The rite of communion in the Orthodox Church. How to prepare for confession and communion? How to confess for the first time? Priests Andrei Tkachev and Andrei Konanos answer
Confession is one of the most important church sacraments, during which Christians repent for their sins. Confession takes place in the presence of a priest, however, all sins are resolved by God himself.
Confession is of great importance for any Orthodox Christian, since repentance and atonement for sins are the work of his whole life. Without it, the laity are not allowed to the Sacrament of the Eucharist (communion) and cannot partake of the Holy Gifts.
What is confession and why is it needed
The Holy Fathers teach that sin is the main barrier between man and God. And this barrier is so huge that people are not able to overcome it on their own. It is possible to cope with it only with God's help, but for this a person must first acknowledge his sin and repent of it.
Just to get rid of sin and there is the sacrament of confession. When our body is infected with a dangerous virus, we usually go to the hospital for a cure. However, sin is the same deadly virus, only it affects not the body, but the soul. And in order to recover from it, a person needs the help of the church.
The sacrament of repentance is often compared to baptism. During the baptism of new converts, a Christian gets rid of original sin inherited from our forefathers - Adam and Eve. Confession, on the other hand, helps to get rid of those sins that were committed after baptism and by the person himself personally.
Typically, for a Christian, repentance consists of three stages:
- Repent immediately after sin.
- Ask God for forgiveness in the evening, before going to bed.
- Go to confession, during which the Lord will finally resolve this sin.
You can also confess if your heart is heavy or your conscience is tormenting. And here the sacrament of repentance plays the role of an ambulance, as it helps to get rid of the suffering caused by sin and restore lost mental health.
It is very important to learn to ask for forgiveness from those whom we have offended. But even more important is repentance before God, since we have much more sins before Him than before any of the people.
Many people ask why it is necessary to go to church and confess in the presence of a priest. Is it not enough that we ask God for forgiveness, that our conscience torments us, and we repent of our deeds?
No, not enough. Usually priests give this explanation: if a person, for example, gets dirty, he will not become clean just because he realized his dirt and was ashamed of it. For purification, he needs some external source of water in which he can bathe. The Holy Church plays the role of such a source for a Christian.
However, it is important to remember that confession is not only repentance and deliverance from sin. It is also a firm determination not to repeat sinful acts anymore and to bring your life into real conformity with Christian teaching.
How is the sacrament
Unlike other sacraments Confession does not require the observance of a large number of rituals. For its implementation, neither long fasts, nor any special conditions, nor certain days are needed. The sacrament of repentance can be performed anytime and anywhere: it requires only complete repentance and the presence of a priest. Any member of the Orthodox Church from 7 years of age and older can confess.
In the temple itself, this sacrament can be performed at different hours:
- After evening worship.
- In the morning, just before the liturgy.
- During the liturgy itself, before communion.
If there are too many people in the church, you can arrange with the priest for another time. Confession begins with a priestly prayer and an appeal to the penitent (“Behold a child, Christ…”). Then the priest covers the head of the penitent with an epitrachelion (optional), asks what his name is and what he wants to confess.
During confession, the priest can ask clarifying questions, give instructions or advice. In some cases, he imposes penance, that is, it orders certain actions aimed at atonement for sin. For example, if a penitent stole something, he may be asked to return the stolen goods or compensate for the damage. However, penance is prescribed quite rarely.
When the confession ends, the priest puts the edge of the stole on the person’s head and says a permissive prayer. After that, the parishioner kisses the Gospel and the cross, which lie on the lectern, and asks the priest for blessings.
It is necessary to confess at least before each communion. And a churched Christian should take communion from once a day to once every three weeks. There is no maximum for the number of confessions.
How to Prepare for the Sacrament of Penance
Preparation for confession comes down to a thorough analysis of all your actions, words and thoughts. However, they must be considered not from the point of view of man, but from the point of view of God's commandments.
Such introspection requires a person to be extremely honest with himself. In truthfully evaluating his deeds, a Christian must cast aside pride and false shame, since these shortcomings force us to remain silent about our sins and even justify them.
Preparing for Repentance Requires the Right Attitude. It is necessary not just to mechanically remember everyday sins, but with all your heart to strive to ensure that they are left behind. It is also desirable to first make peace with those before whom we have sinned, and ask their forgiveness.
In order not to forget about your sins, you can write them down on a piece of paper. No need to create a detailed bureaucratic report - just an approximate "cheat sheet" will suffice. It will help you quickly refresh your memory before confession and not forget anything.
If you are afraid to miss something important, use the special lists of sins for confession. In Orthodoxy, they play the role of a kind of “checklist” and allow us to notice what we, for some reason, did not pay attention to. This is the Pochaev Leaflet, which helps to remember sins at confession, lists for women, men, children and adolescents.
However, at the confession itself, no lists and texts should be used. It is better to speak in your own words and from a pure heart , and reading from a piece of paper can turn the sacrament into an empty formality.
Another way to remember forgotten sins - consider them by type:
- Sins against God: unbelief, lack of faith, pride, breaking the commandments, mentioning the Lord in vain, turning to psychics, not attending church, and the like.
- Sins against neighbor: theft, slander, gossip, resentment and betrayal.
- Sins against oneself: gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, smoking, despondency and other deeds that destroy the body and soul.
Often Christians only remember what happened after the last confession. But to this it is necessary to add those actions that we kept silent about last time because of shame or forgetfulness. Also at confession, you can talk about those sins that we confessed last time without proper repentance.
Some people ask: is it permissible to confess the same sin repeatedly? In principle, this is allowed, since the memory of past sins strengthens a person in humility. However, it is not necessary to do so if repentance was truly sincere.
It is better to find out about the time of the Sacrament of Penance in advance. If there are many people who want to confess on this day, it is better to arrange a separate meeting with the priest.
