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I am having a moral dilemma regarding Confession that I need help with.

This particular sin is embarrassing by its very nature so I ask anyone reading this thread to please be respectful and serious, and likewise to keep this particular thing confidential to yourselves.

Just so I point out I have done a general Confession about 1  1/2 ago when I was doing the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.

A few months after I had done my General Confession I remembered a particular event that happened when I was somewhere from 6-8? years old. I have 1 sibling (a sister who is about the same age as me) and there was a particular day when out of nowhere I felt some random sexual desires towards her including what I would consider impure thoughts.

At the age that I was (6-8?) I don't think that I properly knew the concept of sex and the concept of impure thoughts. Furthermore I don't even think I understood the concept of sin. Yet I felt that I should have confessed this particular sin so  when I went to Confession a few days after I had remembered about this, I simply confessed impure thoughts in general. - I did not specify regarding the experience or regarding who it was, but I simply confessed impure thoughts in general.

Today I went to confession though and this particular event event came back to my mind and I kept feeling scrupulous that I did not confess it properly the first time (and thus had invalidated the Sacrament of Confession) but at the same time I felt that I was just being scrupulous. Nevertheless when I went to Confession today I had confessed all my sins and afterwards I had told the priest about having have had specific impure thoughts regarding my sister when I was really young (6-8) but I did not specificy anymore than that)

Do you guys think that my first Confession was valid? I keep feeling (probably only through scruples) that I have not properly confessed this in either of the two Confessions. I am thus scared that I have been committing both sacrilegious Confessions and Communions. I really hope that this is not the case.

Your question relates to some things that have been plaguing my thoughts recently as well. I am wondering about things I did years ago and whether they were forgiven sins. I plan to discuss in the confessional tomorrow and will give you an update. However, it seems to me that these urges at such a young age were probably instigated by satan. He puts these evil thoughts there, then continues to torture you with the guilt over the years. I can't imagine that God would not have already forgiven the sins of a young boy. My opinion is, therefore, that you were blameless to begin with and now the one to blame is torturing you with it.


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One must not stay and wallow in the mud; one needs to get up and move on.


For a sin to be mortal one must be a) know that it is a sin; b) the sin itself has to be grave; and c) one must say yes in one's heart and fully consent to committing the act. If any of the three conditions is missing it is a venial sin which does not need a sacramental confession to be forgiven. Of course, perfect contrition is to be sorry for our sins out of love for God, not fear of punishment. We don't want to be like a man who regrets killing someone only because it mean's he is going to jail.


Thus one of the reason why God became Man and took our sins upon His flesh and die in such a spectacle of the crucifixion, in order that we sinners may see the horror of sin and how it offends God. We sin through our bodies and consent to our sins through our intellect. Our sins of the flesh chastising His flesh; His Hands, His feet pierced by nails, His head crowned with pain..


When we realize that our sins crucified Christ we can begin to stir true contrition in our heart for having offended God who is All-Good and deserving of our love--and not merely be frightfully sorry out of fear of going to hell for having broken a law.. There's a huge difference. The first is self-centered while the other is sincere love for God.


Thus we must know God in order to love Him; and the more we know Him the more we love Him. Thus when we fall and are forgiven we are in awe of His mercy and thankful for His love for us.


T[size=78%]hus it is that we must be merciful and patient with all sinners, because God has been merciful and patient with us. Here's a brief talk by Archbishop Sheen who speaks about the difference between doing what is right out of fear of breaking a law, and doing what is right out of love for God. [/size]

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW
http://www.americancatholictruthsociety....ofLove.mp3

That doesn't sound like a mortal sin at all. If a thought comes to you you're not guilty if you don't entertain it or you don't know its sinful.
In any case I think just confessing "impure thoughts" would suffice. But then again, I'm probably a master in making euphemism at confession  :P , so don't take my word for it.

But yes, it doesn't look like mortal sin: you didn't know that having impure thoughts was a sin, and you didn't even know what sex was. So relax.

Being unaware of what sex or sexual desire were, you would not have been able to sin against the sixth or ninth commandments.  Furthermore, having a feeling isn't a sin- you've got to entertain it.  At that young of an age- again, possibly below the age of reason, you would not have known that your thought was disordered and needed to be dismissed.  A good spiritual director could help you make sense of this, but don't worry about it invalidating confessions or anything.

Gabriel. Thank you. Those are some great points.


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In order for a sin to be mortal three things must be present, grave matter, knowledge of the gravity of the matter, and free consent to the evil. Since you didn't understand what your were thinking or consenting to your culpability would be greatly mitigated and the sin if there were one would not be mortal.
Therefore your first confession was valid.