About sacraments. Sacrament of Repentance

The regular priest of the Saratov Church of the Nativity of Christ Andrey Evstigneev, by decree of the ruling bishop of the Saratov diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Saratov and Volsky Longin, was released from service for violating the secrecy of confession. This is stated in the information posted on the diocesan website.

"By this definition, you, priest Andrey Evstigneev, are also released from all other duties previously assigned to you and are prohibited from serving for divulging the secrets of confession and publicly discussing it in the presence of representatives of the media ... for a period of one year," the portal leads " Interfax-Religion" text of the decree.

In addition, the decree stipulates that a priest is deprived of the right to wear priestly vestments - a cassock and a pectoral cross - for a year. He is also forbidden to bless the faithful and perform divine services and services.

The reason for the church punishment was the speech of the priest at a meeting of the Public Chamber of the Saratov region. On March 28, the brutal murder of a seven-year-old boy was discussed there, in which the child's stepfather is blamed.

During this discussion, Father Andrey recalled another resonant Saratov story, when, according to investigators, after beating his stepfather, a little boy jumped out of the window of a high-rise building and died.

"A few months ago there was another case when a child jumped out of a balcony. The situation is almost a mirror image: a mother, if I may say so, who is entangled in her men, and the man (stepfather - "IF") is absolutely crazy," the press service quoted the priest's speech. Public chamber of the Saratov region.

Andrey Evstigneev admitted that "as a priest he talked to this man in the pre-trial detention center."

"He was at confession. I have no right to divulge the secret of confession to you, but there are sawdust in my head," the priest said at a meeting of the chamber.

Meanwhile, in the first centuries of Christianity, confession was an open public procedure. Confession of sins was made not only before the priest, but also before all members of the community, who together make up the Body of Christ - the Church. However, as historians of religion note, the openness of confession led to a decrease in the number of those who turn to the Church for repentance. In view of the declining interest of parishioners in confession, the Church decided to approve the secret format of confession. Revision of the nature of confession required the establishment of a special trusting relationship between the clergy and the flock, which dictated respect for the sacred meaning of the confession procedure on the part of the state.

The strictness of the secrecy of confession is observed today by all Churches. Two years ago, the Vatican hosted a conference on the practice of confession in the Catholic Church. It confirmed that even after the death of the penitent, the priest does not have the right to divulge what he heard from the deceased. "The seal is absolute. It cannot be removed, even if the penitent himself gives his permission for this to the priest who confessed him," it was said during the discussion. Any violation of the "seal of confession" is punishable by excommunication from the Church. Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, which decides issues related to the internal jurisdiction of the servants of the Church, said that church law in this matter has remained unchanged for 800 years.

It should be noted that the secrecy of confession is legally protected in Russia, which is enshrined in several documents.

Federal Law No. 125-FZ of September 26, 1997 "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" in paragraph 7 of Article 3 postulates legislative support for the protection of the secrecy of confession and a limitation on the prosecution of clergy for refusing to testify on information obtained within the framework of the sacraments of confession ("The secret of confession is protected by law. A clergyman cannot be held liable for refusing to testify due to circumstances that became known to him from confession").

The Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, in paragraph 4 of part 3 of Article 56, includes a clergyman in the list of persons who are not subject to interrogation as witnesses due to circumstances known during confession ("They are not subject to interrogation as witnesses: 4) a clergyman - about the circumstances that became known to him from confession).

The Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation in paragraph 3 of part 3 of Article 69 determines that "the following are not subject to interrogation as witnesses: 3) clergy of religious organizations that have passed state registration - about the circumstances that became known to them from confession."

Confession (repentance) is one of the seven Christian Sacraments, in which a penitent who confesses his sins to a priest, with a visible forgiveness of sins (reading a permissive prayer), is invisibly resolved from them. by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This sacrament was instituted by the Savior, who said to His disciples: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (untie) on earth, it will be loosed in heaven” (Gospel of Matthew, ch. 18, verse 18). on whom you leave, on that they will remain ”(Gospel of John, ch. 20, verses 22-23). The apostles, however, transferred the power to "bind and loose" to their successors - the bishops, who in turn, when performing the Sacrament of ordination (priesthood), transfer this power to the priests.

The Holy Fathers call repentance the second baptism: if at baptism a person is cleansed from the power of original sin, transferred to him at birth from our forefathers Adam and Eve, then repentance washes him from the filth of his own sins committed by him after the Sacrament of Baptism.

In order for the Sacrament of Repentance to take place, the penitent needs: awareness of his sinfulness, sincere heartfelt repentance for his sins, a desire to leave sin and not repeat it, faith in Jesus Christ and hope in His mercy, faith that the Sacrament of Confession has the power to purify and wash away, through the prayer of a priest, sincerely confessed sins.

The Apostle John says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1st Epistle of John, ch. 1, verse 7). At the same time, we hear from many people: “I don’t kill, I don’t steal, I don’t

I commit adultery, so why should I repent? But if we carefully study God's commandments, we will find that we sin against many of them. Conventionally, all sins committed by a person can be divided into three groups: sins against God, sins against neighbors and sins against oneself.

Ingratitude to God.

Disbelief. Doubt in faith. Justifying your disbelief with an atheistic upbringing.

Apostasy, cowardly silence, when they blaspheme the faith of Christ, not wearing a pectoral cross, visiting various sects.

Mentioning the name of God in vain (when the name of God is mentioned not in prayer and not in pious conversation about Him).

Oath in the name of the Lord.

Divination, treatment with whispering grandmothers, turning to psychics, reading books on black, white and other magic, reading and distributing occult literature and various false teachings.

Thoughts of suicide.

Playing cards and other games of chance.

Failure to fulfill the morning and evening prayer rule.

Not visiting the temple of God on Sundays and holidays.

Failure to observe fasts on Wednesday and Friday, violation of other fasts established by the Church.

Reckless (non-daily) reading of the Holy Scriptures, soulful literature.

Breaking vows to God.

Despair in difficult situations and disbelief in the Providence of God, fear of old age, poverty, illness.

Absent-mindedness at prayer, thoughts about worldly things during worship.

Condemnation of the Church and her ministers.

Addiction to various earthly things and pleasures.

The continuation of a sinful life in one hope of God's mercy, i.e., excessive hope in God.

A waste of time watching TV, reading entertainment books at the expense of time for prayer, reading the gospel and spiritual literature.

Concealment of sins at confession and unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries.

Self-confidence, human-confidence, that is, excessive hope in one's own strength and in someone else's help, without hope that everything is in the hands of God.

Raising children outside the Christian faith.

Irritability, anger, irritability.

Arrogance.

Perjury.

mockery.

Avarice.

Non-repayment of debts.

Non-payment for hard earned money.

Failure to help those in need.

Disrespect for parents, irritation with their old age.

Disrespect for elders.

Restlessness in your work.

Condemnation.

Taking someone else's is theft.

Quarrels with neighbors and neighbors.

Killing one's child in the womb (abortion), persuading others to commit murder (abortion).

Murder with a word - bringing a person by slander or condemnation to a painful state and even to death.

Drinking alcohol at the commemoration of the dead instead of intensified prayer for them.

Verbosity, gossip, idle talk. ,

Unreasonable laughter.

Foul language.

self-love.

Doing good deeds for show.

Vanity.

Desire to get rich.

Love of money.

Envy.

Drunkenness, drug use.

Gluttony.

Fornication - inciting fornication thoughts, impure desires, fornication touches, watching erotic films and reading similar books.

Fornication is the physical intimacy of persons who are not bound by marriage.

Adultery is adultery.

Fornication is unnatural - the physical proximity of persons of the same sex, masturbation.

Incest - physical intimacy with relatives or nepotism.

Although the above sins are conditionally divided into three parts, in the end they are all sins against God (because they violate His commandments and thereby offend Him) and against neighbors (because they do not allow true Christian relationships and love to be revealed). ), and against themselves (because they hinder the salvific dispensation of the soul).

Whoever wants to bring repentance before God for his sins must prepare for the Sacrament of Confession. You need to prepare for confession in advance: it is advisable to read the literature devoted to the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, remember all your sins, you can write them out on

a separate piece of paper to review it before confession. Sometimes a sheet with the listed sins is given to the confessor for reading, but sins that especially weigh on the soul must be told aloud. There is no need to tell the confessor long stories, it is enough to state the sin itself. For example, if you are at enmity with relatives or neighbors, you do not need to tell what caused this enmity - you need to repent of the very sin of condemning relatives or neighbors. It is not the list of sins that is important to God and the confessor, but the repentant feeling of the confessed, not detailed stories, but a contrite heart. It must be remembered that confession is not only an awareness of one's own shortcomings, but above all, a thirst to be cleansed of them. In no case is it unacceptable to justify oneself - this is no longer repentance! Elder Silouan of Athos explains what real repentance is: “Here is the sign of the forgiveness of sins: if you hated sin, then the Lord forgave you your sins.”

It is good to develop the habit of analyzing the past day every evening and bringing daily repentance before God, writing down serious sins for future confession with a confessor. It is necessary to reconcile with your neighbors and ask for forgiveness from all those who have offended. When preparing for confession, it is advisable to strengthen your evening prayer rule by reading the Penitential Canon, which is found in the Orthodox prayer book.

In order to confess, you need to find out when the Sacrament of Confession takes place in the temple. In those churches where the service is performed every day, the Sacrament of Confession is also performed every day. In those churches where there is no daily service, you must first familiarize yourself with the schedule of services.

