Confession

[Thief]

do you practice?

and how is it good for the soul?

 

[Altfish]

I don't do it, but surely the reason is that they seek forgiveness and feel better after it.

 

[Nakosis]

It is a release of guilt. Guilt is a burden. A lot of control and manipulation is done in out life through the use of guilt. One is made to feel guilty for this or guilty for that. It is all very depressing.

I don't do guilt any more. I don't use guilt to manipulate others. I've come to terms with my morals and my actions so I really have no need to feel guilty about them anymore.

Pretty vicious cycle. A religion/moral judgement to make folks feel guilty, then keep them dependent on a mechanism of confession to get relief from that guilt.

 

[PureX]

Dishonesty is habit-forming. And over time it tends to become problematic. Confession is a very useful tool in breaking that habit because no one likes having to confess their dishonesty. And so to avoid having to confess it, most people would rather just be honest in the first place.

Also, a lot of people will be far more willing to forgive an offense committed against them if the offender is willing to confess to it.

BUT, confession without an amends, or an effort to correct the offensive behavior is of little value to most people, including even the confessing offender.

 

[metis]

do you practice?

Yes.

and how is it good for the soul?

IMO, yes.

 

[Valjean]

"Confession" implies a confessor. "Acknowledge" might have similar benefits without revealing your regretted misdeeds.

 

[Windwalker]

Dishonesty is habit-forming. And over time it tends to become problematic. Confession is a very useful tool in breaking that habit because no one likes having to confess their dishonesty. And so to avoid having to confess it, most people would rather just be honest in the first place.

I like the way you word this. We are habitual creatures, programming ourselves with both good behaviors and bad behaviors. The habituating mechanism doesn't select between good and bad. It only seeks for patterns to repeat. It doesn't judge the value of it. That's for another part of ourselves. That's the will and choice.

Confessing, in however one does that, to a priest, to an idea of God, to yourself, releases the guilt and shame we carry from negative responses to things. If those become habits, then it forms warping effects on that guilt and shame into a negative self-image and self-condemnation. The whole things becomes a negative feedback cycle, taking us down further and further, depending on how little self-reflective work one does in their lives.

I see it as a practice being about how we see ourselves, how we manage our own inner landscapes, and how that consequently has a direct effect on how one sees their relationship with Existence itself, or God. How someone can look in the mirror and see ones own self with joy of being, really is that relationship with God, or Self. We can't see that while holding guilt.

There is something to be said for some of the tools off the Christian shelf, even if few may realize the deeper implications of what it is doing spiritually for them. Most externalize it as something required by a God outside themselves, but that's part of that path until it might become recognized as an internal process of spiritual growth.

 

[halbhh]

do you practice?

and how is it good for the soul?

I couldn't quite pick "You seem relieved" because I'm able to know my sensations/feelings enough to know whether it 'seems' or simply 'is so' -- to distinguish. But even "You are relieved" wouldn't quite be the thing, exactly. It's more like...ok, I'll tell you, I'm flooded with love that is so much. That is, to a greater degree than one can get from another person here, even in the most warm moment with another person here. And that's not precisely from a 'practice' in the sense of a routine. I confess when I'm guilty basically. It could be several times in one day, but not often, and often there can be a day or 3 without. So, it's not a routine.

 

[paarsurrey]

do you practice?

and how is it good for the soul?

Mere confession before a priest for the sins is no good. Jesus never did it nor he instructed others to do it. But Jesus was never a Christian, Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi, so naturally Christians have differences with Jesus which the Christians are not ready to even out every after 2000 years. Right, please?

Regards

 

[Thief]

Mere confession before a priest for the sins is no good. Jesus never did it nor he instructed others to do it. But Jesus was never a Christian, Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi, so naturally Christians have differences with Jesus which the Christians are not ready to even out every after 2000 years. Right, please?

Regards

and there seems a split at the fence.....yeah

What the Carpenter DID do...…..He forgave sin
in public
even as do good observers watched