Also- go to the website for Scrupulous Anonymous. It is very helpful and they archive their newsletters. In particular, follow- uh, I hate to say it but will- scrupulously, their Ten Commandments for the Scrupulous.
thomas tucker | 12.22.06 - 2:54 pm | #

Meanwhile- put the 2x4 down. Stop beating yourself up. The Sacrament of Reconciliation exists to bring you closer to God, not bop yourself upside the head before a priest. Congratulations- you suffer from a terminal case of Humanness. Like about 3 billion or more of us, give or take a few. The Father is tickled when you confess your sins. It's a celebration. Not a funeral.
Gerard E. | 12.22.06 - 3:11 pm | #

I wouldnt' say to stop examinations of conscience all together. I can be a form of idolatry, but isn't automatically a form of idolatry. Members of Opus Dei, for instance, do a daily examination of conscience, but are admonished to keep it to only three minutes.

I suppose the lesson is, any virtue taken to extremes becomes a vice.
Sean P. Dailey | Homepage | 12.22.06 - 3:35 pm | #

Very inspiring advice, Mr. Shea. Thanks for sharing. Really a blessing today.
Mark S. (not for Shea) | 12.22.06 - 3:37 pm | #

I think the priest was right that it's wrong to skip the Eucharist for a devotional confession--after all, an act of contrition covers venial sins. But please, reader, don't get bent out of shape about that, too. This is easy to do if you have scruples.

Mark Shea, I need to call you now that I'm in Seattle area. Your story of being agonized about whether you love Jesus reminds me of one of my favorite prayers (that I got from St. Philip Neri): "Lord, I don't love you."

If you're worried that you don't love Christ, you're right--you don't love Him fully. But the fact that you're worried about not loving Him means that you do love him a little. He will give you the means to love Him more.
David Deavel | Homepage | 12.22.06 - 3:58 pm | #

Nothing wrong with a devotional confession, but (to my understanding) it's the opposite of scrupulosity.

A devotional confession is one in which you are not aware of any sins but you desire the grace and strengthening that comes from the sacrament, and forgiveness for any unknown sins. This is a good practice, if you're fortunate enough to be in such a condition; but the priest is right that, given the choice, it is better to receive communion: penance gives the handclasp of fellowship while communion gives the whole wedding feast of the lamb.

Scrupulosity, on the other hand, is looking at yourself with a microscope and assuming that anything that isn't clearly labled VIRTUE! is a mortal sin. Mark's antidote is a good one, and I'd take it a step further. Remember that love and sin are both actions, not emotions or even dispositions. So ask, "What have I done to love and benefit Jesus or his people?" and "What have I done (or failed to do) to harm them?" Concrete actions are what are to be confessed; and even bad habits are simply ingrained actions which we keep taking despite our efforts (good actions!) to correct them.
Brother Robert | Homepage | 12.22.06 - 4:12 pm | #

David, you've moved to Seattle?
Sean P. Dailey | Homepage | 12.22.06 - 4:13 pm | #

As a priest I frequently have had to deal with scrupulous penitents.

Sometimes it has proven necessary to be quite "sharp" or pointed (never harsh, I hope and pray) with scrupulous persons. That is because scrupulosity usually entails a degree of self-absorption which can be very difficult to break through using ordinary methods.

In some cases, scrupulosity can be a form of OCD. In such cases, therapy may be necessary as well as spiritual direction.
Fr. Rob Johansen | Homepage | 12.22.06 - 4:52 pm | #

Yep. Mark's advice applies to the scrupulous. Here are the Ten Commandments for the Scrupulous: http://mission.liguori.org/ newsl...crupulosity.htm
Scott W. | 12.22.06 - 6:23 pm | #

I think a lot of scrupulosity stems from developing an image of God in childhood as being overly harsh and judgmental.
thomas tucker | 12.23.06 - 8:40 am | #

Thanks Father Johansen
That is helpful to hear
julian malcolm | 12.23.06 - 9:51 am | #

"Your story of being agonized about whether you love Jesus reminds me of one of my favorite prayers (that I got from St. Philip Neri): "Lord, I don't love you..."

I sometimes have trouble getting out the first line of my Morning Offering prayer, which begins, "Lord, I adore you, and I love you with all my heart..." because I don't feel that I really DO love him that way, and so I am being hypocritical.

