When is our Confession sincere?

Saira · June 2015

Confession is an act of acknowledging things.The word confession is basically referred to as act of admitting your mistakes. Confession can be admitting any feeling too like your love, dislike, expression, thoughts etc
Making candid confessions is not an easy task. It requires lots of courage on your part. At times, confession may require audacity too. You can also end up making a confession reluctantly or unwillingly. So, gather strength and make sure that you are brave enough to make a confession whenever the situation demands it. Confessions are a hard thing to make.

mheredge · June 2015

Roman Catholics believe that they have to confess their sins to a priest in order to seek forgiveness. They usually go to the church and confess in a confession box, where the priest sits beside them but out of sight. After listening to the sinner recounting all the things that they want forgiving, the priest will tell the person to go and say so many Hail Marys (prayers) and maybe give a little lecture and the slate will be wiped clean, and then the sins all forgiven.

I'm not an expert on this, as I'm not a Roman Catholic and non-conformists and Anglicans don't do this.

Bubbly · June 2015

I thought of starting a thread with a title "confession window" but I dropped this idea because it is really really sensitive and personal matter. I don't want anyone to go back into the situation that has changed their life miserably or some traumatic memories.

Bubbly · June 2015

For fun, yes we can confess small things here and currently I have to confess that I have eaten up my sister's chicken sandwiches that she has placed in kitchen. Now, I am find some place to hide for.

Fer · June 2015

I think confessing is very difficult things to do .

mheredge · June 2015

So what are you doing to make it up to your sister @bubbli? Are you repentant?

Bubbly · June 2015

@mheredge I told her later but at that time only this thread was available where I could confession.

Just for fun not for repentance.

Tinka · June 2015

I agree with @Saira. A confession is a hard thing to do and we need to be courageous to do it. When I’m trying to explain the meaning of the confession, I always mention three connected words: the confession, the forgiveness and the reconciliation. The person, who makes a mistake, needs to confess her mistake and to take her responsibility. That means she needs to admit the mistake, ask for forgiveness and if it’s possible, she need to restore the damage. The person, who is the victim of the mistake, needs to forgive. The process of forgiveness is also very difficult, because the person needs to heal the wounds, regulate her difficult emotional states and give to the offender another chance. If both persons make their part of the process (one confess and one forgive), then they can build the bridge between them again. When the connection between them is restored again, we talk about the reconciliation. All these three competences are the core competences for functional interpersonal relationships. We are constantly damaging our relationships and it’s very useful to restore it again and again.

Bubbly · July 2015

@Tinka forgiveness is done easily but it is difficult to forget.

Tinka · July 2015

You don't need to forget at all, @bubbli. When you completely forgive someone, your memory of the event changes its emotional connotation. Maybe it would be helpful to differentiate two kinds of forgiveness: a decisional forgiveness and an emotional forgiveness. It's quite easy to make a decisional forgiveness, but quite hard to make an emotional forgiveness.

If you are interested in the topic, here is the link:

Bubbly · July 2015

@Tinka thanks. Though I read about it but I feel sometimes it is difficult to change emotions patterns of mind.

Tinka · July 2015

I agree with you, @bubbli, it's hard, but not impossible. It's useful to follow some basic steps:
1. be aware of the emotion
2. allow yourself to fully feel this emotion
3. accept yourself in the state when you feel this emotion
4. allow to the others to accept you when you feel this emotion
5. be aware of your needs when you feel this emotion
6. be aware of strategies how you can satisfy your needs when you feel this emotion

In our culture this pattern is very effective, maybe it will be useful for you, too.

Bubbly · July 2015

@Tinka let me summarize it.
It's emotional intelligence-self management & social management.

Tinka · July 2015

You can use all those scientific terms, if you'd like, @bubbli

Bubbly · July 2015

@Tinka because I worked in this field...so not only terms but practical experience as well.

Tinka · July 2015

Why did you stop to work in this field, @bubbli ? I'm sure you can use this expertise in your current job, too.

Bubbly · July 2015

@Tinka I don't have one career line. I do small projects or consultancy. So, it was just a project but I have embedded it with my personality assessment test that I use for career counseling.

[Ex Member] · July 2015

I never did a confession before and I don't really know the inside meaning of these kind of behaviour although it is popular in the Catholic world. In my opinion, maybe confession is just a way of releasing the internal burden for misdoing and usually if it is not conducted genuinely, the behaviour will just be hollow.

Tinka · August 2015

How do you feel and what do you do, afterwards you do something wrong, @naturalconan ?

mheredge · August 2015

It sounds a bit harsh, but I was never very comfortable with the idea of confession as in the Catholic faith as I used to see it as a bit of an excuse. Confess and all will be forgiven @naturalconan. But really it would have been better not to have committed whatever needed to be confessed.

GemmaRowlands · September 2015

Only we ever know whether our own confessions are sincere, and there is no way that we are able to tell what the confessions of others means. I think that it is always very important to confess if we have done something wrong, because then it is out in the open, and we always feel better for having done it. This means that we can then move on from it and try to make our lives better in the future.

JasleenKaur · October 2015

Our confession is humble when we accuse ourselves of our sins, with a deep sense of shame and sorrow for having offended God.

Bubbly · December 2015

It is so easy to say something than to do. Usually, people are afraid of accepting their mistakes or wrong doing. They will spend a life time with guilty feelings and destroy themselves silently but they won't accept it openly infront of others.