The Orthodox Catechism gives the following definition of this sacrament: “Repentance is a sacrament in which he who confesses his sins, with a visible expression of forgiveness from the priest, is invisibly absolved from sins by Jesus Christ Himself.”
Hood. A. Korzukhin. Before confession. 1877
Each of us, at least several times in our lives, has had to admit that we were wrong, saying the simple, but sometimes difficult to pronounce word “sorry.” But if an unchurched person asks for forgiveness only from those whom he has offended, then a Christian also asks for forgiveness from God.
Confession is not a conversation about one’s shortcomings, doubts, or telling a confessor about one’s life; it is a sacrament, and not just a pious custom. Confession is an ardent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification.
What does the concept of confession mean, and how to prepare for it, we will try to figure it out with the help of the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers.
Hood. B. Klementyev. Confession. Modern painting
Confession - a change of mind
The words “repentance” or “confession,” unfortunately, do not accurately reflect the meaning of this sacrament. In Russian, to confess means to reveal your sins. In Greek, the sacrament of confession is called “metanoia” - a change of mind. This means that her goal is not only to ask for forgiveness, but also, with God’s help, to change her mind.
The preaching of Christ calls for a change in the way of thinking and lifestyle, a renunciation of sinful deeds and thoughts. A synonym for repentance is the word “conversion”, which is often found in the Bible: “Turn every one from your evil way and correct your ways and your actions” (Jer. 18:11).
To convert, explains Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, “means to turn away from many things that had value for us only because they were pleasant or useful to us. Conversion is manifested, first of all, in a change in the scale of values: when God is at the center of everything, everything else takes on new places, receives new depth. Everything that is God, everything that belongs to Him is positive and real. Everything outside of Him has no value or meaning. It’s an active, positive state of going in the right direction.”
Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) notes: “Repentance is not just repentance. Judas, having betrayed the Lord, subsequently repented, but did not bring repentance. He regretted what he had done, but could not find the strength within himself to either ask for forgiveness from the Lord or do anything good to correct the evil he had committed. He failed to change his life, to take a path on which he could atone for his previous sins. This is the difference between him and the Apostle Peter: he renounced Christ, but throughout his subsequent life, through the feat of confession and martyrdom, he proved his love for God and atoned for his sin a thousandfold.”
I. Repin. Refusal to confess. 1879-85
Establishment of the Sacrament of Confession
Repentance before God, sometimes the whole people, is a common practice, widely found in times Old Testament. We can remember the righteous Noah, who called the people to repentance. We find positive examples of repentance: the prophet Jonah called out to the Ninevites and proclaimed their destruction. And the inhabitants heard his words and repented of their sins, they propitiated God with their prayers and received salvation (Jonah 3; 3).
The sacrament of confession in Christian understanding originates from apostolic times. The Acts of the Apostles says that “many of those who believed came, confessing and revealing their deeds” (Acts 19; 18).
In the Holy Scriptures, repentance is a necessary condition for salvation: “unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way” (Luke 13:3). And it is joyfully accepted by the Lord and pleasing to Him: “so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance” (Luke 15:7).
It was to the apostles and their successors - the bishops, and through them to the priests, that the Lord gave the right and opportunity to forgive human sins: “Receive the Holy Spirit: those whose sins you forgive, their sins will be forgiven; and to whom you hold, they hold (on whom you leave, they will remain)” (John 20:22-23).
Confession in the first centuries was not strictly followed, like other sacraments. Different Churches had different practices related to local customs. But even then it was possible to identify several main components that were found almost everywhere. Among them, first of all, it is necessary to note personal confession before a pastor or bishop and confession before the entire church community, which was practiced until the end of the 4th century, when the Patriarch of Constantinople Nektarios abolished the position of presbyter-spiritual priest, who was involved in matters of public Repentance.
I. Repin. One of the sketches for the painting. 1880
How to prepare?
A common mistake many Christians make is the vicious practice of remembering their sins while standing in line. Preparation for confession should begin long before the sacrament. Over the course of several days, the person preparing must analyze his life, remember all the deeds, thoughts, and actions that confuse his soul.
Preparation for confession does not consist in fully remembering and even writing down your sin. It consists in achieving that state of concentration, seriousness and prayer in which, as if by light, our sins become clearly visible. The confessor should bring to the confessor not a list, but a feeling of repentance, not a detailed story about his life, but a contrite heart.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in one of his sermons noted: “Sometimes people come and read out a long list of sins - which I know from the list, because I have the same books that they have. And I stop them, I say: “You are not confessing your sins, you are confessing sins that can be found in the nomocanon, in prayer books. I need your confession, or rather, Christ needs your personal repentance, and not a general stereotyped repentance. You can't feel like you're condemned by God to eternal damnation because you didn't read evening prayers either he didn’t read the canons, or he fasted incorrectly.”
Metropolitan Anthony is echoed by Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev): “Often in confession they speak not about their own sins, but about the sins of other people: son-in-law, mother-in-law, mother-in-law, daughter, son, parents, co-workers, neighbors. Sometimes the priest has to listen to stories with many characters, with stories about the sins and shortcomings of relatives and friends. All this has nothing to do with confession, because our relatives and friends will answer for their sins themselves, and we will have to answer for our sins. And if one of us does not have good relationships with relatives, colleagues, neighbors, then, when preparing for confession, we must ask ourselves the question: what is my fault; how have I sinned? What could I have done to make the situation change for the better, but didn’t? You should always first of all look for your own guilt, and not blame your neighbors. Sometimes people come to complain about life. Something in life did not work out, a failure occurred, and a person comes to the priest to say how difficult it is for him. We must remember that a priest is not a psychotherapist, and a church is not the place where you need to come with a complaint. Of course, in some cases the priest must listen, console, encourage, but confession cannot be reduced to psychotherapy.”
Rev. Nikon of Optina, speaking about preparing for confession, advises his children to “delve deeper into ourselves and carefully monitor our thoughts, feelings and cry about the passionate, sinful feelings, desires, and thoughts that exist in us; we must certainly drive them out, as to God.” objectionable, and, having expelled them, should not allow them into our hearts, for we cannot sing the Lord’s song in a passionate state.”
An important point in preparation is a pure heart. If a Christian wants to confess, he must wholeheartedly ask for forgiveness from those he has offended and forgive his offenders. Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) says the following about this: “Before we begin to repent, we must forgive everyone everything! Forgive without delay, now! Forgive for real, and not like this: “I forgave you, but I can’t see you and I don’t want to talk to you!” We must immediately forgive everyone and everything, as if there were no offenses, grief or hostility! Only then can we hope to receive forgiveness from the Lord.”
N. Losev. Prodigal son. 1882.
The Gospel parable of the prodigal son shows the image of “repentance” - changing oneself, renouncing sin. Confession (Sacrament of Repentance) – sacrament Orthodox Church, during which he who confesses his sins with sincere repentance receives permission and remission of sins from God.
Confession of sins
To repent of sins, you need to understand and understand what sin is. Catholic tradition, dating back to Anselm of Canterbury, defines sin in legal terms. Sin is perceived as breaking the law, committing a crime.
Orthodox tradition always treated sin as a disease, which was recorded in the resolution of the VI Ecumenical Council. And in the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church, this understanding of sin is expressed in numerous prayers, the most famous of them in the rite of Confession. A person confessing his sins is told: “Take heed, for thou hast come to the doctor’s office, lest thou depart unhealed.” And the Greek word amartia itself, translated as “sin,” has several more meanings, one of which is illness.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa speaks about sin this way: “Sin is not an essential property of our nature, but a deviation from it. Just as illness and deformity are not inherent in our nature, but are unnatural, so activity directed towards evil must be recognized as a distortion of the good that is innate to us.”
He is echoed by St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Sin commits violence against nature.”
Parable of the Prodigal Son. Modern Greek icon.
“Repentance is born from love for God: it is standing before Someone, and not thinking about something. This is an appeal to the Personality, and not an impersonal assessment of what happened. The son in the parable of the prodigal son does not just talk about his sins - he repents. Here is love for the father, and not just hatred of oneself and one’s deeds. In church language, repentance is the antonym of despair. You cannot go to God with the feeling “I’ll repent and everything will be fine.” Repentance is associated with the expectation of healing help from the outside, from the loving grace of God.” Deacon Andrey Kuraev
K. Bryullov. Confession of an Italian. 1827-30
For Catholics, confession of sins usually takes place in a special booth called a confessional or confessional (but it is also possible outside the confessional).
How often should you go to confession?
This question does not have a clear answer. The frequency of confession should be determined by the Christian himself, in consultation with his confessor. Metropolitan Longin of Saratov and Volsk answered a question from TV viewers in one of his programs: “As needed, this is very individual. If you have a skill, then every time your heart hurts about some sin. Some people need this several times a month, some - once a week, some more often, some less often. We must confess so often that the voice of conscience always sounds loudly in the human heart. If it starts to die down, something is wrong.”
If the confessed sin continues to torment, and the pain from it does not subside, do not be embarrassed by this, the bishop said. “Sin wounds the human soul. Any wound takes time to heal; it cannot just heal. We are people, we have a conscience, we have a soul, and after the wound inflicted on it, it, of course, hurts. Sometimes all my life. There are such situations, such sins, the wound from which remains in the human heart for a very long time, even if the person repented and received forgiveness from God.”
But if these sins were not repeated again, then there is no need to name them again in confession, Metropolitan Longin noted. “Every sin, we know, is traditionally atoned for by penance. And this memory of sin, a sorrowful, painful memory, may well be perceived as penance from God.”
Hood. K. Lebedev.
Children's confession
At what age should children confess, how to tell and prepare a child for the first repentance - these questions concern many Orthodox parents. Archpriest Maxim Kozlov advises not to rush in such cases: “You cannot demand that all children go to confession from the age of seven. The norm that children must confess before Communion from the age of seven has been established since the Synodal era and from earlier centuries. As, if I’m not mistaken, Father Vladimir Vorobyov wrote in his book about the sacrament of Repentance, for many, many children today, physiological maturation is so ahead of spiritual and psychological that most of today’s children are not ready to confess at the age of seven. Isn’t it time to say that this age is set by the confessor and the parent absolutely individually in relation to the child? At the age of seven, and some a little earlier, they see the difference between good and bad deeds, but it is too early to say that this is conscious repentance. Only selected, subtle, delicate natures are capable of such early age experience it. There are amazing children who at five or six years old have a responsible moral consciousness, but most often these are other things. Or the parents’ motivations associated with the desire to have an additional educational tool (it often happens that when Small child behaves badly, a naive and kind mother asks the priest to confess him, thinking that if he repents, he will obey). Or some kind of apeishness towards adults on the part of the child himself: they stand, approach, and the priest tells them something. Nothing good comes from this. For most people, moral consciousness awakens much later. But let it happen later. Let them come at nine or ten years old, when they have a greater degree of maturity and responsibility for their lives. In fact, than earlier child confesses, so much the worse for him - apparently, it is not for nothing that children are not charged with sins until they are seven years old. Only from a fairly later age do they perceive confession as a confession, and not as a list of what was said by mom or dad and written down on paper. And this formalization that occurs in a child, in the modern practice of our church life, is a rather dangerous thing.”
S. Miloradovich. At the confessor's
Why do you need a priest at confession?
Confession is not a conversation. The priest is not obliged to say anything. He is obliged to listen, he is obliged to understand whether the person sincerely repents. Giving advice is not always appropriate. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh said in one of his words about confession: “Sometimes an honest priest must say: “I was with you with all my soul during your confession, but I can’t tell you anything about it. I will pray for you, but I can’t give you advice.”
Each confession is a promise to make every effort not to return to the confessed sin in the future. The priest is only a witness to this oath of allegiance to God.
The priest is endowed with the power from God to forgive those of our sins for which we offer sincere repentance. Christ gave this difficult burden of responsibility and authority to His apostles.
Photo by E. Stepanova.
priest Anthony SKRYNNIKOV
The word of Greek origin “repentance” is inextricably included in the concept of Christianity. Repentance is a sigh for sins and an indispensable desire not to commit them again, such a certain state of the soul, to which is added sincere prayer, contrition and subsequent joy. But without awareness of the sinfulness of human nature, it is impossible to bring true repentance; this leads to the need to understand what sin is.
Christian Perception of Sin
Many holy ascetics have repeatedly described the essence of sin, trying to explain its nature and give specific definition. Obviously, sin is a deviation from the commandments given by God. Of course, sin is a voluntary choice, regardless of the circumstances in which it is committed, because being from birth absolutely free in action, a person can refrain from evil and vice or, conversely, succumb to his heart, creating a spiritual illness. It will grow and embrace the entire soul, subjugating through a certain passion, bad habit or inclination the entire person, thereby alienating him from God.
There is a mistaken approach to the spiritual side of life in which formal observance of certain commandments is carried out, considered only as strict rules. And if the external manifestation of such a life may seem pious and based on serious moral piles, then a deep analysis shows the presence of enormous pride, narcissism, vanity, lack of faith and other “hidden” vices.
In other words, a person may not lie, not be rude, not steal, always be deliberately kind and sympathetic, regularly attend divine services and observe fasts, but in his soul he may have contempt, hatred and, most importantly, there may be no place for love in him.
Conventionally, sins can be divided into several types: against God, against one’s neighbor and against oneself.
Sins against God
The opinion often arises that any sin is opposition to God, but despite all the irrefutable this statement one should distinguish between special deviations that directly affect the Divine essence.
These are lack of faith, superstition and lack of faith. Sometimes there is a formal visit to the temple, without fear or as some kind of ritual, which is also unacceptable in Christianity. grumbling, broken vows, rash oaths, desecrated icons, relics, books of Holy Scripture, crosses and prosphoras - all such actions can occur completely by accident, but should lead to the idea of bringing repentance.
