How To Have Good Confession (Good Confession)

It is important to confess one's own sins to the priests but some of the penitents do not know what are the important dispositions to make and to take before making a confession. Are you one of those "some"?

My comrade, kindly consider some of the dispositions that a penitent must undergo before making a confession.

First, the penitent should start with a prayer before examining his/her conscience. This is an important element that should be considered first. The penitent is seeking and pleading light from God to know how he/she is helpless in his/her state of being in darkness of sin and ignorance and, this is to show that the penitent cannot really help him/herself in admitting his/her own faults but totally depends on the help of the merciful God who felt the hurt of his/her sins committed against Him.

Here are the prayers you may consider in your preparation and before the sacramental confession(kindly take note that the prayers differ from each other. The first is a preparation prayer meaning, you are taking down (in writing as much as possible so that you will not forget the sins you will confess and to save the time of the priest, and will help you to have a clean and good confession. I personally write all my sins to a piece of paper and, after my confession, I tear the paper to bits), by the help of God, the sins that you had committed before your examination of conscience while the other one is prayed before meeting the priest or prayed before you enter the confessional or, prayed before the priest (but first, as much as possible, try to pray before meeting the priest. In my opinion, it is, I think, the priest will start exclaiming prayers for you before the confession but consider that it is the priest's introductory prayers and are different from your own which (I lovely hope) came from a penitent heart.).

Second, the interior dispositions of the penitent must be present before, during and after the sacramental confession. The penitent must be truly humble and repentant, making him/herself little before God whom he/she had injured by sins, truly blaming him/herself for one's sins he/she had committed. And this is accompanied by a child-like, unshakable trust in God, solid faith, high hope, real love, and full confidence that he/she will receive pardon from the offenses that he/she had committed against this ever merciful God.

Third, the penitent must do penance given by the priest-confessor (and/or, if you are really moved, one may consider a self-destruction in addition to the penance received such as a consumption of just a one full meal for one day, less water intake or if you love, flagellation by a leather belt, wearing an itchy or uncomfortable shirt and/or dress, etc.).

Fourth, the last but not the least, the penitent must strive not to commit those sins again (all mortal sins) and strive greatly not to commit those venial sins again. Mortal sins are serious sins committed with full knowledge or consent or awareness or knew before hand (or even not) that such sins are declared by the Church as mortal sins (like pornography, masturbation, abortion, murder, stealing, etc.) while venial sins are sins committed with not so much knowledge or not knowing its gravity or less grave and do not totally separate a person from God but affects  negatively the relationship between God and the person (like "white" lies (I do not honor a lie regardless of the given color), cheating in quizzes of 5 items (a child exam perhaps?), etc.). Amending his/her ways, not to hurt God as much as greatly as possible.
Here is the Act of Contrition. And I will show you my own copy (that I bring along while in the sacramental confession) of it because I must confess to you, as of now, that I do not yet memorized this prayer. How sad. Pity me.

Let us proceed to the guides that will help us to better examine our conscience. These is one of my "sin reference" but if many of my sins are not listed here, I will try my best to dig it in the deepest part of my conscience so that all must be confessed. Please forgive me that I do not take time typing these here and just posted it as photos and some of the lines were being doubled on the shots. Kindly take patience. Thank you.
Smile.

 These photos contain the important (very,very,very) important facts we must consider. Again, we must.

 The other reference. It came from a little book of 1930's, "My Daily Missal", The other one is not posted here because I gave it away but you can buy it at all St Pauls Outlets. It is a gray folded pamphlet titled, "How To Make A Good Confession" (I do not know exactly the title) and its price is less than 25 cents. Please just ask the people of St Pauls for more infos. They will not bite you.

Here are some of the elements that is present in the confession (as I remember. But you can take pauses, especially if you are crying.)
Make the Sing of the Cross at the start of the confession ( follow the priest please.).

Begin with, "Father, my last good confession was on (state here when was your previous confession, it is not necessary if you do not remember the exact date. Just say like last month, last two months and so on) .... And since then, I have committed the following sins....

Now, confess first the most embarrassing and mortal sins (if you've committed) and go on until you went on to the lesser sins by saying the gravity of the sins and how frequent you do these sins like this that I do (I'm pertaining to the pattern on how I write it in the paper).

-I hurt my cat badly and mercilessly for sometime. ("badly and mercilessly" are the gravity factors of the sin other than hurting the cat and "for sometime" indicates the frequency of the sin committed. Question - is it okay to ignore these elements? Answer - As long as you learned these, It is up to you if you will follow your conscience who is pushing you to consider these considerable elements and so essential if you love to have a good confession. Besides, an exorcist of the Diocese of Cubao, Fr. Michell Joe "Jojo" B. Zerrudo said to me that next time, I should say how frequent are my sins. (when he heard my confession and knows that I still lack elements for a good confession).
-I lied for so many time.
-I always teased my baby sister.
-I became lazy for a time.
-I didn't respond to my household chores for sometime.... And so on....

And after the "litany of your sins", say this that I'm saying (but you can do or make your own.)

And the priest will continue to the formula of the absolution and so on....
Then, take the advices or the sermons of the priest for you (do not worry, priest won't bite you, ever!)
Then, receive the blessing He will give and join the priest in saying the "Amen".

May we all have a very good confession!