Children up to seven years old (in the Church they are called babies) begin the Sacrament of Communion without prior confession, but it is necessary from early childhood to develop in children a sense of reverence for this great

Sacrament. Frequent communion without proper preparation can develop in children an undesirable sense of the routine of what is happening. It is advisable to prepare babies for the upcoming Communion 2-3 days in advance: read the Gospel, the lives of the saints, other soulful books with them, reduce, or better, completely exclude watching TV (but this must be done very tactfully, without developing negative associations with the preparation for Communion in the child ), follow their prayer in the morning and before bedtime, talk with the child about the past days and bring him to a sense of shame for his own misdeeds. The main thing to remember is that there is nothing more effective for a child than a personal example of parents.

Starting from the age of seven, children (youths) already begin the Sacrament of Communion, like adults, only after the preliminary celebration of the Sacrament of Confession. In many ways, the sins listed in the previous sections are also inherent in children, but still, children's confession has its own characteristics. To set the children up for sincere repentance, it is pleaded that they be given the following list of possible sins to read:

Did you lie in bed in the morning and did you miss the morning prayer rule in connection with this?

Didn't he sit down at the table without praying and didn't he go to bed without prayer?

Do you know by heart the most important Orthodox prayers: “Our Father”, “Jesus Prayer”, “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice”, a prayer to your Heavenly patron, whose name you bear?

Did you go to church every Sunday?

Didn't he get carried away with various amusements on church holidays instead of visiting the temple of God?

Did he behave properly in the church service, didn’t he run around the temple, didn’t he conduct empty conversations with his peers, thereby introducing them into temptation?

Did he not pronounce the name of God unnecessarily?

Are you making the sign of the cross correctly, are you in no hurry to do so, are you not distorting the sign of the cross?

Did you get distracted by extraneous thoughts while praying?

Do you read the Gospel, other spiritual books?

Do you wear a pectoral cross and are you not ashamed of it?

Do you use a cross as a decoration, which is a sin?

Do you wear various amulets, for example, signs of the zodiac?

Didn't he guess, didn't he tell?

Didn’t he hide his sins before the priest at confession because of false shame, and then take communion unworthily?

Was he not proud of himself and others of his successes and abilities?

Have you argued with anyone - just to get the upper hand in the argument?

Did you lie to your parents out of fear of being punished?

Didn’t you eat fast food, for example, ice cream, without the permission of your parents?

Did he listen to his parents, argue with them, demand an expensive purchase from them?

Did he hit anyone? Have you encouraged others to do so?

Did he offend the younger ones?

Have you tortured animals?

Didn't he gossip about anyone, didn't he snitch on anyone?

Have you laughed at people who have any physical handicaps?

Have you tried smoking, drinking, sniffing glue, or using drugs?

Didn't he swear?

Have you played cards?

Did you do any handicraft?

Did you take someone else's for yourself?

Have you been in the habit of taking without asking what does not belong to you?

Are you too lazy to help your parents around the house?

Was he pretending to be sick to avoid his duties?

Did you envy others?

The above list is only a general scheme of possible sins. Each child may have their own, individual experiences associated with specific cases. The task of parents is to set the child up for repentant feelings before the Sacrament of Confession. You can advise him to remember his misdeeds committed after the last confession, write his sins on a piece of paper, but this should not be done for him. The main thing: the child must understand that the Sacrament of Confession is a Sacrament that cleanses the soul from sins, subject to sincere, sincere repentance and the desire not to repeat them again.

Confession is made in churches either in the evening after the evening service, or in the morning before the start of the liturgy. In no case should one be late for the beginning of confession, since the Sacrament begins with the reading of the rites, in which everyone who wishes to confess must prayerfully participate. When reading the rites, the priest addresses the penitents so that they give their names - everyone answers in an undertone. Those who are late for the beginning of confession are not allowed to the Sacrament; the priest, if there is such an opportunity, at the end of the confession, reads the rites again for them and accepts the confession, or appoints it for another day. It is impossible for women to start the Sacrament of Repentance during the period of monthly cleansing.

Confession usually takes place in a church with a confluence of people, so you need to respect the secrecy of confession, not crowd around the priest who is receiving confession, and not embarrass the confessor who reveals his sins to the priest. The confession must be complete. It is impossible to confess some sins first, and leave others for the next time. Those sins that the penitent confessed in pre-

previous confessions and which have already been released to him are not named again. If possible, you need to confess to the same confessor. You should not, having a permanent confessor, look for another to confess your sins, which a sense of false shame prevents a familiar confessor from revealing. Those who do this are trying to deceive God Himself by their actions: at confession we confess our sins not to the confessor, but together with him - to the Savior Himself.

In large churches, due to the large number of penitents and the impossibility of the priest to accept confession from everyone, a “general confession” is usually practiced, when the priest lists the most common sins aloud and the confessors standing in front of him repent of them, after which everyone in turn comes under the permissive prayer . Those who have never been to confession or have not confessed for several years should avoid general confession. Such people need to go through private confession - for which you need to choose either a weekday, when there are not so many confessors in the church, or find a parish where only private confession is performed. If this is not possible, you need to go to the priest at a general confession for permissive prayer among the last, so as not to detain anyone, and, having explained the situation, open yourself to him in the sins you have committed. The same should be done by those who have grave sin.

Many ascetics of piety warn that a grave sin, about which the confessor kept silent at the general confession, remains unrepentant, and therefore not forgiven.

After confessing sins and reading the prayer of permissiveness by the priest, the penitent kisses the Cross and the Gospel lying on the lectern and, if he was preparing for communion, takes a blessing from the confessor for communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

In some cases, the priest may impose penance on the penitent - spiritual exercises intended to deepen repentance and eradicate sinful habits. Penance must be treated as the will of God, spoken through a priest, requiring obligatory fulfillment in order to heal the soul of the penitent. If it is impossible for various reasons to fulfill the penance, one should turn to the priest who imposed it to resolve the difficulties that have arisen.

Those wishing not only to confess, but also to take communion, must adequately and in accordance with the requirements of the Church prepare for the Sacrament of Communion. This preparation is called fasting.

The days of fasting usually last a week, in extreme cases - three days. Fasting is prescribed on these days. Modest food is excluded from the diet - meat, dairy products, eggs, and on days of strict fasting - fish. Spouses abstain from physical intimacy. The family refuses entertainment and TV viewing. If circumstances permit, these days one should attend services in the temple. The morning and evening prayer rules are more diligently carried out, with the addition of reading the Penitential Canon to them.

Regardless of when the Sacrament of Confession is performed in the temple - in the evening or in the morning, it is necessary to attend the evening service on the eve of communion. In the evening, before reading the prayers for the future, three canons are read: Penitent to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, Guardian Angel. You can read each canon separately, or use prayer books where these three canons are combined. Then the canon for Holy Communion is read until the prayers for Holy Communion, which are read in the morning. For those who find it difficult to make such a prayer rule in

one day, they take a blessing from the priest to read three canons in advance during the days of fasting.

It is quite difficult for children to follow all the prayer rules for preparing for the sacrament. Parents, together with the confessor, need to choose the optimal number of prayers that the child will be able to do, then gradually increase the number of necessary prayers needed to prepare for Communion, up to the full prayer rule for Holy Communion.

For some, it is very difficult to read the necessary canons and prayers. For this reason, some do not go to confession and do not receive communion for years. Many people confuse preparation for confession (which does not require such a large volume of prayers to be read) and preparation for communion. Such people can be recommended to approach the Sacraments of Confession and Communion in stages. First, you need to properly prepare for confession and, when confessing sins, ask your confessor for advice. It is necessary to pray to the Lord that He will help to overcome difficulties and give strength to adequately prepare for the Sacrament of Communion.

Since it is customary to start the Sacrament of Communion on an empty stomach, from twelve o'clock in the morning they no longer eat or drink (smokers do not smoke). The exception is infants (children under seven years of age). But children from a certain age (starting from 5-6 years old, and if possible even earlier) must be accustomed to the existing rule.

In the morning they also do not eat or drink anything and, of course, do not smoke, you can only brush your teeth. After reading the morning prayers, prayers for Holy Communion are read. If it is difficult to read the prayers for Holy Communion in the morning, then you need to take a blessing from the priest to read them the evening before. If confession is performed in the church in the morning, it is necessary to arrive on time, before the start of confession. If confession was made the night before, then the confessor comes to the beginning of the service and prays with everyone.

Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ is a Sacrament established by the Savior Himself during the Last Supper: “Jesus took bread and, blessing, broke it and, distributing it to the disciples, said: take, eat: this is My Body. And, taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them and said: drink from it all, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins ”(Gospel of Matthew, ch. 26, verses 26-28).

During the Divine Liturgy, the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is celebrated - bread and wine are mysteriously transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ and the communicants, taking Them during Communion, mysteriously, incomprehensibly to the human mind, unite with Christ Himself, since He is all contained in each Particle of Communion .

Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ is necessary in order to enter eternal life. The Savior Himself speaks of this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day ... ”(Gospel of John, ch. 6, verses 53-54).

The Sacrament of Communion is incomprehensibly great, and therefore requires preliminary purification by the Sacrament of Penance; the only exceptions are infants under seven years of age, who receive communion without the preparation prescribed for the laity. Women need to wipe lipstick off their lips. It is forbidden for women to receive communion during the month of cleansing. Women after childbirth are allowed to take communion only after the fortieth day prayer of cleansing has been read over them.