This is also important for those church parishioners who engage in small talk during services, make jokes and burst into loud laughter, are late for services and leave before the end without good reason. It is unacceptable to deliberately conceal sins while performing the sacrament of repentance, because in this case the sin not only remains unrepentant, but also multiplies additional ones. Direct apostasy can be considered an appeal to various psychics and similar people, a passion for witchcraft, magic, and adherence to sectarian beliefs.
Sins against one's neighbor
One of the main commandments is to love your neighbor. The call to “love” does not only mean family and close friends; the Lord means any person, even an enemy, for whom a true Christian must find the strength to say a prayer. IN modern world It is extremely difficult for people to forgive, not to gloat and not to judge. Each person experiences enormous pressure from streams of incessant negative information, shaky moral guidelines, among which there is sometimes a place for the most obscene and disgusting things. A person is constantly tense and in stressful situations, at work, at home, on the road.
Sins against yourself
By cultivating exorbitant self-love, a person encourages a very insidious sin - pride. Pride itself is a combination of other vices, vanity, despair, despondency, arrogance. A soul drawn into such vices and qualities is destroyed from within.
Relegating the real ones to the background, overwhelmed by endless pleasures and hobbies, she quickly gets fed up and tries to find something more. Often, in search of additional pleasures, a person finds attachment to drugs or alcohol. Constant idleness, laziness and anxiety only about bodily comfort completely weaken moral principles, overly liberate and create a feeling of the primacy of the body over the soul.
Repentance is preached to many and enables its followers to bring true repentance. The souls of people, burdened with bad deeds and vices, need such spiritual, intangible help. The rite of this sacrament begins with the removal of the Cross and the Gospel and placing them on the lectern.
The priest says prayers and troparia, which set people preparing to confess in a certain, very subtle way. Next, the confessor approaches the priest, a personal confession takes place, which is an absolute secret, its disclosure is unacceptable.
The priest can ask questions or say parting words, then he covers the head of the confessor with the epitrachelion and, after reading the prayer of permission, overshadows. Next, the parishioner kisses the Cross and the Gospel. It should be noted that repentance is an important step towards Communion, which is allowed without confession only in strictly certain cases. In each specific situation, the priest makes the decision and takes full responsibility.
The archimandrite compared a non-repentant person with one who does not wash away the material dirt from the body for a long time. Repentance is the basis of spiritual life, a kind of instrument with the help of which the purification of the soul and its tranquility are achieved. Without it, it is impossible to feel the closeness of God and eradicate sinful traits and inclinations. Healing is a long and difficult path. There can never be too much repentance, because a person always has something to repent of. By carefully looking at himself, without self-justification and other inherent “tricks,” he is able to discern the unpleasant corners of his soul and bring them to confession.
But, unfortunately, it is not at all uncommon for a formal listing of sins to take place. complete absence repentance and repentance.
Such an attitude cannot bring relief to a person. Without experiencing shame and pain, measuring the depth of the fall, leaving sin, and especially its forgiveness, is impossible. It is very important to firmly decide to fight, eradicating vices and moral “holes” one by one. Repentance must bring change; it is called upon to change the worldview and worldview.
The connection between fasting and repentance
The most appropriate time to analyze your own sins and spiritual shortcomings is fasting. Repentance for sins and fasting pose the same task for a Christian - cleansing the soul and changing it for the better. Both of these concepts should be considered as a kind of weapon that can be used to confront one’s own passions. Fasting calls for bodily and mental abstinence; it is a time for sincere prayer, deep analysis of one’s spiritual canvas, and reading instructive books and scriptures. The time of fasting can be imagined as a small feat; each believer goes through it along a very individual path, with a completely different emotional and psychological background and mental state.
Prudence and understanding are extremely important that the main thing is not the refusal of a certain type of food, going to the cinema and other worldly amusements, but spiritual meekness, turning one's gaze only to the inner one, refusing to judge, cruelty, and rudeness. When a person immerses himself in relative “silence” for several weeks, withdrawing as much as possible from the “world,” he has time to come closer to the awareness of sin and use this understanding for true repentance.
Repentance in Orthodoxy
An Orthodox Christian repents solely of his own free will. His personality is aware of the sinfulness of his nature, his conscience denounces bad deeds and thoughts, but there is hope in him for the mercy of God, he brings repentance not as a criminal who fears only punishment, but sincerely like a son to his father. It is precisely how God should be perceived as a Father, this is what the Orthodox Church and Orthodox repentance teach, although very often the attitude and feeling of God stops at seeing Him as a strict and harsh punishing judge. And in view of this wrong approach, repentance occurs only because of the fear of terrible retribution, while repentance should come from love for God and the desire to approach him in a more righteous way of life.
Conclusion
Repentance is undoubtedly a religious concept. But many interpret this type of internal cleansing and spiritual self-development as a certain ability to bring purely personal secrets into the open, to suppress and humiliate oneself. It should be understood that repentance itself is in full accordance with human nature, because nature has been damaged and now needs regular healing.
Repentance in Greek sounds like “metanoia” and means “change of mind.” In Repentance, a person is renewed and changed, spiritually cleansed and transformed. Repentance, strictly speaking, does not end even when a person repents at Confession before the priest. Final repentance as a genuine change of mind occurs when a person is faced with the opportunity to repeat this or that sin, but does not repeat it, because this sin no longer has its beginning, its root, its foundation in him. Although let's not forget that the central, the most important moment repentance is still the confession of sin before the priest and the cleansing of the Christian’s soul from this sin by the power of Divine grace acting in the Sacrament of Repentance.
Always manifested in the form of a specific evil act, sin, according to the definition of St. Maximus the Confessor, is in its essence “the falling of human will from good (that is, from God) to evil.” We see: through sin, man voluntarily separates himself from God.
In the Orthodox Church, sin is viewed, first of all, as a disease, as a disease of the soul that violates the primordial harmony of the Divine plan for the world. In our Orthodox rite of the Sacrament of Repentance there is the following expression: “...you came to the doctor’s hospital, so that you did not leave unhealed.” It is the healing of a person, the restoration of the health of his soul, that is the goal of the Sacrament of Repentance.
What happens to sin at the moment of Confession? It is destroyed, ceases to be part of our spiritual inner content and belongs to the past that has been crossed out and destroyed. However, this does not mean that all the sinful acts we committed before, in which we confessed to the priest, no longer dominate us. Dominated. But not as guilt, but as our memory, our experiences, traces, scars that remain in our souls. In addition, here we should distinguish between those of our sins that we can no longer remember, and those for which we are still responsible both before God and before people - as having far-reaching consequences that affected the destinies of our neighbors; sins, the sad fruits of which we still have to heal.
And at the same time (repeating again) after Confession, the guilt of the repentant before God for these sins committed before and forgiven in the Sacrament of Repentance is no longer there. That is, the former - confessed - sin no longer has anything in common with the spiritual present of a person.
For every person, being in slavery to sin is not just some kind of “spiritual” hibernation; it is the constant inner torment he experiences. Being under the power of sin is torture, spiritual Torture to which a person subjects himself. And until a person is cleansed of sin, this torture in his soul continues incessantly, undermining, spiritually destroying, killing the sinner. The Holy Fathers never tire of repeating this. Thus, St. Cyril of Jerusalem teaches: “Sin is a terrible evil, but an evil that can be healed. It is terrible for one who retains sin, but it is easy to heal for one who lays aside sin through Repentance. Imagine a man holding a burning coal in his hand. While the coal is in his hand, no doubt he is burning it. But if he throws the coal, he will remove from himself what was burning.” And so, refusing to repent of this or that sin, postponing our repentance for an indefinite time, we find ourselves in the position of that person who has coal in his hand. This coal is not just a pebble that pulls our hand with its weight: it burns through this hand, it melts it unbearably and painfully. AND the only way To get rid of this pain, to get rid of this slow dying (after all, a person is burned by this flaming coal and gradually “comes to nothing”) is simply to throw away the coal of sin through church Repentance.
Repentance gives us the restoration of our good original state, which we once acquired thanks to the baptismal font. Repentance is often called the “second Baptism,” a renewal of Baptism. It is not without reason that St. Ephraim the Syrian writes that “repentance is a ladder that takes us back to where we fell from.”
Thus, precisely thanks to the fruits of Repentance, that mutual holy love is revived again, which was born before - in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation - between God and the Christian soul and was crossed out by human sin. According to the Serbian Bishop Afanasy (Jevtic), “Repentance... is regret for lost love... God and man in Repentance enter into the activity of (this) love.”
In the text of Holy Scripture we find a number of testimonies about the meaning of repentance. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). These words call us to a new state - to a renewal of the mind, to a change of mind in Christ.
It should be remembered that a Christian who confesses his sins in the Sacrament of Repentance, with a visible expression of forgiveness on the part of the priest, is invisibly absolved from sins by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The priest cooperates with God, serves Him, and, together with Christ, realizes the same mysterious synergy. Of course, the priest is given the power to “knit and decide” - to put an epitrachelion on a person’s head or not to do so, to read a prayer of permission over him or to postpone it. And yet, the grace of God here, during the celebration of the Sacrament, does not, strictly speaking, belong to the priest, although the Lord acts precisely through the priest. So grace belongs to God, and, like all things, church sacrament The Sacrament of Repentance is ultimately performed by the Lord Himself, although with a priest concelebrating with Him. Where does sin arise in the human soul every time? How does it originate in it?
We must remember that sin cannot be limited to just one concept of an evil deed - as a sad isolated fact that has happened in our lives. As a rule, sin has its own dark, deep source in the human soul, invisible to the sinner.
Of course, in spiritual life, in the matter of Salvation, it is of great importance what actions a person commits - good or evil: the former must be strived to be carried out all the time, and the latter must be resolutely fought. But we must also remember that both evil and good deeds are the fruit of our internal spiritual structure, a consequence of the state in which our soul resides. And if passion lives in this soul - as a habit of sin, as our organic rootedness in sin, as attachment to a sinful state - such an internal state will constantly manifest itself externally as specific, individual sinful actions. And here the sinner must simultaneously struggle with these external manifestations - with each specific sin, and at the same time strive to eradicate the spiritual virus living in us - sinful passion. It is precisely this that weighs heavily on a person, is the reason for his truly “narcotic” dependence on sinful acts, his rootedness in sin, and keeps the sinner in slavery to the devil.
The Church testifies to the existence of eight main sinful passions. Thus, St. John Cassian the Roman, Abba Evagrius, St. Ephraim the Syrian, St. John Climacus, St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Gregory Palamas call the following passions: gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sadness, despondency, vanity, pride.
All these passions can be closely interconnected with each other and even originate from each other. St. Isaiah of Nitria writes: “... passions, like links in a chain, hold on to one another.” And Saint Gregory Palamas seems to add to this thought: “...evil passions and wickedness are not only introduced through one another, but are also similar to one another.” Passion from passion, as the Holy Fathers say, has a hereditary origin. So, for example, gluttony gives birth to fornication; fornication requires money to satisfy itself. Disappointment in a wasteful and prodigal life, which is unable to bring a person constant consolation, true lasting joy, gives rise to anger, sadness or despondency - depending on the mental makeup of a particular sinner.
Passion is usually divided into carnal and mental. And some of them - the first four - can only come from vices, while the other four, oddly enough, can be born in the soul not only from vices, but also from virtues.
In addition, it should be remembered that any specific sin develops gradually. The Church, in its ascetic writings, conveys to us how this gradual emergence of sin occurs, which is ultimately realized in the form of a specific unseemly act, and teaches how, at certain stages of such development of a sinful state in us, we can still avoid sin and how this is our sinful intention can be rejected from oneself.
Originating in the mind, sin first penetrates into attention, then into feelings, then into the will, and finally is carried out in the form of a specific sinful act.
This stage of the generation of sin in a person in the ascetic tradition is called “addiction”, or “attack”, otherwise - “the arrow of the devil”. Our openness to excuses and demonic “attacks” is a consequence of the general damage of human nature, which is in such a state as a result of the Fall of Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ experienced similar excuses during His temptation in the desert; however, He simply threw them away, each time inevitably defeating Satan who approached Him. What are the means to combat spoofs? The first way is sobriety, constant observation of yourself and trying to prevent the lie from entering your mind. The second is prayer. This method is good even because if our mind is constantly occupied with prayer, there is simply no room left for anything else.
At the same time, it should be remembered that it is necessary to awaken in oneself the consciousness of one’s general sinfulness, to see the presence in the soul of that very passionate principle and to fight fiercely with it, at the same time eradicating individual sins in oneself. We must do both, fighting both passions and their fruit - sins, as if fighting “on two fronts”.
But what should we do with the passions that dominate us? How to overcome the passionate element in yourself? Here the Holy Fathers tell us a very unexpected thing: the passionate principle as such is initially and naturally inherent in man from the moment of his creation. In itself, it is implanted in us by God, but this passionate beginning in us after the Fall, as a result of Adam’s crime, seems to be directed “in the wrong direction.” A person’s passionate aspiration for something good, holy, and above all, of course, for God is natural and normal. Man simply cannot exist autonomously, apart from God, from His grace: in Him we must see the Goal towards which we must truly passionately, uncontrollably strive, with which we must unite through adoption to our Creator. But instead of wanting to unite with God, a sinful, fallen person, on the contrary, passionately strives to unite with the imaginary blessings of the material world that surrounds us and attracts us to itself. Thus, all the vectors of our passionate beginning, our spiritual aspiration are directed in the wrong direction - in the wrong direction.
And based on all that has been said, it can be argued that the goal of a Christian is not to destroy himself, not to cross out the passionate principle as such, but to “redirect” it, change its direction - from creation to the Creator. St. Maximus the Confessor writes about this very interestingly and vividly. He speaks of two passionate principles in a person: about prodigal passion and about anger, which should not be destroyed in us, but change, transform, turning into their direct opposite. St. Maxim says the following: “...whoever’s mind is always with God, his desire (meaning fornication) develops into Divine passion, and rage (that is, anger) completely turns into divine love. For, thanks to long-term involvement with Divine illumination, it (the mind) becomes entirely light-like, and, closely connecting its passionate part with itself, transforms it into endless divine passion and unceasing love, turning entirely from earthly things to the Divine.” This is such an unexpected turn. In the end, with such a re-creation of the passionate principle, the Christian, according to the thoughts of St. Gregory Palamas, is seized by the “magic of divine love” - as the ability of the human passionate principle to strive for the unity of love with the Holy Spirit, with God.”