How to prepare for your very first confession
The very first confession in the life of a Christian is called the general confession. It is necessary to prepare for it especially carefully, since it is it that washes away the most old and ingrained dirt from our souls. It is customary to remember all your sins on it, and not only adults, but also children (starting from the age of six).
Before such a confession, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with Christian literature on this topic. But before buying books or downloading them from the Internet, you should definitely consult with your confessor. The fact is that some books on repentance may be too difficult for a layman, and some are of dubious origin and written by sectarians.
If your church is large and many people gather for Sunday service, general confession can be held in it. In this case, the priest simply lists the main sins, and the parishioners repeat after him. But such a short form of confession is not suitable for the first time, so it is better to visit the temple on a weekday, when there are usually few people in it.
Immediately before the sacrament, you must definitely tell the priest that you are at confession for the first time. In this case, he will prompt you and direct the confession in the “right direction”, and then tell you what to do next.
How to confess properly
The main rule of confession is this: all actions must be as sincere as possible. During the sacrament, formalism must be avoided by all means so as not to turn it into a ritual “for show”. Here, sincerity is more important than following external prescriptions.
Dressing for confession is the same as for regular church attendance. Men should wear long pants and a shirt that covers the elbows. For a woman - a long skirt and clothes that cover the shoulders and décolleté. Going to church, you can not use cosmetics, especially lipstick. A woman must have a headscarf on her head.
Arriving at the temple, you need to stand in line for confession. At the same time, it is necessary to keep a certain distance from the others so as not to disturb anyone and not to hear other people's repentant words.
Having waited for your turn, you need to go to the lectern (the table where the cross and the Gospel lie) and bow your head. You can also kneel, but it is not necessary at all. Remember that kneeling prayer is canceled on Sundays, on great holidays and in the period from Easter to Trinity.
At confession, it is customary to talk not only about individual sinful deeds, but also about pernicious passions inherent in a person. For example, if a penitent is characterized by the love of money, then specific manifestations of greed or stinginess will be sins for him.
If you are unfamiliar with the church names of sins and passions, then simply retell everything in your own words. It is necessary to name only the sin itself, briefly and without unnecessary details. If necessary, the priest himself will clarify everything.
If the Lord sees sincere repentance, he will forgive all sins, even those that we ourselves have forgotten. However, it is impossible to deliberately hide sins, because in this case there will be no forgiveness.
How exactly do you talk about your sins? Here are some recommendations that priests usually give:
- Do not approach confession formally. This is not a rite of "enumeration of sins": sincere repentance is more important here.
- Avoid "blanks", that is, pre-memorized phrases and expressions. The best words are those that come from a pure heart.
- Do not make excuses and do not shift your sins onto others, because in this case the meaning of repentance itself disappears.
- Don't just talk about your life. The purpose of confession is not to pour out the soul, but to get rid of the burden of sin.
- Crying during confession is normal, but you don’t need to do it on purpose and for show.
And most importantly: it is necessary to remember that in fact all sins are confessed before God. The priest only performs the duty of a witness and intercessor before Him.
During the confession, the priest can sometimes ask or clarify something. In this case, you just need to calmly answer all the questions. And vice versa, if something from the instructions of the priest remains incomprehensible, then ask him to explain.
After the priest has listened to the confession and is convinced of the sincerity of the person, he covers his head with the edge of the stole and reads a permissive prayer. After it, you need to cross yourself and kiss the cross and the Gospel.
Immediately after confession, a blessing is taken from the priest. To do this, fold your hands palms up and place your right palm on your left. Then you need to bow your head and say: "Bless, father." The priest will make a blessing sign and place his palm on his folded arms. The priest should put his mouth to the hand as to the image of the blessing right hand of the Lord.
If you plan to take communion, you should also take a blessing for this. You can simply ask: “Batiushka, do you bless me to take communion?” In this case, the priest can clarify the observance of the fasts and prayers required for the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
What to do after confession
The very first thing to do is to thank the Lord for the forgiveness of sins. Unfortunately, some people forget about it. But this is His great gift, thanks to which the human soul is cleansed of filth.
You also need to make a firm decision to change your life. It is not enough to simply confess a sin before God: one must try never to repeat such a thing again in the future. It is important to remember that for a Christian, repentance and the fight against sin is a life's work that never ends.
With sincere repentance at confession, all sins are forgiven. But this does not mean that you can immediately forget about them. No, the sins committed earlier should always be remembered, for this is necessary for us to humble ourselves and to protect ourselves from possible falls in the future.
If you confess regularly enough, then over time it becomes difficult to remember your sins. But this does not mean that they do not exist: they simply begin to “hide” from us. In this case, you can ask the Lord to give us a vision of our own sins.
The priest often has to, at the lectern with the Cross and the Gospel, not to accept the confession of the penitents, but to listen to speeches of self-justification and condemnation of neighbors (relatives, employees, neighbors, etc.). This happens partly because the Orthodox do not understand the meaning of the sacrament of Confession, partly because unwillingness to talk with your conscience, to bring out the filth of sin and wash it with repentance.
Confession- this is not a conversation about your shortcomings, doubts, and not a story to the confessor about your life. Confession is the repentance of the heart, born of the thirst for cleansing from the filth of sin. We come to confession with the intention of receiving forgiveness of sins from the Lord God through a priest. So know that your confession can be empty, fruitless, invalid, and even offensive to the Lord, if you go to confession without any preparation, without examining your conscience, hide your sins for shame or some other reason, confess formally, coldly, mechanically, without having a firm intention to improve.
Here is what you need to do in preparation for the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist (Communion):
3 days - post(excluded food of animal origin, abstinence from entertainment).
Do the following prayer rule:
- MORNING PRAYERS
- PRAYERS FOR THE COMING SLEEP
CANONS:
- REPENTENT TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
- PRAYER TO THE Blessed Mother of God
- TO THE GUARDIAN ANGEL
According to the book EXPERIENCE OF BUILDING A CONFESSION, make a confession on paper.
