What's the formula for ”hail Mary”?

[SSSnail]

I've seen this done in movies, and just curious about how they come up with the hail Mary and how many times you have to repeat ”the Lord's prayer” so that your sins are forgiven. Although I'm quite sure Hollywood and the Church probably make stuff up as they go along, there's got to be a metric for the practice, right?

Also, are the priests bound by some sort of confidentiality clause so that you can tell him anything?

 

[Markbnj]

I've seen this done in movies, and just curious about how they come up with the hail Mary and how many times you have to repeat ”the Lord's prayer” so that your sins are forgiven. Although I'm quite sure Hollywood and the Church probably make stuff up as they go along, there's got to be a metric for the practice, right?

Also, are the priests bound by some sort of confidentiality clause so that you can tell him anything?

Ah, it's been a long time, but if I recall the priest basically assigned you some number of hail mary's, and then the Rosary evolved for helping to count them out. I don't know if there was an actual formula, or if it was up to each cleric's discretion.

 

[KillerBee]

I think you can now go to the DMV to confess your sins too

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Also, are the priests bound by some sort of confidentiality clause so that you can tell him anything?

It's called the sanctity of the confessional. In practice, it means the priest can not divulge any of the details of what was spoken of in confidence. It is considered above the law and clergy can not be forced to reveal what was discussed.

 

[MongGrel]

It means it's the end of the game and you're losing, throw that football as far as ya can.

 

[IronWing]

The rosary circlet is bunched into groups of ten beads and a single beads in between. Say a Hail Mary for each of the ten bunched beads and an Our Father for each single bead. Then when you get to the tail you're supposed to do the "Thine is the Kingdom, power, glory thing. The Apostate's Creed is in there somewhere and a few new fangled addons.