The Holy Fathers call Christians to achieve dispassion. But dispassion is also not inaction. This is not an endless vacation in heaven, accompanied by endless playing of the harp. Dispassion is a very active state of a person, his constant and creative appeal to the Divine. The Hesychast Fathers - the ancient teachers of the Jesus Prayer - said that dispassion is not the disappearance of the passionate principle in a person, leading him to some kind of inactive peace, but, on the contrary, better energy, the activity of human physicality. As St. Gregory Palamas writes, “dispassion is not the mortification of the passionate power of the soul, but its direction from worse to better and its action in a divine state.” It is in dispassion that our true and active striving for God is realized, for the acquisition of that Heavenly Kingdom, which is “required” only by “force” - as in the constant struggle of a Christian for his own Salvation.
2. From the conversation before confession
Let's figure out how to relate to the Sacrament of repentance, what is required of those who come to the Sacrament, and how to prepare for it.
Without a doubt, our first action will be to test our hearts. This is why there are days of preparation for the Sacrament (fasting). “To see your sins in their multitude and in all their vileness is truly a gift of God,” says Saint John of Kronstadt. Usually people inexperienced in spiritual life do not see either the “multiplicity” of their sins or their “vileness”: “Nothing special”, “like everyone else”, “only minor sins”, “didn’t steal, didn’t kill” - this is usually the case the beginning of confession for many. But self-love, inability to bear reproaches, callousness, people-pleasing, weakness of faith and love, cowardice, spiritual laziness - aren’t these important sins?
Can we really claim that we love God enough, that our faith is active and ardent, that we love every person as a brother in Christ, that we have achieved meekness, freedom from anger, and humility? If not, then what is our Christianity, how can we explain our self-confidence in confession, if not by “petrified insensibility”, if not by “deadness of heart, spiritual death, which precedes bodily death?” Why did the Holy Fathers, who left us prayers of repentance, consider themselves the first of sinners? The brighter the light of Christ illuminates the heart, the more clearly all its shortcomings, ulcers and wounds are recognized. And vice versa: people immersed in the darkness of sin see nothing in their hearts, and even if they see, they are not horrified, since they have nothing to compare with.
It is important to distinguish confession from spiritual conversation, which can be performed outside the Sacrament, and is better if performed separately from it.
If he gets used to giving an account of his life in confession here, he will not be afraid to give an account at the Last Judgment of Christ. This is the first impulse to true repentance: The longer we do not repent, the worse it is for ourselves, the more confusing the bonds of sin become, the more difficult it is, therefore, to give an account. The second impulse leaves calm; The calmer your soul will be the more sincerely you confess. (John of Kronstadt).
To be afraid of shame in confession is also a result of pride; having exposed themselves before God in the presence of a witness (priest), they receive peace and forgiveness. (Venerable Macarius of Optina).
To clearly imagine the meaning of confession, let us turn to a consideration of our inner, spiritual life. It is as if two beings are constantly fighting inside us - good and evil. And so, true Christian life begins in us only when we consciously take the side of a good being and try to defeat the evil.
While we treat our inner life carelessly, without even properly distinguishing between good and evil in it, we passively surrender to our desires and inclinations, whatever they may be, without making any assessment, through Christian life. And only when we condemn ourselves and want renewal, only then do we enter the path of Christian life.
P trace a series of your actions, intentions, words. Yesterday you seriously offended your neighbor with a rude harsh word, offensive suspicion or poisonous ridicule; the day before, you were constantly haunted and tormented your soul by some dirty, base desire, and you not only did not drive it away from yourself, but seemed to even try to enjoy it; Now you had the opportunity to sacrifice your peace or convenience in order to provide a service to someone, but you didn’t do it: if you are attentive and conscientious, then you will see that your life is a whole network, a whole huge plexus of such small and large nasties that form a significant part of your existence. If we do not pay attention to all this, it means that we have not yet begun the Christian life.
Our Christian life will begin only when we say: no, I don’t want such filth to live in my soul! I want to be clean and kind! I want to be true Christian! But as soon as you try to take this path, you will immediately be convinced of the following: you will see that the fight against evil in yourself is extremely difficult, painful and exhausting. You will see how these feelings of yours, how your nasty thoughts and desires, without your consent, take possession of you, push you to do this or that, other ugly actions...
How, one might ask, can a person get rid of all this dirt? How to throw it out of yourself? It sometimes happens that, having shared his spiritual sorrows with someone, a person feels relieved. But in this way we only share our sadness with others, and do not free ourselves from it completely. Another, more certain means of salvation is needed. This is the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confession. Confession is the Sacrament of holy repentance. It was established so that through it we could be cleansed from all our sinful filth.
Until now, the shepherds of the Christian Church, according to the authority given to them by the Lord, forgive the sins of those who repent, and the grace of the Holy Spirit cleanses their hearts.
Thus, confession is an extremely important and extremely necessary means of moral recovery and correction, meeting the most necessary requirements of our own moral nature. Avoiding confession is the same as, suffering from some physical illness, and knowing the right medicine for it, through negligence or laziness, not using this medicine and thus prolonging the illness...
(based on the works of Father Alexander Elchaninov)
O usually, people inexperienced in spiritual life do not see the multiplicity of their sins. “Nothing special”, “like everyone else”, “only minor sins - didn’t steal, didn’t kill” - this is usually the beginning of confession for many.
But self-love, intolerance of reproaches, callousness, people-pleasing, weakness of faith and love, cowardice, spiritual laziness - aren’t these important sins? How can we claim that we love God enough, that our faith is active and ardent? That we love every person as a brother in Christ? That we have achieved meekness, freedom from anger, humility?
If not, then what is our Christianity? How can we explain our self-confidence in confession if not by “petrified insensibility”, if not by “deadness”, the heart and soul death that precedes the body?
Why St. the fathers who left us prayers of repentance considered themselves the first of sinners and with sincere conviction cried out to the Sweetest Jesus: “No one on earth has sinned as I have sinned, the accursed and prodigal one,” and we are convinced that everything is fine with us?
The brighter the light of Christ illuminates the hearts, the more clearly all shortcomings, ulcers and wounds are created. And, on the contrary, people immersed in the darkness of sin do not see anything in their hearts: and if they do, they are not horrified, since they have nothing to compare with.
Therefore, the direct path to the knowledge of one’s sins is to approach the Light and pray for this Light, which is the judgment of the world and everything “worldly” in ourselves (John 3:19). In the meantime, there is no such closeness to Christ in which a feeling of repentance is our usual state, we must, when preparing for confession, examine our conscience - according to the commandments, according to some prayers (for example, the 3rd Vespers, the 4th before Holy Communion), in some places of the Gospel and Epistles (for example, Matt. 5, Rom. 12, Eph. 4, James 3).
When understanding your soul, you must try to distinguish basic sins from derivative ones, symptoms from deeper-lying causes.
For example, absent-mindedness during prayer, drowsiness and inattention in church, and lack of interest in reading the Holy Scriptures are very important. But don’t these sins stem from lack of faith and weak love for God? It is necessary to note in yourself self-will, disobedience, self-justification, impatience of reproaches, intransigence, stubbornness; but it is even more important to discover their connection with self-love and pride.
If we notice in ourselves a desire for society, talkativeness, laughter, increased concern for our appearance and not only our own, but our loved ones, then we must carefully examine whether this is not a form of “multiple vanity.”
If we take everyday failures too much to heart, have a hard time bearing separation, grieve inconsolably for those who have passed away, then in addition to the strength and depth of our feelings, doesn’t all this also testify to a lack of faith in God’s Providence?
There is another auxiliary means that leads to the knowledge of our sins - to remember what other people, our enemies, and especially those who live side by side with us, those close to us, usually accuse us of: almost always their accusations, reproaches, attacks are justified. You can even, having conquered your pride, ask them directly about it - you know better from the outside.
Even before confession, it is necessary to ask for forgiveness from everyone to whom you are guilty, and to go to confession with an unburdened conscience.
During such a test of the heart, one must be careful not to fall into excessive suspiciousness and petty suspicion of every movement of the heart; Having taken this path, you can lose your sense of what is important and unimportant, and get confused in the little things.
In such cases, you must temporarily abandon the testing of your soul and, with prayer and good deeds, simplify and clarify your soul.
The point is to be able to fully remember and even write down our sins, and to achieve a state of concentration, seriousness and prayer in which our sins become clear as if by light.
But knowing your sins does not mean repenting of them. True, the Lord accepts confession - sincere, conscientious, even when it is not accompanied strong feeling remorse. Still, “contrition of heart”—sorrow for our sins—is the most important thing we can bring to confession.
But what to do if “we have no tears, less than repentance, less than tenderness?” “What should we do if our heart, dried up by the flame of sin, is not watered by the life-giving waters of tears? What if “weakness of soul and weakness of the flesh are so great that we are not capable of sincere repentance?
This is still not a reason to postpone confession - God can touch our heart during confession itself: confession itself, the naming of our sins can soften our repentant heart, refine our spiritual vision, sharpen our feelings. Most of all, preparation for confession serves to overcome our spiritual lethargy - fasting, which, exhausting our body, disrupts our bodily well-being, which is disastrous for spiritual life. Prayer, night thoughts about death, reading the Gospel, the lives of saints, and the works of St. serve the same purpose. fathers, increased struggle with oneself, exercise in good deeds.
Our insensibility in confession for the most part has its root in a lack of fear of God and hidden unbelief. This is where our efforts should be directed.
The third moment in confession is the verbal confession of sins. There is no need to wait for questions, you need to make the effort yourself; Confession is a feat and self-compulsion. It is necessary to speak precisely, without obscuring the ugliness of sin with general expressions (for example, “I have sinned against the 7th commandment”). When confessing, it is very difficult to avoid the temptation of self-justification, attempts to explain “mitigating circumstances” to the confessor, and references to third parties who led us into sin. All these are signs of pride, lack of deep repentance, and continued staleness in sin.
And confession is not a conversation about one’s shortcomings, it is not a confessor’s knowledge of you, and least of all a “pious custom.” Confession is an ardent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification that comes from a sense of holiness, dying to sin and reviving for holiness...
I often notice in those confessing a desire to go through confession painlessly for themselves - either they get off with general phrases, or talk about little things, keeping silent about what should really weigh on their conscience. There is also false shame before the confessor and general indecision, as before every important action, and especially - a cowardly fear of seriously starting to stir up one’s life, full of small and habitual weaknesses. A real confession, like a good shock to the soul, is terrifying in its decisiveness, the need to change something, or even just to at least think about oneself.
And sometimes in confession they refer to a weak memory, which does not seem to give the opportunity to remember sins. Indeed, it often happens that you easily forget your sins, but does this only happen because of a weak memory?
In confession, a weak memory is not an excuse; forgetfulness - from inattention, frivolity, callousness, insensitivity to sin. Sin that burdens the conscience will not be forgotten. After all, for example, cases that especially hurt our pride or, on the contrary, flattered our vanity, we remember praise addressed to us for many years. Everything that affects us strong impression, we remember for a long time and clearly, and if we forget our sins, doesn’t this mean that we simply do not attach serious importance to them?
A sign of completed repentance is a feeling of lightness, purity, inexplicable joy, when sin seems as difficult and impossible as this joy was just distant.
Our repentance will not be complete if, while repenting, we do not internally confirm ourselves in the determination not to return to our confessed sin.
But oh, they say, how is this possible? How can I promise myself and my confessor that I will not repeat my sin? Wouldn't the opposite be closer to the truth - the certainty that the sin will be repeated? After all, everyone knows from experience that after a while you inevitably return to the same sins. Watching yourself from year to year, you do not notice any improvement, “you jump and again remain in the same place.”
It would be terrible if that were the case. Fortunately, this is not the case. There is no case when, if there is a good desire to improve, successive confessions and Holy Communion do not produce beneficial changes in the soul.
But the point is that, first of all, we are not our own judges. A person cannot correctly judge himself whether he has become worse or better, since both he, the judge, and what he judges are changing quantities.
Increasing severity towards oneself, increased spiritual sight, heightened fear of sin can give the illusion that sins have multiplied: they remained the same, maybe even weakened, but we did not notice them like that before.
Besides. God, in His special providence, often closes our eyes to our successes in order to protect us from our worst enemy - vanity and pride. It often happens that sin remains, but frequent confession and Communion of the Holy Mysteries have shaken and weakened its roots. And the very struggle with sin, suffering about one’s sins - isn’t it an acquisition?
“Do not be afraid,” says John Climacus, “even if you fall every day, and do not depart from the ways of God. Stand courageously and the angel who protects you will honor your patience.”
If there is no this feeling of relief, rebirth, you must have the strength to return again to confession, to completely free your soul from impurity, to wash it with tears from blackness and filth. Those who strive for this will always achieve what they are looking for.
Just let us not take credit for our successes, count on our own strengths, rely on our own efforts - this would mean ruining everything we have acquired.
“Gather my scattered mind. Lord, cleanse my frozen heart: like Peter, give me repentance, like a publican - sighing, and like a harlot - tears.”
5. Preparing for confession
As a sample for determining one’s internal spiritual state and for detecting one’s sins, a slightly modified version can be taken in relation to modern conditions"Confession" of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov.
* * *
And I, the great sinner (name of the rivers), confess to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honorable father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, which I have done in all the days of my life, which I have thought even to this day.
