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Is Confession A Time For Spiritual Direction?

An answer from St. Alphonsus Liguori - (the patron of confessors and the Doctor of Morals)

After imploring confessors to take time to instruct and encourage the penitent he states, "But some will say, 'If we treat sinners in this manner a great deal of our time will be taken up, and others who are waiting cannot be heard.' But in answer I say, that it is better to hear one confession well than to hear a great number imperfectly. But the most appropriate answer is, that the confessor has not to give an account to God of the persons who are waiting, but only of the person whose confession he has begun to hear." (from Selva,or The Dignity and Duties of the Priest)

St. Alphonsus sees spiritual direction as integral to the work of the confessor (see, especially the final chapter of his Pratica del Confessore). Still, we simply must admit that confession is not spiritual direction proper and there is the realistic fact of time constraints. What will be necessary, then, is to discuss the occasions in which it is appropriate (and perhaps even obligatory) for the priest to give some spiritual counsel to the penitent.

The need to question the penitent

The principal cause for which the confessor must question the penitent is in order to assist the penitent in making an integral confession. Hence, according to St. Alphonsus and the theologians generally, the priest is obliged to question the penitent if there is reasonable doubt that he has omitted either to examine certain areas of his life or to confess serious sins with the required specificity.

Here, we might say that the questioning should generally be directed toward grave sins in order to gain the integrity of the confession. However, it may also be profitable for the confessor to question some penitents about the life of prayer.

A few examples will illustrate our point