Faithful Disciple

"With Confession, I do not feel totally absolved. I have things from the past fill my head that I forget to confess. How particular do I have to be? I feel it's useless at times and I feel nervous on going."

Excellent question. First of all, if you are in the confessional and you make as honest and open confession as possible, upon walking out, you remember something you did not mention, that sin has been absolved with the ones that you actually confessed. If a person walks into a confessional with the intention of confessing all their sins and holding nothing back (as one should) and (because we're only human) accidentally forgets to mention something, the intention covers the memory lapse. If you can, when you go back to confession, you can state the ones that you had forgotten. A good practice for preparing for Confession is to make an examination of conscience before receiving the sacrament. "The passages best suited to this can be found in the Ten Commandments, the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the apostolic letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the apostolic teachings." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1454) An online source for a good examination can be found here. The examination should be in a quite place, preferably in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. While meditating on the examination, you can write down what you would like to confess and take it with you into the confessional. But most importantly, confession is not something that God intended us to fear. Another name for the sacrament is Reconciliation. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the Father rejoices and runs out to meet the son who had strayed. Our Heavenly Father is the same way, He wants, more than anything, for His children to be reconciled to Himself and His love. Our sins tear us from Him and Reconciliation is the way in which we can look squarely at the sins [we're] guilty of, take responsibility got them, and thereby open ourselves again to God and to the communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible. (CCC 1455) So always remember that our God is merciful and overflowing with love for us. Also, the priest is bound to never speak of what he hears in confession. The priest is just the ear and mouth piece of God, you're really confessing to a merciful and loving God, not the to the priest.

(By Ashley Collins)