I sinned: I did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, I did not keep my monastic promise, but I lied about everything and created indecent things for myself before the Face of God.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: before the Lord by lack of faith and sluggishness in thoughts, all from the enemy against faith and the Holy. Churches; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing benefits, calling on the name of God without need - in vain.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: lack of love for the Lord, lower than fear, failure to fulfill the holy. His will and St. commandments, a careless depiction on oneself sign of the cross, irreverent veneration of St. icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to be baptized and confess the Lord.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: I did not preserve love for my neighbor, did not feed the hungry and thirsty, did not clothe the naked, did not visit the sick and prisoners in prison; the law of God and St. I did not learn the traditions of my fathers out of laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by not fulfilling church and cell rules, by going to the temple of God without diligence, with laziness and negligence; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during a church service - he sinned by idle talk, laughter, dozing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, leaving the temple during the service and not going to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by daring to go to the temple of God in uncleanness and touch all holy things.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by not honoring the feasts of God; violation of St. posts and non-storage fast days- Wednesdays and Fridays; intemperance in food and drink, polyeating, secret eating, disordered eating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism; one’s own will and reason through fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and self-justification; not properly honoring parents, not raising children in Orthodox faith, cursing their children and neighbors.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false worship, dancing, smoking, playing cards, gossip, remembering the living for their repose, eating the blood of animals (VI Ecumenical Council, 67th rule. Acts of the Holy Apostles, Chapter 15).
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by seeking help from intermediaries of demonic power - occultists: psychics, bioenergeticists, non-contact massage therapists, hypnotists, “folk” healers, sorcerers, sorcerers, healers, fortune tellers, astrologers, parapsychologists; participation in coding sessions, removal of “damage and evil eye”, spiritualism; contacting UFOs and “higher intelligence”; connection to "cosmic energies".
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by watching and listening to television and radio programs with the participation of psychics, healers, astrologers, fortune-tellers, healers.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by studying various occult teachings, theosophy, Eastern cults, the teaching of “living ethics”; doing yoga, meditation, dousing according to Porfiry Ivanov’s system.
Forgive me, honest father..
Sinned: by reading and storing occult literature.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by attending speeches by Protestant preachers, participating in meetings of Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, the "Virgin Center", "white brotherhood" and other sects, accepting heretical baptism, deviating into heresy and sectarian teaching.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: pride, conceit, envy, conceit, suspicion, irritability.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by condemning all people - living and dead, by slander and anger, by memory, hatred, evil for evil by retribution, slander, reproach, wickedness, laziness, deception, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to give in and serve one's neighbor; sinned with gloating, malice, slander, insult, ridicule, reproach and man-pleasing.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: incontinence of mental and physical feelings; spiritual and physical impurity, pleasure and procrastination in unclean thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of wives and young men; in a dream, prodigal desecration at night, intemperance in married life.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by impatience with illnesses and sorrows, by loving the comforts of this life, by captivity of the mind and hardening of the heart, by not forcing myself to do any good deed.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by inattention to the promptings of my conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. I sinned through covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, embezzlement, theft, stinginess, attachment to various kinds of things and people.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by condemning bishops and priests, by disobeying spiritual fathers, by murmuring and resenting them and by not confessing my sins to them out of oblivion, negligence out of false shame. Sinned: by unmercifulness, contempt and condemnation of the poor; going to the temple of God without fear and reverence.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: laziness, relaxation, love of bodily rest, excessive sleeping, voluptuous dreams, biased views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, fornication, unmarried marriages; (those who performed abortions on themselves or others, or inclined someone to this great sin - infanticide, sinned gravely).
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by spending time in empty and idle activities, in empty conversations, in excessive watching of television.
Forgive me, honest father. I sinned: despondency, cowardice, impatience, murmuring, despair of salvation, lack of hope in God’s mercy, insensibility, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by slandering my neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, non-reconciliation, enmity and hatred, dissent, spying on other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by coldness and insensitivity in confession, by belittling sins, by blaming others rather than by condemning myself.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: against the Life-giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching Them without proper preparation, without contrition and the fear of God.
Forgive me, honest father.
I have sinned: in word, in thought and with all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - voluntarily or involuntarily, knowledge or ignorance, in reason or foolishness, and it is not possible to list all my sins according to their multitude. But in all of these, as well as in those unspeakable through oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to take care. You, honest father, forgive me and release me from all of this and pray for me, a sinner, and on that Day of Judgment testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen.
6. About penances
In some cases, the priest may impose penance on the penitent - spiritual exercises prescribed with the aim of eradicating the habits of sin. In accordance with this goal, feats of prayer and good deeds are assigned, which must be directly opposite to the sin for which they are assigned: for example, works of mercy are assigned to the lover of money, fasting to the unchaste, kneeling prayers to those weakening in faith, etc. Sometimes, due to the persistent unrepentance of a person confessing to some sin, the confessor may excommunicate him for some period of time from participating in the Sacrament of Communion. Why is he doing this? Perhaps here we can perceive such penance as punishment for the sinner? No. And this is not a punishment either. The priest, on the contrary, protects the penitent and takes care of his well-being. It should be remembered that if a person receives communion unworthily, this can cause him irreparable spiritual and even physical harm. The Apostle Paul testifies in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: “...whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let man examine himself, and in this way let him eat from this bread and drink from this cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself, without considering the Body of the Lord. Because of this, many of you are weak and sick, and many die” (1 Cor. 11:27-30). And so, so that a person, bearing within himself the consequences of especially serious sins, does not incur the wrath of God by unworthy communion, the priest does not allow him to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Father, as it were, protects him from the danger of being burned by the blessed Eucharistic fire. And until a person corrects himself, for now. he will not be cleansed, he does not dare, he must not approach the Eucharist.
Of course, a person must understand that penance is given to him by the priest for his own good. If a person perceives penance only as a kind of “spiritual” stick with which the priest mercilessly beats him, then it will not bring any benefit to the penitent. It should also be remembered that penance, its nature, the degree of its severity is a very individual matter. Its imposition is each time associated with the personality of the penitent, with one degree or another of his internal readiness to properly accept penance: not as punishment, but as a benefit. Penance must be treated as the will of God, spoken through the priest about the penitent, and must be accepted for obligatory fulfillment. If it is impossible for one reason or another to perform penance, you should contact the priest who imposed it to resolve the difficulties that have arisen.
7. How to confess in the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God
And confession is performed in our church every morning during the service, and in the evening, if there is an evening service (see “Schedule of Services”) Those who wish to receive communion at early liturgy on Sunday it is necessary to confess the evening before at the evening service.
Those who have prepared accordingly and wish to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ come to confession; however, you can confess without receiving communion; the priest performing the confession first reads common prayers, and then confesses separately each of those who come. We must remember that in the Sacrament of Repentance we repent of our sins to God Himself, who is invisibly present during the performance of this Sacrament; the priest is a witness of our repentance, who helps us to properly remember our sins and with the power given to him by God, relieves us of their severity.
Having waited his turn, the confessor approaches the priest standing at the lectern - a high inclined table on which the cross and the Gospel are located. If you come to confess for the first time, it is better to immediately tell the priest about it - he will tell you what you should pay attention to during confession and what you need to repent of.
At the end of confession, the penitent bows his head, the priest covers it with an epitrachelion (part of the clergyman’s vestments) and reads a prayer of permission. After this, you need to reverently cross yourself, kiss the cross and the Gospel lying on the lectern.
All Orthodox Christians over 7 years of age must begin the Sacrament of Repentance before each communion. Children under 7 years old receive communion without confession. When preparing for confession, we must remember everything we sin against God and our neighbor. This preparation lasts several days - “fasting” - and concerns both physical and spiritual life. On the days of fasting, one should attend divine services in the temple and do household chores more diligently. prayer rule. The canon “Repentant” is read to the Mother of God, Guardian Angel, and before Communion - “Following to Holy Communion.” At confession, a Christian, sincerely and heartily repenting of his sins, verbally lays them out before the priest, who also orally absolves him of his sins. With the visible expression of forgiveness by the priest, the repentant is invisibly resolved by Christ Himself (the Gospel and the cross lying on the lectern remind us of this), and again becomes innocent and sanctified, as after baptism. Forgiveness, in reality, is the reconciliation of man with God, the restoration of the natural connection, uniting the creature with its Creator, which is broken when committing sin.
Sacrament of Repentance- such a grace-filled ritual in which a believer (orally reveals) his sins to God in the presence of a priest and through the priest receives forgiveness of sins from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.The clergy are only visible instruments in the performance of the sacrament, which God Himself invisibly performs through them. The priest is here an instrument of God’s mercy and forgives sins not on his own, but in the name of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus Christ gave the holy apostles, and through them all the priests, the power to absolve (forgive) sins: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; those whose sins you retain, will be retained” (John 20:22-23).
Visible side Sacraments of Penance consists in the confession of sins brought to God by the repentant in the presence of a priest, and in the resolution of sins performed by God through the clergy.
It goes like this.
1. The priest reads preliminary prayers from the rite of the Sacrament of Penance, encouraging confessors to sincere repentance.
2. The penitent, standing in front of the cross and the Gospel, lying on a lectern, as if before the Lord Himself, verbally confesses all his sins, without hiding anything and without making excuses.
3. The priest, having accepted this, covers the penitent’s head with an epitrachelion and reads a prayer of absolution, through which in the name of Jesus Christ he absolves the penitent from all the sins of which he has confessed.
The invisible work of God's grace consists in the fact that the repentant is invisibly absolved from sins by Jesus Christ Himself. This is how a person’s spiritual illnesses are healed, the impurity of the soul is removed, and the Christian, having received remission of sins, again becomes innocent and sanctified. Sins that drag a person down, dull his mind, heart and conscience, blind his spiritual gaze and weaken his Christian will, are destroyed, and his living connection with the Church and with the Lord God is restored again. Relieved of the burden of sins, a person again comes to life spiritually and becomes able to strengthen and improve in the good Christian path.
St. Theophan the Recluse writes about the action of grace in the sacrament of repentance:
“Grace acts in two ways: from the outside, when it calls, and this is universal grace, no one is excluded: for the Lord wants everyone to be saved and to come into the mind of truth; when someone, having heeded the calling, is converted, then grace, through the sacrament of baptism or repentance, settles inside, and there creates salvation, or forms a new man from the elements of goodness natural to man, heir to the eternal kingdom of heaven, not sovereignly, but guiding and helping, that is, indicating good and helping to accomplish it".
“The story about blessed Theodora, who went through the ordeal, says that her evil accusers did not find the sins she confessed written down in their charters. The angels then explained to her that confession blots out sin from all the places where it is indicated. Not in the book conscientious, neither in the book of animals, nor among these evil destroyers, he is no longer listed as that person - confession erased these records. Without concealment, throw away everything that weighs you down. The limit to which you must bring the revelation of your sins is so that your spiritual father has an accurate understanding of you, so that he represents you as you are, and, when resolving, he is resolving you, and not someone else, so that when he says: “ Forgive and absolve the repentant for the same sins he committed,” there was nothing left in you that did not fit these words.”
St. Theophan the Recluse explains why we need this sacrament:
“What especially makes the sacrament of repentance necessary is, on the one hand, the property of sin, and on the other, the property of our conscience. When we sin, we think that not only outside of us, but also in ourselves there are no traces of sin. Between Thus, he leaves deep traces both in us and outside of us - on everything that surrounds us, and especially in heaven, in the definitions of Divine justice. At the hour of sin, it is decided there what the sinner has become: in the book of life he is included in the list of condemned - and became bound in heaven. Divine grace will not descend into him until he is blotted out from the list of the condemned in heaven, until he receives permission there. But God was pleased with heavenly permission - to make heavenly blotting out from the list of condemned people dependent on the permission of those bound by sins to earth. So, accept the Sacrament of repentance in order to receive comprehensive permission and open the entrance to the spirit of grace. ... Go and confess - and you will receive an announcement of forgiveness from God ...
... This is where the Savior truly reveals Himself as the Comforter of the weary and burdened! He who has sincerely repented and confessed through experience knows this truth with his heart, and does not accept it by faith alone.”
In order for a confessor to receive forgiveness (resolution) of sins, he must be reconciled with all his neighbors, sincerely lament his sins and verbally confess them, and also have a firm intention to correct his life, determination to fight bad inclinations, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and hope in His mercy .
There is no sin that cannot be forgiven by God if only people sincerely repent of it and confess it with living faith in the Lord Jesus and hope in His mercy.
The very act of naming one’s spiritual illnesses and failures out loud before one’s confessor is a confession of sins- has the meaning that is in it overcome
a) pride, this main source of sins, and
b) despondency the hopelessness of his correction and salvation. The identification of sin brings one closer to throwing it out of oneself.
Prot. Mikhail Pomazansky writes about the meaning of confession of sins:
"Confession - that is, speaking out loud - is an expression inner repentance, its result, its indicator. What is repentance? Repentance is not only the consciousness of one’s sinfulness or the simple recognition of oneself as unworthy; not only contrition and regret for the failures and weaknesses suffered, and not only repentance (although all these moments should be included in repentance), but it is also an act will to improve, desire and firm intention, determination to fight bad inclinations. This state of soul is combined with a request for God’s help to fight one’s bad inclinations. Such heartfelt and sincere repentance is necessary so that the effectiveness of this sacrament extends not only to the removal of sins, but so that grace-filled healing enters the opened soul, preventing the soul from again plunging into the filth of sin."
St. Theophan the Recluse writes that shame and fear during confession are saving:
"Let not those who find shame and fear confuse you - They are associated with this sacrament for your good. Having burned out in them, you will become stronger morally. You have already burned more than once in the fire of repentance - burn again. Then you burned alone before God and conscience, and now burn with a witness appointed by God, as evidence of the sincerity of that solitary burning, and perhaps to make up for its incompleteness. There will be a trial and there will be shame and desperate fear. Shame and fear in confession atone for the shame and fear of that time. If you don't want those, go over these. Moreover, it always happens that as the anxiety that the person confessing goes through, the consolations of confession also become abundant in him. This is where the Savior truly reveals Himself as the Comforter of the weary and burdened! He who has sincerely repented and confessed through experience knows this truth with his heart, and does not accept it by faith alone.”