But, I decided that the DESIRE to love Christ with my whole heart is enough. The prayer is not just a statement of how things are, but how they should be. It gives me something glorious to strive toward.
Tim J. | Homepage | 12.23.06 - 11:03 am | #

Sean Dailey,

I haven't moved; we're just out here for the Christmas season visiting my wife's folks.

Dave
David Deavel | Homepage | 12.23.06 - 2:56 pm | #

Well written Mark. Thank you for the post.
Merry Christmas, Blessed Christmas.
Karen
Karen | 12.24.06 - 1:34 pm | #

Not to be callous or anything, but I've never talked to anyone scrupulous before. On the contrary, everyone I know seems to blow everything off, which is pretty much the opposite of scrupulosity.

I recognize the fact some scrupulosity might be rooted in self-concentration, and that's regrettable and of course not to be encouraged as that degree of self-recrimination can be pathological if it is extreme. Probably it's hard enough on priests that it causes them to paint with a broad brush--but sometimes too broad.

The effort to really think hard about what one is doing right and wrong with respect to what the Church teaches is a good thing. For Pete's sakes, 90% of the fertile Catholic population in the States contracepts! We have the same sorts of divorce and abortion rates as the rest of the population. It's a moral mess out here.

Probably the craziest thing that happens is that some of the very people who set themselves up as "experts" are precisely the ones who'd ought to have a good long look in the mirror. This particular thing is really rife in US parish lay ministry populations.
michigancatholic | 12.26.06 - 12:17 pm | #

There is a difference between vague inner promptings of sinfulness and guilt on one hand, and acts on the other hand. I'm talking about acts.

Seriously, if it only occurs to you, even persistently, it's not a sin; rather, it's a temptation. Sin happens when the matter is defined as sinful by the Church and you buy into it and act on it in some way. That's how you tell the difference.
michigancatholic | 12.26.06 - 12:22 pm | #

Sin happens when the matter is defined as sinful by the Church and you buy into it and act on it in some way. That's how you tell the difference.

That doesn't address two types of sin, sins of omission and the "adultery in the heart" variety, and I think that's where the scrupulous get carried away. I don't have a scruples problem (and believe me, given a choice between scruples and the real sins I commit, I'd take the former in a heartbeat, so the scrupulous can cry me a river), but it's not always so easy to tell when you've committed a sin of omission. It's similarly hard to tell whether you're actively indulging your impulses for, say, impure thoughts. We could all do more for our neighbor, always. We could always be more charitable. I have no earthly idea how much we're supposed to give, so I can't tell the scrupulous when they should stop worrying about their sins of omission.
K the C | 12.26.06 - 11:12 pm | #

@K the C:
Fortunately, the Church has this great distinction between venial and mortal sins. I think, if we have a well-formed conscience, we pretty well know when we have committed a sin of omission in a grave matter. I think of sins of omission as situations of grave matter when someone would be in desperate need from a word or an act from our part, and we would be able to give it to him/her, yet we don't.

@michigancatholic:
Maybe most Catholics in the Western world are not scrupulous, but there is a number that is, especially of the "devoted" kind. It's a great spiritual danger, because it's a type of pride ("my sins are sooo important") - and that's the worst of the Capital Sins, after all.

I also know the "Lord, I don't love you enough" mode. Maybe it can help us to take the words of the Gospel and apply them to this situation:
"Lord, I love. Help my unloving heart..."
Petra | Homepage | 12.29.06 - 4:26 am | #

Some advice:

St. Ignatius of Loyola deals with some of these issues (i.e. discerning the difference between mortal and venial sin, even when the matter of the act in question is grave of itself) in the general matter at the start of the Spiritual Exercises. Anyone with scruples might find those portions of text useful. Also, he is more than a little trustworthy, since he was at one point so tempted by scrupulosity that he nearly killed himself.

You should never avoid the Eucharist over a devotional confession; reception of Holy Communion is itself sufficent to remit venial sin (as is blessing oneself with holy water), and while devotional confession is praiseworthy in itself, I would venture that for someone with scruples a trusting Communion in place of a devotional confession concerned with venialities would be more pleasing to Our Lord. Bear in mind that I am not a priest.
A Recovering Scrupe | 12.29.06 - 4:29 pm | #