On the days of preparation for confession, one should attend worship in the temple, read the GOSPEL.
PRAYERS FOR THE COMING SLEEP
CANON FOR HOLY COMMUNICATION.
After midnight, they no longer eat or drink, for it is customary to start the MYSTERY OF COMMUNICATION on an empty stomach (no smoking).
Read in the morning:
MORNING PRAYERS
FOLLOWING TO HOLY COMMUNICATION, except for the canon read the day before.
At the end of the service, you need to hurry home, read the GRATITUDE PRAYERS FOR HOLY COMMUNICATION and spend the rest of the day reading spiritual books and helping others, protecting yourself from empty talk and entertainment.
Prayer book
"Experience in building a confession". I. Krestyankin.
New Testament
communion- mysterious, incomprehensible to the mind, the deepest and closest connection with God possible for a person through the tasting of the greatest shrine - the Eucharistic Gifts, Bread and Wine - the true Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is necessary to approach this most holy Sacrament, if possible, monthly, but by no means less than 4 times a year. It must be carefully prepared for, so that Communion is not a judgment or a condemnation.
When preparing for communion, be sure to reconcile with everyone with whom you had a conflict or quarrel. Communion in enmity is a grave sin.
On the eve of the day of communion, you must attend the evening service. This is an indispensable condition for preparing for the sacrament of Communion.
The sacrament of Communion must necessarily be preceded by the sacrament of Confession.
The communicant must have a pectoral cross.
One should approach the holy Chalice with reverence, without pushing anyone, realizing one's unworthiness. Place your hands on your chest crosswise, right to left. Don't be baptized before the Chalice . give your full name given at baptism. Take care of St. Dara, kiss the edge of the Chalice and calmly move away. Gifts immediately, if necessary, chew and swallow. Then drink the Gifts with “warmth” and eat a piece of prosphora.
Usually people who are inexperienced in spiritual life do not see either the multiplicity of their sins or their heinousness - "I did not do anything special, I have only minor sins, like everyone else - I did not steal, I did not kill." What about self-love? Intolerance of reproaches? Callousness? Human pleasing, weakness of faith, lack of love for one's neighbor? Are these all minor sins? Let's take a closer look at ourselves, remember what our relatives and friends usually reproach us for. Very often their accusations and reproaches are justified. Have we achieved meekness, without anger, humility? Do we love each person as commanded by the Savior?
Knowing your sins does not mean repenting of them. True, the Lord accepts confession: sincere and conscientious, even if it is not accompanied by a strong feeling of repentance, even if this sin of ours is a petrified insensitivity of the heart, we confess courageously and frankly, without hypocrisy. And yet, contrition of heart, sorrow for our sins is the most important thing that we can bring to confession. To soften our hearts and sharpen our feelings of repentance, we need prayerful preparations for confession and fasting. Fasting violates bodily well-being and complacency that is disastrous for spiritual life, loosens the soil of our heart, which after that will be able to absorb prayer, the word of God, the lives of saints, the creations of the Holy Fathers, and this, in turn, will give us strength to fight sin and do good deeds. .
You don’t need to wait for questions during confession, you need to make efforts yourself, because confession is a feat and self-compulsion. It is necessary to speak precisely, without obscuring the ugliness of sin with general expressions. It is necessary to abandon attempts to justify oneself by “extenuating circumstances”, to abandon references to others who allegedly led one into sin. Confession must be complete, that is, we must confess all our sins, without hiding anything and not postponing “for later”. Unrepentant sins constantly burden the soul and prepare for it eternal condemnation. One should be ashamed to commit a sin, and not repent of it. Do not dare to think that your sins are so great that it is not worth repenting. Who accepts our repentance? Who heals our sinful ulcers? Almighty God. Almighty Physician! And as such, He makes forgiveness possible for all the most grievous sins.
It is wrong to think that after confessing our many sins, the priest will neglect us as sinners. On the contrary, any priest rejoices at the sincere repentance of a sinner, as a good shepherd rejoices at finding a lost sheep. Knowing our ailments, he is more likely to be able to help us, to indicate the way of healing from our sinful ulcers.
It is necessary to confess as often as possible, the intervals between confessions should be filled with an internal struggle with sinful temptations, efforts towards a righteous life, reinforced by the previous confession, expectation and preparation for the next one.
The list of the most common spiritual diseases, sins, evil habits, passions:
This list is given so that those preparing for confession can take a deeper look at themselves, more precisely find expressions, names of their illnesses. It is useful at the same time to draw up a rough plan for yourself - what sins to confess, so as not to forget later in confession; but it will be necessary not only to read the paper about your ulcers, but with a sense of guilt and repentance to open them before God, take them out of your soul like nasty snakes and get rid of them with a feeling of disgust.
LITTLE BELIEVE. Doubt in the omnipotence and mercy of the Creator. Thanksgiving to God for everything that happens to us. Attributing successes to oneself and grumbling for failures against God. A look at Orthodoxy as a national tradition, a set of external rites. The discrepancy between our words and deeds in the temple and outside the church fence.
SUPERSTITIOUS AND HERESY. Belief in signs, dreams, horoscopes, astrological forecasts. Seeking help from intermediaries of demonic power - occultists, psychics, bioenergetics, non-contact masseurs, hypnotists, traditional healers, sorcerers, soothsayers, healers, fortune-tellers, astrologers, parapsychologists, scientologists. Watching and listening to TV and radio programs with their participation, reading occult literature. (“White” sorcerers and healers does not exist. Even if they read prayers, hang icons on the stage and assure them of their love for the Church, don't believe it! According to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, these are wolves in sheep's clothing). Participation in sessions of coding, removal of "damage and evil eye", spiritualism. Contact with UFOs and "higher mind". Connection to "cosmic energies". The study of theosophy, martial arts and religious cults, yoga, meditation, dousing according to the system of Porfiry Ivanov. The study of the "living ethics" of the Roerichs, Dianetics and Scientology (Hubbard's teaching) and participation in sessions of auditing and Dr.