Formal repentance does not free you from sins
St. Theophan the Recluse, describing what confession should be, he warns against a formal attitude towards the sacrament of repentance: one who does not repent from the heart does not receive remission of sins from God:
"...remembering again all the sins you have committed and renewing the vow that has already matured in you not to repeat them again, restore living faith that you stand before the Lord Himself, who accepts your confession, and tell everything, without hiding anything from what is weighing on your conscience ". If you set out with the desire to shame yourself, then you will not hide yourself, but will depict, as fully as possible, your shame in your succumbing to sins. This will serve to satiate your contrite heart. You must be sure that every sin said is ejected from the heart, every sin hidden in him remains in him all the more condemned because with this wound the sinner was close to the all-healing Physician. Having hidden the sin, he covered the wound, not regretting that it tormented and upset his soul. The story about blessed Theodora, who went through ordeals, says , that her evil accusers did not find the sins she confessed written down in their charters. The angels then explained to her that confession blots out sin from all the places where it is indicated. Neither in the book of conscience, nor in the book of animals, nor among these evil ones the destroyers are no longer listed as that person - confession has erased these records. Without concealment, throw away everything that weighs you down. The limit to which you must bring the revelation of your sins is so that your spiritual father has an accurate understanding of you, so that he represents you as you are, and, when resolving, he is resolving you, and not someone else, so that when he says: “ Forgive and absolve the repentant for the same sins he committed,” there was nothing left in you that did not fit these words. Those who do well are those who, preparing for confession for the first time after a long stay in sins, find the opportunity to first talk with their spiritual father and tell him the whole story of their sinful life. There is no danger for such people to forget or miss anything in the confusion during confession. You should take care in every possible way to fully reveal your sins. The Lord gave the power to permit not unconditionally, but under the condition of repentance and confession. If this is not done, then it may happen that when the spiritual father says: “I forgive and allow,” the Lord will say: “But I condemn.”
Rev. Paisiy Svyatogorets spoke about how terrible a formal attitude towards repentance and confession is for the soul:
"Once upon a time, in the cave of St. Athanasius, there lived an old man with two novices. One of them was a hieromonk, and the other a hierodeacon. One day, the novices went to serve in a nearby church. The priest was very jealous of the deacon, because he was smarter and more skilled than him in everything. And the deacon His selfish behavior did not bring any benefit to his brother's soul.
The priest prepared for the liturgy externally, reading the order for communion and doing everything required, but, unfortunately, he forgot about the main preparation - internal: he did not confess with humility in order to drive out envy from his heart, which does not disappear when changing clothes or after washing his hair .
So, having only external preparation, the hieromonk began to approach the terrible Altar. However, as soon as he began to perform the proskomedia, this is what happened: suddenly there was a loud noise, and he saw how the holy paten rose from the Altar and disappeared!
As a result, they were unable to perform worship. It seems to me that if the Good Lord had not prevented them in this way, and the priest, being in an inappropriate spiritual state, had dared to serve, then a great misfortune would have happened to him.
Father Varlaam from Vigla (one of the so-called deserts of the Holy Mountain, that is, places where hermits or small communities of monks live, not organized into monasteries. Located in the north of the Holy Mountain - transl.), who told me about in this case."
Prot. Vladimir Vorobiev writes about the dangers of formal confession:
“And now, too, the sacrament of repentance must be understood, of course, not formally. If anyone thinks that it is enough to stand like this in the crowd, pray, then go up to the lectern for the priest to read the prayer of permission, and everything is in order, he is gravely mistaken . Any sacrament, especially the sacrament of repentance, must be felt. A person must feel relief because the heavy burden of sin has been lifted from his soul. He must leave the lectern enlightened, must feel that the Lord has forgiven him. This should be. But it only happens then when a person truly repents. Not when he does something formally - stands, bows, etc., or when he writes a whole notebook of his sins and talks about them to the priest for a long time. But this is not repentance. Repentance is contrition hearts, when a person experiences bitterness, pain, when his conscience torments him, when a person experiences a thirst for purification, a thirst for forgiveness... When he feels that he can no longer live like this, that he has lost the most important thing - the Lord departed from him. And so he seeks forgiveness and begs the Lord to forgive and return to him. Such real repentance is a necessary condition for the sacrament of repentance to be performed.
If we just think for one minute that the sacrament of repentance can be performed without repentance, then we will become magicians, Catholics, but to Orthodox life this will no longer have any relation and cannot. Nothing formal, no sacramental formula can save the situation. “God will not despise a contrite and humble heart” - as it is written in Psalm 50. A contrite, humble heart, awareness of one’s sin and a desire to cleanse oneself are necessary here.
But not only that. We can talk about the necessary conditions for repentance. First of all, of course, you need to recognize yourself as a sinner. The second is to experience repentance. Then you need to confess your sin.
…But I’ll tell you from experience: very often it happens that a person recognizes his sin and, in a sense, even repents - cries, beats his chest with his fist. Then, with great ease, he comes to the priest and speaks - sometimes even more than necessary. And yet, for some reason it is very difficult for the priest to read the prayer of permission. As they say, the hand does not rise to put an epitrachelion on him. He does not feel that there is repentance. Why? Because there is another necessary component of repentance - a strong desire, a firm determination not to sin like that again.
We absolutely need to know and understand these four components of repentance.
…These are necessary components of repentance. Only then can the sacrament be effective when these basic conditions are met on the part of the penitent.”
Priest Pavel Gumerov:
"Repentance is without a doubt the basis of spiritual life. The Gospel testifies to this. The Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John began his sermon with the words: “ Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand"(Matthew 3:2). Our Lord Jesus Christ comes out to public service with exactly the same call (see: Matt. 4:17). Without repentance, it is impossible to draw closer to God and overcome your sinful inclinations. The Lord gave us great gift- confession in which we are absolved from our sins, for the priest is endowed by God with the power to “bind and solve” human sins.
You can often hear the following statement: “Like you, believers, everything is easy: I sinned, then I repented, and God forgave everything.” In Soviet times, there was a museum in the Pafnutievo Borovsky Monastery, and after the visitors had examined the monastery and the museum, the guide played a record with the song “Once upon a time there lived twelve robbers” performed by F.I. Shalyapin. Fyodor Ivanovich wrote in his velvety bass voice:
“He abandoned his comrades,
I gave up making raids,
Kudeyar himself went to the monastery,
Serve God and people."
After listening to the recording, the guide said something like this: “This is what the Church teaches: sin, steal, commit robbery - you can still repent later.” This is such an unexpected interpretation famous song. Is it so? Indeed, there are people who perceive the sacrament of confession in exactly this way. Like some kind of spiritual washing room, shower room. You can live in the dirt and not be afraid: everything will be washed off in the shower later anyway. “The dirt is not greasy: I rubbed it and it came off.” I think such a “confession” will not bring any benefit. A person will approach the sacrament not for salvation, but for judgment and condemnation. AND Having formally “confessed,” he will not receive permission from God for his sins. Not so simple. Sin and passion cause great harm to the soul, and even after repentance, a person bears the consequences of his sin. This is how a patient who has had smallpox ends up with scars on his body. It is not enough to simply confess sin; you need to make an effort to overcome the inclination to sin in your soul. So the doctor removes the cancerous tumor and prescribes a course of chemotherapy to defeat the disease and prevent relapse. Of course, it’s not easy to give up passion right away. But the repentant should not be a hypocrite: “I will repent, and I will continue to sin.” A person must make every effort to take the path of correction and no longer return to sin. Ask God for help to fight passions: “Help me, Lord, for I am weak.” A Christian must burn the bridges behind him that lead back to a sinful life. Repentance in Greek is metanoia, which translates as “change.”
Rev. Isaac the Syrian writes about the essence of repentance:What is repentance? Leaving the past and sadness about it.
Repentance is the door of mercy, open to those who earnestly seek it. Through this door we enter into God's mercy; Apart from this entrance we will not find mercy.
St. Basil the Great:
The most faithful a sign by which every repentant sinner can find out whether his sins are truly forgiven by God, there is one when we feel such hatred and disgust from all sins that we would rather agree to die than to arbitrarily sin before the Lord.
St. Righteous John of Kronstadt:
To repent means to feel in your heart the lie, madness, and guilt of your sins; it means to realize that you have offended your Creator, Lord, Father and Benefactor, who is infinitely holy and infinitely abhors sin; with all your soul you want to correct and atone for them.
S.I. Fudel remarks about the meaning of the sacrament of repentance:
“Purity and holiness are achieved through repentance. Completing the sacrament of confession, the priest, covering the head of the penitent with an epitrachelion, says the prayer: “Receive and unite him (the penitent) to Your Holy Church.” He always pronounces this prayer of churching over us, even if we confessed daily We sin daily and therefore daily demand cleansing and union with the Church through repentance.
... Living outside of repentance, we live outside the Church."
Hegumen Nikon (Vorobiev):
A sign of awareness of one’s sins and repentance for them is non-judgment of one’s neighbors.
Priest Pavel Gumerov writes about repentance:
“Why do we repent if the Lord already knows all our sins? Yes, he knows, but he expects us to admit them. I’ll give an example. A child climbed into the cupboard and ate all the candy. The father understands perfectly well who did it, but waits until the son himself will come and ask for forgiveness. And, of course, at this moment he also expects the son to promise to try to never do this again. ...
Not seeing your sins is a sign of spiritual illness. Why did the ascetics see their sins as countless as the sand of the sea? It’s simple: they approached the source of light - God and began to notice such secret places of their souls that we simply do not notice. They observed their soul in its true state. A fairly well-known example: let’s say the room is dirty and not cleaned, but it’s night and everything is hidden in twilight. It seems that everything is more or less normal. But then dawn broke through the window, the first ray of sun penetrated the room and illuminated half of it. And we begin to notice the disorder. Further - more, and when the sun already illuminates the entire room, dirt and scattered things are visible everywhere. The closer you are to God, the more visible your sins are.
Confession is not a report on spiritual life (what is good and bad in it) or a conversation with a priest. This is self-exposure, without any self-justification and self-pity. Only then will we receive satisfaction and relief and depart from the lectern easily, as if on wings. The Lord already knows all the circumstances that led us to sin. And it is completely unacceptable to tell in confession which people pushed us to sin. They will answer for themselves, but we must answer only for ourselves. Whether a husband, brother or matchmaker brought about our downfall does not matter now; we need to understand what we ourselves are to blame for. Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt says: “Whoever is accustomed to repenting here and giving an answer for his life will find it easy to give an answer at the Last Judgment of God.”
The Holy Fathers call confession the second baptism - baptism of tears. As in baptism, we are given the gift of forgiveness of sins, and we need to appreciate this gift. There is no need to postpone confession until later. You need to confess more often and in detail. It is unknown how much time the Lord gave us to repent. Each confession must be perceived as the last, for no one knows on what day and hour God will call us to Himself.
There is no need to be ashamed to confess your sins, one should be ashamed to commit them. Many people think that a priest, especially someone they know, will condemn them; during confession they want to appear better than they are, to justify themselves. I assure you that any priest who confesses more or less often cannot be surprised by anything, and you are unlikely to tell him anything new and unusual. For a confessor, on the contrary, it is a great consolation when he sees before him a sincerely repentant person, even if grave sins. This means that it is not in vain that he stands at the lectern, accepting the repentance of those coming to confession.
In confession, the repentant is given not only forgiveness of sins, but also God’s grace and help to fight sin. Therefore, we begin the correction of our lives with confession.
Confession should be frequent and, if possible, with the same priest. ...When a person confesses to one priest, he even indirectly strives to correct himself - out of a feeling of shame in front of his confessor. Rare confession (several times a year) often leads to heart petrification. People stop noticing their sins and forget what they have already done. Conscience is already easily reconciled with so-called minor, everyday sins... And on the contrary, frequent confession makes the soul, conscience worry, awakens it from slumber. Sins cannot be tolerated or lived with.
People who confess rarely or formally sometimes stop seeing their sins altogether. Any priest knows this well. A person comes to confession and says: “I am not a sinner of anything” or “I am a sinner of everything” (which is actually the same thing). This comes, of course, from spiritual laziness, unwillingness to carry out at least some work on one’s soul.”
Anyone who deliberately commits a sin, delaying correction and repentance, sins against the Holy Spirit and can die without repentance
Priest Konstantin Ostrovsky writes that one cannot “put off repentance, say: Will I repent again? Instead, say at the same time that you sinned: Lord, have mercy on me, fallen.This general rule for all Christians. As soon as you have sinned, you must immediately repent. Under no circumstances should one despair and one should not frivolously put off repentance. Fatherland contains a wonderful, although at first glance strange, story. A certain monk went to the river to get water and there fell into fornication. When he was returning back, demons approached him and began to inspire him: “You have sinned, you have ruined your soul.” And he answered them: “I have not sinned.” He came to his cell and indulged in his usual prayer work. What's instructive here? The man fell into the gravest, mortal sin, but since he did not allow himself to despair, but immediately repented and returned to his previous soul-saving activities, he was forgiven.
A lot of people, usually non-church people, think that for now I’ll live to my heart’s content, have fun, and then somehow repent. It is the enemy who instills such thoughts, does not allow you to remember death, that it can come at any moment, even now, when you are reading these lines. But repentance is impossible beyond the grave. What's next? Last Judgment and most likely, remembering our unrepentant sins, eternal torment.
…Thoughts of postponing repentance until later force God to punish a person, in order to somehow awaken him from his everyday sleep, to remind him of eternity. And sometimes the worst thing happens - death without repentance. So we must always repent as soon as we come to our senses.”
Rev. Nikon Optinsky:
Try to have mental and physical purity, try after confession not to sin consciously, not to sin arbitrarily in the hope of repentance, since, According to the teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church, if anyone sins in the hope of repentance, he is guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
People who are sick at heart come to us, confessors, to repent of their sins, but they do not want to part with them, especially they do not want to part with any of their favorite sins. This reluctance to leave sin, this secret love for sin is what makes a person unable to achieve sincere repentance, and therefore does not result in healing of the soul. What a person was before confession, remained so during confession, and continues to remain so after confession. It shouldn't be like this.