During the exit of the priest with the Holy Gifts, the communicants make one earthly (if it is a weekday) or waist (if it is a Sunday or holiday) bow and carefully listen to the words of the prayers read by the priest, repeating them to themselves. After reading the prayers

private traders, with their hands crossed on their chests (the right over the left), decorously, without crowding, in deep humility approach the Holy Chalice. A pious custom has developed to let the children go first to the Chalice, then the men come up, after them the women. One should not be baptized at the Chalice, so as not to accidentally touch it. Having called his name aloud, the communicant, opening his mouth, accepts the Holy Gifts - the Body and Blood of Christ. After communion, the deacon or sexton wipes the mouth of the communicant with a special cloth, after which he kisses the edge of the holy Chalice and goes to a special table, where he takes a drink (warmth) and eats a particle of prosphora. This is done so that not a single particle of the Body of Christ remains in the mouth. Without accepting warmth, one cannot venerate either icons, or the Cross, or the Gospel.

After receiving the warmth, the communicants do not leave the temple and pray with everyone until the end of the service. After the dismissal (the final words of the service), the communicants approach the Cross and carefully listen to the prayers of thanksgiving after Holy Communion. After listening to the prayers, the communicants sedately disperse, trying to keep the purity of their soul cleansed of sins for as long as possible, not exchanging for empty talk and deeds that are not useful for the soul. On the day after communion of the Holy Mysteries, prostrations are not performed; with the blessing of the priest, they are not applied to the hand. You can apply only to icons, the Cross and the Gospel. The rest of the day must be spent piously: avoiding verbosity (it is better to be silent more in general), watching TV, excluding marital intimacy, it is advisable for smokers to refrain from smoking. It is advisable to read thanksgiving prayers at home after Holy Communion. The fact that on the day of the sacrament one cannot shake hands is a prejudice. Under no circumstances should you take communion several times in one day.

In cases of illness and infirmity, communion can be done at home. For this, a priest is invited to the house. Depending on

Depending on his condition, the sick person is properly prepared for confession and communion. In any case, he can take communion only on an empty stomach (with the exception of the dying). Children under the age of seven do not receive communion at home, since, unlike adults, they can only partake of the Blood of Christ, and the spare Gifts that a priest communes at home contain only particles of the Body of Christ saturated with His Blood. For the same reason, infants do not receive communion at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts celebrated on weekdays during Great Lent.

Each Christian either determines the time when he needs to confess and take communion, or does it with the blessing of his spiritual father. There is a pious custom to take communion at least five times a year - on each of the four multi-day fasts and on the day of your Angel (the day of memory of the saint whose name you bear).

How often it is necessary to take communion, St. Nikodim the Holy Mountaineer gives pious advice: The heart then partakes of the Lord spiritually.

But just as we are constrained by the body, and surrounded by external affairs and relationships, in which we must take part for a long time, the spiritual tasting of the Lord, due to the bifurcation of our attention and feelings, is weakened day by day, obscured and hidden ...

Therefore, the zealots, sensing its impoverishment, hasten to restore it in strength, and when they restore it, they feel that they are, as it were, eating the Lord again.

Published by the Orthodox parish in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov, Novosibirsk.

THE CONCEPT OF THE MYSTERY

Repentance is a sacrament in which the one who confesses his sins, with a visible expression of forgiveness from the priest, is invisibly absolved from sins by Jesus Christ Himself (Catechism).

THE BEGINNING OF THE MYSTERY

In its beginning, repentance, like the other sacraments of the Orthodox Church, is a divine institution. The grace to bind and solve sins was promised to the apostles by Jesus Christ during His earthly life. Thus, in a conversation about forgiveness for sinners, the Lord said to the apostles: “If you bind on earth, they will be bound in heaven, and if you loose on earth, they will be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:18). This grace was given to the apostles and their successors by Jesus Christ after the resurrection, when he often talked with the disciples about the structure of his Church and instituted the sacraments for her. Once, appearing to the disciples after the resurrection, the Savior said: “Peace be with you: as the Father sent me, and I send you. And this rivers, dunu and said to them: receive the Holy Spirit. By whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven them, and by whom you hold, they hold on” (John 20, 21-23). Here the grace and power to bind and loose sins is called the Holy Spirit, and thus the loosing or keeping them appears to be the work of God. This is the mystery.

HISTORY OF THE LITURGIC SIDE OF THE MYSTERY

About the sacrament of Penance among Christians of the apostolic time, we find indications in the books of Holy Scripture (Acts 19:18; James 5:16). According to the interpreters, these places are Holy. The Scriptures show that confession was well known to the Christians of the apostolic time and that they confessed their sins before the builders of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1). Already in the apostolic age, the confession of sins, depending on the circumstances, was either secret or open, public. Public repentance was required of those Christians who, through their sins, created a temptation in the Church.

The confession of sins was combined with spiritual punishments, which were of three types:

1) deprivation for a certain time of the right to make offerings and participate in communion (appointed for less important crimes);

2) for more important sins, the Church forbade attending meetings of believers, especially during the liturgy.

3) The highest degree of punishment for grave sins (murder, adultery), combined with impenitence, was expulsion from the number of believers. The bishop expelled the guilty from the congregation. And only if they expressed sincere repentance, the bishop, at the request of the deacons, allowed them to attend meetings of the faithful together with the catechumens, and then admitted them to the number of penitents.

By the end of the first half of the 3rd century, public repentance took shape in the form of a special, precisely defined by the rules of the Church, the rite of acceptance into the Church of Christians who had broken communion with her by their crimes. The reason for this was the persecution of the emperor Decius. During the thirty years of rest that preceded this persecution, the weakening of the original living faith and pure morality became noticeable both in ordinary Christians and in the church clergy. Therefore, it is not surprising that during the persecution of Decius there were many fallen ones (those who renounced Christ). This phenomenon, important in itself, served as the beginning of the dispute about the fallen. The reason for the emergence of this dispute was partly given by the fallen themselves, who thought to make up for the lack of repentance with the testimonies of confessors, partly by the confessors, who gave their testimonies without proper attention and analysis, and, finally, partly by the presbyters themselves, who did not always carefully accept the fallen into communion with the Church. In the Church of Carthage and Rome in the 3rd century, even a schism arose, produced by Felicissimus (in Carthage) and presbyter Novatian (in Rome). Felicissimus formed a party of his supporters, who stood for the acceptance of all the fallen without repentance. Novatian, on the other hand, went to the other extreme, arguing that the fallen should not be accepted at all into communion with the Church, for then she would cease to be holy. At the Carthaginian and Roman Councils convened under such circumstances, it was decided to accept into communion with the Church through public repentance those Christians who had fallen away from the faith, who had sacrificed to idols or burned incense to them, or who, through bribery, received false certificates of their sacrifice to idols, and finally, to this class was joined after the persecution of Diocletian by traitors who gave out to the persecutors books of Holy Scripture, church synodics (diptychs) and their fellow Christians.

All these persons who had broken communion with the Church, if they sincerely desired to return to the Church again, came to the presbyter-confessor with an expression of their desire. The confessor, convinced of the sincerity of the desire of those who came, entered their names in the church list for general information and commemoration during worship, laid hands on them as evidence of their permission from excommunication and acceptance into the number of penitents, and released them. Received in this way among the penitents, they then remained outside the church in the exploits of fasting, prayer and mercy. When they came to church, they had to go through four degrees of public repentance (penance): weeping, listening, crouching and standing.

The penitent weeping could only enter the outer porch (portico) of the temple, outside the gates of the temple, where with weeping they begged the faithful, and especially the primates of the Church, to pray for them. This degree was preparatory and, as it were, an introduction to church repentance proper (Gregory the Wonderworker, 11 pr.; Basil the Great, pr. 22).

The listeners were allowed to enter the inner porch of the temple, stand together with the catechumens, listen with the faithful to the singing and reading of the Holy Scriptures and teachings during the first half of the liturgy, after which they went out together with the catechumens (First Ecumenical Council, 11 and 12).

The penitents of the third group - the crouching ones - stood in the temple itself, in its back part, and participated with the faithful in prayers for the penitents, listening to them, prostrate. At the end of these prayers, they bowed their knees and received a blessing from the bishop and left the church.

The standing ones stood with the faithful until the end of the Liturgy, not only approaching the Eucharist (First Ecumenical Council, 11 Ave; Cathedral of Ancyra, 4 Ave).

Throughout the time appointed for the performance of penance by the penitents, the Church offered up prayers for them in the temple between the liturgy of the catechumens and the liturgy of the faithful (Council of Laodicea, 19 Ave). In their content, they almost do not differ from those prayers that are currently read before confession. One of these prayers is preserved at the (end) of the Liturgy of the Apostle James, and the other in the Apostolic Decrees (VIII, 9).

The final moment of repentance upon the fulfillment of penance was that those who had gone through all the degrees of repentance, in a more or less long time, publicly penitent confessed their sins before the whole Church, headed by the bishop and received permission, usually on Thursday or Friday of Passion Week, through the laying on of hands of the bishop and the reading of the permissive prayer, and were admitted to the Eucharist. The very acceptance of the penitents into the Church was not only a social act, but was also part of the public worship service and was performed in a solemn manner.

