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I experience extreme strong guilt after committing a certain type of sin. This guilt is so strong that it completely consumes my thoughts and makes me feel depressed.and anxious to the point where I have trouble sleeping and also continue in sin because of the guilt. Usually, accompanied with this guilt is the urgency to go to my Father of Confession and confess what I did. There have been times, because the guilt is always so.unbearable, that I go to confess the next day after doing what I have done. Unfortunately, I feel that this causes a burden on my Father of Confession because of my repeated meetings to that point where my family has expressed that what I am doing is unacceptable. I know my Father of Confession spoke with one of my parents saying that this was not the case, but I do agree that I have become a burden on my Father of Confession.

Now I am suffering from the extreme guilt from committing this sin, and it seems that the earliest I could go to see my Father of Confession is in about two weeks. I am not sure how I will be able to handle the guilt, depression, anxiety, etc., for that long. To.make the situation worse, because it is Holy Week, I feel that I will be so distracted when I try to watch or attend this week's services and be unable to benefit and enjoy this Week, especially the Feast of the Resurrection. I understand that having this urgency to confess is a good thing, but is there any way to control this? Do you have any.advice that can help me to benefit this week?

What is worse than committing this sin is feeling guilty about confessing about it. God knows humans will sin, so He instituted a blessed system to absolve the remorseful sinner. The main function of the priest is to lead people to Salvation. Being riddled with guilt at a time when you need spiritual help and guidance the most is Satan's trick to discourage you and make you fall into despair and faintheartedness. Thus, you will be more prone to continuing in this sin and others. In addition, you are depriving yourself of the Holy Sacraments that will help you and cause you to reunite with Christ so that He abides in you and you in Him. Trust in the Holy Spirit, let go of pride, and humble yourself before the Lord in the presence of your Confessor Father as often as needed. If you were ill, would you not go the physician as often as needed? A good physician knows the value of prevention, so he will advise you to come as often as needed so that the pathology of your illness does not worsen. Some of the fathers likened the church to a hospital for people to receive the spiritual medicine. Our Lord Jesus Christ also used this metaphor as well.

"As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, 'Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' When Jesus heard that, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Matthew 9:9-13).

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