Archpriest Valentin Mordasov:
Whoever sins in the hope of repentance is guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. To deliberately sin with reckless hope in the grace of God and think: “Nothing, I’ll repent” is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is one thing to sin fearlessly, consciously and not repent, but it is another thing when a person does not want to sin, cries, repents, asks for forgiveness, but, due to human weakness, sins. It is human nature to sin, to fall, and one should not become discouraged and become overly sad if one has to sin; but demons tend to lead a person away from repentance, so it is necessary to repent.
Rev. Joseph Optinsky:
Repentance is then true when after it you try harder and harder to live as you should, and without this it is of little effect if you repent only to talk about your sins and live as before.
We must run with all our might and avoid sin, for If we ourselves, through our own negligence, fall into sins, we will only deserve greater condemnation. And in those things that happen involuntarily or due to our weakness, let us be cleansed by repentance.
Saint Basil the Great:
Come, sinner, ask for mercy from God, who forgives sins. Do not put off repentance, for you do not know when the angel of death will overtake you and take your life.
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov):
Let us not put off our healing from day to day, lest death creep up unexpectedly and suddenly take us away., so that we do not find ourselves incapable of entering the villages of never-ending peace and holiday, so that we are not cast, like obscene tares, into the fire of hell, forever burning and never burning. The healing of old ailments is not accomplished as quickly and not as conveniently as ignorance imagines. It is not without reason that God’s mercy grants us time to repent.; It was not without reason that all the saints begged God to grant them time to repent. It takes time to erase sinful impressions; it takes time to be imprinted with the impressions of the Holy Spirit; it takes time to cleanse oneself of filth; it takes time to put on the garments of virtues, to be adorned with the God-loving qualities with which all celestial beings are adorned.
Rev. Barsanuphius of Optina talks about the terrible death of a sinner who delayed repentance until the hour of death:
This is what happened to you in St. Petersburg. There lived a very rich merchant on Sergievskaya Street. His whole life was a continuous wedding, and for 17 years he did not partake of the Holy Mysteries. Suddenly, he felt death approaching and became afraid. Immediately, he sent his servant to the priest to tell him to come and give communion to the sick man. When the priest came and rang the bell, the owner himself opened the door for him. Father knew about his crazy life, became angry and said why he was mocking the Holy Gifts so much, and wanted to leave. Then the merchant, with tears in his eyes, began to beg the priest to come to him, a sinner, and confess him, because he felt death approaching. Father finally gave in to his request, and with great contrition in his heart, he told him his whole life. Father gave him permission for his sins and wanted to accustom him, but then something extraordinary happened: suddenly the merchant’s mouth tightened, and the merchant could not open it, no matter how hard he tried. Then he grabbed a chisel and a hammer and began to knock out his teeth, but his mouth closed completely. Little by little his strength weakened and he died. So the Lord gave him the opportunity to be cleansed of his sins, perhaps through his mother’s prayers, but did not unite with him.
Archpriest Evgeniy Popichenko:
There is such a comparison: human sins are like a grain of sand in the ocean of Divine love. But according to the thoughts of many saints, it is better to sin and repent than not to sin and not repent. This, of course, does not mean that there is a sanction for sin: “Sin as much as you like, as long as you later repent.” Many people just think that their time for repentance has not yet come, they still want to live, and only then the time will come when they can begin church life. This is a very dangerous delusion, because such a time will not come: if now a person does not respond to the call of God, then with each new sin his heart will become deader and deader. And accordingly, he will lose the ability to heartbreak.
Priest Pavel Gumerov:
The Holy Fathers call confession the second baptism - baptism of tears. As in baptism, we are given the gift of forgiveness of sins, and we need to appreciate this gift. There is no need to postpone confession until later. You need to confess more often and in detail. It is unknown how much time the Lord gave us to repent. Each confession must be perceived as the last, for no one knows on what day and hour God will call us to Himself.
History of the sacrament
as the most important part of the sacrament of repentance, has been taking place since the time of the apostles: “Many of those who believed came, confessing and revealing their deeds” (Acts 19:18).If the sins confessed by the penitent were grave, then serious church punishments could be imposed, for example, temporary deprivation of the right to participate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. For mortal sins - murder or adultery - those who did not repent of them were publicly expelled from the community. Sinners subjected to such severe punishment could change their situation only if they repented sincerely.
IN ancient Church There were four categories of penitents, differing in the severity of the penances imposed on them.
1. Crying. They had no right to enter the temple and had to remain at the porch in any weather, with tears asking for prayers from those going to the service.
2. Listeners. They had the right to stand in the vestibule and were blessed by the bishop along with those preparing for Baptism. Those who listen to the words “The Announcement, go forth!” are with them! were removed from the temple.
3. Appearing. They had the right to stand at the back of the temple.
4. Worth purchasing. They had the right to stand with the faithful until the end of the Liturgy, but could not partake of the Holy Mysteries.
Repentance in the early Christian Church could be carried out both publicly and secretly. Public Confession was a kind of exception to the rule, since it was appointed only in cases where a member of the Christian community committed serious sins. This happened only when secret confession and assigned penance did not lead to the correction of the penitent. Public repentance was practiced in the Church until the end of the 4th century.
His gradual disappearance occurred due to the impoverishment of piety. Such a powerful means as public repentance was appropriate when strict morals and zeal for God were universal. But later, many sinners began to avoid public repentance because of the shame associated with it. Another reason for the disappearance of this form of sacrament was that sins revealed publicly could serve as a temptation for Christians who were not sufficiently established in the faith. Thus, secret confession, also known since the first centuries of Christianity, became the only form of repentance.
In special cases, a penance is imposed on the penitent, consisting of pious deeds and some deprivations aimed at overcoming sinful habits.
Ten Commandments of God
1.I am the Lord your God; let there be no gods for you, except Men.
2.Do not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness, such as the tree on the mountain above, or the tree on the earth below, or the tree in the waters under the earth; Do not bow to them, do not serve them.
3.You have not taken the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4.Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy: work six days and do all your work in them, but on the seventh day, Sabbath, to the Lord your God.
5.Honor your father and your mother, may you be well, and may you live long on earth.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7.Don't commit adultery.
8. Don't steal.
9.Do not listen to your friend's false testimony.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy sincere wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his village, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any of his livestock, nor anything that is thy neighbor.
(Book of Exodus, chapter 20, art. 2, 4-5, 7, 8-10,12-17)
The Lord Jesus Christ stated the essence of these commandments as follows: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself” (Gospel of Matthew, ch. 22, vv. 37-39)
Every time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the church, a priest comes out of the altar before the service begins. He heads to the vestibule of the temple, where the people of God are already waiting for him. In his hands, the Cross is a sign of the sacrificial love of the Son of God for the human race, and the Gospel is the good news of salvation. The priest places the Cross and the Gospel on the lectern and, reverently bowing, proclaims: “Blessed is our God always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen".
This is how the Sacrament of Confession begins. The name itself indicates that in this Sacrament something deeply intimate is accomplished, revealing secret layers of a person’s life that in ordinary times a person prefers not to touch. This is probably why the fear of confession is so strong among those who have never started it before. How long do they have to break themselves in order to approach the confessional lectern!
Vain fear!
It comes from ignorance of what actually happens in this Sacrament. Confession is not a forcible “picking” of sins from the conscience, not an interrogation, and, especially, not a “guilty” verdict on the sinner. Confession is the great Sacrament of reconciliation between God and man; this is the sweetness of the forgiveness of sin; This is a tear-touching manifestation of God’s love for man.
We all sin a lot before God. Vanity, hostility, idle talk, ridicule, intransigence, irritability, anger are constant companions of our lives. Almost every one of us has more serious crimes on our conscience: infanticide (abortion), adultery, turning to sorcerers and psychics, theft, enmity, revenge and much more, making us guilty of the wrath of God.
It should be remembered that sin is not a fact in biography that can be frivolously forgotten. Sin is a “black seal” that remains on the conscience until the end of days and is not washed away by anything other than the Sacrament of Repentance. Sin has a corrupting power that can cause a chain of subsequent, more serious sins.
One ascetic of piety figuratively likened sins... to bricks. He said this: “The more unrepentant sins a person has on his conscience, the thicker the wall between him and God, made up of these bricks - sins. The wall can become so thick that the life-giving grace of God ceases to reach a person, and then he experiences the mental and physical consequences of sins. Mental consequences include dislike for individuals or society as a whole, increased irritability, anger and nervousness, fears, attacks of anger, depression, development of addictions in the individual, despondency, melancholy and despair, in extreme forms sometimes turning into a craving for suicide. This is not neurosis at all. This is how sin works.
Bodily consequences include illness. Almost all diseases of an adult, explicitly or implicitly, are associated with previously committed sins.
So, in the Sacrament of Confession, a great miracle of God’s mercy is performed towards the sinner. After sincere repentance of sins before God in the presence of a clergyman as a witness of repentance, when the priest reads a prayer of permission, the Lord himself, with His omnipotent right hand, breaks the wall of sin-bricks into dust, and the barrier between God and man collapses.”
When we come to confession, we do not repent before the priest. The priest, being himself a sinful man, is only a witness, a mediator in the Sacrament, and the true celebrant is the Lord God. Then why confess in church? Isn’t it easier to repent at home, alone before the Lord, because He hears us everywhere?
Yes, indeed, personal repentance before confession, leading to awareness of sin, heartfelt contrition and rejection of the wrongdoing, is necessary. But in itself it is not exhaustive. The final reconciliation with God, cleansing from sin, takes place within the framework of the Sacrament of Confession, without fail through the mediation of a priest. This form of the Sacrament was established by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Appearing to the apostles after His glorious Resurrection, He blew and said to them: “...receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; on whomever you leave it, it will remain on him” (John 20:22-23). The apostles, the pillars of the ancient Church, were given the power to remove the veil of sin from the hearts of people. From them this power passed to their successors - church primates - bishops and priests.
In addition, the moral aspect of the Sacrament is important. It is not difficult to list your sins in private before the All-Knowing and Invisible God. But discovering them in the presence of a third party - a priest, requires considerable effort to overcome shame, requires the crucifixion of one’s sinfulness, which leads to an incomparably deeper and more serious awareness of personal wrong.
The Holy Fathers call the Sacrament of confession and repentance “second baptism.” In it, that grace and purity that were given to the newly baptized person and were lost by him through sins returns to us.
The sacrament of confession and repentance is the great mercy of God towards weak and prone humanity; it is a means available to everyone, leading to the salvation of the soul, which constantly falls into sin.
Throughout our lives, our spiritual clothing is continually stained with sin. They can be noticed only when our clothes are white, that is, cleansed by repentance. On the clothes of an unrepentant sinner, dark with sinful dirt, stains of new and separate sins cannot be noticeable.
Therefore, we must not put off our repentance and allow our spiritual clothing to become completely soiled: this leads to dulling of conscience and to spiritual death.
And only an attentive life and timely cleansing of sinful stains in the Sacrament of Confession can preserve the purity of our soul and the presence of the Holy Spirit of God in it.
The holy righteous John of Kronstadt writes: “We must confess our sins more often in order to amaze and scourge sins by openly recognizing them and in order to feel more disgust for them.”
As Fr. writes. Alexander Elchaninov, “insensibility, stonyness, deadness of the soul - from sins neglected and not confessed on time. How the soul is relieved when you immediately, while it hurts, confess the sin you have committed. Delayed confession can cause insensitivity.
A person who often confesses and has no deposits of sins in his soul cannot help but be healthy. Confession is a blessed discharge of the soul. In this sense, the significance of confession, and in general of life in general, is enormous in connection with the grace-filled help of the Church. So don't put it off. Weak faith and doubts are not an obstacle. Be sure to confess, repent of weak faith and doubts, as of your weakness and sin... This is how it is: complete faith is only among the strong in spirit and the righteous; where can we, unclean and cowardly, have their faith? If she were, we would be holy, strong, divine and would not need the help of the Church that She offers us. Don’t shy away from this help either.”
Hence, participation in the Sacrament of Confession should not be rare - once in a long period, as perhaps those who go to Confession once a year or a little more think.
The process of repentance is a continuous work to heal mental ulcers and cleanse every newly emerging sinful spot. Only in this case will the Christian not lose his “royal dignity” and will remain among the “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9).
If the Sacrament of Confession is neglected, sin will oppress the soul and at the same time, upon leaving it by the Holy Spirit, doors will be opened for entry into it dark force and the development of passions and addictions.
There may also come a period of hostility, enmity, quarrels and even hatred towards others, which will poison the life of both the sinner and his neighbors.
Obsessive bad thoughts (“psychasthenia”) may appear, from which the sinner is unable to free himself and which will poison his life.
This will also include the so-called “persecution mania”, severe wavering in faith, and such completely opposite feelings, but equally dangerous and painful: for some, an insurmountable fear of death, and for others, a desire for suicide.
Finally, mental and physical unhealthy manifestations may occur that are usually called “damage”: seizures of an epileptic nature and that series of ugly mental manifestations that are characterized as obsession and demonic possession.
Holy Scripture and the history of the Church testify that such severe consequences of unrepentant sins are healed by the power of God’s grace through the Sacrament of Confession and subsequent communion of the Holy Mysteries.
Indicative in this regard is the spiritual experience of the elder Hieroschemamonk Hilarion from Optina Hermitage.
Hilarion, in his senile service, proceeded from the position stated above, that every mental illness is a consequence of the presence of unrepentant sin in the soul.
Therefore, among such patients, the elder first of all tried, by questioning, to find out all the significant and serious sins that they had committed after the age of seven and were not expressed at the time in confession, either out of modesty, or out of ignorance, or out of oblivion.
After discovering such a sin (or sins), the elder tried to convince those who came to him for help of the need for deep and sincere repentance of sin.