After the end of the persecution, the Church during its peaceful existence (in the 4th century) spread public repentance not only for falling away from the faith, but also for other crimes: idolatry, fornication, murder, heresy.

Along with public repentance (public), in the ancient Church there was also a custom of private repentance, or the confession of sins before only one bishop or presbyter. It was performed at the request of the penitent and consisted in the discovery of sins and their resolution with prayer and the laying on of hands. Clement of Rome, Origen, Cyprian, and others speak of private repentance. Clement of Rome admonishes not to be ashamed to confess secret sins to the abbot, so that, with the help of the word of God and instructions, you can receive healing. Origen says that for a sinner who yearns for justification before God, the means to acquire it and find healing consists in confessing one's sin to a priest of God.

The practice of public repentance continued in the Church until the end of the 4th century. Under the Patriarch of Constantinople Nectarios (398), the position of priest-confessor was abolished, and after that the degrees of repentance and the rites that accompanied admission to the number of public penitents were gradually destroyed. By the end of the period of Ecumenical Councils (8th-9th centuries), public confession finally disappears and is replaced by a secret.

The impetus for the abolition of public (public) confession and replacing it with a secret was that public confession, so beneficial in ancient times, with the severity of the customs of that time and zeal for piety, seemed burdensome for Christians of later times. Many began to shun her out of shame or to hide their sins. In addition, sins revealed publicly could serve as a temptation for some weak Christians. Therefore, in order to prevent healing for some from turning into deadly poison for others, the Church, in order to avoid this danger, replaced public confession with a secret.

In the X-XII centuries. in the Eastern Church, repentance and confession take those forms (clergy of monastic and secular confessors-priests and secret confession), in which they then exist for whole centuries, and exist to the present, with the right of the confessor to impose secret or open penance on those Christian sinners who had previously been subjected to public confession.

HISTORY OF THE SECRET CONFESSION

The rite of confession that currently exists in the Russian Church (located in the Trebnik) has its source in the Greek rites developed in the 16th-17th centuries. The latter were greatly influenced by the most ancient order of secret confession called the Nomocanon of John the Faster, attributed to John, Patr. Constantinople, who lived in the VI century. (+ 596). In the Russian Church in the XV-XVII centuries. the rite of confession existed in many diverse and very extensive editions, based on the rite of confession of John the Faster. In the 17th century was published by printing, first in Kyiv (1620), then in Moscow (1639 and 1658) a short rite of confession, which from the end of the 17th century (after the publication of 1685), after some additions (supplemented with penitential troparia, a permissive prayer from the Treasury of Peter The graves: "The Lord our God Jesus Christ" and an exhortation to the penitent) remains unchanged to our time.

MAIN DOGMATIC AND MORAL CONTENT AND PURPOSE OF THE MYSTERY OF CONFESSION

Baptism and repentance. Through the sacrament of Baptism - the “bath of resurrection”, the font of a new, renewed life, a person received a pledge of “justification” - truth, righteousness, through the mysterious forgiveness of sins, he “enlightened” his soul and sanctified his body. In order to fight against sin, ousted, banished, as it were, to the periphery of his nature, he received grace-filled powers in the sacrament of Chrismation, and in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the “sanctification” of body and soul. But through the sins that a person commits after these sacraments, he is deprived of grace-filled powers, through the “mediastinum” (barrier) of sin, he deprives himself of life in the love of God, placing his isolated selfish will above the will of God and love for God and man. And so, for cleansing from sins committed after baptism, and for the return of grace-filled gifts, the Lord established the sacrament of Penance, which the holy fathers call the second baptism.

What are the main points of repentance?

In the area of ​​feeling and consciousness, this is “compassion for the sins committed”, the judgment of conscience, condemnation of one’s sinful past, disgust with sin, hatred of sin and (as a result of which – in the area of ​​will) the desire and determination to break with this sinful past, the determination to abandon sinful direction of his will, a firm promise to continue to guard himself from sins and correct his life. And all this should be combined with an ardent prayer to God for the forgiveness of sins and liberation from sin as an inner force that lives in a person.

Significance of confession before a priest. The completion of this spiritual change and the rebirth of a person is a confession before a priest, when before the priest as a witness (“I am a witness”) and together with the doctor, the innermost wounds of conscience, all the shame of sin, are opened. This spiritual breaking is completed here, the final spiritual turning point, which makes a person worthy of Divine gracious forgiveness through a permissive prayer from a priest. For only God, in His miraculous help, given in the sacrament (confession), is really able to whiten, like a wave that seeks His soul, with His miraculous touch to kill the power of sin in the soul of a sinner, to give a soul exhausted by sin peace and strength. Here Christ “invisibly stands before confession” (through a “witness”) and forgives sin, and the Holy Spirit descends and purifies the soul of the penitent with His scorching fire.

But in order to be reborn in the sacrament of Penance, a person himself must prepare his rebirth. Without this, the sacrament cannot produce its effect on him.

“When approaching the good Physician,” writes St. Ephraim the Syrian, “the sinner, for his part, must bring tears—this is the best medicine. For this is what pleases the Heavenly Physician, that each one should heal himself with his own tears and be saved, and not involuntarily endure only salvation. Before proceeding to grace, a person must in advance voluntarily remove everything sinful from himself, must destroy the beginning of sin in himself (through repentance), so that grace can plant in him the beginning of a new life.

Heartfelt contrition and confession of one's sins create conditions for the rebirth of a person by the grace of God.

“And if the confessor is not sufficiently imbued with a repentant intention, and the confessor reads a permissive prayer over him, then what? “Then it may happen that when the spiritual father says: “I forgive and permit,” the Lord will say: “But I condemn” ”(St. Theophan the Recluse).

The help of God sent through the sacrament - grace - is a natural consequence of the mournful cry to God of the soul seeking salvation, and a firm determination not to sin, and not the result of a formal rite of confession; for the loving Lord is always close to man and constantly “thirsts, O Merciful One, for our salvation and stretches out to give forgiveness to those who seek Him diligently and work with love.”

THE PRIEST AS THE PERFORMER OF THE MYSTERY OF REPENTANCE

Confession is the test and test of pastoral love.“Confession for a priest,” writes the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, “is a feat of love for one’s spiritual children, love that does not look at faces, is long-suffering, merciful, not exalted, not proud, not seeking its own si (its own peace, self-interest), not irritated, enduring everything, falling away in no way.

Here it is revealed what kind of priest he is: a shepherd or a hired hand, a father or a stranger to his children.

“My God, how difficult it is to properly confess! - writes John of Kronstadt. - How many obstacles from the enemy! How grievously you sin before God by confessing inappropriately! How the word fails! How the source of the word is blocked in the heart! How language changes the mind! Oh, how much preparation is needed for confession! How much do you need to pray for the successful passage of this feat! “And what ignorance of spiritual children!.. They don’t know the Trinity, they don’t know who Christ is, they don’t know why they live on earth. And what about the falls?..” “Oh, what great love is needed for the souls of our neighbors, in order to worthily, without haste and without being upset, with patience to confess them.”

The love of a priest, or, what is the same, true zeal for the salvation of souls, is filled with patience, meekness, and firmness (in instruction). And the priest himself, who during confession is a judge and connoisseur of the morals and lives of others, must, as a man of God, succeed in good morals, piety and purity of life; his life should serve as an example of those virtues that he requires from the penitent. “A clean hand must be that which wants to wash away the impurities of others.” “The priest must first of all purify himself,” says Gregory the Theologian, “then purify others, come to God, and then lead others, be sanctified, and then sanctify, become light, and then enlighten others.” “If we have virtues,” writes John Chrysostom, “if we are meek, humble, merciful, pure, peacemakers, then we will attract those who look at us with this no less than with miracles, and everyone will voluntarily rush to us.” But if a priest puts on the guise of virtue, kindheartedly towards his flock, and at the same time hiding his wicked life, then his wickedness, always open before God, will not hide from people either. The soul of the shepherd is felt by the flock. Only what comes from the heart can have an impact on the heart. What priest can convince from the heart to leave sins when his heart is in slavery to sin?

Oh, how a priest should be established in virtue!

Countless temptations await him, both in life and in confession.

For it often happens to a Christian when he, who had previously rejected temptation with horror, ceases to be afraid of it, hearing and seeing many people who are subjected to the sin that attacks him in temptation. Of all the sins, the most likely infection is from sins against chastity, which the priest has to listen to at confession; and a great struggle lies ahead for the priest with all sorts of memories and evil thoughts. A priest must have unceasing sobriety over his feelings and purify his conscience by confessing as often as possible. A priest who neglects his own confession will never have the grace-filled power of teaching people repentance and confession.

Sobriety, cheerfulness and prayerfulness of the priest-confessor. Prayer is of great importance for growth in virtue.

The shepherd is a constant prayer book. Inner constant prayer is the condition of pastoral strength. With it, the shepherd is called to fan everyone who comes to him (invisible to this latter, but visible to God and to the angels rejoicing at this prayer, and tangible to the forces of evil, scorched by it). Then even his little word will be "with salt", convincing, regenerating. A true priest is a self-assembled person, unceasingly awake in prayer, salting the world with all his life, with all his words and deeds. A shepherd with spiritual content is a source of living water for souls who seek not abstract teachings on dogma or morality, but the revelation of the heavenly reality of faith.