Attendance at speeches by Protestant preachers, participation in meetings of Baptists, Evangelists, Adventists, Pentecostals (charismatics), “Word of Life Church”, Moonies (“Unification Church”), “Jehovah’s Witnesses”, “Mother of God Center”, “White Brotherhood” and others non-Orthodox religious organizations. Watching and listening to TV and radio programs with their participation. Participation in non-Orthodox services, acceptance of baptism by sectarians. Attending services and participating in the Sacraments of schismatics, many of whom call themselves Orthodox, but are not in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church: Old Believers, Uniates (Greek Catholics) and others (“Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate”, “Free Orthodox Church ”, “True Orthodox Church”, etc.). Agitation and dissemination of the ideas of the mentioned sects, "churches" and organizations. one
blasphemy and blasphemy. Murmuring against God for suffering that seems undeserved to us. Irreverent attitude towards God, church shrines, Sacraments. Disrespect for the clergy. The mention of the name of God or the Most Holy Theotokos in vain (in everyday conversations as interjections: “Oh, you, Lord!”, “God is with him”, “All we have is not glory to God”, etc.). The mention of sacred words in jest, in anger, along with insults. Prayer for the punishment of another person. It is also sinful to threaten your enemies with the wrath of the Lord. Invocation of evil spirits in anger or simple conversation (swearing). The use of swear words.
SILENTNESS. Disregard for church service. Not attending church on Sundays and public holidays. Being late for a church service due to negligence and leaving the church before the end of the service. Inattention and distraction at home and church prayer. Conversations during worship. Infrequent confession and communion without proper preparation. Lack of understanding of the meaning of the sacraments performed and lack of interest in this knowledge. Failure to fulfill the morning and evening prayer rules. Failure to perform prayer before and after meals.
PRIDE AND VANITY. self-love. A high opinion of oneself, of one's imaginary virtues. Arrogance, loss of simplicity. Willfulness, disobedience. Self-justification, condemnation of one's neighbor. Desire to teach and save others. Seeking fame, praise from people. Unequal attitude towards others (personality). The creation of good deeds, almsgiving and prayer in plain sight, to show people (hypocrisy). Humanity, cunning, flattery. Anger, irritability. Hot temper, rudeness. Selfishness. Envy. Stubbornness.
SPIRITUAL CHARM. Opinion about one's chosenness, veneration of oneself worthy and having achieved special spiritual perfection. Taking dreams as divine "revelations". Confidence in the waking phenomena of visions and signs.
DESCRIPTION. The fading of love for others, indifference to the suffering of others, the inability to rejoice in the joy of others. Doubt in the possibility of forgiveness of their sins. Waste of time, "killing time". Laziness. Excessive sleep. Television omnivorous. Reading empty books.
CELEBRATION. Empty, useless conversations. Gossip, retelling rumors. Love for controversy. Empty laughter, jokes, witticisms.
FALSE. Misleading one's neighbor by word, deed, or silence. Failure to fulfill these promises. Gossip, fiction and exaggeration in idle talk. Slander. Bold reasoning about obscure things. Jokes based on deceit.
LOVE OF MONEY. Predilection for money, things, for all kinds of material goods, manifested both in the form of extravagance, and in the opposite form - stinginess. Desire for wealth. Envy. Unmercifulness, contempt for the poor. Excessive concern for one's well-being and fear of losing it. Gambling.
THEFT. Misappropriation of another's property (private or public). Failure to return money debts or things given for a while. Parasitism, begging without extreme necessity. Causing damage to the property of a neighbor. Taking payment for one's own work in excess of what is due (extortion).
GLUTTONY. Attitude to food as a source of pleasure. Consolidation. Drunkenness. Smoking. Non-observance of fasts (multi-day fasts - Great, Petrov, Assumption and Christmas (Filippov), one-day fasts - on Wednesdays and Fridays, and on special days established by the Church). Eating from boredom, from despondency, from idleness. Dissatisfaction with food.
fornication. Fornication (unconsecrated by the sacrament of Marriage, the carnal relationship of a single man and an unmarried woman). Adultery (adultery). Incest. Sodomy, bestiality, masturbation. Viewing seductive spectacles, dissolute films, paintings, books. Seductive talk, obscene stories. Wicked dreams. Intemperance in married life on fasting days.
MURDER. Taking the life of another person. Suicide attempt. Abortion (equivalent to murder). Assault, beatings, wounds, mutilations. Inciting to fight, pitting people with gossip, slander, slander. Failure to help the sick, dying, homeless, hungry, drowning before your eyes, beaten or robbed, injured by fire or flood. Killing animals needlessly, torturing them. Not raising children in the Orthodox faith. A cruel word, abuse, mockery, mockery of someone else's grief.
CONFESSION AND PARTICIPATION
How to prepare for them
With the blessing of His Grace Sergius, Bishop of Novosibirsk and Berdsk
Sacrament of Confession………………….3
Sins against God…………………………4
Sins against neighbors………………….. 5
Sins against oneself …………………………6
How to Prepare for Confession …………………………6
How to prepare children for confession ………………………… 7
How confession takes place…………………………………. ten
How to prepare for the sacrament ………………………… 12
Sacrament of Communion ……………………………………….. 14
Sacrament of 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 will be loosed in heaven” (Gospel of Matthew, ch. 18, verse 18). And in another place: “Receive the Holy Spirit: to whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; on whom you leave, on that they will remain ”(Gospel of John, ch. 20, verses 22-23). The apostles, on the other hand, 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.
Sins against God
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-reliance, human-reliance, 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.
Sins against neighbors
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 by 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.
Sins against oneself
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).
