do you do with the local Church Authority that is employing all means (evil inclusive) to kill/muffle the case?

    What should a Catholic do in the face of such evil?

  6. If you only knew what the sacrament of reconciliation actually accomplishes, you would run to a priest to confess! Father Gabriel Amorth, the chief exorcist at the Vatican, says that confession is more powerful than what he does during an exorcism. That is really saying something! If you fear that the priest hearing your confession is somehow keeping an account of your sins, think of the burden on a priest if he did that with every confession he heard. Most of them do not want to carry this burden and shouldn’t. One friend of mine asked her confessor what he did to avoid this burden. He explained to her that he simply let it wash over him and with the absolution it was lost. And isn’t that the way sins should be forgiven?

  7. The emptiness in you should be filled with Jesus. You need to know about jesus and have your emptiness filled with his anointing. Start reading bible.

    Refer to 1 Corinthians 3 : 1 – 9

    All that church does is teach word of God. So that we learn more about Jesus each days. Which gives the filling.

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