What a priest-confessor should be, it is said in the Big Book of Treaties (ch. 12) “Foreword and legend, about what a spiritual father should be.” Here we read: “Accept human thoughts, you should be an image of the good of all, and a temperate, humble and virtuous, praying at every hour to God, that he would give him the word of reason, in order to correct those who flow to him. First of all (of everything) he himself must eat on Wednesday and the heels of the whole summer, as if the divine rules command: yes, he himself should have from them, and he commands others to create. But if he himself is ignorant, and intemperate, and voluptuary, what other virtues can he teach? But who is unreasonable can listen to him, speak about them, in vain is his liar and a drunkard, and teaching others not to get drunk, or to go through some other virtue, does he not create himself? Eyes about your ears more surely, says the Divine Scripture. Take heed of yourself, o confessor! Zane, if one sheep of negligence perishes for your sake, it will be found at your hands. Cursed be (the Scripture says [Jer. 48, 10]) the work of the Lord with carelessness.

Spiritual experience. The priest is responsible for the spiritual nourishment of the penitent. He explores the innermost bends of the soul, the secret movements and thoughts of the heart, considers all its deviations and through this he learns how deep spiritual ulcers are, reveals the beginning of illnesses (what is the main passion that a person fights), finds means for their spiritual healing and prescribes with complete certainty that what to do and what to avoid. To do this, it is imperative for a priest to acquire knowledge of his own heart and human nature in general, to acquire his own spiritual experience, as well as knowledge, by reading the Holy Scriptures, the writings and lives of the holy fathers and ascetics of the Church, etc.

It is a big mistake for a shepherd to think that everyone who goes to him for confession, thereby stands below him spiritually and, therefore, needs to be taught. There are confessions so repentant, deep, that the pastor is left with one thing: to thankfully, silently read the permission, learning the power of man's repentance and God's mercy to the human soul. After such confessions, a true shepherd always feels heavenly joy in his heart (Luke 15:7). But there are other confessions that are painful for a priest: the penitent has nothing to say; they are silent or say general phrases: “I have nothing special”, “sinful like everyone else”, “sinful in everything”, etc. subtly perceives the phenomena of spiritual life (which is incomprehensible to a soul standing on a lower stage of development). A cautious, attentive and reverent priest can do a great and wonderful thing with a person who has not recognized his sinfulness and his sins, who has not yet come to repentance. He can help the soul find its repentant depth. With the oil of love for the soul of the sick and hardened in sin, the priest, as an experienced doctor, can lead the sinner to the knowledge of his sinfulness and deep repentance for the sins committed, strengthen his determination to correct his life according to the commandments of Christ.

Is general confession allowed? The Spiritual Significance of Saying One's Sin at Confession. Many souls woke up from their sinful sleep during the moments of confession. But, of course, much more would have gone saved from the lectern if the shepherds, to whom they entrust their consciences, would give more attention, souls and hearts to this holy sacrament. For a priest, the sacrament of confession is often the only moment when he can speak to the human soul. But even this the priest deprives himself and the one who comes to repentance, as a result of the practice of performing the so-called “general confession”, which has become very widespread in our Church. Many of the laity (and many already priests) do not understand the full depth and spiritual significance of seeking out and confessing one's sin at confession. The sin that a person is “ashamed” to confess before a priest, undoubtedly, remains a thorn in the soul of a person; and in due time a person can again easily fall into this sin. In general confession, there is almost no such personal statement and confession of one's sins. A general confession is essentially just a type of sermon with a general enumeration of sins and the subsequent imposition on the head of each stole, with the reading of a permissive prayer. At best, the general confession now taking place in many places is only a good preparation for sincere repentance and the confession of one's personal sins to the priest at the lectern. General confession is permissible only in exceptional cases of a large influx of confessors, for example, during Great Lent, when it is physically impossible for a priest to confess everyone individually.

So, as a rule, confession should be individual, being preceded by a word of repentance to all who approach the sacrament. General confession for the most part wean the parishioners away from proper true repentance, awareness - "vision" of their sins, contrition for their sins. There is no hot shame about one's sin, loathing for one's sin, that deep spiritual break and rebirth, as is possible when revealing personal sinfulness in personal confession. And it happens that many parishioners leave a common confession without confession, that is, without bringing true repentance and without receiving, as a result, the forgiveness of sins...

All this places a huge responsibility on the priest. “It is difficult for everyone to be saved,” says John Chrysostom, “but most of all for priests, and I think that few priests are saved ...”

The priest needs constant alertness. The soul of even an initially zealous priest can be possessed by vices that especially hinder the correct and salvific fulfillment of the sacrament of Penance. On the way, every priest is waiting for the formation of a cold habit of everything holy, of all sacred rites and sacraments, of the coldness of the soul towards the salvation of the penitent. This is the state when, from a shepherd and spiritual father, he becomes a cold "reformer", a mercenary.

The coldness of the soul of the shepherd towards the salvation of the penitent is revealed in the fact that he considers the very time of confession to be difficult and boring and accepts the penitent with displeasure, hidden irritation; he hurries to release the penitents as soon as possible with some cold words of instruction, often beaten, memorized, asking questions himself and hastily answering them; grieving and upset, who would like to reveal their ailments and temptations in more detail and thus ease their hearts, he does not listen or hurries and lets go with cruel words, and much more.

And the priest-confessor can be seized by cowardice and discouragement. The confessor should not lose heart for fear of the difficulties that await him during the performance of the sacrament of Penance. “To save yourself from this decline and anxiety of the heart, you, priest, run with humble prayer to God, whose power is limitless, and who has chosen you for His great service; in His infinite wisdom and goodness, He will send you grace and help to worthy completion of this difficult service. Whoever trusts in the Lord God unexpectedly and miraculously receives help in the midst of great difficulties. If anyone seeks only God, he will find Him and with Him receive light and strength.”

Some remarks on confession. Bishops and priests lawfully appointed by them, who are not under prohibition, have the right to confess.

No priest has the right to refuse confession to an Orthodox Christian who is turning from sin (Apostolic Canon 52), especially in the case when it is necessary to immediately confess a sick person.

Confession of sins before a priest is usually preceded by the so-called fasting, which, according to the Rule, lasts a whole week. At this time, the fasting person must observe the established fast, intensify the feats of church and home prayer, try to curb passions and sinful habits, initiating the correction of life. Fasting is considered the predominant time for fasting and confession: in honor of Sts. apostles Peter and Paul, Dormition, Christmas and especially Great Lent. But this does not exclude the need for the practice of more frequent confession at other times, when the conscience requires purification through the sacrament of Penance.

It is impossible to approve of the practice when serving priests confess during the liturgy. The priest, having begun the liturgy, should no longer depart from the throne and be distracted. Confession should be made before the service, preferably in the evening. And as an exception, confession is allowed during the sacramental verse. Sometimes it is possible to confess, when there are many people, and 1-2 days in advance, and only permission to give on the day of communion.

Before proceeding to confession, the priest must arouse in himself the proper spiritual mood by prayer, by inner self-collection with reflection.

During confession, he must remain modest in everything; should not recklessly look into the face of a penitent, especially of the opposite sex; he must listen, and not look, so as not to confuse the penitents and not to be caught by an unclean thought himself. During confession, listening and asking, when exhorting, instructing and denouncing, the confessor must always invariably maintain extreme indulgence, meekness and pastoral love, befitting a disciple of Eternal Love, in whose name he performs the judgment of the sinner's conscience.

In confession, the priest must show great sensitivity and wisdom. You need to know what questions you can ask a penitent according to his spiritual state. One must be careful not to ask questions about sins that the person had no idea about (in particular, questions about sins against chastity).

The priest needs to know about the proper qualities of confession. The confession must be complete and detailed. The penitent must confess all the sins that he remembers and knows for himself. Confession should be distinguished by simplicity and humility. At confession, the penitent must reveal only his own sins, and not other people's; blame only yourself, and not others, without reducing your sins by circumstances or infirmity. Confession must be sincere, that is, be free from all sorts of twists and turns, deceit and pretense, and with a good intention to correct oneself, to blot out sins with sincere repentance.

About what the repentance of the penitent should be, it is also said in the “Exhortation before confession to the penitent” (see the Big Book of Treaties, ch. 13). It is highly desirable to convey its content in Russian to the penitent before confession. The Notice says:

“Beloved in the Soul, Holy child (name), goodness has come to holy repentance: for by that, as if you washed away the sins of your soul with a spiritual font, as if by heavenly medicine you will be healed from her deadly ulcers: just try to be broken in your heart about all your sins, and you To the Lord your God, I exist invisibly with us, before me, humble, the power of permission from Him to receive, truly confess, nothing and nothing, applying, but as you did, and remember, so confess ... Do not have the sin of tahiti and one, nor for the sake of shame ... Yes, do not conceal that for the sake of fear ... In confession, rebuke, and do not forgive you: your sins, and not aliens, open. Don’t tell me those who are in communion with you in sins ... Yes, confess your sins, not simply conversationally, but with heartfelt regret, and with a good intention to continue to be kept from those similar sins: without that, true repentance cannot be ... "

Confession is often incomplete or without true repentance. This may be the following reasons:

1) ignorance of the penitent, what is the essence of repentance, ignorance of the requirements of the law of God, and what sins are against it;

2) negligence of the one who came to confession about testing his conscience;

3) shame and shyness;

4) fear of penance;

5) persistence, bitterness and shamelessness;

6) lack of confidence that sin can be avoided.