If such repentance appeared, then the elder, like a priest, absolved sins after confession. With the subsequent communion of the Holy Mysteries, complete deliverance usually occurred from the mental illness that tormented the sinful soul.
In cases where the visitor was found to have severe and prolonged enmity towards his neighbors, the elder commanded to immediately reconcile with them and ask their forgiveness for all previously inflicted insults, insults and injustices.
Such conversations and confessions sometimes required great patience, endurance and perseverance from the elder. So, for a long time he persuaded one possessed woman to first cross herself, then drink holy water, then tell him her life and her sins.
At first he had to endure many insults and manifestations of anger from her. However, he released her only when the patient humbled herself, became obedient and brought complete repentance in confession for the sins she had committed. This is how she received complete healing.
One patient came to the elder, suffering from a desire for suicide. The elder found out that he had previously made two attempts at suicide - at the age of 12 and in his youth.
At confession, the patient had not previously brought repentance to them. The elder achieved complete repentance from him - he confessed and gave him communion. Since then, the thoughts of suicide have stopped.
As can be seen from the above, sincere repentance and confession of sins brought to a Christian not only their forgiveness, but also the fullness of spiritual health only when the sinner returns to grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit with the Christian.
Since only through the permission of the priest is sin finally erased from our “book of life,” so that our memory does not fail us in this most important of our lives, it is necessary to write down our sins. The same note can be used in confession.
This is what Elder Fr. suggested doing to his spiritual children. Alexy Mechev. Regarding confession, he gave the following instructions:
“When approaching confession, you need to remember everything and consider every sin from all sides, bring all the little things to memory, so that everything in your heart burns out with shame. Then our sin will become disgusting and the confidence will be created that we will no longer return to it.
At the same time, we must feel all the goodness of God: the Lord shed His Blood for me, takes care of me, loves me, is ready to accept me like a mother, hugs me, comforts me, but I keep sinning and sinning.
And then, when you come to confession, you repent to the Lord crucified on the cross, like a child when he says with tears: “Mom, forgive me, I won’t do it again.”
And whether there is anyone here or not, it will not matter, because the priest is only a witness, and the Lord knows all our sins, sees all our thoughts. He only needs our consciousness of being guilty.
Thus, in the Gospel, He asked the father of the demon-possessed youth since when did this happen to him (Mark 9:21). He didn't need it. He knew everything, but he did it so that the father would acknowledge his guilt in his son’s illness.”
At confession, Fr. Alexy Mechev did not allow the confessor to speak in detail about sins of the flesh and touch on other persons and their actions.
He could only consider himself guilty. When talking about quarrels, you could only say what you said yourself (without softening or justifying) and not touch on what they answered you. He demanded that others be justified and that they blame themselves, even if it was not your fault. If you quarrel, it means you are to blame.
Once said in confession, sins are no longer repeated in confession; they are already forgiven.
But this does not mean that a Christian can completely erase from his memory the most serious sins of his life. The sinful wound on the body of the soul is healed, but the scar from sin remains forever, and a Christian must remember this and deeply humble himself, mourning his sinful falls.
As St. Anthony the Great writes: “The Lord is good and forgives the sins of all who turn to Him, no matter who they are, so that He will not remember them anymore.
However, He wants those (those who have been pardoned) to remember the forgiveness of their sins that they have committed so far, so that, having forgotten about this, they would not allow anything in their behavior that would cause them to be forced to give an account of those sins that were committed. already forgiven - as happened with that slave to whom the master renewed the entire debt that had previously been remitted to him (Matthew 18:24-25).
Thus, when the Lord forgives us our sins, we must not forgive them to ourselves, but always remember them through (continuous) renewal of repentance for them.”
Elder Silouan also speaks about this: “Although sins are forgiven, we must remember and grieve about them all our lives in order to maintain contrition.”
Here, however, we should warn that remembering one’s sins can be different and in some cases (for carnal sins) can even harm a Christian. The Monk Barsanuphius the Great writes about this: “I do not mean remembering sins of each individual, so that sometimes through their remembering the enemy does not lead us into the same captivity, but it is enough just to remember that we are guilty of sins.”
It should be mentioned at the same time that the elder Fr. Alexei Zosimovsky believed that although there was remission of some sin after confession, if it continues to torment and confuse the conscience, then it is necessary to confess it again.
For someone who sincerely repents of sins, the dignity of the priest accepting his confession does not matter. Fr. writes about it this way. Alexander Elchaninov: “For a person who truly suffers from the ulcer of his sin, it makes no difference through whom he confesses this sin that torments him; just to confess it as soon as possible and get relief.
In confession, the most important state of the soul of the penitent, whatever the confessor may be. Our repentance is important, not him telling you something. In our country, the personality of the confessor is often given primacy.”
When confessing your sins or asking your confessor for advice, it is very important to catch his first word. Elder Silouan gives the following instructions on this matter: “In a few words, the confessor says his thoughts or the most essential things about his condition and then leaves the confessor free.
The confessor, praying from the first moment of the conversation, waits for admonition from God, and if he feels a notification in his soul, then he gives such an answer, which should be stopped at, because when the “first word” of the confessor is missed, then at the same time the effectiveness of the Sacrament is weakened, and confession can turn into a simple human discussion.”
Perhaps some who repent of serious sins when confessing to a priest think that the latter will treat them with hostility after learning their sins. But that's not true.
As Archbishop Arseny (Chudovskoy) writes: “When a sinner sincerely, with tears, repents to his confessor, the latter involuntarily has a feeling of joy and consolation in his heart, and at the same time a feeling of love and respect for the penitent.
To the one who has revealed his sins, it may perhaps seem that the shepherd will not even look at him now, since he knows his filth and will treat him with contempt. Oh no! A sincerely repentant sinner becomes dear, dear, and as if dear to the shepherd.”
O. Alexander Elchaninov writes about the same thing: “Why is a confessor not disgusted with a sinner, no matter how disgusting his sins are? “Because in the Sacrament of Repentance the priest contemplates the complete separation of the sinner and his sin.”
CONFESSION
(based on the works of Father Alexander Elchaninov)
Usually people inexperienced in spiritual life do not see the multiplicity of their sins.
“Nothing special”, “like everyone else”, “only minor sins - didn’t steal, didn’t kill” - this is usually the beginning of confession for many.
But self-love, intolerance of reproaches, callousness, people-pleasing, weakness of faith and love, cowardice, spiritual laziness - aren’t these important sins? Can we really claim that we love God enough, that our faith is active and ardent? That we love every person as a brother in Christ? That we have achieved meekness, freedom from anger, humility?
If not, then what is our Christianity? How can we explain our self-confidence in confession if not by “petrified insensibility”, if not by “deadness” of the heart, spiritual death that precedes the physical?
Why did the holy fathers, who left us prayers of repentance, consider themselves the first of sinners and with sincere conviction cried out to the Sweetest Jesus: “No one on earth has ever sinned as I, the accursed and the prodigal, have sinned,” while we are convinced that everything is fine with us?
The brighter the light of Christ illuminates the hearts, the more clearly all shortcomings, ulcers and wounds are recognized. And, on the contrary, people immersed in the darkness of sin do not see anything in their hearts: and if they do, they are not horrified, since they have nothing to compare with.
Therefore, the direct path to the knowledge of one’s sins is to approach the Light and pray for this Light, which is the judgment of the world and everything “worldly” in ourselves (John 3:19). In the meantime, there is no such closeness to Christ in which a feeling of repentance is our usual state, we must, when preparing for confession, examine our conscience - according to the commandments, according to some prayers (for example, the 3rd Vespers, the 4th before Holy Communion), in some places of the Gospel and Epistles (for example, Matt. 5, Rom. 12, Eph. 4, James 3).
When understanding your soul, you must try to distinguish between basic sins and derivative ones, symptoms from deeper-lying causes.
For example, absent-mindedness during prayer, dozing and inattention in church, and lack of interest in reading the Holy Scriptures are very important. But don’t these sins stem from lack of faith and weak love for God? It is necessary to note in yourself self-will, disobedience, self-justification, impatience of reproaches, intransigence, stubbornness; but it is even more important to discover their connection with self-love and pride.
If we notice in ourselves a desire for society, talkativeness, laughter, increased concern for our appearance and not only our own, but our loved ones, then we must carefully examine whether this is not a form of “diverse vanity.”
If we take everyday failures too much to heart, endure separation with difficulty, grieve inconsolably for those who have passed away, then in addition to the strength and depth of our feelings, doesn’t all this also testify to a lack of faith in God’s Providence?
There is another auxiliary means that leads us to the knowledge of our sins - to remember what other people, our enemies, and especially those who live side by side with us, those close to us, usually accuse us of: almost always their accusations, reproaches, attacks are justified. You can even, having conquered your pride, ask them directly about it - from the outside you know better.
Before confession, it is necessary to ask for forgiveness from everyone to whom you are guilty, and to go to confession with an unburdened conscience.
During such a test of the heart, one must be careful not to fall into excessive suspiciousness and petty suspicion of any movement of the heart; Having taken this path, you can lose your sense of what is important and unimportant, and get confused in the little things.
In such cases, you must temporarily abandon the testing of your soul and, with prayer and good deeds, simplify and clarify your soul.
The point is not to remember as fully as possible and even to write down our sins, but to achieve a state of concentration, seriousness and prayer in which, as if in the light, our sins become clear.
But knowing your sins does not mean repenting of them. True, the Lord accepts confession - sincere, conscientious, when it is not accompanied by a strong feeling of repentance.
Still, “contrition of the heart”—sorrow for our sins—is the most important thing we can bring to confession.
But what to do if “we have no tears, less than repentance, less than tenderness”? What should we do if our heart, “dried up by the flame of sin,” is not watered by the life-giving waters of tears? What if “weakness of soul and weakness of the flesh” are so great that we are not capable of sincere repentance?
This is still not a reason to postpone confession - God can touch our heart during confession itself: confession itself, the naming of our sins can soften our repentant heart, refine our spiritual vision, sharpen our feelings. Most of all, preparation for confession serves to overcome our spiritual lethargy - fasting, which, exhausting our body, disrupts our bodily well-being and complacency, which is disastrous for spiritual life. Prayer, nightly thoughts about death, reading the Gospel, the lives of saints, the works of the holy fathers, intense struggle with oneself, and exercise in good deeds serve the same purpose.
Our insensitivity in confession is mostly rooted in a lack of fear of God and hidden unbelief. This is where our efforts should be directed.
The main thing is to achieve sincere repentance, if possible - tears, which do not require details, but to identify which often requires a detailed and specific story.
This is why tears in confession are so important - they soften our petrification, shake us “from top to toe”, simplify us, give us graceful self-forgetfulness, and eliminate the main obstacle to repentance - our “self”. Proud and self-loving people do not cry. Once he cried, it means he softened, resigned himself.
That is why after such tears there is meekness, lack of anger, softness, tenderness, peace in the soul of those to whom the Lord sent “joyful crying” (creating joy). There is no need to be ashamed of tears in confession, we need to let them flow freely, washing away our defilements. “The clouds give me tears in fasting every day, so that I may weep and wash away the filth, even from sweets, and I will appear to You cleansed” (1st Week of Great Lent, Monday evening).
The third point in confession is the verbal confession of sins. There is no need to wait for questions, you need to make the effort yourself; Confession is a feat and self-compulsion. It is necessary to speak precisely, without obscuring the ugliness of sin with general expressions (for example, “I have sinned against the 7th commandment”). When confessing, it is very difficult to avoid the temptation of self-justification, attempts to explain “mitigating circumstances” to the confessor, and references to third parties who led us into sin. All these are signs of pride, lack of deep repentance, and continued staleness in sin.
Confession is not a conversation about one’s shortcomings, doubts, it is not a confessor’s knowledge of you, and least of all a “pious custom.” Confession is an ardent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification that comes from a sense of holiness, dying to sin and reviving for holiness...
I often notice in those confessing a desire to go through confession painlessly for themselves - either they get off with general phrases, or talk about little things, keeping silent about what should really weigh on their conscience. There is also false shame before the confessor and general indecision, as before every important action, and especially - a cowardly fear of seriously starting to stir up one’s life, full of small and habitual weaknesses. A real confession, like a good shock to the soul, is terrifying in its decisiveness, the need to change something, or even just to at least think about oneself.
Sometimes in confession they refer to a weak memory, which does not seem to give the opportunity to remember sins. Indeed, it often happens that you easily forget your sins, but does this only happen because of a weak memory?
In confession, a weak memory is not an excuse; forgetfulness - from inattention, frivolity, callousness, insensitivity to sin. Sin that burdens the conscience will not be forgotten. After all, for example, cases that especially hurt our pride or, on the contrary, flattered our vanity, our successes, praise addressed to us - we remember for many years. We remember everything that makes a strong impression on us for a long time and clearly, and if we forget our sins, doesn’t this mean that we simply do not attach serious importance to them?
A sign of completed repentance is a feeling of lightness, purity, inexplicable joy, when sin seems as difficult and impossible as this joy was just far away.
Our repentance will not be complete if, while repenting, we do not strengthen ourselves internally in the determination not to return to our confessed sin.
But, they say, how is this possible? How can I promise myself and my confessor that I will not repeat my sin? Wouldn't the opposite be closer to the truth - the certainty that the sin will be repeated? After all, everyone knows from experience that after a while you inevitably return to the same sins. Observing yourself from year to year, you do not notice any improvement, “you jump and again remain in the same place.”
It would be terrible if that were the case. Fortunately, this is not the case. There is no case when, in the presence of a good desire to improve, consistent confessions and Holy Communion would not produce beneficial changes in the soul.
But the fact is that, first of all, we are not our own judges. A person cannot correctly judge himself whether he has become worse or better, since both he, the judge, and what he judges are changing quantities.
Increased severity towards oneself, increased spiritual clarity, heightened fear of sin can give the illusion that sins have multiplied and intensified: they remained the same, maybe even weakened, but we did not notice them like that before.