How to Prepare for Confession
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 leaflet with the listed sins is given to the confessor to read, 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.
How to Prepare Children for Confession
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 in the child with the preparation for Communion ), follow their prayer in the morning and at 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 you guess, didn't 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 handicrafts?
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.
How is confession
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 the confession of sins and the reading of the permissive prayer 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.
How to Prepare for Communion
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.
Sacrament of Communion
Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ is a Sacrament established by the Savior Himself during the Last Supper: “Jesus took bread and, having blessed, 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 performed - 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, are united 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.
Confession. Participle. How to properly prepare for them?
Sins mourned, confessed and resolved, are no longer in us, or not on us. They, too, are like branches cut off from a tree: when they loved sins, they were living branches on the tree of our life and ate from it; when we turned away from them, began to vilify them, repented and confessed, by this action we cut them off from ourselves. In the moment of permission, they fell away from us. Now these are dry branches, and the Lord is coming to burn these thorns of sins into us. Through the forgiveness of sins, He prepares for Himself in us a dwelling worthy of Himself. How to prepare for confession and communion?
He told the Lord sins with contrition of heart - and they melted away; sighed, regretted the sins - and there are none. Say your iniquity, but be justified . They come and go like mirages, like an idle dream. He realized that they were a dream, absurdity, madness, he had the intention to continue to behave properly - and God cleansed them through His servant and St. Sacraments.
Confession(repentance) - one of the seven Christian Sacraments, in which the penitent, confessing his sins before the 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). And in another place: “Receive the Holy Spirit: to whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; on whom you leave, on that they will remain ”(Gospel of John, ch. 20, verses 22-23).
The apostles, on the other hand, 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 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 must:
- awareness of one's sinfulness, sincere heartfelt repentance for one's sins,
- the desire to leave sin and not repeat it, faith in Jesus Christ and hope for His mercy,
- the belief that the Sacrament of Confession has the power to cleanse and wash away, through the prayer of the 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, one hears from many: “I don’t kill, I don’t steal, I don’t 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.
And so, whoever wants to receive the forgiveness of sins at confession, the following is required:
1. You must be an Orthodox Christian who has received the sacrament of Baptism from a legal priest (those baptized by grandmothers or someone else must resolve this issue with the priest). We must firmly believe and accept the Revelation of God given to the Church - the Holy Scriptures. Its essence is summarized in the Creed, which we must know by heart. An explanation of our faith can be found in the Catechism book. It is always in the church shop or library.
2. You need to remember (and if you need to write down) your evil deeds, starting from the age of 7 (or from the moment of Baptism - who was baptized as an adult) and admit that only you are to blame for all these bad deeds, and no one else. Huge evil is done by those who, in confession, talk about other people's sins, justifying themselves.
3. You must promise God that with His help you will make every effort not to repeat the sin, but to do the opposite good deed.
4. If sin has resulted in damage to one's neighbor, even before confession one must make every effort to make amends for this harm (give back what was stolen, reconcile with the offended, etc.).
5. It is necessary for the sake of the blood of Christ to forgive all insults, all people, then God will forgive us our sin.
After that, you should go to the priest for confession (preferably during the evening part of the service) and without hiding tell all your evil deeds, which Christ through the priest will forgive the repentant. Do not be afraid that the priest will be shocked by your confession. During the service, each pastor hears almost every conceivable sin. You won’t surprise him or upset him with anything, except for trying to shift the blame on someone else.
It must be remembered that confession remains only between God, the priest and you, and when a person has confessed, repented, then after a prayer of permissiveness, sins are cut off and will no longer captivate the soul. To make it easier to prepare, here is a short list of sins that must be fought mercilessly, in accordance with the 10 Commandments of God:
1. I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me.. Sins: godlessness, false teachings, communism, magic, going to grandmothers and healers, astrology (including reading horoscopes), participation in sects, pride, boasting, careerism, arrogance, pride.
2. Do not make yourself an idol, do not worship and do not serve them. Sins: idolatry, evocation of spirits, worship of the "stars", divination, human pleasing, excessive attachment to someone or something, greed.
3.Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Sins: blasphemy, mockery of the shrine, obscenity, swearing, violation of the promise given to God, swearing, careless application of the sign of the cross.
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; work six days, and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Sins: neglect of worship, work on holidays, parasitism, breaking the fast.
5. Honor your father and your mother. Sins: insulting parents, not honoring them and not commemorating them at prayers, swearing at the priesthood and authorities, not respecting elders and teachers, not inviting a priest to visit relatives before death.
6. Dont kill. Sins: murder, abortion, fights, hatred, resentment, rancor, anger, swearing, irritability.
7. Don't commit adultery. Sins: adultery, sex outside of marriage, perversion.
8. Don't steal. Sins: theft, robbery, fraud, usury, avarice.
9. Don't bear false witness. Sins: perjury, lies, slander, gossip, betrayal, deceit.
10. don't want someone else. Sins: envy, dissatisfaction with one's position, grumbling.
If you have repented of these sins, then you must prepare for the greatest miracle of Holy Communion, when, under the guise of bread and wine, the faithful partake of the Body and Blood of Christ for cleansing from sins and eternal life. Communion is celebrated in the morning during the Sacrament of the Divine Liturgy. In order to worthily receive communion, one must prepare oneself by fasting and prayer - read "The Rule for Holy Communion", which is in the Orthodox prayer book.
While fasting, they do not eat eggs, meat and dairy products, they keep a peaceful mood, they read the Gospel more than usual. On the day of communion, nothing is eaten or drunk from midnight. It is best to confess during the All-Night Vigil, then, having come to the temple in the morning, having prayed at the Divine Liturgy, they reverently approach St. Chalice. At the end of the Liturgy, they approach the cross, thank God and go out into the world to bring light and do good deeds.