The priest, having identified the cause, should, with meekness and love, explain and incline the penitent to sincere repentance, without fear, with full hope in the healing and strengthening grace of God.

To excite the faith and repent of sins, the Great Rib Book contains a very touching prayer canon to the Most Holy Theotokos in confession of a sinner (chap. 96), which should be recommended to be read for confessors in the evening rule for Communion.

SERVICE OF THE MYSTERY OF REPENTANCE

An essential part of the sacrament of Penance is CONFESSION, or verbal confession of sins. Confession is a necessary consequence and fruit of heartfelt contrition for sins and the intention to correct one's life. Since repentance and confession presuppose self-awareness and the ability to distinguish between good and evil, infants (under seven years of age), insane and demon-possessed, do not come to confession.

The rite of confession currently consists of two parts: preparation for confession by prayers of repentance and the very performance of it.

Before the start of confession, an lectern is placed before the icon of the Savior, on which the priest places the holy cross and the Gospel, to remind of the invisible presence of the Lord Himself. The penitents (or the penitent) stand near the lectern.

At the beginning of confession, the priest, standing at the lectern, reads common prayers of repentance for all confessors. Normal start:

Blessed be our God...

Trisagion according to our Father. Lord have mercy (12 times). Glory now:

Come and bow down (three times). 50th psalm.

And real penitential troparia: "Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us ...". Glory: "Lord, have mercy on us ...". And now: "Open the doors of Mercy for us...".

Also: Lord have mercy (40). After that, the priest reads two prayers for the penitent. (These prayers are read for everyone if there are many confessors).

The priest says: "Let us pray to the Lord."

And the first prayer for the penitent: "God, our Savior ...".

"Let's pray to the Lord."

And the second prayer: "Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God...".

In these preliminary prayers, the Church asks the Merciful Lord to have mercy on the penitents, accept their heartfelt repentance, forgive them all their sins and iniquities, remove from them the anathema and oath to which they fell due to weakness and negligence, free them from eternal torment and resolve the guilt that weighs on them and crimes.

After that, the priest says to the confessor (or confessors) an exhortation:

“Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession, do not be humiliated, be afraid below, and do not hide anything from me: but without hesitation (i.e., without fear, embarrassment) all the faces, you made the Christmas tree (or you did it) May you receive forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, His icon is before us, but I am just a witness, but I testify before Him all, tell me: if you hide something from me, it’s a sin to imash. Listen, then, because you came to the doctor’s clinic, but you didn’t leave unhealed. ”

After that, if there are many confessors, it is good to say a short word explaining the essence of confession and about the main sins against the commandments of God, (it is possible) adhering to the ten words or explaining about the eight deadly sins and their ramifications, but only in general terms, without going into details about sins , in accordance with the state of the penitents - their parishioners.

Then the priest proceeds to confession itself, which should be alone with every person, even if it is a minor.

Note.

Offering questions to the penitent in the form in which they are printed in the Treasury is optional. The priest must ask questions to the penitent, in accordance with the age, position and, in general, the moral state of his spiritual children.

The practice regarding the position of confessors at the lectern is different. In some places, confessors kneel before the lectern during confession. In other places, the confessor, standing, confesses his sins, humbly bowing his head under the stole.

Best of all in this regard is the custom observed in most of our Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, when the penitent confesses, standing in front of the lectern and looking reverently at the cross and the Gospel or at the icon.

The priest himself makes confession, standing at the lectern. In some places there is a custom for a priest to make confession while sitting (especially when there are many confessors), but the priest reads the permissive prayer while standing.

When the penitent before the priest finishes confessing all his sins, then the priest commands to bow to the ground (or bow his head) and reads a prayer: “Lord God of the salvation of Thy servants ...”, in which he asks the Lord to forgive the sins of the penitent, reconcile and unite him with the Holy Church. This prayer is of ancient origin and is permissive in the Eastern Churches. (This prayer, in the presence of a multitude of confessors, the priest reads the same for all of them after prayers of repentance and exhortation.) After confession (and the indicated prayer), the priest pronounces a permissive (perfect) prayer:

“THE LORD AND OUR GOD, JESUS ​​CHRIST, BY THE GRACE AND GENEROSITY OF HIS HUMANITY, FORGIVE YOU, CHILD (name), ALL YOUR CRINS, AND AZ UNWORTHING PRIEST, HIS AUTHORITY GIVEN TO ME, I FORGIVE AND ALLOW YOU FROM ALL YOUR SINS, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN".

Usually, when resolving from sins, the confessor covers the penitent with an epitrachelion, and saying the end of the prayer of permission, “marks the penitent with the right hand (head) of the cross” (Trebnik).

After that: "Worthy", "Glory and now" and let go. The laying on of an epitrachelion on the head of a confessor has the same meaning as the laying on of hands and the blessing of a bishop or presbyter, which was used in these cases in the ancient Church (see the Apostolic Decrees, St. Cyprian, etc.). Epitrachelion, covering the head of the penitent, also serves as a symbol of the grace of God, covering all his sins.

Having received the permission of sins, the confessor kisses the cross and the Gospel lying on the lectern. This, on the one hand, is a sign of his reconciliation with the Lord after the sacrament of Repentance, and on the other hand, a sign of confirmation that he sincerely confessed all sins and has the firm intention, if possible, to avoid the sins expressed at confession, to be a true follower of the gospel teachings of Jesus Christ and follow Him, bearing your life's cross.

EPITIMIA. THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

After the confession of sins, the priest sometimes gives the repentant a "canon against his sin," that is, imposes penance on him. (Usually penance is imposed at the end of confession, before the permissive prayer.)

Penance, according to the word production from the Greek language and according to the original meaning, is a prohibition (2 Cor. 2, 6-8), i.e. spiritual punishment, consisting in the prohibition to have communion with the Church. But since this punishment, according to the teaching of the apostle, should be dissolved by love for the sinner and combined with the thought of the danger from the devil for the sinner during his stay outside communion with the Church, the concept of penance includes an indication of the conditions under which the sinner can renew the violated peace with the Church and restore original communion with her. Therefore, penance in general is both a continuation of repentance and a fruit worthy of true repentance and confession of sins.

A more particular meaning of penance is that it is a spiritual medicine that destroys the desires of the flesh and soul that give rise to sin, and protects from those vicious deeds from which the penitent is cleansed; it is an excellent means of accustoming to spiritual exploits and patience, the fruit of which is virtue; finally, it is a guarantee for the Church itself that the penitent has come to hate sin, a condition without which communion with the Church is impossible.

Penance is not an unconditional necessity during confession and is appointed by a priest to a penitent only in certain cases, depending on the gravity of the sin, age, position, etc.

The Ribbon contains extracts from the Nomocanon on penances. The penances placed there testify to the fact that penitential discipline in antiquity and even in the 16th-17th centuries. stood at a great height. (So, for example, a free murderer was excluded from communion of the Holy Mysteries for 20 years, an adulterer - for 15 years, a fornicator - for 7 years, etc.).

At the present time, when there is no moral strength that made the ancient Christians steadfast in a long penitent feat and enduring in relation to moral and corrective measures, the ancient penances would be beyond our strength. Therefore, at present, prayer, almsgiving and other good deeds, the reading of akathists, the Psalter, daily additional prostrations with the Jesus Prayer, strict fasting for a certain period, and, finally, the postponement of the resolution of sins (especially in cases of stubborn impenitence) are usually given in the form of penance. and exclusion from communion for a certain time. The latter is given for especially grave sins. But even here it is usually necessary to show more compassion than severity (especially towards persons close to despair), leading the sinner to the consciousness of unworthiness to still receive the Holy Mysteries. However, there should be no excessive indulgence, because when the pastor will give permission for all, the most serious and mortal sins, and will be embarrassed in necessary cases to impose penances, then he will thereby contribute to the establishment among his flock of an easy look and at the most grave iniquity, which leads to a lukewarm attitude towards the demands of moral purity and holiness of life, insensitivity to the impregnable holiness of the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Above the one who has completed the penance, the “Prayer for what is permitted from the prohibition” is read, by which he is freed from the “bond that belongs to him” and is introduced into communion with the Church. According to church rules, no one else can resolve the forbidden, except for the one who forbade it, except in cases of death of the one who forbade, as well as the fatal illness of the penitent.

In the Great Rib Book there is a prayer for the permission of those who are excommunicated (ch. 49), for the permission of various bonds of conscience (ch. 46, 49-50).

THE RITE OF RECEPTION INTO THE ORTHODOX CHURCH THROUGH THE REPENTANCE OF CHRISTIANS OF OTHER Confessions And Those Who Have Fallen From the Faith

The sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, correctly performed, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, are not repeated. On this basis and in accordance with church rules (Council of Carthage, 68 Ave; Basil the Great, 1, 73, 8 Ave; Peter of Alexandria, 1-13 Ave; Sixth Ecumenical Council, 17 Ave), Christians of other confessions, correctly baptized and anointed, and Christians who have denied Christ, who have fallen away into Judaism or Mohammedanism, or schism, the Orthodox Church reunites through the sacrament of Penance. A cleric who has denied Christ, but repented, is accepted as a layman and can no longer be a cleric (in holy orders) after that - see the First Ecumenical Council, 10 Ave.; Apostolic Canon 62; Peter of Alexandria, 10 Ave.

