Five Steps for a proper Confession
- Examine your conscience thoroughly
- Be sincerely sorry for your sins
- Confess your sins to the best of your ability
- Resolve to amend your life
- After your confession, do the penance the priest
gives you
Procedure in the Confessional
The priest may prompt you to begin.
You respond: "Bless me Father, for I have sinned.
It has been (mentioned the time lapse since your last
confession here) and these are my sins."
Start listing all your mortal sins
first and the number of times you have committed these
sins.
Then proceed to mention some of your
venial sins. When you are finished, you should say
"For these and all the sins of my past life,
especially for my sins of __________ I am truly
sorry."
The priest may give you some advice,
and then will assign your penance and ask you to say
an "Act of Contrition". You then wait for
his absolution.
After the absolution, thank the
priest and go do your penance; preferably before the
Blessed Sacrament.