IF YOUR CONFESSION IS THE FIRST IN YOUR LIFE, YOU NEED TO SAY THIS TO THE PRIEST.
Memo to a Christian who wants to approach the Holy Chalice
An Orthodox Christian who wishes to partake of the Holy Sacrament of Communion must remember that in order for Communion to the Lord not to be “for judgment and condemnation”, a Christian must fulfill a number of essential and disciplinary conditions. Disciplinary conditions are not strictly binding, and in special cases (for example, a person's illness, a dangerous or difficult life situation, etc.) they are adjusted or even not enforced at all.
However, Orthodox Christians should remember that the extensive experience of the life of the Church served to develop these disciplinary conditions, and therefore, under normal circumstances, this external preparation (confession, participation in worship, fasting, fulfillment of the rule of prayer, etc.) is still mandatory.
1. Awareness of meaning. A person must be absolutely aware of where and why he came. He came to enter into communion with God, to become a partaker of the Divine, to unite with Christ, to taste the Lord's Supper for his sanctification and cleansing from sins, and not to perform a religious rite, "drink compote" or "dine." The apostle Paul puts it this way: “Next, you are going, so that it does not mean eating the Lord's supper; for everyone hastens to eat his own food before others, so that one is hungry, and another is drunk. Don't you have houses to eat and drink? Or do you neglect the church of God and humiliate the poor? What to tell you? to praise you for it? I will not praise” (1 Cor. 11:20-22).
2. Sincere desire. A person must have a completely sincere desire to unite with Christ. This desire should be united with the Fear of God (reverence for the holy) and alien to all hypocrisy: “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord” (Prov. 9:10). A person must remember that “whoever eats this Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27).
3. soul world. A person approaching the Cup must have peace of mind, that is, a state alien to malice, enmity or hatred towards anyone. In such a state, it is impossible for a believer to approach the Sacrament. Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “So if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).
4. Churchness. A person should not violate church canons that excommunicate him from Communion and the Church, that is, be within the limits of faith and moral life acceptable by the Church, since “grace is bestowed on those who do not violate the limits of faith and do not transgress the traditions of the fathers” (Epistle to Diognet). And in case of apostasy from the faith and committing mortal sins, reunite with the Church in the sacrament of Penance.
5. Intense spiritual life. And finally, the last and very important essential condition. The Christian life, to which every believer is called, is impossible without leading an intense spiritual life as a constant internal struggle of a Christian between the old man living in him with a nature damaged by sin and a new man, born in Christ in the sacrament of Baptism, who received the seed of eternal life, which he is called to. increase. An intense spiritual life includes constant self-examination and resistance to sin, forcing oneself to follow the commandments of Christ and do good deeds, true repentance, abstinence, etc. From this essential condition flow the subsequent disciplinary conditions which the Church proposes as conducive to leading a correct spiritual life.
6. Liturgical post. Before Communion, according to the most ancient tradition of the Church, the so-called liturgical fast, or fast before Communion, is necessary, which consists in the fact that from midnight on the eve of Communion they do not eat or drink anything, for it is customary to approach the Holy Chalice on an empty stomach. On the days of festive night services (on Easter, Christmas, etc.), it should be remembered that the duration of the liturgical fast is, according to the definition of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1969, at least 6 hours. The question arises, if someone, fasting for the communion of the Holy Mysteries, washing himself or being in a bath, reluctantly swallowed a little water, should such a person take communion? As St. Timothy of Alexandria answers in his canonical epistle: “I must. For otherwise Satan, having found the opportunity to remove him from Communion, will more often do the same” (answer 16). In doubtful cases, in the morning before the service, you can seek the advice of a priest.
7. Confession. The tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church requires an obligatory confession before communion: “Let a man test himself, and thus let him eat from this Bread and drink from this Cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily, he eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not considering the Body of the Lord. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and many die” (1 Cor. 11:28-29). Confession before Communion can take place both the evening before, or in the morning, before the Liturgy, and, if necessary (holidays, the workload of priests due to large crowds, etc.), a few days before Communion.
8. bodily fasting. Those who wish to receive communion must try to adequately prepare themselves for this holy sacrament. The mind should not be excessively scattered over the little things of life and have fun. On the days of preparation, if circumstances permit, one should attend divine services in the temple and more diligently fulfill the home prayer rule. The means to such a more concentrated spiritual life is fasting (in church practice it is called fasting): the body is prescribed abstinence and restriction in food (meat and dairy). The bodily fast before communion lasts, usually, for several days, and the general rule here is this: the less often a person takes communion, the stricter and longer the bodily fast should be, and vice versa. The measure of bodily fasting is also determined by family and social circumstances (life in a non-church family, hard physical and intellectual labor), and under these conditions it naturally decreases. Note that for Christians who observe one-day and multi-day fasts, during Bright Easter Week, bodily fasting before communion is, as a rule, completely canceled.
9. Participation in worship and home prayer. Since the church service allows you to better prepare for the liturgy (common cause - Greek), a healthy person should try to come to the church on the eve of Communion and pray with everyone at the evening service. Home prayer includes, in addition to the usual morning and evening prayers, the reading of the follow-up to Holy Communion - the canon in the evening, and the rest of the follow-up after the morning prayers in the morning. The Russian tradition also provides for the reading of three canons: repentant to the Lord, prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, and the canon to the guardian angel; it is obligatory to read them in case of absence from the evening service. Those who wish, through personal zeal, can also read other prayers, for example, an akathist to Jesus the Sweetest.
10. bodily purity. There are certain requirements for the bodily purity of men and women: on the eve of Communion, they are ordered to renounce bodily marital relations. The ancient ascetic tradition also prescribes, without urgent need, for men to refrain from Communion on the day after the nightly involuntary expiration, and for women during women's days and the forty-day postpartum period: “Pray, in whatever condition and no matter how disposed, remember the Lord and asking for help is not forbidden to eat. But let it be forbidden to proceed to what is the Holy of Holies, not quite pure in soul and body ”(Second canon rule of St. Dionysius of Alexandria).
