Is confession valid if I don’t remember how many times I committed a sin?

Is confession valid if I don’t remember how many times I committed a sin?

Full Question

Is confession valid if the penitent doesn’t remember how many times he committed a mortal sin?

Answer

Yes, it is. The important thing is not just to remember the number of times but to be truly sorry for sins committed. There’s a need for sincere repentance and for the person to confess everything they remember. If the number cannot be remembered, what the priest needs is to get an estimation to know the state of things with you.

The Baltimore Catechism:

Q. 792. What should we do if we cannot remember the number of our sins?
A. If we cannot remember the number of our sins, we should tell the number as nearly as possible, and say how often we may have sinned in a day, a week, or a month, and how long the habit or practice has lasted.

Conditions for forgiveness

We believe that God does not forgive those who are insincere before Him, only those who meet these conditions are actually forgiven:

• Recognition of the evil of one’s sin
• Sincerely confessing them to the priest without wilfully withholding any detail.
• Being truly sorry, which precludes, the clear intention to be better, to discard all instruments of sin one possesses, and to restore what one has damaged or unjustly taken.
• To do penance and to struggle against such sins afterwards.

Those who kneel before God’s throne of mercy only to tell him lies, to “trick” forgiveness out of him only worsen their conditions, since, far from freeing them from sin, their bonds are actually made worse.

Is confession valid if I don’t remember how many times I committed a sin?

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