The rite of receiving Christians of other confessions and those who have fallen into another faith consists in the fact that a person seeking communion with the Orthodox Church is first tested in the purity of his intention, instructed in the teachings of the Orthodox Church, confesses his sins, but does not receive permission.

He is then brought to the gates of the temple, where the Church greets him with the singing of the 33rd psalm. Here he publicly, kneeling down, confesses his repentance and desire for reunion. Then the Church, with the blessing and laying of the priest's hand on the head of the reunited, prays to the Lord to accept him into His verbal flock and adorn him with the glory of the most holy name of Christ, and gives a new or restores the former, but trampled, Christian name.

Then the reunited one, turning to the west, utters a renunciation of his former delusions, and turning to the east, combines with Christ, pronounces a confession of the Orthodox faith, accompanying him with an oath of the sincerity of his conversion.

Then he is led into the temple, which until now has been closed to him, while singing the 56th psalm, depicting hope in God's mercy. In the temple, kneeling before the Gospel, he listens to the penitential psalms: the 50th, 37th and 142nd and two prayers in which the Church prays to the Lord to kindle in him the spark of saving Baptism that lies in his soul, and, as a dead and acquired sheep, add it to the chosen flock.

Finally, the one who is reunited receives the permission of sins and, at the same time, the right to communion with the Church.

Note.

In the Big Trebnik (ch. 97 and 98) is placed "The Patriarch Methodius's follow-up on the rejection of various persons, and those who turn to the Orthodox true faith." This rank refers to those who have renounced (fell away) the Orthodox faith due to ignorance, at a young age or under fear of death, or out of their own evil will. The first and second are accepted with penance, while the latter are excommunicated from the Holy Mysteries, which is given to them only before death. A rite of washing is performed on those who turn (but not Baptism, which is not repeated) as a reminder of the purity of baptism lost through apostasy, then cleansing prayers are read. After that, over those who have fallen away who completely renounced Christ and confessed pagan godlessness, the rite of chrismation is performed, which serves not as a repetition of this sacrament, but as a sign that the grace that they lost through the rejection of Christ returns to those who have fallen away from the faith. This rank is now out of use in the Church. The reception of those who have fallen away is accomplished through repentance with penance.

The rite of joining a seduced into a schism is performed on the basis of the previous rank, but differs from it in greater brevity.

After preliminary preparation, announcement, denial of his delusions and combination with Christ, he is introduced into the temple while singing the 26th psalm, and here a prayer is read to him, kneeling, that the Lord kindle in him a spark of saving baptism. After reading the Creed (standing), the person joining kisses the Gospel and receives permission. At the same time, the same permissive prayer is used, which also allows other converting apostates from Christianity. After that, the adjoined confesses and partakes of the Holy Mysteries.

If the convert from schism is not chrismated or is anointed by schismatic priests, then after the rite of acceptance into the Orthodox Church is performed on him, he is anointed with holy chrism according to the order of those who are joined to Orthodoxy through chrismation, and after that he confesses and partakes of the Holy Mysteries at the liturgy.

The Bible prescribes: “a man or woman who has committed any sin ... let them confess their sin” (Numbers 5:6,7)

According to the faith of the Church, the repentant receives the forgiveness of sins from the Lord himself. The power to forgive sins, according to the doctrine, was given by the Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples (and through them to the Church): “Receive the Holy Spirit. To whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; upon whom you leave, on him they will remain” (John 20:22-23).

Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia - "repentance") means "change of mind", "change of thoughts".
In the early Christian communities, public confession was practiced, when the penitent revealed his sins to the whole church, and all the Christians present prayed for the penitent, and considered his sins to be their own. The penitents excommunicated from communion were not allowed into the church, but stood together with the catechumens in the porch, from which they were to leave before the beginning of the liturgy of the faithful. In the 4th century, Saint Basil the Great introduced secret penances for adulterous wives, who could be killed by their angry husbands.

Until the end of the 5th century, the Christian Church allowed both confession before the presbyter and public confession in the temple; By the end of the period of Ecumenical Councils (8th-9th centuries), public confession finally disappears and is replaced by a secret. In the X-XII centuries. in the Eastern Church, repentance and confession take those forms (clergy of monastic and secular confessors-priests and secret confession), in which they then exist for whole centuries, and exist to the present, with the right of the confessor to impose secret or open penance on those Christian sinners who had previously been subjected to public confession.

The Western Catholic Church, based on the opinion of Thomas Aquinas and a number of theologians, establishes a "seal of silence", unconditionally forbidding priests to speak to anyone about what the penitent has confessed to at confession. Article 21 of the 4th Lateran Council threatens for violating this rule with life imprisonment in a monastery of the "strictest" order.

In the Eastern Church, the secrecy of confession was strictly observed. The nomocanon at the breviary of 1662, forbidding the disclosure of the secret of confession, threatens the guilty person with the most severe punishment. The unconditionality of the secret of confession was shaken when the reign of Peter the Great was overshadowed by rebellions and he had to enter the court even with his own son. The "Spiritual Regulations" of that time, providing in three paragraphs of the "additions on the rules of the church clergy" a cruel punishment for revealing the secret of confession, in the other three paragraphs sanctioned the disclosure of the secret of confession in relation to those who, "inventing or pretending to have performed, divulge a false miracle" , and to those who intended a state crime, if they, "declaring intentional evil, show themselves that they do not repent, but set themselves in the truth and do not put off their intentions, they do not confess a sin."

The rite of confession that currently exists in the Russian Church (located in the Trebnik) has its source in the Greek rites developed in the 16th-17th centuries. The latter were greatly influenced by the most ancient order of secret confession called the Nomocanon of John the Faster, attributed to John, Patr. Constantinople, who lived in the VI century. (596). In the Russian Church in the XV-XVII centuries. the rite of confession existed in many diverse and very extensive editions, based on the rite of confession of John the Faster. In the 17th century was published by printing, first in Kyiv (1620), then in Moscow (1639 and 1658) a short rite of confession, which from the end of the 17th century (after the publication of 1685), after some additions (supplemented with penitential troparia, a permissive prayer from the Treasury of Peter The graves: "The Lord our God Jesus Christ" and an exhortation to the penitent) remains unchanged to our time.

The mystery of confession is one of the fundamental points of the priest's oath, which he takes before ordination. Theophan the Recluse has an interesting remark to confessing priests that on the lectern one should put a cross and the Gospel for the confessor, and a knife for the one who accepts confession. If he wants to tell someone something from the accepted confession, let him cut off his tongue.

Here is what the Rules of the Local Councils of the Holy Orthodox Church say with the interpretations of Bishop Nikodim (Milos) /147th Canon of the Local Council of Carthage/:

"Balsamon connects the decision of this rule with the case when a bishop or any confessor in general reveals someone's confessed to him, i.e. secretly said, sin, and recalls the decision of the Patriarch of Constantinople Luke (1156-1169) on this matter , with which the latter deprives the priesthood of the hegumen of the Giregray monastery, because he revealed the sin confessed to him by his spiritual son.

This rule, as well as the decision of the aforementioned patriarch, are given in the 120th rule of the Nomocanon at the Big Breb, and the following is also said: one, and let him make a hundred prostrations every day; but the civil law says, dig up the tongue behind the chintz.

The preservation of the secret revealed to the priest at confession (sigillum confessionis) is now an indispensable law for every priest ("The Book of the Offices of Parish Presbyters," § 109).

Some deviation from the unconditional secrecy of confession, with the exception of these cases, can be seen in the rule that before consecration to the priesthood, the confessor of a candidate who confessed to him in grave (mortal) sins is obliged to report to the bishop about the unworthiness of the candidate to be a priest, although without " nominal" enumeration of these sins. The words that, according to the breviary, should accompany the approach to confession in the Orthodox Church, serve as an expression of the mystery of repentance and a promise to keep it. “Behold, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession,” says the confessor to the penitent, “do not be afraid, be afraid below, and do not hide anything from me, but do not be afraid of all, but accept forgiveness from the Lord; but I am just a witness, but I testify everything before Him, speak to me." In accordance with this view of confession, the procedural laws of the most important states contain either a prohibition to ask a priest in court about what he has been entrusted with as a spiritual father, or else a provision for him to refuse to give such evidence.

In accordance with Part 7 of Art. 3 of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” “the secrecy of confession is protected by law. A clergyman cannot be held liable for refusing to testify due to circumstances that became known to him from confession. According to paragraph 4 of part 3 of Art. 56 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, a clergyman cannot be interrogated as a witness about the circumstances that became known to him from confession; a similar rule applies in civil proceedings (clause 3, part 3, article 69 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).

According to ecclesiastical canon law, a priest cannot violate the secrecy of confession under any circumstances. This is strictly prohibited by the 120th rule of the Nomocanon at the Big Ritual: for the discovery of the sin of the one who confessed, the spiritual father is prohibited from serving for three years, and every day he must make a hundred prostrations.