In contact with
The sacrament of communion, or the Eucharist (translated from Greek as "thanksgiving"), occupies the main - central - place in the church liturgical circle and in the life of the Orthodox Church. What makes us Orthodox people is not the wearing of a pectoral cross, and not even the fact that we were once baptized (especially since in our time this is not a special feat; now, thank God, you can freely confess your faith), but Orthodox We become Christians when we begin to live in Christ and participate in the life of the Church, in her sacraments.All seven sacraments are divine, not human, and are mentioned in Holy Scripture. The Sacrament of Communion was first performed by our Lord Jesus Christ.
The establishment of the sacrament of communion
This happened on the eve of the Savior's suffering on the Cross, before the betrayal of Judas and the betrayal of Christ to torment was committed. The Savior and His disciples gathered in a large room prepared for the Passover meal according to the Jewish custom. This traditional dinner was hosted by every Jewish family as an annual commemoration of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. The Old Testament Passover was a holiday of deliverance, liberation from Egyptian slavery.
But the Lord, having gathered with His disciples for the Paschal meal, put a new meaning into it. This event is described by all four evangelists and is called the Last Supper. The Lord establishes the sacrament of Holy Communion at this farewell supper. Christ goes to suffering and the cross, gives His most pure body and honest blood for the sins of all mankind. And the eternal reminder to all Christians of the sacrifice brought by the Savior should be the communion of His Body and Blood in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The Lord took the bread, blessed it and, having distributed it to the apostles, said: "Take, eat: this is My Body." Then he took a cup of wine and, giving it to the apostles, said: “Drink all of you from it, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).
The Lord changed bread and wine into His Body and Blood and commanded the apostles, and through them their successors, the bishops and presbyters, to perform this sacrament.
The reality of the sacrament
The Eucharist is not simply a remembrance of what happened sometime more than two thousand years ago. This is a real repetition of the Last Supper. And at every Eucharist - both in the time of the apostles and in our 21st century - our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, through a canonically ordained bishop or priest, transforms the prepared bread and wine into His most pure Body and Blood.
The Orthodox Catechism of St. Philaret (Drozdov) says: “Communion is a sacrament in which the believer, under the guise of bread and wine, partakes (participates) of the very Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and eternal life.”
The Lord tells us about the obligation of communion for all who believe in Him: “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 at the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-56).
The need for communion for Orthodox Christians
He who does not partake of the holy mysteries tears himself away from the source of life - Christ, places himself outside of Him. And vice versa, Orthodox Christians, who regularly approach the sacrament of communion with reverence and due preparation, according to the Lord's word, "abide in Him." And in communion, which animates and inspires our soul and body, we are united with Christ Himself as in no other sacrament. This is what the holy righteous John of Kronstadt says in his teaching on the feast of the Presentation, when the Church recalls how the elder Simeon received the forty-day-old Infant Christ in his arms in the Jerusalem temple: “We are not jealous of you, righteous elder! We ourselves have your happiness - to raise not only the Divine Jesus in our arms, but with our lips and hearts, just as you always carried Him in your heart, not yet seeing, but His tea; and not once in a lifetime, not ten, but as much as we want. Who will not understand, beloved brethren, what I am saying about the communion of the life-giving mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ? yes we have b about greater happiness than Saint Simeon; and the righteous old man, one might say, embraced the Life-Giver Jesus in his arms as a foreshadowing of how those who believe in Christ later on in all days until the end of the age will receive and carry Him not only in their arms, but in their very hearts.
That is why the sacrament of communion must constantly accompany the life of an Orthodox person. After all, here on earth we must unite with God, Christ must enter into our soul and heart.
A person who seeks union with God in his earthly life can hope that he will be with Him in eternity.
The Eucharist and the Sacrifice of Christ
The Eucharist is also the most important of the seven sacraments because it depicts the sacrifice of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ offered a sacrifice for us at Calvary. He did it once, having suffered for the sins of the world, resurrected and ascended into heaven, where he sat at the right hand of God the Father. The sacrifice of Christ was offered once and will not be repeated again.
The Lord establishes the sacrament of the Eucharist, because “now on earth in a different form there must be His sacrifice, in which He would always offer Himself, as on the cross.” With the establishment of the New Testament, the Old Testament sacrifices ceased, and now Christians make a sacrifice in remembrance of Christ's sacrifice and for the communion of His Body and Blood.
The Old Testament sacrifices, when sacrificial animals were slaughtered, were only a shadow, a prototype of the Divine sacrifice. The expectation of the Redeemer, the Liberator from the power of the devil and sin is the main theme of the entire Old Testament, and for us, the people of the New Testament, the sacrifice of Christ, the atonement by the Savior of the sins of the world is the basis of our faith.
Holy Communion Miracle
The sacrament of communion is the greatest miracle on earth, which is performed constantly. Just as the once incomprehensible God descended to earth and dwelt among people, so now the entire fullness of the Divinity is contained in the holy gifts, and we can partake of this greatest grace. After all, the Lord said: “I am with you all the days until the end of time. Amen" (Matthew 28:20).
Holy gifts are a fire that burns every sin and every defilement, if a person partakes worthily. And we, approaching communion, need to do it with reverence and awe, realizing our weakness and unworthiness. “Although eat (eat), man, Body of the Lady, approach with fear, but do not be scorched: there is fire,” says the prayers for Holy Communion.