In addition, God, in His special providence, often closes our eyes to our successes in order to protect us from the worst sin - vanity and pride. It often happens that sin remains, but frequent confessions and Communion of the Holy Mysteries have shaken and weakened its roots. And the very struggle with sin, suffering about one’s sins - isn’t it an acquisition?
“Do not be afraid,” says John Climacus, “even if you fall every day, and do not depart from the ways of God. Stand courageously and the angel protecting you will honor your patience.”
If there is no this feeling of relief, rebirth, you must have the strength to return again to confession, to completely free your soul from impurity, to wash it with tears from blackness and filth. Those who strive for this will always achieve what they are looking for.
Just let us not take credit for our successes, count on our own strengths, rely on our own efforts - this would mean ruining everything we have acquired.
“Gather my scattered mind, O Lord, and cleanse my frozen heart: like Peter, give me repentance, like a publican - sighing, and like a harlot - tears.”
And here is the advice of Archbishop Arseny (Chudovsky) on preparing for confession: “We come to confession with the intention of receiving forgiveness of sins from the Lord God through the priest. So know that your confession is empty, idle, invalid and even offensive to the Lord if you go to confession without any preparation, without testing your conscience, for shame or another reason you hide your sins, you confess without contrition and tenderness, formally, coldly, mechanically, without a firm intention to improve in the future.
They often approach confession unprepared. What does it mean to prepare? Diligently test your conscience, recall and feel in your heart your sins, decide to tell all of them, without any concealment, to your confessor, repent of them, and not only repent, but also avoid them in the future.
And since our memory often fails us, those who write down remembered sins on paper do well. And about those sins that you, no matter how much you want, cannot remember, do not worry that they will not be forgiven you. Just have a sincere determination to repent of everything and with tears ask the Lord to forgive you all your sins, which you remember and which you do not remember.
In confession, say everything that bothers you, that hurts you, so don’t be shy once again talk about your past sins. This is good, it will testify that you constantly walk with a feeling of your damnation and overcome any shame from discovering your sinful ulcers.
There are so-called unconfessed sins that many live with for many years, and perhaps their entire lives. Sometimes I want to reveal them to my confessor, but it’s too embarrassing to talk about them, and so it goes by year after year; and yet they constantly burden the soul and prepare for it eternal condemnation. Some of these people are happy, the time comes, the Lord sends them a confessor, opens the mouths and hearts of these unrepentant sinners, and they confess all their sins. The abscess thus breaks through, and these people receive spiritual relief and, as it were, recovery. However, how one must be afraid of unrepentant sins!
Unconfessed sins are like our debt, which we constantly feel and constantly burden us. And what better way than to pay off the debt - then your soul will be at peace; It’s the same with sins - these spiritual debts of ours: you confess them to your confessor, and your heart will feel light, easy.
Repentance in confession is a victory over oneself, it is a victorious trophy, so that the one who has repented is worthy of all respect and honor.”
Preparing for Confession
As a model for determining one’s inner spiritual state and for detecting one’s sins, one can take the “Confession” of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, slightly modified in relation to modern conditions.
***
I confess that I am a great sinner (name of rivers) to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honorable father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, which I have done in all the days of my life, which I have thought even to this day.
He sinned: he did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, he did not keep his monastic promise, but he lied about everything and created indecent things for himself before the Face of God.
Forgive me, honest father (for singles).
I sinned: before the Lord by lack of faith and sluggishness in thoughts, all from the enemy against the faith and the Holy Church; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing benefits, calling on the name of God without need - in vain.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by lack of love for the Lord, below fear, by failure to fulfill His holy will and holy commandments, by carelessly depicting the sign of the cross, by irreverent veneration of holy icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to be baptized and confess the Lord.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: I did not preserve love for my neighbor, did not feed the hungry and thirsty, did not clothe the naked, did not visit the sick and prisoners in prison; I did not study the law of God and the holy Fathers' traditions out of laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by not fulfilling church and cell rules, by going to the temple of God without diligence, with laziness and negligence; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during a church service - he sinned by idle talk, laughter, dozing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, leaving the temple during the service and not going to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by daring to go to the temple of God in uncleanness and touch all holy things.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by not honoring the feasts of God; violation of holy fasts and failure to observe fasting days - Wednesday and Friday; intemperance in food and drink, polyeating, secret eating, disordered eating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism; one’s own will and reason through fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and self-justification; not properly honoring parents, not raising children in the Orthodox faith, cursing their children and their neighbors.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false religion, dancing, smoking, playing cards, gossip, remembering the living for their repose, eating the blood of animals * (* VI Ecumenical Council, 67th rule. Acts of the Apostles, 15 ch.)
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by seeking help from intermediaries of demonic power - occultists: psychics, bioenergeticists, non-contact massage therapists, hypnotists, “folk” healers, sorcerers, sorcerers, healers, fortune tellers, astrologers, parapsychologists; participation in coding sessions, removal of “damage and evil eye”, spiritualism; contacting UFOs and “higher intelligence”; connection to “cosmic energies”.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by watching and listening to television and radio programs with the participation of psychics, healers, astrologers, fortune-tellers, healers.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by studying various occult teachings, theosophy, Eastern cults, the teaching of “living ethics”; doing yoga, meditation, dousing according to Porfiry Ivanov’s system.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by reading and storing occult literature.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: by attending speeches by Protestant preachers, participating in meetings of Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, the "Virgin Center", "white brotherhood" and other sects, accepting heretical baptism, deviating into heresy and sectarian teaching.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: pride, conceit, arrogance, self-love, ambition, envy, conceit, suspicion, irritability.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by condemning all people - living and dead, by slander and anger, by memory, hatred, evil for evil by retribution, slander, reproach, wickedness, laziness, deception, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to give in and serve one's neighbor; sinned with gloating, malice, slander, insult, ridicule, reproach and man-pleasing.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: incontinence of mental and physical feelings; spiritual and physical impurity, pleasure and procrastination in unclean thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of wives and young men; in a dream, prodigal desecration at night, intemperance in married life.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by impatience with illnesses and sorrows, by loving the comforts of this life, by captivity of the mind and hardening of the heart, by not forcing myself to do any good deed.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by inattention to the promptings of my conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. I sinned through covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, embezzlement, theft, stinginess, attachment to various kinds of things and people.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by condemning bishops and priests, by disobeying spiritual fathers, by murmuring and resenting them and by not confessing my sins to them through oblivion, negligence and false shame.
Sinned: by unmercifulness, contempt and condemnation of the poor; going to the temple of God without fear and reverence.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: laziness, relaxation, love of bodily rest, excessive sleeping, voluptuous dreams, biased views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, fornication, unmarried marriages; (those who performed abortions on themselves or others, or inclined someone to this great sin - infanticide, sinned gravely).
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by spending time in empty and idle activities, in empty conversations, in excessive watching of television.
I sinned: despondency, cowardice, impatience, murmuring, despair of salvation, lack of hope in God’s mercy, insensibility, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by slandering my neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, non-reconciliation, enmity and hatred, dissent, spying on other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: by coldness and insensitivity in confession, by belittling sins, by blaming others rather than by condemning myself.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: against the Life-giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching Them without proper preparation, without contrition and the fear of God.
Forgive me, honest father.
I sinned: in word, in thought and with all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - willfully or involuntarily, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and unreason, and it is not possible to list all my sins according to their multitude. But for all of these, and for those unspeakable through oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with God’s help, I promise to watch out.
You, honest father, forgive me and release me from all of this and pray for me, a sinner, and on that day of judgment testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen.
General Confession
As you know, the church sometimes practices not only separate, but also the so-called “general confession”, in which the priest absolves sins without hearing them from the penitents. The Holy Synod at one time allowed confession in this form to the saint and righteous John Kronstadtsky.
Don’t forget that we are all far from John of Kronstadt...
The replacement of a separate confession with a general one is due to the fact that now the priest often does not have the opportunity to accept confession from everyone. However, such a replacement is, of course, extremely undesirable and not everyone and not always can participate in general confession and after it go to Communion.
During general confession, the penitent does not have to reveal the dirt of his spiritual vestments, does not have to be ashamed of them in front of the priest, and his pride, pride and vanity will not be hurt. Thus, there will not be that punishment for sin, which, in addition to our repentance, would gain us God's mercy.
Secondly, general confession is fraught with the danger that such a sinner will approach Holy Communion who, during a separate confession, would not be allowed to come to Him by the priest.
Many serious sins require serious and lengthy repentance. And then the priest prohibits communion for a certain period and imposes penance (prayers of repentance, bows, abstinence in something). In other cases, the priest must receive a promise from the repentant not to repeat the sin again and only then be allowed to receive communion.
Therefore, general confession cannot be started in the following cases:
1) those who have not been to a separate confession for a long time - several years or many months;
2) those who have either a mortal sin or a sin that greatly hurts and torments his conscience.
In such cases, the confessor must, after all other participants in the confession, approach the priest and tell him the sins that lie on his conscience.
Participation in general confession can be considered acceptable (due to need) only for those who confess and receive communion quite often, check themselves from time to time in separate confession and are confident that the sins that they say in confession will not serve as a reason for prohibition for them Participles.
At the same time, it is also necessary that we participate in general confession either with our spiritual father or with a priest who knows us well.
Try to avoid general confession, for it is possible that, due to our sins, confession and Communion will not be for the healing of soul and body, but for condemnation.
Confession from Elder Zosima
The possibility in some cases of silent (that is, without words) confession and how one should prepare for it is indicated by the following story from the biography of Elder Zosima from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
“There was a case with two ladies. They go to the elder’s cell, and one of them repents of her sins all the way - “Lord, how sinful I am, I did this and that wrong, I condemned this and that, etc. ... forgive me, God". ...And the heart and mind seem to fall at the feet of the Lord.
“Forgive me, Lord, and give me strength not to insult You like this again.”
She tried to remember all her sins and repented and repented along the way.
The other one calmly walked towards the elder. “I’ll come, I’ll confess, I’m a sinner in everything, I’ll tell you, I’ll take communion tomorrow.” And then she thinks: “What kind of material should I buy for my daughter’s dress, and what style should I choose for her to suit her face...” and similar worldly thoughts occupied the heart and mind of the second lady.
Both entered Father Zosima’s cell together. Addressing the first one, the elder said:
Get on your knees, I will now forgive you your sins.
Why, father, I haven’t told you yet?..
There is no need to say, you told the Lord all the time, you prayed to God all the way, so now I will allow you, and tomorrow I will bless you to take communion... “You,” he turned to another lady, “you go, buy some material for your daughter’s dress.” , choose a style, sew what you have in mind.
And when your soul comes to repentance, come to confession. And now I won’t confess to you.”
About penances
In some cases, the priest may impose penance on the penitent - spiritual exercises prescribed with the aim of eradicating the habits of sin. In accordance with this goal, feats of prayer and good deeds are assigned, which must be directly opposite to the sin for which they are assigned: for example, works of mercy are assigned to the lover of money, fasting to the unchaste, kneeling prayers to those weakening in faith, etc. Sometimes, due to the persistent unrepentance of a person confessing to some sin, the confessor may excommunicate him for some period of time from participating in the Sacrament of Communion. Penance must be treated as the will of God, spoken through the priest about the penitent, and must be accepted for obligatory fulfillment. If it is impossible for one reason or another to perform penance, you should contact the priest who imposed it to resolve the difficulties that have arisen.
About the time of the Sacrament of Confession
According to existing church practice, the Sacrament of Confession is performed in churches in the morning on the day of service Divine Liturgy. In some churches, confession also happens the night before. In churches where the Liturgy is served every day, confession is daily. Under no circumstances should you be late for the beginning of Confession, since the Sacrament begins with the reading of the rite, in which everyone who wishes to confess must prayerfully participate.
Final steps in confession:
After confessing sins and reading the prayer of absolution by the priest, the penitent kisses the Cross and Gospel lying on the lectern and takes a blessing from the confessor.
The connection of the Sacrament of Anointing with the forgiveness of sins
“The prayer of faith will heal the sick... and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him” (James 5:15).
No matter how carefully we try to remember and write down our sins, it may happen that a significant part of them will not be told in confession, some will be forgotten, and some will simply not be realized and not noticed due to spiritual blindness.
In this case, the church comes to the aid of the repentant with the Sacrament of Unction or, as it is often called, “unction.” This Sacrament is based on the instructions of the Apostle James, the head of the first Jerusalem church.
“Is any of you sick, let him call the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will restore him; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him” (James 5:14-15).
Thus, in the Sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing, we are forgiven of sins that were not said in confession due to ignorance or forgetfulness. And since illness is a consequence of our sinful state, liberation from sin often leads to healing of the body.
Some of the careless Christians neglect the Sacraments of the church and do not attend confession for several or even many years. And when they realize its necessity and come to confession, then, of course, it is difficult for them to remember all the sins they have committed over many years. In these cases, the Optina elders always recommended that such repentant Christians take part in three Sacraments at once: confession, Blessing of Anointing and Communion of the Holy Mysteries.
Some of the elders believe that in a few years not only the seriously ill, but also all those who are zealous for the salvation of their souls can participate in the Sacrament of Anointing.
At the same time, it should be pointed out that those Christians who do not neglect the fairly frequent Sacrament of Confession were not advised by the Optina elders to undergo unction unless they had a serious illness.
In modern church practice, the Sacrament of Anointing is performed in churches annually during Great Lent.
Those Christians who for some reason will not have the opportunity to take part in the Sacrament of Anointing, need to remember the instructions of the elders Barsanuphius and John, which were given to the student in response to the question - “oblivion destroys the remembrance of many sins - what should I do?” The answer was:
“What kind of lender can you find more faithful than God, who knows what has not yet happened? So, lay on Him the account of the sins you have forgotten and tell him: “Master, since it is a sin to forget one’s sins, then I have sinned in everything to You, the One Knower of the Heart. You forgive me for everything according to Your love for mankind, for that is where splendor is manifested.” Your glory, when You do not repay sinners according to their sins, for You are glorified forever. Amen."
The end and glory to God!