Hieromonk Josiah related the following story about the mystery of confession“After being tonsured into the mantle, I spent the prescribed time hopelessly in the temple. One night I left the church and saw that a fire was shining in the window of the cell of the elder Schema-Archimandrite Iliodor. He was ill at the time. Entering him, I saw him lying on a bunk with his hands up, obviously he was praying and, paying no attention to anything, he asked: “Is this you, child?”, Calling me by name. Going up to him, I bowed, and he, blessing me, said: “Ah, child! Now I saw a deceased confessor, he was detained in the ordeal for informing the rector of brotherly sins, revealed at confession. Probably, this confessor, due to cowardice, could not resist the questions of a curious rector, and for that he was subjected to such a misfortune. St. Demetrius of Rostov speaks of the mystery of confession: “That mystery of God is sealed with the seal of God himself, which is the Holy Spirit, and no one should remove that seal and reveal it to people ... If only a ruler or a civil court ordered, and nudma forced the priest, let him say what is the sin of his spiritual son, and if he would repel him with rebuke and torment and death, and convince him to express someone’s sin, then the priest must die, moreover, be crowned with a martyr’s crown, rather than remove the seal of confession, and the mystery of God into manifestation betray, expressing the sins of his spiritual son ... (for which) I will be executed by eternal death from God for the expression "( N.V. Maslov. Orthodox teaching about salvation according to the works of the Glinsk elders).

It is appropriate to add that no priest has the right to refuse confession to an Orthodox Christian who is turning from sin. (Apostolic Canon 52).

• What is confession
• Why do Orthodox confess?
• What are the rules of confession
• • Is it possible to hide some sin
  • What to say to a priest

What is the meaning of the Christian life? There can be many answers, but no one will argue that Orthodox Christians see the ultimate goal of earthly existence in eternal stay in paradise.

No one knows at what point a person's stay on earth can end, therefore, one should be ready every second for the transition to another world.

What is confession

The best way to get rid of sin is sincere repentance, when the thought of an unclean life becomes disgusting.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He, being faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8, 9).

The mystery of confession in Orthodoxy gives Christians the opportunity to leave all their sins and brings them closer to the Knowledge of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Humble prayer, frequent confession are the results of repentance, real contrition of the spirit, which takes place in a constant struggle with passions.

Christ and the sinner

Orthodox, who are constantly in prayer and repentance, bringing their bad deeds and thoughts to the altar of God's blood, are not afraid of death, for they know that their bad deeds are forgiven during confession.

Confession is a Sacrament during which, through a priest, as an intermediary, a person communicates with the Creator, renounces his sinful life in repentance and admitting himself a sinner.

Any, the smallest sin, can become a huge lock on the door of eternity. The repentant heart laid at the altar of God's love, the Creator holds in His hands, forgiving all sins, without the right to remember them, shortening earthly life and depriving them of eternal stay in paradise.

Bad deeds come from hell, a fallen person leads him into the existing world, acting as a guide.

A sincere confession of wrong deeds cannot be violent, only through ardent repentance, hatred for a perfect sin, dying for it and living in holiness, the Almighty opens His arms.

Forgiveness in Christianity

The mystery of confession in Orthodoxy guarantees that everything was said in front of the priest, who dies and does not leave the temple gates. There are no sins big and small, there are unrepentant sins, self-justification, alienating a person from accepting forgiveness. Through sincere repentance, a person comprehends the mystery of salvation.

Important! The holy fathers of the church forbid remembering sins confessed before God in sincere repentance, and forever abandoned by man.

Why do Orthodox confess?

Man consists of spirit, soul and body. Everyone knows that the body will turn to dust, but caring for bodily cleanliness occupies an important place in the life of Christians. The soul, which is to meet the Savior at the end of its life, also needs to be cleansed from sins.

Only the confession of sinful deeds, thoughts, words can wash away the dirt from the soul. The accumulation of impurities in the soul causes negative emotions:

• irritation;
• anger;
• depression
• apathy.

Often the Orthodox themselves cannot explain their behavior, they do not even suspect that unconfessed sins are the cause of everything.

The spiritual health of a person, a calm conscience directly depends on the frequency of confessing one's vicious inclinations.

Confession, accepted by God, is directly related, or rather, is the result of sincere repentance. A penitent person sincerely desires to live according to the commandments of the Lord, he is constantly critical of his errors and sins.

Confession in the Orthodox Church

According to St. Theophan the Recluse, repentance goes through four stages:

• recognize sin;
• plead guilty to the offense;
• make a decision to permanently break off their relationship with wrong actions or thoughts;
• tearfully pray to the Creator for forgiveness.

Important! Confession must be spoken aloud, for God knows what is written, but demons hear what is said in a voice.

In obedience, going to a frank opening of his heart, which takes place in the presence of a priest, a person first of all steps over his pride. Some believers claim that it is possible to confess directly in the presence of the Creator, but according to the laws of the Orthodox Russian Church, the Sacrament of confession is considered legal if it is perfect through an intercessor, prayer book and witness in one person, through a clergyman.

The main thing in confessing sins is not the rank of mediator, but the state of the heart of the sinner, his heartfelt contrition and complete rejection of the committed offense.

What are the rules of confession

People who wish to perform the Sacrament of Confession approach the priest before the Liturgy or during it, but always before the Sacrament of Communion. To sick people, by prior agreement, the priests go to the house.

According to the Church Charter, when purifying an Orthodox soul, there are no reservations about fasting or prayer rules, the main thing is that a Christian believes and sincerely repents. People who, before coming to the temple, spend time realizing and writing down their sins are doing the right thing, but these records should be left at home.

In front of a priest, as in front of a doctor, they talk about what hurts, torments, and papers are not needed for this.

The deadly sins include:

• pride, pride, vanity;
• love for mammon;
• fornication;
• desire for someone else's and envy;
• excessive pleasing of one's flesh;
• unbridled anger;
• a dull spirit that dries the bones.

Advice! It is not necessary for a priest to tell the story of a committed misconduct, the circumstances of its commission, to try to find an excuse for himself. What to say in confession should be considered at home, repenting of every little thing that disturbs the heart.

If this is an offense, before going to the temple, it is necessary to reconcile with the offender and forgive the offending person.

In the presence of a priest, one should name sins, say that I repent and acknowledge it. In confession, we bring repentant sin to the footstool of the great God and ask for forgiveness. Do not confuse a heart-to-heart conversation with a spiritual mentor and the Sacrament of Confession.

When consulting with a counselor, Christians can talk about their problems, ask for advice, and when confessing sins, they should speak clearly, clearly and briefly . God sees a repentant heart, He does not need verbosity.

The Church points to the sin of insensibility during confession, when a person has no fear of the Creator, is of little faith, but came to the temple, for everyone came so that the neighbors could see his “piety”.

Cold, mechanical confession without preparation and sincere repentance is considered invalid, it offends the Creator. You can find several priests, tell each one one bad deed, but not repent of a single one, “putting on” the sin of hypocrisy and deceit.

First confession and preparation for it

Having made the decision to confess, you should:

• clearly understand the importance of this event;
• feel full responsibility before the Almighty;
• repent of the perfect;
• forgive all debtors;
• be filled with faith for forgiveness;
• lay down all sins with deep repentance.

The first stand in petition and repentance will make you mentally “shovel” your life from the point of view of repentance, if the desire for repentance is sincere. At the same time, one should constantly pray, ask God to open the darkest corners of the soul, bring all bad deeds into the light of God.

sacrament of repentance

It is a mortal sin to come to confession, and then take communion, having unforgiveness in your soul. The Bible says that people who come to communion unworthily get sick and die. (1 Corinthians 11:27-30)

Holy Scripture states that God forgives any repentant sin, except for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 12:30-32)

If the committed atrocity is very great, then after confession before communion of the Blood of Jesus, the priest can appoint penance - a punishment in the form of many prostrations, many hours of canon readings, increased fasting and pilgrimage to holy places. It is impossible not to fulfill the penance, it can be canceled by the priest who imposed the punishment.

Important! After confession, they do not always receive communion, and it is impossible to receive Communion without confession.

Is it possible to hide some sin

Carnal sins live in every person, and some of them are shameful to talk about. Bad memories in the body of an Orthodox person are like a splinter that hurts all the time, and sometimes aches. There is no sin for which God will not accept repentance.

Hidden, the smallest, from the point of view of man, a sin closes the doors of God's grace.

There is such a picture, Jesus is standing at the door and knocking. An attentive viewer will see that there is no handle on the outside of the door. The doors to Jesus are opened by Christians themselves, having confessed their sins in repentance.

Christ is knocking at the door

Only pride and false shame, which is also related to pride, close the importance of complete trust in the Creator in His mercy and forgiveness. Righteous shame is born conscience, it is given by the Creator, a sincere Christian will always strive to clear his conscience as soon as possible.

What to say to a priest

When going to confession for the first time, one should remember that the meeting ahead is not with a clergyman, but with the Creator Himself.

Cleansing your soul and heart from the sinful heritage, you should confess your guilt in contrition, humility and reverence, while not touching on the sins of other people. They themselves will give an answer to the Creator. It is necessary to confess in firm faith that Jesus came in order to save and wash with His blood from the sinful deeds and thoughts of His children.

Opening your heart to God, you need to repent not only of obvious sins, but of those good deeds that could be done for people, the church, the Savior, but did not.

Carelessness in a trusted cause is an abomination before God.

Jesus, by His earthly death, proved that the path of purification is open to all, promising the thief, who recognized Him as God, the Kingdom of Heaven.

God does not look at the number of bad deeds on the day of confession, He sees a repentant heart.

A sign of forgiveness of sin will be a special peace in the heart, peace. At this time, the angels sing to Heaven, rejoicing in the salvation of another soul.

How to prepare for confession? Archpriest John Pelipenko