Often, spiritual people, ascetics, during the celebration of the Eucharist, there were phenomena of heavenly fire descending on the holy gifts, as is described, for example, in the life of St. - about. P.G.) saw how heavenly fire descended on the holy mysteries at the moment of their consecration, how this fire moved along the holy altar, illuminating the entire altar, it seemed to curl around the holy meal, surrounding the priest Sergius. And when the monk wanted to partake of the holy mysteries, the Divine fire curled up “like some kind of wonderful veil” and entered the holy chalice. Thus, the saint of God partook of this fire "non-disappointingly, like a bush of ancient times that burned unfailingly ...". Simon was horrified by such a vision and was silent in trembling, but did not hide from the monk that his disciple was worthy of a vision. Having communed the holy mysteries of Christ, he departed from the holy throne and asked Simon: “Why is your spirit so afraid, my child?” “I have seen the grace of the Holy Spirit working with you, Father,” he replied. “Look, don’t tell anyone about what you saw until the Lord calls me out of this life,” the humble abba commanded him.
Saint Basil the Great once visited a presbyter of a very virtuous life and saw how, during the celebration of the Liturgy, the Holy Spirit surrounded the priest and the holy altar in the form of fire. Such cases, when the descent of Divine fire on the holy gifts is revealed to especially worthy people, or the Body of Christ is visible on the throne in the form of a Baby, are repeatedly described in spiritual literature. The “Instructive Message (Instruction to Every Priest)” even tells how the clergy should behave when the holy gifts take on an unusual, miraculous appearance.
For those who doubt the miracle of turning bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ and dare to approach the holy chalice at the same time, a formidable admonition can be given: “Dmitry Alexandrovich Shepelev told the rector of the Sergius Hermitage, Archimandrite Ignatius the First, the following about himself. He was brought up in the Corps of Pages. Once during Great Lent, when the pupils were approaching the holy mysteries, the young man Shepelev expressed to his comrade walking beside him his resolute disbelief that the body and blood of Christ was in the chalice. When the holy mysteries were taught to him, he felt that he had meat in his mouth. Horror seized the young man, he was beside himself, did not find the strength to swallow a particle. The priest noticed the change that had taken place in him and ordered him to enter the altar. There, holding a particle in his mouth and confessing his sin, Shepelev came to his senses and swallowed the holy gifts given to him.
Yes, the sacrament of communion - the Eucharist - is the greatest miracle and mystery, as well as the greatest mercy to us sinners, and visible evidence that the Lord established the New Testament with people "in His blood" (see: Luke 22:20), bringing sacrificed for us on the cross, died and rose again, resurrecting all mankind by Himself. And we can now partake of His Body and Blood for the healing of soul and body, abiding in Christ, and He will "abide in us" (see John 6:56).
Origin of the liturgy
Since ancient times, the sacrament of communion has also received the name liturgy, which is translated from Greek as “common cause”, “common service”.
The holy apostles, disciples of Christ, having received from their Divine Teacher the commandment to celebrate the sacrament of communion in remembrance of Him, after His ascension began to celebrate the breaking of bread - the Eucharist. Christians “continued continually in the teaching of the apostles, in communion and in the breaking of bread, and in prayer” (Acts 2:42).
The order of the liturgy was formed gradually. At first, the apostles celebrated the Eucharist in the same order that they saw with their Master. In apostolic times, the Eucharist was combined with the so-called agapamis, or meals of love. Christians ate food and were in prayer and fellowship. After supper, the breaking of bread and communion of the faithful took place. But then the liturgy was separated from the meal and began to be celebrated as an independent sacred rite. The Eucharist began to be celebrated inside sacred temples. In the I-II centuries, the order of the liturgy, apparently, was not written down and was transmitted orally.
Gradually, in different localities, their own liturgical rites began to take shape. The liturgy of the Apostle James was served in the Jerusalem community. The Liturgy of the Apostle Mark was celebrated in Alexandria and Egypt. In Antioch - Liturgies of Saints Basil the Great and John Chrysostom. These liturgies had much in common in their main sacramental part, but differed from each other in details.
Now in the practice of the Orthodox Church there are three rites of liturgies. These are the liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory the Dialogist.
Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
This liturgy is performed on all days of the year, except for the weekdays of Great Lent, and also except for the first five Sundays of Great Lent.
St. John Chrysostom composed the rite of his liturgy on the basis of the previously composed liturgy of St. Basil the Great, but shortened some of the prayers. St. Proclus, a disciple of St. John Chrysostom, says that earlier the Liturgy was served at a very lengthy level, and “St. Basil, condescending to ... human weakness, shortened it; and after him even more holy Chrysostom.
Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great
According to St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Lycaon Iconium, St. Basil the Great asked “God to give him the strength of spirit and mind to celebrate the Liturgy in his own words. After six days of fervent prayer, the Savior appeared to him miraculously and fulfilled his petition. Soon afterwards, Vasily, being imbued with delight and divine awe, began to proclaim “Let my lips be filled with praise” and “Beware, Lord Jesus Christ our God, from Thy holy habitation” and other prayers of the liturgy.
The Liturgy of Saint Basil is celebrated ten times a year. On the eve of the twelfth feasts of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany (on the so-called Christmas and Epiphany Eve); on the day of memory of St. Basil the Great on January 1/14; on the first five Sundays of Great Lent, Great Thursday and Great Saturday.
Liturgy of St. Gregory the Dialogist (or Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts)
During the Holy Fortecost of Great Lent on weekdays, the service of the full liturgy ceases. Lent is a time of repentance, weeping for sins, when all festivity and solemnity are excluded from worship. Blessed Simeon, Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, writes about this. And therefore, according to the rules of the Church, on Wednesday and Friday of Great Lent, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated. Holy gifts are consecrated at the liturgy on Sunday. And the faithful partake of them at the liturgy of the presanctified gifts.
In some Local Orthodox Churches, on the feast day of the holy Apostle James, October 23/November 5, a liturgy is served according to his order. This is the most ancient liturgy and it is the work of all the apostles. The holy apostles, before they dispersed to different countries to preach the Gospel, gathered together to celebrate the Eucharist. Later this rite was recorded in writing under the title of the Liturgy of the Apostle James.
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