“Chief_Sinner” <> wrote in message .

> You need to be aware for your writing thesis that the form of

> confession in the Roman Church has varied some over time and depending

> on what era your writing is set in will determine whether the

> confession is weekly, strict form or modern conversational armchair

> counselling type chats.

This is the way I’ve experienced confession / reconciliation and practise it.

One of the interesting experiences I have in moving around the churches is to ask what non-Catholics/.Anglicans/Orthodox do with the text which enjoins confessing sins to another… It’s not easy for Protestants/Evangelicals to answer, their having thrown out a baby with medieval confessional bathwater…

I still remember the first time I experienced confession/reconciliation/absolution – a huge weight was removed from my spirit.

In our ministry, the confessing person may say it, or write it (and read it or not, as they wish), or pray silently. The important part of it all, I believe, is the solidarity of another human in the process, and the reality of absolution, including hearing the words, aloud. Sometimes I’ve burned the paper on which the sins were written, then flushed them down the ‘loo, as the penitent hears the timeless words ‘Your sins have been cast into the depths of the sea.’ I’ve actually experienced some dramatic emotional/spiritual healings in that process.

—

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher