"But I have revealed my sin to You, and have not hidden my iniquity; I said, 'I confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and You have taken away from me the guilt of my sin." (Ps. 31:5).

Holy Week - the last days before Easter - the path of suffering, death on the cross Savior and his Resurrection. The time of fasting, which is given to a person for repentance, is coming to an end.

The Lord began his sermon with the words: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." After His Resurrection, Jesus Christ told the disciples: “Receive the Holy Spirit. To whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; upon whom you leave, they will remain on him” (John 20:23).

In Holy Week, believers try to attend all services. Passion services take a person back two thousand years in order to go through the path of Christ's suffering and meet His Resurrection.

Those who did not manage to confess during Great Lent are sure to try to go through the Sacrament of Penance and take communion on Great Thursday - the day the Lord established the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the birthday of the Church.

For those who are preparing to undergo the Sacrament of Penance, we have compiled a selection of sayings of the Holy Fathers of the Church.

1. Do not hide (in confession) so as not to remain unhealed (Reverend Theodore the Studite).

2. The Sacrament of Confession decisively cleanses all sins committed by word, deed, thought

3. In what we have sinned, in that we must ask for forgiveness (St. Clement of Rome).

4. Just as a person who is baptized by a person, that is, by a priest, is enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, so the one who confesses his sins in Repentance accepts the remission of them through the priest by the grace of Jesus Christ (St. Athanasius the Great).

5. I ask you, most beloved brethren, that we confess each of our sins while the sinner is still in this life, when his confession can be accepted, when the satisfaction and forgiveness performed by the priests is pleasing to the Lord. (St. Cyprian of Carthage).

6. God does not want to hear our sins from us because he does not know them. On the contrary, He wants us to realize our own sins through confession. (Rev. Ephraim the Syrian).

7. It is necessary to declare to the confessor that he forgives everyone against whom he has enmity, since God does not forgive the one who himself does not leave sins to his neighbor. This is how Christ Himself teaches: "Unless you forgive people their sins, neither will your Father forgive you your sins" (Matthew 6:15). Let him reconcile with everyone, no matter whom he offended, and if he stole something, let him return (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk).

8. The surest sign by which any repentant sinner can know whether his sins are really forgiven by God is when we feel such hatred and disgust from all sins that we would rather agree to die than sin arbitrarily before the Lord (St. Basil the Great).

9. There is no need to ask about what sins to forgive, because the New Testament makes no difference and promises the remission of all sin to the penitent as it should (St. Basil the Great).

10. Do not reveal your thoughts to everyone, but only to those who can save your soul. (Rev. Anthony the Great).

11. Every thought that produces warfare in you, reveal to your mentor, and your warfare will be lightened. Because of shame, do not allow yourself to hide a single such thought, because demons find a place for themselves only in that person who hides his thoughts - both good and evil. (Reverend Abba Isaiah).

12. The soul of that person who has the habit of often confessing his sins is kept from sinning by the memory of the forthcoming confession; on the contrary, unconfessed sins are conveniently repeated, as if committed in the dark or at night. (St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov).

13. Repentance presupposes a radical rearrangement: in the foreground always, everywhere, in everything is God; behind, after everything, the world and its demands, unless they can be completely thrown out of the heart. In other words, repentance requires the creation of a new, unified center in a person, and this center, where all the threads of life converge, must be God. (St. Basil, Bishop of Kineshma).

14. A sign of permission from sins is that a person always considers himself a debtor to God

15. Forgiveness of sins is freedom from passions, and whoever has not been freed from them by grace has not yet received forgiveness (Rev. Thalassius).

16. This is the sign of the forgiveness of sins: if you hated sin, then the Lord forgave you your sins (Reverend Silouan of Athos).

17. Many sell confession, often flaunting themselves as better than they are. Others trade in repentance, buying them glory for themselves. Others turn repentance into an occasion for pride and instead of forgiveness write themselves a new debt obligation. (Rev. Ephraim the Syrian).

18. Whoever has remembrance of malice in his heart and thinks that he is doing repentance is like a man who imagines in a dream that he is running (Rev. John of the Ladder).

19. True repentance requires not repeating the sins of which a person repented, but steadily following the path of virtue (Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt).

20. Repentance requires renunciation of attachments and absent-mindedness. An imaginary grace-filled calmness is self-delusion. Without repentance and weeping, an attentive life does not bring good fruit. You need to pay attention to yourself, you need heart disease and contrition (Reverend Nikon of Optina).

21. In repentance all the commandments of God are combined. Repentance is the consciousness of one's fall, which has made human nature indecent, defiled, and therefore constantly in need of a Redeemer. (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).

22. You know that this year the wheat sown last year will sprout and bear fruit. So all our evil, sown last year, will sprout and bear fruit - a cursed fruit, if we do not uproot the evil seed and sow good in its place. The eradication of the evil seed and the sowing of the good, spiritual seed is called repentance. Repentance is the beginning word of the gospel (St. Nicholas of Serbia).

23. The Lord grants the inheritance of the Kingdom to those who have been sealed with love by other virtues; either they flowed to it with their impeccable life, or through repentance they found refuge in it (St. Gregory Palamas).

24. What is repentance? Abandonment of the past and sadness about it. Repentance is the door of mercy, opening to those who seek it earnestly. Through this door we enter into God's mercy; except this entrance we will not find mercy (Rev. Isaac the Syrian).

25. The true confession is that, having rejected sin with all my soul ... to avoid it and never return to it (St. John Chrysostom).

26. Having moved away from the Sacrament of Confession, people suffocate in their thoughts and passions... And look, many people, exhausted by the problems that they have created for themselves with their sins, do not go to a confessor who can really help them, but end up “confessing” at a psychologist. They tell the psychologists the story of their illness, consult with them about their problems, and these psychologists [with their advice] seem to throw their patients into the middle of the river they need to cross. As a result, the unfortunate either drown in this river, or still swim to the other side, but the current takes them very far from the place where they wanted to be ... But when they come to confession to the confessor and confess, such people will cross without risk and fear river over the bridge. Indeed, in the Sacrament of Confession, the Grace of God acts and a person is freed from sin ...

Through confession, a person cleanses himself from the inside of everything unnecessary - and spiritually bears fruit. (Reverend Paisios the Holy Mountaineer).

27. Not only for some sins did the Lord grant repentance. The physician of our souls gave us a cure for every disease: let not a single sinner fall into despair: Judas fell into despair and was cast out from among the apostles. If the penitent falls into sin even after his conversion, then the path resorts to repentance, it will loosen the bonds of sin. If you sin a thousand times, you will again be cleansed from the filth and from the iniquities you have committed. No matter how often you fall, you will always have the opportunity to rise if you want it. (Rev. Ephraim the Syrian).

28. Have you sinned? “Go to church and make amends for your sin. No matter how much you fall in the square, every time you get up, so no matter how many times you sin, repent of your sin, do not despair. If you sin another time, repent another time, so that through negligence you do not completely lose hope for the promised blessings. Here (in the Church) there is a medical clinic and not a court, they don’t torture here, but they give forgiveness for sins (St. John Chrysostom).

29. If you were forgiven by all confessors, patriarchs, bishops, and the whole world, you still will not be forgiven if you do not repent in deed (Priestmartyr Cosmas of Aetolia).

30. Readiness for a worthy communion - confession of sins with a strong determination not to give in to sin and not to omit anything good that is to be done ... Confession and Holy Communion are inevitably necessary, one cleanses, the other - a bath, plaster and food ... so that the Holy would not be in sin. Communion, sins must be cleansed by repentance (St. Theophan the Recluse).

Conversations on the spiritual life of an Orthodox Christian (the practice of Orthodoxy)

CONVERSATION LOOP 1 "BEING A CHRISTIAN"

TOPIC 1.4 "Repentance, or what God says"

QUESTIONS:

Holy Scripture and the holy fathers about repentance.

A place of repentance in a person's spiritual life. What is repentance?

What difficulties do people encounter on the path of repentance?

Scripture, holy fathers and theologians about Repentance.

“In those days John the Baptist comes and preaches in the wilderness of Judea and says: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Mat. 3:1-2)

“From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

“After John was betrayed, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)

"Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance" (Matthew 3:8)

-“The beginning of conversion to Christ lies in the knowledge of one's sinfulness, one's fall; from such a view of oneself, a person recognizes the need for a Redeemer and approaches Christ through humility, faith and repentance”, “He who is not aware of his sinfulness, his fall, his death cannot accept Christ, cannot believe in Christ, cannot be a Christian. What is the use of Christ for him who is himself both reasonable and virtuous, who is satisfied with himself, who recognizes himself worthy of all earthly and heavenly rewards? (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

-“The Lord said: “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14). Real repentance is not just regret about committed sins, but the complete conversion of one's soul from darkness to light, from earth to heaven, from oneself to God. (One hundred words about the love of truth, St. Nicholas of Serbia )

- “Real repentance is to realize your sins, experience pain for them, ask God for forgiveness and then confess. Thus, divine consolation will come to man. Therefore, I always recommend people repentance and confession. I never recommend confession alone.” “For a person who strives, repentance - endless needlework" (St. Paisius Svyatogorets)

“Repentance is without a doubt the foundation of the spiritual life. The Gospel bears witness to this. Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John began his sermon with the words: » (Matthew 3:2). With exactly the same call, our Lord Jesus Christ enters public service (see: Matt. 4:17 ). Without repentance it is impossible to approach God and overcome one's sinful inclinations. The Lord gave us a great gift - confession, in which we are freed from our sins, for the priest is endowed by God with the power to “bind and loose” human sins. with sin . Therefore, we begin the correction of our lives with confession.” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov)

How is repentance different from remorse? In everyday life, as a rule, compatible, but by no means synonymous terms are identified - repentance and remorse. Judging by what happened to Judas (cf. Matthew 27:3-5 ), repentance can be without repentance, that is, useless, and even fatal. Despite their consonance in the Russian language, in the text of the Holy Scriptures, these terms correspond to words of different roots μετάνοια (throwing) and μεταμέλεια (metamelia). The word μετανοέω (metanoeo) means "to change one's way of thinking", to change one's vision, understanding of the meaning of life and its values. And the etymology of the word μεταμέλεια (metamelia) ( μέλομαι , melome - take care) indicates a change in the object of care, aspirations, cares. Repentance, in contrast to repentance, presupposes precisely a deep rethinking of everything at the root, a change not only in the object of aspirations and worries, but a qualitative change in the mind itself.

2. From the site https://azbyka.ru/pokayanie (abbreviated)

Repentance(μετάνοια - Greek: change of consciousness, rethinking, insight):

1) deep repentance, contrition for sins, characterized by sadness and grief caused by a pang of conscience, but most importantly, a living feeling of separation from God; accompanied by a strong desire for purification, transformation of life; trust and hope in the Lord. In a broad sense, repentance means a fundamental change in life: from arbitrarily sinful, selfish and self-sufficient - to a life of God's commandments, in love and striving for God.

2) The sacrament of the Church, in which, by sincere confession of sins before the face of the priest, the sinner, by the mercy of God, by the power of Divine grace, is freed from sinful impurity.

Repentance is a change in the inner and outer life of a person, which consists in a resolute rejection of sin and the desire to lead a life in accordance with the all-holy will of God.

Repentance begins with a change in the human crazy averse to sin and wanting to connect with God. Repentance is always a change of mind, that is, a change from one direction of the mind to another. A change of mind is followed by a change hearts to whom God gives experience to know His grace-filled love and holiness. The knowledge of the love and holiness of God gives strength to a person not to repeat sin and resist his actions. At the same time, the grace-filled tasting of Divine love and holiness requires a person to make a considerable feat in order to keep it in his soul. In this feat, God tests the free intention of man to reject sin and abide with Him forever.

Following the Divine commandments meets the resistance of fallen human nature, which is why repentance is inextricably linked with the tension of the will in moving from sin to God or asceticism. In asceticism, a sincere desire to overcome sin is required from a person, and grace is given from God to overcome it. The feat of repentance is the work of a person's whole life, since a person must strive all his life to unite with God and be freed from sin.

For the remission of the sins committed, the Church established the Sacrament of Repentance (Confession), which requires a person's sincere repentance of the committed sin and the determination not to repeat it with the help of God. Repentance is the denunciation of one's sin, it is the determination not to repeat it in the future.

_____________________________________________________________________

3. Repentance: bad infinity or creative insight?(Arch. Andrey Tkachev)

Replyprot. Andrey Tkachev to the article by Prot. Pavel Velikanov "Unrepentant Repentance" ( http://www.pravmir.ru/pokayanie-neraskayannoe ).

Our confessional practice very often clearly does not meet the needs of a qualitative improvement in church life and the inner growth of parishioners.

“If you get to a particularly zealous confessor, who will start drilling many kilometers of holes in ... the soul, in the hope of finding something of that kind, then you can collect a whole mountain of these heaps. But experienced people know that such “deep dives” into the abysses of the soul, as a rule, do not end in anything good. So the “optimal” list with sins wanders from one hand to another, quite organically reflecting both the typical state of the soul and its standard weaknesses ”.

So writes Prot. Pavel Velikanov in the article "Unrepentant repentance". Then he continues:

“When I was still a “freshly ordained” priest, I tried to convince the parishioners of the extreme importance and necessity of thorough preparation for each confession, checking the conscience according to confession books, detailed compilation list of sins with their subsequent "surrender" to the priest. Until I came across a completely unexpected discovery: it turns out that at some point in the church life of a person, this “turning” of the soul inside out becomes as common as morning splits for a gymnast. Moreover, the real meaning of this opening of the soul to the confessor is infinitely far from actual repentance - and thank God: they turned the soul out, looked, nothing particularly new appeared, everything is fine, turned back - and sent to communion ".

These words, I think, are born of compassionate pastoral experience, and once again indicate a serious problem. They do not so much decide as, exactly, they designate. Let me tell you what I think about this.

Templates and mechanicalness dry up life. In the Church, they simply act to kill. Just as a mannequin is not a person, so the mechanical observance of behavioral and ritual habits is not a spiritual life. The pattern that imitates life, but is not life, in relation to confession is manifested, in particular, in the fact that:

Repentant formulations are repeated by rote, with no hope of correction (bad infinity),

Confession turned into a "pass" for Communion,

Confession, as such, and the monastic practice of "revelation of thoughts" are impermissibly mixed, which turns the priest into an "arbitrary elder."

These are things on the surface. There are even more at depth.

“There is no patience, no humility, I pray absent-mindedly, I have no love for my neighbor,” these are no longer cries of the soul, but verbal cliches, habitually wandering from paper to paper, from confession to confession. Being in themselves very serious diagnoses of the inner life, these words, like dew - the warmth of the sun, are afraid of constant repetition. They should be implied, but they cannot be repeated over and over again. Otherwise, meaning is lost.

You can imagine a person one day saying, “I didn’t have patience and humility before. Now they are already there. So far there is no love. This is what I confess?

Such words are inconceivable. We will always lack patience, humility, attentiveness, love ... So why repeat these self-evident things over and over again? It is precisely the bad infinity, that is, repetition without end and meaning, that emanates from such “repentance”.

A person can say: “I have fallen into fornication, but I am in pain and I am crying. I do not want to live in sin and have the will to repent. I don't want to repeat this sin. I'm very embarrassed". I think this is repentance, or rather, part of it. It is possible and necessary to think and speak in such a way. But you cannot say: “I did not have love and attention in prayer. I repent of this. Now I will have both love and attention. We would hear something stupid and sick if such speeches were made under the stole. But it is these speeches that are implied, since we demand from time to time to repeat the "formula of the absence of great virtues."

A person can repeat for years before the Gospel that he “has no humility,” and at the same time he will hate his daughter-in-law, consider himself the best, wait for the day when America will drown in the ocean, and all sinners will fall into hot tar. And all this will live in a person at the same time. Unhealed scabs will be tightly bandaged with beautiful words from good books.

How much better it is to take care of yourself and know your own mental illnesses in order to name not what everyone has in general (for example, pride), but you have it right now (for example, murmuring among intensified illnesses).

And after all, a person will not say: “I am proud,” but will certainly say: “I have pride.” The speech itself will be some kind of formulaic, inanimate, as after a briefing. Cold blows from such "repentant". And the other sighs: “I'm tired, father. Tired. But I am not discouraged. I will hold on, ”and you will be warm at these words, because they are simple. And everything simple smells like warm bread.

Priests, spurred on by a thirst for great spirituality, indeed often demand from people some unheard-of repentance, strangely forgetting about the difference that lies between the skete of Anthony the Great and the inhabitants of the “Khrushchevka” on the outskirts of the regional center. There is some drunkenness, some kind of pedagogical tactlessness in demanding from the common man something great and worthy of saints. And - immediately and without preparation.

That opening of thoughts (revelation of thoughts), which involves tracking the movements of the soul during the day, being awake over oneself, remembering God, and then bringing oneself to the judgment of a confessor is a rare thing even in monasteries. This practice requires the mutual maturity of the priest and the Christian. Moreover, from the priest it requires great experience and almost holiness, and from the confessor - ascetic dispensation of the soul. This is rare, you can't reproduce it on a copier.

If the priest is highly spiritual, and the confessor is weak and blind, like a kitten that has just been born, then love and caution are needed on the part of the shepherd. Love, caution and time.

If a layman is strict with himself, beaten by life, experienced, well-read and not exalted, and the priest is weak, wisdom and understanding are required from the layman - he is not with an old man in a cell, but on his knees before the Gospel. He repented, accepted the blessing - and thank God! Christ is alive!

If both are serious and experienced - the confessor and the confessor - there will be no extra words. It will be what you need. It is a quiet joy with tears in the eyes.

And if the confessor is damp and the confessor is green; if both have picked up on the tops of some quotations and tremble at the end of the world; if it is difficult to speak with them separately and you need to start from scratch and from the basics, then how many caricatures can arise on this basis - it's scary to think.

A person has not yet read the Gospel, they say to him: “Fight with passions”, without explaining how. The man has only learned the Our Father and has not yet understood the meaning, but they say to him: “Pray a mental prayer.”

In a word, a person went to first grade, and they ask him about the program of the institute, and even swear. This is how they teach in our schools - they raise the bar of requirements, as if they set the goal of procreating geeks, and the level of education is falling and falling.

Here is the formula for you: overstating demands without love and condescension does not lead people upwards, but cripples them and kills those remnants of life that still exist.

People want to take communion and are afraid. “What will I say in confession? It seems that there were no special sins ”And they begin to pick out from themselves what can be written on a piece of paper: there is no love, there is no patience, I condemn, I overeat. This is not a healthy occurrence. There is no simplicity in it, but there is a false setting for "straining mosquitoes." As soon as you notice this, do not hesitate - the camel has already been swallowed.

Instead of rejoicing that a person did not have any special sins, but he wants to take communion, we literally intimidate people and demand that they all, as one, give out tons of hidden dirt “upon the mountain”.

True repentance is many tears and few words. We are used to the opposite situation - a lot of words, and dry eyes. And really deep repentance with inner pain, with tears cannot be repeated with the same regularity with which evening prayers are read. This is how much you need to be a wooden person in order not to understand: deep repentance is a rare miracle and a gift, and not a regular activity, like a visit to the dentist.

The priest himself must never repent and howl about himself as if about a dead person, or completely forget about this earlier experience in order to stereotype people's confession, sins, tears, open secrets. A priest is not only someone who receives confession. After all, he himself is a penitent. And if so, then there is much to be learned in compassion mode. And if not, then there is no cure for this misfortune.

One composer was once awarded by the communist leaders with a medal for success in creativity. They put a piece of iron on their chest and ask: “How long did it take you to write your last song?”. The composer replies: "By inspiration, at night - in four hours." We find it funny that such elementary things as the unpredictability of inspiration are not clear to a stupid person. But who are you laughing at? Laugh at yourself.

You need to study for many years and then think and languish for many years on a slow creative fire in order to finally give birth to a masterpiece. The masterpiece will not be written, but recorded in four hours. He will write for years.

It is the same with repentance. You have to work hard and suffer, and gradually move from milk to solid food, and suffer and struggle, in order to one day reach change and change. Repentance - this is great art, and the plan, so dear to the Bolshevik consciousness, with a schedule of demands and regulation of sighs, is completely out of place here.

_______________________________________________________________

4. On Confession and Repentance (archim. Savva (Mazhuko) ( excerpts)

… Confession is a milestone that is quite difficult to cross, it is difficult to prepare for Confession. And today I would like to talk about exactly this: how to properly prepare for Confession, how not to be afraid, or how to be afraid correctly. Indeed, father Alexander Elchaninov , our wonderful Russian pastor, said: “I thank God that I experience every Confession as a catastrophe.” Confession is truly a disaster. Especially Confession for the first time. But it is important to remember some key points that will properly set us up for Confession.

Of course, confession is event. There is no template, there are no things that completely and completely formalize and normalize this sacrament: Confession is precisely a sacrament, it is a meeting with God, confession of one's sins to God. Confession, as a sacrament, is only a small moment of the whole process of inner work, which is called repentance. Confession must be distinguished, first, from spiritual conversation. Secondly, from the revelation of thoughts.

__________________________

5. What is repentance and what is not(archim. Nectarius) http://www.pravoslavie.ru/45241.html

When he came to his senses, he said: how many hirelings from my father have plenty of bread, and I am dying of hunger: I will get up, go to my father and say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son: take me among your hired servants. He got up and went to his father.(Luke 15:17-20)

The Church Fathers call repentance "Second Baptism", "the renewal of Baptism." Through the Sacrament of Baptism we enter the Church, we embark on the path leading to the Kingdom of God. Thanks to the second Baptism - repentance - a person can be washed from sin with tears of repentance, rise from his fall, heal from wounds and continue the path to God. Unfortunately, few people know what repentance is, what its deepest meaning is, what one needs to repent of.

Repentance is not some kind of legal procedure that frees a person from feeling guilty. This is not a formal confession, which a person often allows himself before great holidays. The path traversed by the prodigal son testifies to a completely different story.

The very word “repentance” means a fundamental change in a human being, his rebirth, a change in the way of thinking, a change in life, a denial of sin with all his heart. In other words, we must realize with all our being that the path of sin that we have walked leads to destruction. We need to understand that we are in some kind of swamp, far from our home. We should stop and say to ourselves, “Where are we going? This is madness! Our Father has a luxurious palace, where everything pleases the eye, and we are sitting in a quagmire!” We must find the resolve to return to our father's home, to the arms of God the Father and our fellow men.

In order for repentance to be true, it must be done in practice. Hieromartyr Cosmas of Aetolia says: “Even if all confessors, patriarchs, bishops and the whole world have forgiven you, you will still not be forgiven if you do not repent in deed.” That is, if we do not move away from sin and do not change our lives, our repentance will not be true. It is not even repentance in the full sense of the word.

Many people willingly approach the confessor, dejected by the severity of psychological and other problems. They confess with tears and make promises that they will never return to sin, that they will change their lives, and so on. But how deep is this kind of repentance? It should not be limited to an explosion of emotions. It takes time, labor, skill in virtue and struggle with sin with the assistance of the grace of God. At the same time, repentance is carried out latently, in a secret way, in the human soul. Just as if a man sows a seed in the ground, and sleeps, and rises night and day; and how the seed sprouts and grows, he does not know, for the earth produces by itself...(Mark 4:26-28).

As we have already said, repentance is impossible without the grace of God. Man, living in the darkness of sin, not realizing how wonderful life in God is, cannot perceive the difference between the sinful life of the world and the holy life of the Church. Only when the grace of God sows in his heart the seed of Divine love can he see his spiritual failure. Sunlight, penetrating into a dark room, illuminates everything. So the grace of God reveals to us the emptiness of our souls, exposes our passions, our sins. That is why the saints asked God so intensely: Grant me complete repentance". True repentance is a safe path leading to the Kingdom of God.

6. Repentance, confession, fasting(bishop Athanasius (Evtich)

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/45156.html

Repentance is the beginning of the Christian new life, or the Christian new being, being in Christ.

Repentance

Thus began the gospel with the words of St. John the Baptist: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand“. And the preaching of Christ after Baptism was: “ Repent and Believe in the Gospel“.

But in our time the question is raised: why is repentance necessary? From a social point of view, it is inappropriate to talk about repentance. There is, of course, some semblance of repentance, especially in the countries of Eastern totalitarianism: when someone deviates from the party line, they demand from him " repentance“, or when the leaders of the party themselves deviate from their original plan - only this is not called repentance, but some kind of “ reform" or " perestroika”

In Scripture there are (in the Greek text) two different expressions for repentance. One expression - metanoia , and the other metamelia . Sometimes this second expression is not translated by the word “ repentance', but with the word ' repentance“. I thought, for example, to go to Frankfurt and “ repented“, that is, I changed my mind: I won’t go. This is what is called in Scripture metamelia', it's just a change of intent. It has no spiritual meaning. There is also, in a social or psychological sense, something like “ remorse' means change. In the field of psychology, there perestroika“his character, his neurosis… In depth psychology, Adler, or Freud, and even Jung, have no concept of repentance.

Repentance is a religious concept. You have to repent before someone. It does not mean simply changing the style of life or one's inner feeling or one's experience, as is meant, say, in Eastern religions and cultures. These religions say that a person must get his own experience, must know himself, fulfill himself, so that the light, his consciousness, awakens. But such a change does not require God. And Christian repentance is certainly before someone ...

Christ begins his gospel, his good news, his teaching of mankind with repentance. St. Mark the Ascetic, a disciple of St. John Chrysostom, who lived in the 4th-5th centuries in Asia Minor as a hermit, teaches that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's power and God's Wisdom, providing for the salvation of all, from all his various dogmas and commandments left one single the law is the law of freedom, but that one comes to this law of freedom only through repentance. Christ commanded the apostles: Preach to all nations repentance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand “. And the Lord wanted to say by this that the power of the Kingdom of Heaven is contained in the power of repentance, just as the leaven contains bread or the whole plant is contained in the grain. Thus, repentance is the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let's remember the message of St. Apostle Paul to the Jews: those who repented felt the power of the Kingdom of Heaven, the power of the future age. But as soon as they turned to sin, they lost this strength, and it was necessary to revive repentance again.

So, repentance is not just a social or psychological ability to get along with other people without conflict. Repentance is an ontological, that is, an existential category of Christianity. When Christ began the gospel with repentance, he had in mind the ontological reality of man. Let us say in the words of St. Gregory Palamas: the commandment of repentance and other commandments given by the Lord fully correspond to human nature itself, for in the beginning He created this human nature. He knew that later He Himself would come and give the commandments, and therefore He created nature according to the commandments that would be given. And vice versa, the Lord gave such commandments, which corresponded to the nature, which He created in the beginning. Thus, the word of Christ about repentance is not a slander on the nature of man, it is not “ imposition” to the nature of a person something alien to it, but the most natural, normal, corresponding to human nature. The only thing is that human nature is fallen, and therefore is now in an abnormal state for itself. But it is precisely repentance that is the lever by which a person can correct his nature, return it to its normal state. That is why the Savior said: Metanoite " - i.e " change your mind “.

…Repentance is impossible without meeting with God. Therefore, God goes to meet man. If repentance were simply contemplation, repentance, the disposition of one's forces in a different way, it would be a restructuring, but not a change in essence. A sick person, as St. Cyril of Alexandria says, cannot heal himself, but he needs a healer - God. What is the disease? In the corruption of love. There shouldn't be one-sided love. Love must be at least two-sided. And for the fullness of love, in fact, three are needed: God, neighbor and I. I, God and neighbor. Neighbor, God and me. This is perekhorisis, the interpenetration of love, the circulation of love. That is what eternal life is. In repentance, a person feels that he is sick and seeks God. Therefore, repentance always has a regenerating power. Repentance is not just self-pity, or depression, or an inferiority complex, but always a consciousness and a feeling that communication has been lost, and immediately a search and even the beginning of the restoration of this communication. The prodigal son came to himself and said: Here's the state I'm in. But I have a father, and I will go to my father! ” If he had simply realized that he had gone astray, this would not yet have been Christian repentance. And he went to his father! According to the Holy Scriptures, it can be assumed that the father had already gone out to meet him, that the father, as it were, took the first step, and this was reflected in the son's motivation to return. It is not necessary, of course, to analyze which is first and which is second: the meeting is double. Both God and man in repentance enter into the activity of love. Love seeks fellowship. Repentance is regret for lost love.

Only when repentance itself begins, then a person feels the need for it. It would seem that first a person needs to feel that he needs repentance, that it is salvation for him. But in fact, it turns out paradoxically that only when a person already experiences repentance, then he feels the need for it. This means that the unconscious of the heart is deeper than the consciousness that God gives to those who want it. Christ said: Who can accommodate, yes accommodate “. Saint Gregory the Theologian asks, who can accommodate ? And answers: whoever wants .

Confession as a continuation of repentance is the true self-disclosure of man. Yes, we are sinners, that is why we reveal our wounds, illnesses, sins. A person sees himself in a desperate, hopeless situation. But what is truly true is that he looks not only at himself, but, as St. Anthony the Great: put your sin in front of you and look at God on the other side of sins.

Repentance is the understanding and recognition of sins before God, as well as actions aimed at changing one's life. In the church sacrament of repentance, the sinner receives permission for sins and help in the fight against sin.

Parable of the Prodigal Son

Meaning of the word

The liturgical books adopted in the Russian Church are translated from the Greek by Sts. Cyril and Methodius. When translating St. Cyril and Methodius were faced with the lack of words and concepts among the Slavs denoting Christian values. There was no exact equivalent for the word "metanoia" (μετάνοια). It was translated as "repentance", or recognition of committed misconduct. The Greek meaning of "metanoia" is much deeper: change, insight. Thus, it is not just about recognizing one's sinfulness, but about changing one's life.

Repentance before preaching the gospel

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." These were the first words of the sermon of John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ. Even then, repentance presupposed the beginning of a new life. Those who came to the Jordan to St. John, acknowledging sins and repenting, was simultaneously asked how to change his life: “What should we do?” Such questions were asked by warriors, publicans (tax collectors). Answers of St. John also touched on lifestyle: “Ask nothing more than what is certain for you ... do not slander, be content with your salary” (Luke 3:10).

Metanoia of the Ancient Church

The change in lifestyle and values was repentance in early Christianity. One of the most striking examples is the publican Zacchaeus. His metanoia begins with humility. A well-known rich man performs actions that are completely indecent for him: he climbs a fig tree to see the Teacher - Christ. And when the Lord comes to the house of Zacchaeus, the transformation of man is completed: he distributes half of the property to the poor, multiplies the damage to all those whom he offended. Therefore, the Lord says: “Today is salvation for this house” (Luke 19:9)

Useful materials

During the Apostolic ministry, repentance also presupposed the unity of word and deed. “What shall we do, brothers and sisters?” the believers asked after the descent of the Holy Spirit. They received the answer: "Repent, that every one of you be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:37).

The young Christian community itself showed repentance by deed. The new converts sold their property, “placed its price at the feet of the Apostles” (Acts 5:1), started a completely new life, not connected with the former one.

The same was the image of repentance during the time of persecution of Christianity. From the life of St. Sebastian knows the episode with the baptism of the eparch Chromatius. The priest asked him:

“Do you renounce your former sins?”

Chromatius remarked to this:

“I should have been asked about this at the beginning: I will put on my clothes again and will not receive holy baptism until I renounce my sins; I will be reconciled with those with whom I had enmity and I will love those with whom I was angry; Whoever is angry with me, I ask forgiveness from them. I will forgive my debtors all their debts, but if I myself took something from someone by force, I will return it purely ... I will arrange all my official and domestic affairs by the will of God and then I will boldly say: “I renounce all my sins and receive holy baptism.”

The formation of the rank of repentance

The repentance of Chromatius is the conversion of a pagan. But with the onset of persecution, Christians appeared who renounced their faith out of fear. Already from the III century. the question arose of what to do with such believers if they wish to turn to. For this, a special rank appeared.

According to sources, already from the III century. repentance was public. It included three stages:

accepting the sinner as a penitent;
penance;
return to church fellowship.

At all stages, the priest played the most important role, according to the word of the Gospel:

“... What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18).

At the first stage, the sinner came to the priest, who found out the sincerity of his intentions. The presbyter laid hands on him with . But this was only the beginning of reconciliation with the Church. On the first day of Great Lent, the penitent, brought into the church by the bishop, was thrown to the ground "in dust and ashes." The community prayed for him. The bishop spoke out.

Then the second, longest stage began - penance. Carriers of this feat were divided into 4 groups:

crying (during the service they stood outside the church, asking for prayers for themselves);
listeners (stood in the porch);
adhering (they were at the service before the liturgy of the faithful, they were obliged to leave with the catechumens at the end of it);
standing (they were present at the liturgy until the end, but were not allowed before Communion).

For many days, and sometimes months, even years, the sinner moved from one category to another, until he turned out to be “worthy”.

The third stage of repentance came after penance. Usually, penitents were introduced into church communion during Holy Week, shortly before Pascha. Prayers were said over the penitent, he again asked for forgiveness from the faithful, confessed his renunciation in front of everyone, giving a promise to improve his life. By the laying on of the bishop's hands, a person's sins were forgiven. Now he could proceed to the Holy Mysteries.

Secret confession

From the middle of the 4th century, when persecution ceased, apostates become much smaller, and other sins associated with various kinds of passions come to the fore. Confession remains public. But voices are heard about the seductiveness of such a confession for other faithful.

There is an opinion that the main reason for the emergence of secret confession was the gradual cooling of the ardent religious feeling. Not for everyone confession becomes "metanoia", when the sin committed is absolutely rejected and can be easily called out loud as non-existent.

Increasingly, the believer is ashamed to name his sins in front of everyone.

Interesting fact

It is believed that in the East confession remained public until the 5th century, in the West until the 7th century. Already from the IV century. only grave sins were subject to public confession (murder, sacrilege, fornication, incest, insult to authority).

Gradually, the need for painstaking work with the believer, his spiritual problems, begins to be realized. Priests-confessors appear, having a special blessing from the bishop for this work. Since the 9th century, after the iconoclastic heresy, the practice of confession only by hieromonks was established in Byzantium. It was believed that those who showed a special firmness of faith were more reliable spiritual leaders than secular priests.

Sacrament of Confession in Russia

Russia, which received Baptism from Byzantium, made an attempt to adopt this tradition as well. However, the number of monastics was too small, there were even few white clergy. Therefore, confession in Russia was made by both monks and secular priests. But at the same time in the X-XVII centuries. the tradition was absolute obedience to the confessor, even to the worldly one, similar to how a monk obeys his elder.

Interesting fact

Until the middle of the XVII century. confession in Russia had many features that brought it closer to the repentance of the first centuries of Christianity.

For example, according to the Trebnik of 1647, the penitent, like the custom of the 3rd century, was brought into the temple by a priest. Further, the priest “will put him before the royal doors… in the church, the priest will put on the sacred clothes and take the Holy Gospel and the Holy Cross and put it on the lectern in front of the Holy Doors right at the royal gates… Although he wants to repent, he enters with fear and humility and a contrite heart, his hands are bent to named after him ... and he will lay his hand and head on the lectern, weeping with tears of his sins.

The confession itself included questions about all aspects of life. There were lists of questions for lay men, women, for boyars, the king, monastics, priests, etc. Treasuries until the 17th century. do not allocate specifically permissive prayers. After all, the sacrament as a whole became a "metanoia" for the penitent.

Confession and Communion

In the ancient Church, the two sacraments were not rigidly linked. So, the life of St. (IV century) tells that she proceeded to Communion after her personal repentance before the icon of the Virgin. There is no evidence that any confessor performed the sacrament of repentance over Mary.

Interesting fact

It was possible to proceed to the Holy Mysteries without confession in Russia until the beginning of the 18th century. The ban on Communion without confession was introduced only in the Synodal period of the history of the Church.

Currently, the issue of the connection between Confession and Communion is being discussed in the church environment, however, the tradition of not receiving Communion without confession is preserved everywhere.

How is confession done in the church now?

The modern rite of confession has developed since the middle of the 17th century. after the liturgical reform of Patriarch Nikon. It is much shorter than those ranks to which our ancestors of the X-XVII centuries are accustomed.

According to the Trebnik, it is necessary to perform the sacrament before the Lord. The breviary indicates that the believer, when performing the sacrament, is one, "and not two or many." But this rule is almost always violated, since, as a rule, there are more than one who wish to proceed to the sacrament.

Now the rank includes:

the initial exclamation of the priest “Blessed be our God…”;
the so-called "ordinary beginning", according to liturgists, is one of the most ancient elements of any worship going back to the Apostles. This is the Trisagion, the prayers "Most Holy Trinity", "Our Father";
Psalm 50 (“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy”);
two priestly prayers;
short address by the priest;
Symbol of faith. It must be pronounced by the penitent, but in practice this is often done by the priest;
questions to the confessor;
permissive prayer. Saying it, the priest puts on the penitent stole.

at the end of the sacrament, “It is worthy to eat” is sung and the leave is pronounced. But since in most cases confession takes place during the divine service, most often this is not done.

How to repent of your sins

Repentance involves a change in mindset and lifestyle. According to the Orthodox understanding, verbal confession is only one of the stages of repentance. Metanoia itself is a process in which:

How do the concepts of "soul", "conscience" and "repentance" correlate?

“A living soul,” the breath of life, is God's gift to man, created “from the dust of the ground” (Gen. 1:7). The voice of the soul is the conscience of man. As the apostle John the Theologian wrote, “if our heart condemns us, how much more God? because God is greater than our hearts and knows everything” (John 3:20).

Just like the body needs food and clothing, the soul also needs to be satisfied. The main one is the need to communicate with your Creator, God. If a person moves away from this fellowship, he feels the convictions of conscience - the image of God in the soul. Then the person needs repentance. The Holy Fathers advise, when preparing for it, to be guided precisely by the denunciations of conscience, but they warn that a person's conscience can die, suppressed by a multitude of worldly cares.

Daily confession of sins in home prayer

In the prayer books, among the evening prayers, there is the "Everyday Confession of Sins." In addition, experienced confessors advise checking your conscience with 3 prayers. evening rule, 4 prayers before Communion.

Can repentance mend the past

Repentance, of course, does not change the events of a person's past life - "you can't turn back what has been done." But it changes the attitude towards these events and, with the help of God, gives strength to overcome the consequences of sins committed.

Gospel of Repentance

“Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery, and setting her in the middle, they said to him: Teacher! this woman is taken in adultery; but Moses in the law commanded us to stone such people. What do you say? They said this, tempting Him, in order to find something to accuse Him. But Jesus, bending low, wrote with his finger on the ground, paying no attention to them. When they continued to ask Him, He raised himself up and said to them: He who is without sin among you, first cast a stone at her. And again, bending low, he wrote on the ground. But they, having heard this, and being convicted by their conscience, began to leave one by one, beginning from the elders to the last; and Jesus alone was left, and the woman standing in the midst. Jesus, rising up and not seeing anyone but a woman, said to her: Woman! where are your accusers? nobody judged you? She answered: no one, Lord! Jesus said to her: Nor do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (Gospel of John 8:2-12)

“As Jesus was passing by, he saw a man sitting at the toll booth named Matthew, and he said to him, Follow me. And he got up and followed Him. And while Jesus was reclining in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined with Him and His disciples. Seeing this, the Pharisees said to His disciples: Why does your Teacher eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus, hearing this, said to them: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, go and learn what it means: I want mercy, and not sacrifice? For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Gospel of Matthew 9:9-13).

“... But He told them the following parable: which of you, having a hundred sheep and having lost one of them, will not leave ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? And having found it, he will take it on his shoulders with joy and, having come home, he will call his friends and neighbors and say to them: rejoice with me: I found my lost sheep. I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous who have no need of repentance” (Gospel of Luke 15:3-7).

Holy Fathers on repentance

“With regard to the active life, we cannot do anything worthy without repentance; but the Lord has much mercy on us for our purpose. He who forces himself and holds on to repentance until his very death, if he sins in anything, will be saved for forcing himself; for this the Lord promised in the Gospel.” (St. Mark the Ascetic)

"... The dead body does not rise with human strength, but the dead soul rises through repentance." (St. John Chrysostom)

“... If, enjoying sin, you stagnate in it, then repentance will turn away from you, because you knew how good it was, and preferred sin to it.” (St. Ephraim Sirin)

“Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a covenant with God about the correction of life... Repentance is the constant rejection of bodily consolation. Repentance is the thought of self-condemnation and self-care, free from external cares... The penitent is the unashamed condemned... Repentance is the cleansing of conscience" (St. John of the Ladder)

“When a person stops praying, moves away from God and becomes like an ox: he works, eats, sleeps. And the more he moves away from God, the worse it gets. His heart cools down, and then he can no longer pray at all. To come to your senses, the heart must soften, turn to repentance, be touched” (St. Paisios the Holy Mountaineer)

Fight against sin

St. Theophan the Recluse wrote that it is necessary, first of all, to hate sin. But this is not enough. God's help is needed to overcome sin and its consequences. This requires the sacrament of repentance.

At the same time, it should be understood that the struggle with sinful passions takes a lifetime. There is a story about Abba Sisoy, to whom his spiritual son complained: “What should I do, abba? I fell! Rev. Sisoy answered his brother: “If you have fallen, then rise!” "But father, I have risen and fallen again!" “And get up again!” Asking how long the fall and repentance would continue, the brother received the answer: “Until you are taken from here, good or bad.”

Signs of true repentance and its fruits

The main signs of accomplished repentance, according to St. fathers - hatred of sin, a firm determination not to commit it, a sense of relief, freedom.

The fruit of repentance is the non-repetition of the former sin, that is, a complete change in life. It is necessary not to stop there, but to continue working on yourself.

Lessons of Repentance from Sacred Tradition

Tradition tells of many cases of sincere repentance and a complete change in life already in the first century of the existence of Christianity.

Repentance of the Apostles

One of the most striking examples of repentance is St. Peter. The Great Apostle, revered as one of the "pillars of the Church", experienced his renunciation of the Teacher for many years. The repentant attitude penetrated so deeply into Peter's life that he could not hear the cock crow without tears of repentance.

“The monster” and “the least of the Apostles” called himself the great Paul - “Apostle of tongues”. He always remembered that he was a persecutor of Christians, converted by the Lord Himself.

Repentance of the saints

One of the most striking is the penitential feat of the harlot Mary. Repentance and trust in the Lord made her a great ascetic, known as Mary of Egypt.

Holy Reverend Mary of Egypt

But the path to change is not easy. Many temptations meet the penitent on it, and therefore it is so important to attribute your change not to your own efforts, but to the Lord. The life of Jacob the Hermit (Comm. 4 March) provides an example of both falling and rising by the power of God.

St. James, having lived in the desert for many years, acquired the gift of clairvoyance and healing, even cast out demons. Having once cast out the unclean from the young girl, the elder dreamed of his own holiness. Immediately the grace of the Lord left him. The monk, a virgin from his mother's womb, first fell with the girl, then, frightened by publicity, killed her. Having fallen into despair, the monk who ruined his feat would return to the world. But the convictions of the brethren had an effect on the sinner. It was not even the will of God for him to die. Having shut himself up, the monk prayed for forgiveness for many years. And after 10 years, the monk received a notice of pardon. He again became a miracle worker, but he never attributed miracles to his exploits.

The Significance of Repentance in the Sacrament of Baptism

According to the Catechism, “Baptism is a Sacrament in which the believer, when the body is immersed three times in water, with the invocation of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, dies to a carnal, sinful life, and is reborn from the Holy Spirit into a spiritual, holy life” . It is believed that in Baptism former sins are forgiven. But the resolution of sins by the Lord must be accompanied by the determination of the person being baptized to change his life.

How to Prepare for Confession

There is no need for fasting in preparation for the sacrament. There is no special prayer rule for those preparing for Confession. It is necessary to realize your sins, the determination to correct your life.

Modern man, not accustomed, according to Sts. fathers, “pay attention to yourself”, it can be difficult to see your problems. In this case, it is good to read literature that helps in this doing, for example

The book of Archpriest Valentin Mordasov "The Holy Fathers on Confession" contains numerous teachings of the Holy Fathers on what confession is, how to properly prepare for this most important Sacrament for every Christian, how to properly confess and treat penance so that it serves for the good of the penitent ; it also speaks of the danger of concealing sins at confession, of the dangers of hypocritical repentance. A special section of the book tells about the confessor and the attitude of believers towards him; what qualities he should have.

Holy Fathers on Confession

* * *

The following excerpt from the book Holy Fathers on Confession. Confessor and attitude towards him (Valentin Mordasov, 1992) provided by our book partner - the company LitRes.

Holy Fathers on Confession

Salvation is acquired through repentance.

Elder Adrian Yugsky

Glory to the Lord that He gave us repentance, we are all saved by repentance; only those who do not want to repent will not be saved; and I cry a lot, pitying them. Every soul that has lost peace must repent - and the Lord will forgive, and then there will be joy and peace in the soul

It is necessary to cleanse every sin committed by repentance.

The Monk Pachomius the Great placed two weapons of spiritual warfare above all else: the fear of God and confession.

And one confession and frankness replaces asceticism in others (Reverend Neil of Sinai).

Repentance is the second baptism.

Repentance raises the doer to the most extensive spiritual visions, reveals before him his own fall, and the fall of all mankind, and other mysteries. So, brethren, before all deeds and with all deeds, let repentance be a deed for us all.

Repentance is the key to the Kingdom of Heaven, without which no one can enter there.

Sin is aggravated if it is not cleansed by repentance. The sinner who recognizes his sin deserves more indulgence in the sight of God than the one who sins and says, “It is not a sin” or, “God will not look back!”

Elder Theologian conjured the demon to speak about repentance. The demon answered: “There is nothing else like that in the church, like a perfect and pure confession of sins. It does evil to us most of all and deposes our strength. Whenever there is a person in sins, then he is all tied up and cannot stand for good deeds; when the confession of sins is pure, then he is free from all and has the will for every good deed.

Repentance is the return from the devil to God.

The beginning of a good path is to confess to the priest with all your heart your sins, and especially spiritual ignorance, that they do not have a perfect knowledge of the Sacraments of Christianity, they do not know what faith is

We will not blame our birth or anyone else for the sins we have committed, but only ourselves. (St. Anthony the Great).

The Lord graciously gave people repentance, and by repentance all are saved without exception. (St. Silouan of Athos).

As for confession, don't put it off.

What is repentance and what is confession

One should not understand repentance and confession in the same way; repentance means one thing, and confession another; there can be repentance without confession, but there can be no confession without repentance; one can and should always repent or repent before God of one's sins at any time, but one can confess only before a confessor and at one's own time; repentance, or repentance for sins, brings a person closer to the Kingdom of Heaven and brings the Holy Spirit closer to a person, but confession without repentance and repentance does not benefit a person at all, and not only does not benefit, but a feigned and not true confession destroys a person, making him great a criminal, because confession is and should be an act of repentance (St. Innocent).

During the days of Great Lent, everything is open: the heavens for mercy, and the sinner for confession, and the tongue for prayer.

The penitent is truly subjected to the reproach of the fools: this serves for him as a sign of pleasing God

What to say about those who evade confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ? Truly, these are unfortunate people. The believer lives as long as he abides in Christ through communion.

To prove that no sin can prevent a person from entering the Kingdom of God, the Lord brought in the first repentant thief.

Addressing the people in the church, St. Demetrius of Rostov once said: “Forgive me, brothers and sisters, if I call every sinner who does not think about his sins possessed.”

True misfortune consists in the mere unrepentance of the sins by which the soul deviates from God.

What is petrified insensitivity? This is when you do not see your sins and do not feel them.

A false confession is a cold confession of one's common sins in word, deed, thought. These are forced answers to the priest's questions, and not the repentance of a sinful publican who beat his chest, wept and sighed.

The confessor must explain to the penitents that before confession and communion they must pray for the vigil.

The foundation of our salvation is repentance.

Confession makes a person look back at himself... and Holy Communion gives grace in the fight against sin and for strengthening in goodness.

Demons lose heart when they see a penitent soul; it is very painful for them that the Lord gave repentance to sinners and honors those who repent from the bottom of his heart with His forgiveness and mercy.

Why did the Lord not want to deal with the "righteous"? Because those who consider themselves righteous, who have no need for repentance, in fact - in self-deception, proud people, sin with sin, the most hated by God and are mentally incurable due to the complete lack of consciousness of their sinfulness.

The days of fasting should be devoted to works of mercy: to feed the poor and the sorrowful and learn from the Word of God.

In the event of a serious fall into sin, the Church inspires every Christian not to postpone repentance, but to hasten it.

What kind of confession are there rewards, listen to what the Lord says: speak thou thy iniquity first, that thou shalt be justified(Isaiah 43:26). Don't be ashamed to confess your sins. God commands confession not to punish, but to forgive. I am God says make amends for your iniquities for my sake and your sins, and I will not remember(Isaiah 43:25).

I ask you, most beloved brethren, let us confess each of our sins, while the sinner is still in this life, when his confession can be accepted, when the satisfaction and forgiveness performed by the priests is pleasing before the Lord (St. Cyprian of Carthage).

Repentance opens heaven to man, leads him into paradise, defeats the devil (St. John Chrysostom).

A sigh from the depths of the heart about sins is the beginning of saving repentance.

One must hate sin; through this it is possible to escape from its nets, even if one were already entangled in them.

Repentance is war against sin.

It is not enough for the penitent to save one removal from sins, but they also need fruits worthy of repentance.

Those who do not flow to the saving Sacrament of Repentance, about such we hear the terrible saying of God: unless you repent, you will all perish(Luke 13:3).

As soon as the sinner pronounced judgment upon herself, she averted the judgment of God.

Why is frequent repentance necessary? In order to castigate sin, to sting, to depress, to mortify it. Sin through frequent repentance loses its strength, its charm, its charm.

Saints were the same people as all of us. Many of them came from great sins, but by repentance they reached the Kingdom of Heaven. And everyone who comes there comes through repentance, which the Merciful Lord gave us through His sufferings.

(St. Silouan of Athos).

And so, leaving the times of ignorance, God now commands people everywhere to repent(Acts 17:30).

What is fasting

Confession and Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ are Sacraments that require worthy preparation, time and exercise. This preparation is called fasting.

What is gossip? Fasting is work not only bodily, but also spiritual. Its purpose and intention is to purify the soul and body, reconcile with God, sow and strengthen seeds in the soul - the beginnings of a good holy life, Christian behavior, and suppress the tares - bad habits.

Fasting is a great strictness in food and sleep, the cessation of worldly worries and deeds, reading the Word of God, incessant going to church, examining one's conscience in solitude.

This is an invigorating state of the soul, with all attention engaged in the work of salvation, namely: constant going to church, prayer, fasting, knowledge of one's sinfulness, contrition for sins, repentance - ending with confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries. In repentance, we receive a cleansing of conscience from sins and affirmation in a virtuous life.

So, going to bed, let us go to the temple without laziness for all services, at the beginning of them, and leave only at the end. We will drive away laziness and excuses from ourselves.

Let's pray hard at home. Without fervent prayer, fasting will be fruitless and not at all useful. Prayer is the life of fasting.

Let us try to keep the strictest fast during fasting, which the Holy Church requires of us: a bodily fast and a spiritual fast. Fasting combined with prayer are the two wings with which alone one can soar to the heights of virtue.

We need to get to know ourselves, to figure out: do we live in a Christian way? Are they like true Christians? Are we trying to always act like a Christian?

We will need to confess our sins in detail before our confessor. Therefore, during the fast we need to remember all our sins and transgressions - against God, and against our neighbors, and against ourselves - remember and confess all the sins that we have done from the past confession to this time, for if we do not confess our sins , they will remain unresolved.

We have to partake of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ. My beloved sisters and brothers, this is such a great thing that you need to think about not only during fasting, but all your life and all eternity. In a worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries - eternal life and eternal bliss, in an unworthy - judgment, condemnation and terrible death eternal.

If you decide to fast, then you will have many obstacles, internal and external; they will disappear as soon as you firmly decide to fulfill your saving Christian duty - fasting.

During fasting, one should, if possible, deviate from worldly fuss in order to think about one’s sins, cry about them before God and prepare to bring in them a sincere confession that cleanses us from sins.

The holy time of fasting, confession and communion is such a precious time in our lives that a whole eternity will not be enough to worthily thank God for this mercy bestowed on us from Him.

What do we repent

First, in their own sins; secondly, in the sins to which we have led our neighbors through inducement, temptation, or a bad example; thirdly, in those good deeds that they could have done, but did not; fourthly, in those good deeds from which we turned our neighbor away; fifthly, in those good deeds that we have done with sin in half; and about all such sins you need to ask your conscience and memory and pray to God for its enlightenment (St. John Chrysostom).

There are still people who consider minor sins to be great and worry too much about them, but they hardly think about grave and great sins, for example, to somehow be upset on a fast day, to eat before mass on a holiday, and the rest are considered a grave sin. , and to swear or condemn your neighbor, to slander him and thereby, so to speak, kill in the eyes of others is considered almost nothing. It means to make an elephant out of a fly, and a fly out of an elephant.

There is no unforgivable sin, except that which is not repented of.

(Abba Isaiah).

He who hides his sins does not want to part with them.

Look at yourself: maybe you go to confession without any preparation, without testing your conscience? Maybe you confess without contrition and tenderness, formally, coldly, mechanically and have no intention to improve in the future?

Repentance should not be hopeless grief. It must be animated and enlivened by deep faith in the Redeemer and firm hope in His mercy. The necessary conditions for repentance are faith and hope.

Consciousness of one's sins and self-reproach in them are the first steps on the path of repentance.

No one should ever go to confession unless he first has a firm hope that in confessing he will receive perfect forgiveness.

Frequent confession destroys unrighteousness, turns away from sin, protects from evil, establishes in goodness, strengthens against temptations, maintains vigilance, keeps the commandments of God on the path, strengthens against temptations, pours holy peace into the soul, multiplies the desire for a pious life and makes a person from day to day. days cleaner and more perfect.

Every soul that has lost peace must repent - and the Lord will forgive, and then there will be joy and peace in the soul (St. Silouan of Athos).

How much we will weep and repent that now we have not wept and repented.

Those who say: “Let us sin in youth and repent in old age” will be deceived and will be ridiculed by demons. As willful sinners, they will not be rewarded with repentance (Rev. Ephraim the Syrian).

Repentance must be done with the satisfaction of the offended: let them confess their sin that they have committed, and return in full what they are guilty of, and add a fifth part to it and give it to the one against whom they sinned(See Numbers 5:7).

Repentance must be expressed by hatred of sin: And remember there your ways and all your deeds by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will abhor yourselves for all your evil deeds which you have done.(Ezekiel 20:43).

Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance(Luke 3:8). How can we create them? Acting opposite. For example, did you steal someone else's? Go ahead and get yours. Long time fornication? Now abstain also from your wife on certain days, and get used to abstinence. Insulted and even beat? Forward bless those who offend you, and do good to those who strike you. Have you ever indulged in voluptuousness and drunkenness? Now fast and drink water; try to exterminate the evil that has come from the former life. Have you looked longingly at someone else's beauty? From now on, for greater safety, do not look at all. For it is said: Turn away from evil and do good(Ps. 33:15) (St. John Chrysostom).

The one who repents must not only wash away his sin with tears, but cover his previous sins with better deeds so that the sin is not imputed to him. (St. Ambrose).

If the Lord, in His infinite love and mercy for fallen humanity, had not given him repentance and the remission of sins for the sake of the cross sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son, then all people would descend into hell, to the place of eternal torment (St. John of Kronstadt).

To try to blot out past sins and passions is true repentance. To decide to leave this or that passion, this or that habit, that is true repentance.

How to confess

It is good to write a confession in advance, not from a book, and read it yourself in front of the confessor. It will be understandable and easy for him, and it will be easy and encouraging for the one who confesses

Know that in what you reveal yourself to your spiritual father, that will not be recorded by the devil.

The Sacrament of Penance is such a great gift of God's love for us that we can never worthily thank the Lord for it.

It is necessary to write down even a small sin for repentance, as you remember. (Rev. Ambrose of Optina).

You should never lose heart: you have sinned - repent now and be peaceful in spirit.

Isn't it better to blot out sins by repentance than to endure eternal torment for them there?

When confessing sins to a confessor, one should repent, pleading guilty, and not make excuses and not place the blame on another.

Sins in confession should not be reduced or given a different meaning; everything must be told the truth.

When you confess your sins and the priest says: “I forgive and allow,” then you are already forgiven. There are those who neglect confession. What a great gift they are deprived of!

Mortal sin requires great repentance and many tears. This is really the death of the soul, which is resurrected by repentance only by God's grace.

More important sins should be revealed to spiritual fathers first, and not vice versa.

Repentance turns away the wrath of God.

Repentance and communion are the greatest of all the gifts of God.

One must always repent of all deviations from the Law of God and negligence in fulfilling it.

Repentance consists not only in leaving bad deeds, but also in replacing them with good deeds.

Do not lose heart, do not despair, confess sins - a sign of a contrite heart and a humble soul.

Holy Confession brings twofold benefits: it delivers forgiveness from God for sins committed and protects against falling into sins in the future.

Should we commemorate the sins confessed and, with the help of God's grace, forsaken? There is nothing to commemorate them again in the spirit in confession, when they are already allowed ... But it is good to commemorate them in your prayer

Penitent sinners lag behind sins, mourn that they have sinned before, are vexed with themselves and already turn away from unrepentant sinners, so as not to turn back to their sins.

There is no better weapon than confession - the most powerful and most effective weapon. The devil does not tolerate being discovered and declared: being convicted and declared, he throws his booty and leaves.

When you happen to fall into sin, you should not allow it to stay in your soul for a long time, but rather resort to repentance.

Some people think that it is not necessary to tell the priest all the sins at confession - it is enough just to mention important sins, but such people forget that the sin that is not confessed to the confessor and not resolved by him is not forgiven.

The penitent is required to believe in the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of Penance for the sake of the merits of the cross of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

The enumeration of sins in prayers before communion is necessary in order to acquire repentant tenderness for the communicant, to soften, to humble; so that if any sin turns out to be forgotten and not confessed, then confess it to the confessor.

The sin of a person is destroyed by confession to a priest, and the very roots of sin are destroyed by the struggle with sinful thoughts and the repetition of confession when thoughts begin to overcome.

Frequent confession is very useful, because we soon forget our sins, and if we speak to a confessor, then they are uprooted.

Repentance opens the eyes, opens the sight to sins. Having repented of some sins, a person begins to see others, and thirds, etc., begins to consider as a sin what he did not consider before, recalls unrepentant sins, long forgotten.

Confession must be completely sincere. Only people who have no idea about the purpose of confession can rejoice that the confessor did not ask about some sins: after all, if a sin is concealed, not expressed at confession, then this means that it remains in you.

Repentance is known by the fruits, and not by the root or leaves: the Lord cursed the fig tree, which had only leaves, but was barren; so also one verbal confession of sins is not acceptable without the fruit of the oppression of the body (the labor of repentance).

Pay attention to these words: the root of repentance is a good intention to confess sins, the leaves are the very confession of sins to God before the face of the spiritual father and the promise of correction, and the fruits of repentance are a virtuous life and labors of repentance. By these fruits, true repentance is known (St. Gregory the Dialogist).

What is repentance

This is a “blame” (scandal) of oneself, the most strict and captious self-criticism and self-assessment of all one’s delusions, vices, passions, not only obvious, but also secret, unknown to anyone and not known. To repent means to “blame” oneself in the way that our most inveterate and most merciless enemy could curse us, bring all our “insider things” to the light of God, everything that is even scary and talk about ... If it is difficult to repent, then it is even more difficult to “bring worthy fruits of repentance”… This will require even greater effort of will and courage. What does it mean to bear these fruits? This means that you need to become a completely different person than you were before, namely: from a fornicator and adulterer - chaste; from a drunkard - a teetotaler; from a glutton, a gourmet and a voluptuary - an abstained faster; from a miser and a lover of money to a generous and disinterested person; from a lazy person - a hard worker; from envious and malevolent to benevolent and kind; from disobedient to obedient; from a grumbler - thankful to God for everything; from cowardice to courageous; from evil to beneficent and kind; from talker - silent; from malevolent to cheerful; from a liar, firm and true in his word; from the vindictive - praying for their enemies and ill-wishers; from the self-important - thinking of themselves as the last of believers and the first of sinners; from careless to those who care most about their own salvation; from loving convenience to one who humbles himself by the voluntary harshness of life and voluntary hardships; from the scattered to the solitary and keeping attention; from a reader of empty books to a reader of the Word of God; from a rambler and a dancer - into one who loves church singing and frequent bows; from angry and irritable to meek and good-natured; from a hater to a friend of all; from quarrelsome to peaceful; from the selfish to the one who does not spare himself for the sake of God and the Kingdom of Heaven; from a player in cards, checkers, chess, football and other games - into one who values every minute to save the soul; from a hater to visit the temple of God - into an ardent prayer book in it; from a laugher into a lover of crying about his sins; from a dandy to a simpleton in clothes, shoes and hair; from a lover of peace-loving friends to one who avoids the society of shameful people; from basking on a soft bed and inventing all kinds of rest for his flesh - into an enemy of the rest of his flesh.

Question. At confession, sometimes out of shame, she quietly recited sins.

Answer. Therefore, she did not receive healing in them after confession.

A real confession should be one's own, and not in such a way as to write off from a book and read it.

Choose a strict confessor, not a caresser, move away from the caresser: in addition to caressing, he will harm you by lulling your conscience and declaring sinful things to be innocent.

It is impossible to confess some sins before a spiritual father, and others (because of shame) before another priest; such a confession is invalid.

Excessive sorrow for sins offends the Spirit of God. There is also sinful contrition for one's sins. When you are more concerned with your sins than with God, then you sin.

The Lord will severely punish if you do not use His gift for your salvation.

We sin all the time, but we repent one or four times a year, and even then not all of them. We love to sin, but we are ashamed to confess our sins; we sin with pleasure, but we repent with compulsion; we sin a lot, but when we come to confession, we don’t even remember why we are sinners. We have a great burden of sins, but there are no tears to wash them away.

If you, as a person, have sinned in any way, go quickly, without delay, to the confessor, cleanse your conscience with a confession, and do not wait for the usual time of fasting for confession, as many people do through foolishness. Here’s an example for you: if you get your linen dirty, you immediately change it and try to wash it, but your soul is much more precious than linen, and you leave it neglected, soiled before fasting, and don’t care about it in the least.

Repentance requires that a person become a good example for others.

Let us not despair and let us not be careless. For many, repentance is only in the tongue: they cry, but do nothing good - they are greedy for money, indulge in anger, they talk about their neighbor more evil than good (St. John Chrysostom).

Repentance is help in our weakness, and by no means an indulgence to sin. The gift of God should not be used for evil, but carefully and carefully, gratefully handle it.

What are the Benefits of Confession?

✓ Remission of sins, deliverance from eternal punishment, reconciliation with God, boldness in prayer.

✓ The return of sanctifying grace.

✓ Restoration of peace of conscience and peace of mind.

✓ Weakening of evil inclinations and passions and keeping from new sins, purification of conscience, discernment by the mind of the smallest sins.

✓ Receiving guidance from a spiritual father.

What is penance

Penance is a prohibition (see 2 Cor. 2:6). The basis for this lies in the words of the Lord Himself, who gives the apostles grace to bind and loose sins, to let go and not to let them go (see Matt. 18:18; John 20:23).

The absolution of sins, says Patriarch Jeremiah of Tsaregrad, we accompany with penances for many valid reasons: firstly, in order, through voluntary suffering here, the sinner to be freed from involuntary, heavy punishment there, in another life, for the Lord is not propitiated by anything so much as by suffering voluntary, because St. Gregory says: “Tears are rewarded with philanthropy”; secondly, in order to destroy in the sinner those passionate lusts of the flesh that give rise to sin, for we know that the opposite is healed by the opposite; thirdly, in order for penance to serve as a kind of bondage or bridle for the soul and not allow it to be taken up again for the same vicious deeds, accustom it to work and patience; fourthly, in order that we may see and know whether the penitent has absolutely hated sin? But the one who is about to depart from the world, we free from all this and forgive him his sins, being content with the sincerity of his repentance and the sincerity of his conversion.

Regarding the imposition of penance on a serious sinner, Cyric prescribes: do not immediately impose on him the due penance, but first something small and when he learns, then gradually add to it, but not suddenly burden it.

What is penance? Penance mainly consists in what Christ commanded in the words: Go and (henceforth) who do not sin(John 8:11). But at the same time, it is still necessary to make bows, prayers, almsgiving, fasting during the time indicated by the priest. An example of penance is the penance of Zacchaeus, who, through which he sinned, through which he repented.

Penance is not Divine vengeance for sin, but only a spiritual diet for a sick conscience.

Penances are as follows: prayers, fasting, visiting the sick, traveling to holy places, kneeling, donations to the temple.

All instructions: exhortations, convictions, penances - are aimed at reconciling the sinner with God.

Although our former sins are forgiven us during the Sacrament of Confession, we must bear God's penance for them, i.e., endure illnesses, sorrows, infirmities, and everything that the Lord sends us to cleanse our sins (Rev. Ambrose of Optina).

Who cannot be allowed to confess

✓ Those who do not reveal a single sin in confession.

✓ Those who express disbelief in the main tenets of the faith.

✓ Those who blaspheme the dogmas of faith and reject them, heretics, excommunicated from the Church, schismatics, sectarians.

✓ Those who harmed their neighbor, his honor, property, and did not promise to reward the victim.

✓ Those who are at enmity and do not want to reconcile.

✓ Those who have acquired the habit of some mortal sin and do not want to leave it, such as: illegal cohabitation, robbery, robbery, sorcery, spiritualism, etc.

✓ Those who do not want to avoid occasions to sin.

✓ Also, those who do not express determination to leave mortal sin cannot be admitted to Holy Communion.

God does not listen to sinners who do not repent

If a person in his sins has neither recognition, nor correction, nor disgust, nor shame, God does not listen to this - not because He is not always ready to have mercy on a person, but because the heart of such, in which vice reigns with impenitence, no place for grace.

Repentance is abstinence from sin and the fact that oneself, depressing, curses, and weeps, and ask God for remission of the evils committed (St. Athanasius the Great).

God not only commands repentance to be done, but also exhorts, desires rewards for salvation, and swears that we believe Him. Oh, blessed are we, for whom God swears! Oh, thrice-cursed ones, if we do not believe the swearing God! (Tertullian).

Neither the severity of iniquity, nor the shortness of time, nor the last life of the year, if there is true contrition of the heart and the change of evil lusts for good, does not exclude from forgiveness ... God's love accepts returning fornicators, and at all times the grace of God accepts the penitent (Saint Cyprian).

Fearfulness at confession because we rarely confess (St. Theophan the Recluse).

Whoever gets used to giving an account of his life at confession here will not be afraid to give an answer at the Last Judgment of Christ. For this, a meek judgment seat of repentance has been established here, so that we, cleansed and corrected through repentance here, can be given a shameless answer at the Last Judgment of Christ. This is the first impulse to sincere repentance. The longer we do not repent, the worse it is for ourselves, the more intricate the bonds of sin become, the more difficult it is, then, to give an account. The second impulse to repentance is calmness: the calmer the soul will be, the more sincere confession. There is something to fast and confess with all my heart.

A penitent sinner needs to have great caution and prudence when remembering his former sins, so that instead of contrition and humility, despondency or passionate pleasure is not born from this memory.

Prevent the outcome of your soul with repentance and conversion, so that all the medicine of repentance will not remain useless for you when death comes, for repentance has power only on earth, in hell it is powerless (St. John Chrysostom).

If the penitents remember the sins that they forgot to mention at confession, then they should repent of them in detail before communion.

If we do not now remember our sins and do not repent, then we will see them there before our eyes in all clarity and nakedness, and we will weep in vain. What we see as an example on the richer and Lazar (St. John Chrysostom).

Whoever does not recognize his sins does not repent of them before his spiritual father.

Many times, day after day, others transgress the Law of God and heal their souls with repentance, and grace accepts them, which is why hourly changes occur with every person. And the prudent one finds many occasions to understand this.

About the hypocritically penitent

✓ He hypocritically repents who is in enmity and does not want to reconcile with his enemy. ✓ The thief, when he does not want to return the stolen.

✓ A villain who confesses evil deeds before the spiritual father, but lurks at the court.

✓ Anyone who hides iniquity before the spiritual father.

✓ Anyone who, having already perceived the Truth, does not want to leave the sinful habit of fornication, drunkenness, covetousness and other vices, even after a long exhortation by the spiritual father.

The enemy of the human race and its salvation pours out his malice on those who work for the Lord God. He understands what great benefit a person gains for his soul through the confession of his deeds and thoughts. If people consulted about everything with senile experience, then there would be neither murders, nor theft, nor other vices in the world, but love and mercy would be established everywhere. The path of revelation and confession of sins to a confessor is very ancient in origin. An example was shown by St. John the Baptist, a preacher of repentance, followed by St. apostles. St. Apostle John the Theologian says: If we confess our sins, we are faithful and righteous, may our sins be forgiven us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(1 John 1:9). Saint Gregory the Theologian says: “Do not hesitate to confess your sin, so that by this shame you will avoid future shame.” (Elder Alexander of Gethsemane).

If the one struggling with sin often repents to God of his sins and abstains from them, then the evil spirits assigned to him by Satan are tormented.

After repentance before God for sins during confession to the spiritual father, Satan uses all his efforts to again incline a person to sin, and when he has time to do so, he enters a person with greater power and begins to torment him with sorrows and leads him to despondency, and this continues until until a person again repents of the sin he has committed before his spiritual father.

It is useful for those who enter into a struggle with sin for the spiritual father to subject him to penance for the sins he has committed, for then, during temptations, the one who struggles against sin will have penance before him as a guard, which will remind him of the vow given to God, through which the will will be strengthened and overcome satanic temptation.

Although someone sins, one should not despair of God's mercy, but after each sin, one must immediately repent with a contrite heart: the power of sin will weaken, for evil spirits in repentance and confession are smitten by heavenly power.

The one who struggles with sin will sooner overcome it if he is under the guidance of a person experienced in the spiritual life, to whom he could open all his thoughts in order to receive the necessary advice in time.

In order to receive forgiveness from God, it is not enough to pray for two or three days; it is necessary to make a change in all life and, leaving vice, constantly abide in virtue (St. John Chrysostom).

From those places that give you a chance to fall, run away like a scourge, for when we do not see the forbidden fruit, then we do not desire it so much. (Rev. John of the Ladder).

Confession is a mournful confession of shameful words and feelings. Confession can also extinguish the eternal fire, because thoughts, when they are hidden, give rise to passions, and when confessed, they become pleasing to God. Open your wound to your doctor, say and do not be ashamed to go to your spiritual father; with faith, with gentle simplicity, and as if from the mouth of God, accept his advice (Reverend Theodore the Studite).

Mortal sins: heresy, schism, apostasy from the Christian faith, blasphemy, witchcraft and sorcery, homicide and suicide, fornication, adultery, unnatural fornication sins, drunkenness, sacrilege, robbery, theft and any inhuman offense. If someone dies in mortal sin without having time to repent, his soul goes to hell. She has no hope of being saved.

Non-mortal sins: gluttony, fornication, a rotten word, lies, theft, delicacy, laughter. If such sins turn into a habit, into a passion, then they become close to mortal sin.

Sin enters with pleasure and is driven out by bitterness. The insult to God by sorrow for God is healed.

He who justifies himself alienates himself from repentance (Abba Isaiah).

Confession of sin before a priest is a great cure.

Having sinned due to weakness in something, do not be embarrassed and do not lose heart, but reproach yourself and bring confession with contrition (tell the sin to the priest) - and you will be peaceful in your soul.

On the difference between general and private confession

Believe without a doubt: at a general confession at one time, where can you remember everything and recognize all your shortcomings in order to receive worthy healing of all the vices of the soul? This is much more convenient with constant monitoring of oneself, with constant confession to one's confessor. But whoever does this, irrational people will always arm themselves against him, being obedient instruments of the enemy of human salvation. (hieroschemamonk Alexander of Gethsemane).

The priest in spirit (during confession) acted badly, that he did not allow (everything) to be expressed, but you could also ask him to wait a minute ... Next time, do not indulge him and tell, tell everything, and what you wanted to say and could not .

Do you have anything to say in confession? This is because you are righteous (i.e., in self-deception and spiritual blindness, you consider yourself righteous). Let us pray: "Give me, Lord, see my sins." Not only is sin, but thoughts, feelings and desires are sinful (St. Theophan the Recluse).

About the power of penance. The Lord commanded the leper to do everything according to the law. This is what it is: after confession, one must take a penance, faithfully fulfill it - a great protective power is hidden in it.

Confession for a lifetime is of exceptional importance for a person who has begun to suffer from demons.

The power of confession

It would not be superfluous to mention here an event that is almost contemporary for us. In the vicinity of Vologda there is a large village of Kubenskoye, which has several parishes. One of the parish priests became ill and, approaching his death, saw his bed surrounded by demons who were preparing to steal his soul and bring him down to hell. Then three angels appeared. One of them stood at the bedside and began to argue about the soul with a disgusting demon holding an open book in which all the sins of the priest were written. Meanwhile, another priest came to admonish his brother. Confession began. The patient, fixing frightened glances at the book, pronounced his sins with self-denial, as if spewing them out of himself - and what does he see? He sees clearly that, as soon as he pronounces a sin, this sin disappears in the book, in which there is a gap instead of a record. Thus, by confession, he blotted out all his sins from the demonic book and, having received healing, spent the rest of his days in deep repentance, telling his neighbors, for their edification, a vision captured by miraculous healing.

He who neglects confession falls little by little, does not understand his own sins, and inevitably makes friends with sin. From day to day he will become weaker in the battle against the enemies of the soul, he will soon fall into the net of the devil, it will be more difficult to rise from his falls, and the more he puts off confession, the more he will want to put it off.

About the mystery of confession, one elder often said: “Be calm: the priestly soul is a grave, but you don’t need to tell others about confession either, why? Confession is a secret between you and your confessor. You never know what the spiritual father can tell you in confession, which is inconvenient to say to others.

You have probably seen those who at the beginning of their Christian life were, as it were, saints, deserved praise from everyone, but later became depraved, not even having a shadow of their former good life. Why is this? From neglect of confession

What a time is now! It used to happen that if someone sincerely repents of sins, then he already changes his sinful life to a good one, and now it often happens like this: a person will tell all his sins in confession in detail, and then again he is taken for his (Rev. Ambrose of Optina).

If anyone can, by the grace of God, save himself from any mortal sin, then no one can save himself from minor sins in word, deed and thought, for they happen inadvertently and unconsciously. (St. Demetrius of Rostov).

As we walked (through the ordeals), the angels said to me: “Do you know, Theodora, that few souls pass through these ordeals without harm, because the vain world is full of various lures, fornication and voluptuousness, most of the people from here plunge into the abyss and lie in hell"

The penitent should not excuse himself, justify his sins with some kind of feigned excuse: weakness, need, ignorance - especially not to lay his sin on someone else.

Errors in feelings and thoughts must also be spoken in confession if the enemy often tempts.

About hiding sins

The one who hides sins at confession, although he hears from the confessor: “I forgive and allow,” but the Holy Spirit will not forgive and will not allow him.

Confession in sins and temptations eases the burden of the soul.

Do not be ashamed to reveal your sins to the priest so as not to be ashamed at the Last Judgment.

Do not hide your sins from yourself, do not hide them in yourself - this is misfortune, trouble for you; open them carefully, diligently, accuse, reprove, reproach yourself for all your weaknesses, habits and sinful inclinations and passions. When you sincerely remember your sins and repent, then your spirit will rejoice and the Lord will have mercy on you, and your soul will be glad. People do not understand the value of careful repentance.

To be ashamed at confession to reveal sins is from pride. Having reproved themselves before God in the presence of a witness (priest), they receive peace and forgiveness.

People who do not want to reveal sins and thoughts to spiritual fathers, most of all please the enemy of their soul (Rev. John the Small).

If someone hides his sins and thoughts, evil spirits rejoice, striving to destroy his soul.

The soul that has concealed its sins stops and is severely tormented by demons during ordeals when, after death, it ascends to God for judgment, and a purely repentant soul, without any stop and torment, ascends to heaven.

Remember that unrepentant great sins will bring great and eternal punishment after death. It is better first of all to confess everything that most disturbs your conscience... It is not in vain that it is supposed to warn confessors in the Ribbon not to hide sins. For many speak of unimportant things, but they are silent about the important and, thus, they leave not healed from sinful ulcers and not resolved, because only confessed sins are resolved, and not those that are silent about.

The devil forces not only the simpleton to hide the sins at confession, but also the man of the book, telling him that he can confess his sins to God in private.

It's a shame to sin, not to confess sins

You will endure the difficulty and painful burning sensation of the operation, but you will be healthy (it is said about confession). This means that at confession, without concealment, all your shameful deeds must be revealed to the confessor: although it is painful, and ashamed, shameful, humiliating. Otherwise, the wound remains unhealed and will hurt, and whine, and undermine spiritual health, leaving leaven for other spiritual infirmities or sinful habits and passions.

Let us not be ashamed to the Lord to confess our sins. It is shameful to reveal your crimes, but this shame establishes the earth, destroys thorns, revives the fruits that were considered dead. (St. John Chrysostom).

There is proud shame in repentance of sins. This happens when we are worried and ashamed to tell the confessor our weaknesses that are incompatible with our dignity, rank, etc. Meanwhile, most of these sins should be looked at more simply: I am a human being and have sinned like a human being, so to speak, to state a fact, without breaks and twists. He has sinned as a man - and a man has to speak, guilty, perhaps, of the same sins. Here shame is the same pride, there is something unhumble in it, that here I am, like that, but I have sinned. It's the same pride. We are all sinners, and imagining ourselves to be saints is not the work of a sinner. And we imagine, and if we happen to fall into sin, we worry not as we should. You simply sinned, and simply repent, believing in the mercy of the Lord, without bringing yourself to shame almost to despair.

Many Christians hide their sins at confession either because of false shame, or pride, or lack of faith, or simply because they do not understand the full importance of the Most Holy Sacrament of Repentance - they hide and, thus, come out of confession not only not cleansed of sins, but still more burdened with them, and condemned.

Now it’s a shame, but later, at the Last Judgment, the one who has not repented to reveal his sins will have to face the darkness of Angels and people - wouldn’t it be worse? On the worldwide disgrace... No, brothers and sisters, you cannot hide from God. So, whoever hides his sins at confession doubles them, for such a person adds another sin to the sin that he concealed: he lies before God, Who Himself stands invisibly, accepting our confession.

Run to the Lord with repentance and tears. Repent - and do not doubt, repent - and do not lose heart anymore, do not despair of your salvation. There is joy in heaven when you repent, but you delay? The angels rejoice, and you lower your head? A doctor came for you, and you hide the wound? I did not come to call the righteous, - He speaks, - but sinners to repentance(Matthew 9:13). So, dare, sinner, and do not despair! The good Shepherd came to call you, He bowed the heavens for you - he calls you not to fun, but to tears, not to feasts and libations, but to fasting, vigils and lamentation, not to dances, amusements and delights with music, but to work, sorrow and tightness. Blessed he says, crying...(Matthew 5:4) (St. John Chrysostom).

Punishment for unrepentant sin

Due to my youth, due to my own negligence, I nurtured in myself a feeling of heartfelt attachment to one young man, delighted in my thoughts and dreams with the representation of his beautiful appearance and love for him, and although I considered it a sin, I was ashamed to open myself to confessor during confession ... And now for this vicious pleasure of my girlish thought with impure dreams after my death, the Holy Angels despised me and left me with chagrin in demonic hands ... And now I am burning in the flames of Gehenna, I will burn endlessly and never, never, forever I will burn, because there is no end to torment for the outcasts of heaven!.. ”- At these words, the sufferer curled like a worm, groaned, gnashed her teeth, was engulfed in fiery lava and disappeared into it from the eyes of the frightened abbess ... (The story of a niece in hell to her aunt, abbess, who saw her).

For nothing is covered, the hedgehog will not open, and secretly, the hedgehog will not be taken away.(Matthew 10:26). Therefore, no matter how we hide now with our sins, there is no benefit from this for us. The time will come - but is it far? - and everything will come out. How to be? No need to hide. If you have sinned, go and reveal your sin to your spiritual father. When you get permission, the sin will disappear, as if it was not there. There will then be nothing to be discovered and revealed. If you hide your sin and do not repent, then you will keep it within yourself, so that there will be something to show up in due time when you are exposed at the tollhouses and the Last Judgment. God revealed all this to us in advance, so that even now we would manage to disarm His righteous and Last Judgment on us sinners.

Repentance is twofold: one is internal, secret, when we repent inwardly before the eyes of God, the other is open, external, when we confess our sins before a priest.

What is confession? Confession consists in verbally accusing oneself of sins with thoughts, words, feelings, desires, sensations, ideals - in general, in revealing the sinner's conscience in its deepest bends before God with the help of a priest in order to receive through him absolution in them according to the authority given to him from the Lord Jesus Christ.

If a person accuses the devil as the author of his sins, then he accuses himself. For not the devil, but man himself is the author of his crimes. He would have to resist his desires that lead to evil.

Since our memory often betrays us, those who write the remembered sins on paper before confession do well.

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, idle, invalid, and even offensive to the Lord, if you go to confession without any preparation, without testing your conscience, you confess formally, coldly, mechanically.

One must know that frequent falls into sin, corrected even by frequent repentance, make repentance itself suspicious, and one can finally fall so that after that fall there will be no opportunity to get up again and begin to live for God. Let everyone who carelessly looks at sins fear this (Apostle Erm).

Frequent confession and Holy Communion are the most powerful and most important engines in our spiritual life; only it is necessary to use these Sacraments correctly.

One should not lose heart at the sight of the multitude of one's infirmities and sins, because despondency and hopelessness are the greatest sin. (Abbess Feofaniya Govorova).

Right, you write general sins, in which no one is sinful? And you write things down. For example, do not write: “I am quarrelsome,” but write down the case: “My sister said an unpleasant word, and I got angry and scolded” (St. Theophan the Recluse).

No matter how much a person wears out his flesh, no matter how much he fasts or weeps, but if he does not confess his sins to the priest, he will have no time and his sins will not be blotted out.

Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, for in confessing them to your father, you also crush the head of the dragon (Saint Mark of Ephesus).

The devil forces one to remain silent about sins and passions during confession and not to confess, and convinces one to strive for such sins as if harmless (Rev. Ephraim the Syrian).

The one who here shames himself with confession is freed from eternal shame.

If you cannot tell your sins in confession, then it is better to write them down than hide them.

Shame in confession was invented by the devil; he did that we are not embarrassed when we sin, but we are embarrassed at repentance, which is characterized by sincerity.

God will not cover us with His mercy if we do not first reveal our sins.

Our unrighteousness must be exposed for our own justification from God.

For concealed grave sins, people here on earth, during their near-death illness, are tormented by demons, and after death they are subject to torment in hell.

It is impossible to be at peace with God without continuous repentance. As for great sins, one must immediately confess them to the spiritual father and accept permission, for in them one cannot calm the spirit with one daily repentance.

A repentant sinner who wants to humble himself and be cleansed must accept humiliation, insults and be silent, knowing that he is a sinner and must endure for the sake of repentance, so that God will atone for his sins.

Some despair, thinking that the Lord will not forgive their sin. Such thoughts are from the enemy.

The days of Communion should be celebrated as great holidays, devoting them, as far as possible, to solitude, prayer, concentration and spiritual reading: eat in moderation, do not eat meat, talk more about the Lord, and not talk about worldly things: you should not think and feel what or bad.

Except for enmity and malice, nothing forbids us to partake of the Holy Mysteries! But one must remember that one should never approach the Holy Mysteries with a cold soul and indifference, but every Christian should always have reverent fear, everyone should at this time enter into himself, into his position with repentance.

Our sins are our debt to the Lord. It's good not to be indebted to anyone. It is good to pay debts more often: otherwise, having accumulated, they become too great, burdensome, unpayable. So it is with sins - our debts to the Lord - it is good to pay them as often as possible, repenting, confessing to the priest and inwardly daily, hourly, every minute, constantly repenting before the Lord.

We see that sinners very often do not consider themselves great sinners, because self-love and pride blind their eyes.

Repentance must be sincere and completely free, and not in any way forced by time and custom or by the confessor, otherwise it will not be repentance.

At confession, we will coldly say: “Sinful” - about the sins that they will ask about, and not having the thought that our main goal should be the perfect correction of life. What's the use? This will mean - to fulfill the custom of fasting, and not to fast for salvation. The enemy of salvation contrives to make useless the means given to us by the grace of God for cleansing from sins and thus continue his dominion over us.

The more sincere someone is in confessing sins, the closer he is to salvation. “When you catch yourself in mistakes, you glorify God,” Father Fr. Andrian. On paper and in words, confession is useful.

One should not speak about the former sin, for it has already been confessed, as it should, and therefore a repetition is not required. And with unconfessed sin, one should not approach the Holy Chalice; and confession itself loses its significance when concealing the main sin.

I ask you to always pay special attention to confession, always carefully prepare for it and sincerely confess all your sins.

St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) directly says that without frequent and sincere confession a person will not be able to conquer his passion.

If by repentance we want to please the Lord and save our soul, to achieve freedom from sins and passions, then we must repent from the depths of the soul: thoroughly, comprehensively, firmly, willingly, because all our sins nest and take root in the depths of it.

Experience shows that only then a person is pacified when he fully admits himself guilty and repents of his sin, not trying to reduce it in his own and confessor's eyes. So, only the consciousness of one's guilt calms the conscience of a person.

He told the Lord the sins with contrition of heart - and they melted away, - he sighed, regretted the sins - and they are gone. You say your iniquity ... but be justified(Isaiah 43:26). He realized that they were absurdity, madness, he had the intention to continue to behave properly - and God cleansed them through His servant and the Holy Sacrament.

For the sin of temptation, ask your confessor for penance. If you leave confession embarrassed, it means that you confessed uncleanly and did not forgive your brother from the soul of his sins. (St. Silouan of Athos).

No matter how many sins anyone has and no matter how great they are, the God of mercy has even more, because as He Himself is infinite, so His mercy is infinite. (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk).

God does not look at the multitude and greatness of sins, but at the diligence of the penitent. Robbers, harlots, tax collectors, money lovers - in a word, all great sinners who truly repent, completely prove this truth.

Spiritual life begins with repentance. Repentance must not cease throughout life: for who is without sin?

The power of repentance is known in the abomination of sins. If the soul hates its sins so much that it is better to endure any sorrow and torment than to agree to the pleasure of some sin - this is pure repentance.

Every sin, not cleansed by repentance, immediately attracts by its burden to another.

We must confess as if we were confessing for the last time in our lives.

Elder Hilarion Simonovsky was asked: “What if, even after confessing sins, a person falls into his former sins?” “The soul,” answered the elder, “is like a table on which dust constantly falls, and confession is like a fan or a wing with which it is swept away so that the table is clean.”

On Contrition in Repentance

Show both contrition and sickness of your soul and heart about sins, which the prophet David also showed.

In this life, we must sigh for our sins, shed tears, do alms (Blessed Augustine).

The absence of sorrow for sins makes God more indignant and angry than the very commission of sins.

God judges repentance not according to the measure of labor, but according to the measure of humility, accompanied by weeping, contrition and aversion from sins.

We should try to arouse in ourselves contrition for sins more by thinking about the virtues, about the Kingdom of Heaven, than by harmful remembrance of our sins; for until then you will not stop smelling the harmful stench from the unclean pit, as long as you stand by it or turn dirt in it.

Saving sadness about sins from immoderation becomes disastrous.

The Catholic custom of going to confession and Holy Communion without proper preparation is beginning to take root among us as well. And many of us will come to church once, confess before the Liturgy itself, and at the same time proceed to the Holy Mysteries and thus, within a couple of hours, have time to rebuke and repent of their sins. It must be said that this custom is very pernicious. It does not allow a person to properly consider his sins, to enter into his soul in order to incline himself to repentance, and also does not allow him to indulge in prayer deeds in order to adequately prepare for the reception of the Holy Mysteries.

It happens that Satan is talking to you in your heart: “Look how bad you have done; see what fury your soul is filled with; You are so burdened with sins that you can no longer be saved!” He does this to plunge you into despair, because your repentance is unpleasant to him. (Rev. Macarius the Great).

Great salvation in the confession of sins, for it makes it possible to go through the trials without hindrance (from the life of St. Theodora).

God, loving and desiring salvation, wisely placed between us and Himself the Sacrament of Confession and gave everyone the power, if he wants, to rise through confession and repentance from his sinful fall, by which he fell, and again return to his former relationship, glory and boldness, which he had God, and again become the heir of all blessings.

But yes, we know that only here, in real life, where there is repentance, there is also the repeal of terrible judgmental decrees, by the boundless mercy of God, for the sake of sincere and perfect repentance. And whoever does not repent here, these decrees will be immediately fulfilled there.

If you have received the forgiveness of all your sins through the Sacrament of Penance, then what kind of love, what thanksgiving and humility should be a source for you that, being worthy of countless torments, you are not only delivered from this, but are also honored with sonship, glory and the Kingdom of Heaven? Turn this in your mind and always remember (Rev. Simeon the New Theologian).

Just as it is natural for us to eat, drink, speak, hear, so it is natural for us to repent. Consider from the beginning of the world the lives of all those who have successfully completed their earthly journey, and you will find that the sacrament of piety was completed in all those who pleased God through repentance. Was anyone condemned - he was condemned for neglecting repentance. Has anyone been justified - he is justified because he clung to repentance (Rev. Mark the Ascetic).

The devil cares not so much that they sin, but that they do not see sin and remain sinners.

Demons do not find those of the sins in which a person sincerely repented in the Sacrament of Penance before a priest, and they grieve about it very much (from the life of St. Theodora).

Do you remember to write down your daily expenses in a special book every day? So do not forget to write down your daily sins in that scroll which is called conscience. (And St. John of the Ladder advises to write down sins for memory and in a book - for confession).

If we sin, stumble, heal with tears, while there is time for repentance. The time for repentance is short, but the Kingdom of Heaven has no end.

He betrays himself to eternal perdition who, having a Merciful Judge, does not resort to the aid of repentance.

As soon as the conscience convicts, repent quickly - and the destructive power of sin will be stopped, and there is no sin that could resist the action of sincere repentance.

Experience of confession

One day I began to confess to the priest. He stopped me after my words: “I am sinful in everything” - and asked: “Did you steal horses?” I answered: "No." “Well, you see, and not in everything,” said the elder. When I said that I didn’t know how to confess at all, he remarked: “You come out of confession like a saint.”

Having talked once with a friend, I told her that I always forget to tell the priest in confession or ask everything I need. To which I heard the following answer from her: “Yes, this happens to everyone, you need to write down what to say: the enemy steals” (from the life of St. Ambrose of Optina).

About small sins

More perishing from evil words than from evil deeds, because not many consider it necessary to repent for the spoken words. (St. John Chrysostom).

In judging grave sins (I know this well), you have power over yourself. And everyone neglects minor sins, as if they are not important, thinking that they will not be asked about them. But the devil entraps us with them, for he makes each of us neglect them as meaningless.

And with small sins it is impossible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The apple eaten by the forefathers in Eden was small, but we ourselves know what the consequences of this were.

Although there is a small well in the barrel, the wine still flows out. Destroy sin while it is small. Blessed is he who has and breaks babies ... on a stone(Ps. 136:9).

Many do not accuse themselves of small sins as a sin, and after all, small sins, if they multiply, can also weigh down the conscience and destroy the human soul, like any one mortal sin, in the likeness of sand and stone. Just as one large stone, being tied to a man’s neck, will plunge him into water, so sand, although small in itself, but if a full bag is poured with it and tied to a man’s neck, will also plunge a person into the abyss, like a large one. a rock. This is how you should look at small but multiplying sins (St. Demetrius of Rostov).

Are you comforted by the fact that you notice only small sins behind you? What are your minor sins? Every idle word will have to be answered at the judgment of God. Is it small for you? Every sin against God is great as an insult to the great holiness of God. Every sin is great when it is ignored. Even so, the sin is more dangerous, the more inconspicuous it is: the spark that passes by the eyes is not great, but negligence turns the whole village into ashes.

However ugly and disgusting sins may be, habit makes them unimportant. (Blessed Augustine).

Minor sins should be avoided as well as great ones.

Let no one harbor in himself that vain thought through which corruption penetrates the soul, that frivolity which prompts us to often say: “It means nothing, it is of little importance,” because a thousand evils can be born from this, for the ancient builder of all evil, the devil, through his cunning often uses a certain gradualness and, as it were, condescension for the destruction of man, and usually begins with unimportant things. For this reason, try to destroy the very germs of sin in yourself, for even though they did not immediately grow in great falls, you should not neglect them, for the reason that from carelessness they can gradually increase and intensify. (St. John Chrysostom).

Your sinning with a word is no longer a fall of the soul. One should not grieve immeasurably about such daily and monthly falls, for this is the cunning of the enemy, who wants to introduce relaxation into the soul through immeasurable sadness. (St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)).

Before confession, you yourself will take care of your son and prepare him for this Sacrament as best you can. Make him read the commandments with an explanation before confession (Rev. Ambrose of Optina).

The merciful Lord has invested in repentance a short and humble consolation, consisting in the relief of conscience, in the manifestation of the hope of salvation, which is called St. fathers notice. What a decent pleasure for repentant sinners! (St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)).

About despair

Those Christians despair who, knowing many grave sins behind them, lose heart and lose hope for their correction and mercy from God. Overwhelmed by sinful passions and skills, such people sometimes say: “Where can we be saved? We are sinful people, so entangled in sinful nets that we do not even dare to think about pardon. Many times we repented, many times we wished to improve, but we did not become the best.” From others, to great sorrow, I had to hear: “To die, to die like this: anyway, God will not forgive me!” By saying this, these people fall deeper into the abyss of evil. How to reason with them? And how to give them a helping hand to snatch them from the power of Satan?

One thing we need to know for sure and never forget: we must not despair in any state. Despair is the death of the soul. The most serious sins can be repented and forgiven. Many desperate robbers and murderers not only received forgiveness with sincere repentance and correction, but also achieved holiness: Moses Murin, the Barbarian Robber (his memory is May 6) other. It is the Lord who gives us an example so that we do not despair, like Judas, but repent and through this we are saved.

Satan drives you to despair when he says in your heart: "There is no salvation for you, you have sinned much." You answer him: “You are the condemned, and not the judge; there is no salvation for you, but eternal fire is prepared. My hope and salvation is Christ God, who came into the world to save sinners.

The evil spirit never loses hope for our destruction, while we despair of our own salvation. (Saint Dionysius the Great).

No matter how great our sins and no matter how many there are, we should not despair of receiving mercy: the word of God assures us that there is no sin that overcomes the mercy of God

("Athos ascetics").

Having sinned, take care, in teaching humility, not to run away from repentance, because repentance, together with God's love for mankind, blots out both past and present sins.

Love penance. How salutary are penances and other measures of correction! They are the way to heaven (Reverend Theodore the Studite).

Through repentance, the lack of good deeds is replenished.

When you fast and prepare for the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, then you need not to eat vegetable oil.

On eldership and its difference from confessorship

Say: "The elder has to allow and punish." I think that the elder should neither be allowed nor punished.

It is his job to judge and determine the state of the student, to explain to him how he got to the worst, and to indicate the way how to avoid this in the future and how to extinguish the passions from which the matter arose, and to pray. The elder is an adviser, not a judge and not a punisher. His job is to pity and inspire, betraying his brother to the goodness of God.

A disciple comes, repents of breaking the commandment. The elder punishes and forgives.

A conscious violation of an explicit commandment requires a confession before a confessor and a mysterious permission. The elder, after listening to the disciple, gives him an explanation about the falls and indicates ways to avoid such falls ... and then sends him to the confessor. He permits and imposes penance. The elder gives only advice: “You should have prayed more earnestly, you wouldn’t have given yourself food, as usual… and you would have taken away some part of your sleep,” and the like. The permission of the elder (God will forgive by His grace) does not have the permissive power inherent in the mysterious permission. This belongs to the priest. The resolution of venial sins belongs to the elder, and they are resolved by revelation itself. As such a sin is revealed, so is it forgiven.

St. Demetrius of Rostov counted such sins in his daily confession, and in his prayer for the future, there are few indications. What is the power of eldership? Great and great, only it is not all of a legal nature, but of a moral one - advice, explanations, inspiration, prayers. It is the elder's duty that every disciple depart from him, as if washed, as if having bathed. The main thing: get together - and determine everything, and be afraid to enter the field of spirituality (St. Theophan the Recluse).

To repent of sins and not to beware of them is the same as to mock God.

From the book sent to you about confession before a confessor and about revelation before an elder, you will see that there are differences between the one and the other way of confession: confession of sins in general terms is sometimes enough for a confessor, but a detailed disclosure of all the thoughts of the soul and acceptance of his advice is required before the elder. (St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow).

Returning home, one should repent of all his missteps that happened on the road, when either he crawled with his eye - to see something unkind, or with his ear - to hear, or with his tongue - to utter something superfluous.

God's love for mankind

God is philanthropic, and philanthropic indefinitely. Do not say, “I committed fornication, committed adultery, committed terrible sins, and moreover, not once, but many times. Will he forgive? Will he consign them to oblivion?" Listen to what St. Prophet David: “How much is the multitude of Your goodness, Lord!” Taken together, your sins do not overcome the greatness of Divine mercy.

Let us also look at others who have been saved through repentance. Or perhaps some of the women will say: “I have committed fornication, I have committed adultery, I have defiled my body with all kinds of intemperance. Can I be saved?" Woman, look to Rahab and hope, and you are saved. For if she, being an obvious and popular harlot, was saved through repentance, then will you not be saved with the help of repentance and fasting?

O great love of God! He even mentions harlots in Scripture.

Truly, God is philanthropic, and no one can adequately express His philanthropy. And even if all human languages were united together, even then, even in part, they would not be able to tell the love of God to mankind.

So, brethren, seeing many examples of those who have sinned and repented and saved, hasten to repent before the Lord yourself, so that you may receive forgiveness for your sins and be worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. (St. Cyril of Jerusalem).

Do not put off repentance until old age: who has walked the broad path to hell all his life, how can he enter paradise at the end of it without the special mercy of God? It is true that God's mercy is unparalleled and it can save any sinful person, but there are very few such examples for a person, having spent his whole life in sins, to live pleasingly in old age; and there are far fewer cases where someone, having grown old in sins, died in the fear of God and with due repentance. At death, although a person repents of sins, however, such repentance comes more from fear than from good intentions ... Accustomed to being evil, it can not be easy to be kind.

About despair and excessive hope

One theologian, speaking about many mortal sins, regards despair as the greatest of all sins, because this sin is directly against God, and a person who despairs of God's mercy does not believe in the power of the Lord, considers himself to be lost and cannot correct himself. St. Isidore says: “To sin before God means to begin to die an eternal death, and to despair of God’s mercy is the same as entering hell.” And Blessed Augustine rightly considers both despair and excessive hope in God to be equal. According to St. Isidore and Blessed Augustine, and the one who hopes too much in the mercy of the Lord, and the one who despairs - both are almost in hell: for just as the first, relying too much on the mercy of the Lord, will sin safely, fearing nothing, so the last, despairing of the forgiveness of his sins, he will not repent of them. Despair is fatal, but excessive hope is a great evil, for through it we offend God Himself. Excessive hope is a sin hardly lesser than despair. He who hopes excessively in God's mercy uses God's mercy as an instrument in his sins.

God demands repentance from us as soon as we sin, and does not order us to postpone it.

Saint John Chrysostom calls repentance a virtue that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. What is this virtue? Is it not in wearing heavy chains on our body? Is it not in dry eating or in such fasts, so as to eat only bread and water? Is it not to hide in a cave and spend your whole life in solitude? The Lord God does not require so much from all of us, although such an image of a holy life is very pleasing to Him and greatly contributes to the achievement of perfection. He deigns to be content with this, that we, as if knowing all the vileness of our sins and truly having disgust for them, obey Him in them before the confessor, not hiding a single one, and mourn them with sincere contrition of heart.

If someone confesses without having true regret that he has sinned, and without feeling contrition in his heart, he will not receive forgiveness from God for his sins. All theologians unanimously affirm that without the contrition of the true, the feeling of great sorrow that we have sinned, God does not forgive anyone's guilt.

Other penitents, not at all prepared for confession, come to the confessor, hoping for him that he will ask them about everything and remind them of their sins. It is true that it is very useful for the confessor to ask the confessor about all kinds of sins, in accordance with the years, reason and condition of each, with all possible care, so as not to teach what he does not know. But it is not at all useful for a person to completely hope for a confessor that he will remind him of all his sins. It is necessary that before confession a Christian should prepare himself, remember all his sins, and, blaming himself for them before God mentally and contrite with all his heart, go to the confessor and tell him all his sins. For if someone does not prepare to confess, then even if the confessor reminds him of his sin and he confesses it to him, then such a confession will be made in passing, without proper contrition and feeling how great this sin is. For at the moment when his confessor reminds him of his sin, one cannot suddenly be filled with the dispositions of the spirit necessary for repentance and grieve with deep self-humiliation, which real confession requires.

Don't be ashamed... the priest keeps the secret of confession

If now you are ashamed to tell your sin to your confessor, who is the same person as you, and can sin more than you, if you are not helped by the mercy of God, then what will happen when this sin will be revealed at the Last Judgment of the Lord in the presence of God and countless his saints? The shame of confession is in no way befitting, and it was invented by the devil ... If the Lord God, in His inscrutable mercy, appointed us a judge such a person as we are, dressed in the same weak flesh, then why should we not open our confessor sincerely to our conscience, and especially when we know perfectly well that he cannot reveal the slightest of our vices to anyone, being obliged by the strictness of the law and his position to the observance of the secrecy of confession.

Most of all, evil spirits try to prevent a person from repenting: they, like haters of the human race, will tempt him most of all at death in order to prevent a person from thinking about repentance.

Repentance can only be useful to you here when you are still in earthly life with your body, and when you die in sins without repentance, then even if you see your misfortune, imagining an incomprehensible eternity in torment, and you will repent of your sins, but then your repentance will be in vain and will not help you in any way. You will mourn your sins, but your tears will not touch anyone.

Let us remember that a return to former sins is foolish, because it again robs us of the peace we have achieved. We have been reconciled to God - a return to sins destroys this reconciliation. What a blessing we lose when we lose peace with God and with conscience! Returning to our former sins, we also lose the achieved freedom, which we gained by freeing ourselves from sin and guilt. Precious blessing... Returning to our former sins shows our ingratitude.

Fear the habit of sin. The habit of sin is the more difficult to overcome, the longer it has become related to the human heart. You need a fierce war with yourself and the wondrous power of grace to overcome the sinful habit.

One of the signs that the Spirit of God lives in us, if there is repentance and self-denial in us. The Holy Spirit shows us the ugliness of the impurity of all sin. And seeing the impurities of sin, can we not reject them from ourselves and not repent of them?

Unworthy priests do not prevent us from receiving the grace of God in the Sacrament.

After each sin, one must repent before God and ask for His help against temptations, since impenitence leads to inertia in sin, and the voice of conscience is muffled.

It must be remembered that every sin is for the soul the same as poison for the body; and the poison, if it is not vomited out by known means, inevitably causes bodily death; and concealed sin infects the whole soul and mortifies it, that is, alienates it from the life of God, deprives it of grace, without which the soul inevitably falls under the power of the devil. It is this ancient enemy of ours that inspires false shame in many penitents during confession; but one must be ashamed of sin, and not of revealing it before the confessor. And who should be ashamed of? The Lord knows our most secret thoughts, and the servant of God, the witness of our confession, is also a man, and in turn also needs confession.

To receive the forgiveness of sins from God, one must have true repentance for sins and a perfect confession of them. For just as a sick person is not healed unless he reveals his illness to a doctor, so no one can receive forgiveness unless he first recognizes his sin before God. For, according to the words of blessed Augustine, the consciousness of sin is the beginning of salvation.

Therefore, all the sins of which the Christian repents before the priest, promising not to sin in the future, are blotted out by the grace of God, for repentance is called the second baptism.

Try to confess to your confessor more often, hiding nothing, with heartfelt contrition about the sins you have committed, with which we anger the most merciful Lord so much; have a strong desire and ask for God's help in order to avoid sins in the future. Although no one can say of himself that he will not sin, yet one must do everything possible to refrain from sins and force oneself to do good.

The most sincere, tireless confession protects a lot from the repetition of temptations.

There is a cry of the heart without tears, but as strong as tears.

We will not tolerate thoughts that diminish our sins and comfort us with the remission of sins. (St. Maximus the Confessor).

At confession, it is forbidden to surrender one’s sins in parts, as other cunning people do, that is, they transfer half or more minor sins at confession to one (familiar) confessor, and the other half, more serious sins, to another confessor who does not know them . This would be dishonest and sly. Others do this because they are ashamed of their confessor they know, and therefore, like the Pharisees, they slyly and shamelessly pass on to their spiritual father only petty and ordinary sins, and with those sins that are more serious, they go to another, unfamiliar, or, according to their concept, more condescending confessor. Such people forget that by such an action they deceive not the confessor, but the Savior and God Himself, and through this they destroy the Sacrament of Holy Repentance and become unworthy of Holy Communion.

In general, it is indecent, without extreme need and reason, at the mere whim, to change confessors, as others do, looking for such a spiritual father who would ask less, not strictly reprove, and more often allow the reception of the Holy Mysteries - even to someone who himself feels that unworthy of them.

There are, unfortunately, people who hide their sins in confession. So, some because of false fear, others because of false shame, others out of pride, others, finally, simply out of ignorance, hide their iniquities from the priest when they repent, and through this they double them, because they lie before the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. , confession to those who receive them. By hiding your sins, you please the devil, who like a roaring lion, he walks, claiming someone to devour(1 Pet. 5:8), seeking your destruction.

Sinful thoughts should be resisted, and their hobbies should be immediately healed with repentance ... Sinful thoughts and feelings should not be considered, so that they do not creep into the soul and infect it, they should be immediately rejected (St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)).

About confession, you need to ask long-term confessors who reverently passed the ministry of God.

We are all conceived in iniquity, and in sins our mother gives birth to us (see Ps. 50: 7). And of Esma's flesh (cf. John 3:6). Therefore, even if one is holy, he also needs confession of sins, as the prophet David says. Blessed Augustine speaks of this thus: “If a man hides, the Lord reveals; if a person hides, God makes it clear; if a person is conscious, God forgives.”

The reason prompting you to repentance must be the uncertainty of your death. Christ made this hour unknown to you so that you would always live in repentance and consider every hour to be the last. Other reasons that incline you to repentance must be the Last Judgment and eternal torment (St. Theophan the Recluse).

Are you sinful - hurry to bring repentance for sins. Then your name will be inscribed in the Book of Life and the definition of your torment will change to the definition of your salvation.

God has still given us time to repent, but how have we used that time?

Some, for example, object to oral confession, and object because they do not have truly Christian humility, because their pride does not allow them to confess their actions even before a priest, a servant of God ... And such people need to pay attention to the state of their hearts for with the purification of their hearts, they will no longer have any desire to find objections to the teachings of Christ.

Fasting, fasting, confession and St. communion - this is the course of local healing.

It happens that a person’s thoughts are very embarrassing, suggesting to him that, despite all his efforts and labors, he does not inherit the Kingdom of God. Such enemy thoughts should be rejected at their very appearance with the words of the Gospel: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief” – and be completely sure of God’s mercy, for all our sins are like a handful of sand before the ocean of God’s mercy. And St. John Chrysostom says: “The ocean has limits, but God’s mercy is boundless, therefore it is necessary to rely on Him. And in case of any falls, do not lose heart and do not grieve immeasurably, but raise yourself up with hope and humbly ask for forgiveness. When a Christian falls, let him not forget the love of his Father in the hope of forgiveness.”

God has given you in this life the simplest remedy for the cleansing of sins: the Sacrament of Penance. You knew this means, but you did not use it!.. Repentance is the only means to enter the Kingdom of God. By sin we fell away from the Kingdom of God, therefore, in repentance for sins we will enter it. By sin, we have moved away from God and the holy society of Angels - through repentance of sin, we will again be accepted into this society.

And the saddest thing of all is that we are so accustomed to sinning that we do not consider our own sins to be sins. Calling ourselves Orthodox, we often live worse than Jews, Mohammedans and pagans. Therefore, when we see our sins, it is the smell of the health of the soul.

Penance should serve the repentant as a reminder of sin.

Remorse of conscience is heavier than any other torment. Therefore, confessors to the confessor should open themselves, and not wait for questions. It is difficult to know what is hidden in someone else's soul.

Repentance is the whole mystery of salvation. How simple, how clear! But how do we do it? We leave the saving repentance indicated to us by God and strive to exercise in imaginary virtues, because they are pleasant for our feelings, therefore, little by little, in an inconspicuous way, we become infected with the opinion (St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)).

End of introductory segment.

I confess to the Lord God Almighty, in the Holy Trinity, glorified and worshiped by the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit in all my sins, the evil I have committed in thought, word, deed, and all my feelings.

I have sinned before the Lord and Savior with my self-love, carnal pleasure, voluptuousness, gluttony, gluttony, laziness, self-pity, pride, conceit, humiliation of others, envy, hostility, hatred, malice, lust, fornication, impurity, self-will, disobedience, disobedience, rudeness, impudence , harshness, obstinacy of temper, unbelief, lack of faith, ingratitude, greed, cruelty, stinginess, greed, greed, sneak, deceit, slyness, slander, perjury, swearing, perjury, hypocrisy, captiousness, oppression, abduction, appropriation of someone else's, abuse, indulgence sins, indulgence, vain pastime, idle talk, idle talk, foul language, vanity, luxury, malevolence, malevolence, malevolence, vindictiveness, coldness, negligence, negligence in prayer and good deeds.

Disrespect for old age, disrespect for parents, unfaithfulness, inconstancy in virtue, frivolity, vanity, fearfulness, grumbling, despondency, cowardice, despair, anger, passion for reading empty books, negligence for reading the Holy Gospel and other spiritual books, inventing an excuse for one’s own sins and self-justification instead of condemnation and self-accusation, dishonest performance of official duties, ill-will, negligence, incitement to evil, cursing one's neighbor, swearing, superstition, fortune-telling.

In all these iniquities I have sinned, and by them I have immeasurably offended my All-holy Lord and Benefactor, of which I admit that I am guilty, I repent and regret.

I grieve bitterly for sins and henceforth, with God's help, I will beware of them.

GENERAL, CONFESSION ON PERSON OF THE PENITENT

Innumerable, Merciful God, are my sins, voluntary and involuntary, open and secret, great and small, committed by word, deed, mind and thought, day and night, and in all hours and minutes of my life until this day and hour.

I have sinned before the Lord God with ingratitude for His great and countless good deeds and His good providence.

I have sinned, Lord, before You by not keeping the vows of Baptism. He sinned with lies and self-will.

He sinned by violating the Lord's Commandments and the traditions of the Holy Fathers.

He sinned with rudeness, impudence, disobedience, self-conceit, severity, timidity, arrogance, humiliation of others, carnal pleasure, obstinacy of temper, disorderly screaming, irritability, beating, quarrels, cursing.

He sinned with slander, negligence, haste, malice, enmity, hatred, incitement, jealousy not according to reason.

He sinned with vengeance, rancor, voluptuousness, hostility, impurity, daydreaming, self-will, self-will, intemperance, drunkenness, whim, gluttony.

He sinned with distraction, jokes, witticisms, laughter, ridicule, insane fun, covetousness, sleeping much, doing nothing, abandoning prayer, service, fasting and good deeds.

He sinned with bewilderment, cooling, stinginess, greed, contempt for the poor and the poor.

He sinned with greed, sneakiness, negligence, idleness, self-pity, deceit, craftiness, carelessness, disrespect for old age, disobedience to those in authority, spiritual father and older brothers.

He sinned with unbelief, blasphemy, doubt, inconstancy, frivolity, indifference, insensitivity, unbelief, indifference to the Holy Orthodox Faith and the Holy Sacraments, infidelity, inattention to prayer and worship, to fasting and good deeds.

He sinned with immeasurable sorrow, sadness, despondency, conceit, despair, all sorts of nasty, crafty and bad thoughts.

I have sinned by calling on the name of God falsely and in vain.

He sinned with lack of faith, cowardice, hopelessness, scolding, hypocrisy, bribery, partiality, captiousness, oppression, punishment, covetousness, appropriation of someone else's.

I have sinned by abusing the gifts of God, indulgence in sins, idle talk, extravagance, coldness towards God and neighbor, incitement to evil, secret eating, secret drinking.

He sinned with a vain pastime, spreading his false and blasphemous opinions, pronouncing deliberately and thoughtlessly various kinds of curses on people, cattle, animals and birds.

I have sinned by allowing every thought that is unrighteous, impure, filthy and ungodly.

I have sinned by dreaming, ambition, charm, pretense, malice, creeping my tongue into ungodly words, spending time in unsimilar deeds, mockery, temptation, dancing, gambling, laughter.

He sinned by omitting prayer before going to bed and upon rising from sleep. He sinned by forgetting to make the sign of the cross before eating food. He sinned by eating food after sunset, by foul language and idle talk without a twinge of conscience.

I have sinned with jealousy, wrong advice, flattery, lasciviousness, voluptuousness, and pickiness in food.

I sinned by reading romance novels, watching seductive films.

I have sinned by negligence in reading the Gospel, the Psalter and other books of spiritual and religious content.

I have sinned by inventing excuses for my sins and self-justification instead of self-judgment and self-condemnation.

I have sinned by dishonest fulfillment of the assignments and obediences entrusted to me, by bearing false witness against my neighbor.

I have sinned with pride, vanity, arrogance, arrogance, an increased interest in clothing and fashion, a desire for honor, petrification of the heart, crafty thoughts and human pleasing.

I have sinned with various impurity, by the action of the enemy, in a sleepy dream. He sinned with lustful and fornicating deeds by nature and through nature.

Often I sinned by omitting services in God's temple, being late for church services. He sinned by visiting churches of other faiths. He sinned by leaving God's temple before the dismissal of the church. He sinned by omission and non-fulfillment of the prayer rule, an impure confession and an unworthy acceptance of the Body and Blood of the Lord.

I sinned by giving alms with a cold, crafty heart, bitterness towards the poor. He sinned by not fulfilling the Lord's commandments about visiting the sick, who are in prison.

He sinned by not doing the deeds commanded by the Lord: he did not satisfy the hungry, he did not give drink to the thirsty, he did not clothe the naked, he did not bury the dead.

He sinned by not paying due honor to holidays and Sundays.

He sinned by not praying as he should on the Lord's and Mother of God feasts.

He sinned by forgetting the memory of the holy saints of God and drunkenly celebrating holidays in general.

I have sinned by slandering and condemning the highest in position, by age, by slandering friends, benefactors, by not maintaining fidelity and love.

I have sinned by going to the church of God without a humble disposition of heart; sinned by impious standing in the temple: walking, sitting, reclining and untimely presence from it, idle conversations during worship.

I remembered in vain the name of the Lord my God, even, it happened, I swore by His holy, terrible name; often lied and boldly and shamelessly reproached my neighbor. I often hesitated to get out of a state of anger and insulted, irritated my neighbor. He was magnified by good deeds, which he did not have at all. He often resorted to cunning, flattery and was two-faced and crafty in relations with people.

Every day I sinned with impatience, cowardice, many times ridiculed the sin of my neighbor, grieving him secretly and openly, gloated over his deeds and misfortune, many times carried enmity, malice, hatred and envy in my heart.

He sinned with insane laughter, witticisms, obscene jokes, disorderly noisy conversation; often spoke thoughtlessly.

He created fornication in a dream vision, was stung by the beauty of the human body, nourished the imagination and heart with voluptuous feelings. He sinned with a passionate look at beautiful faces.

He sinned with my tongue, uttering atrocities, blasphemy, vulgarity about objects of voluptuousness, fornicated, inflamed with passionate kisses and did inappropriate things.

He sinned with voluptuousness and gluttony, enjoyed delicacies, desired variety in food, enjoyed drinks and wines. Hastily yielded to his desires and fulfilled his whims.

He often did not spare money in order to please the requirements and decency of the world, and spared a penny for the poor.

Often mercilessly condemned and reproved others, despised poverty and abhorred it. He sinned with a hostile attitude towards a person because of his face, appearance. He was greedy and greedy. He often went to God's temple in uncleanness and in this form venerated holy things, took holy prosphora and drank holy water, stood reverently in the temple, tempting others with this.

In home prayer, he was cold, absent-minded, often prayed briefly and hastily, without zeal and reverence, did not overcome his laziness, indulged in bliss and inactivity, spent time in idle pursuits and pleasures, cheerful conversations, games. He spent precious time on chatter, gossip, gossip, censure of his neighbor. He sinned with despondency, despair in his salvation and the mercy of God.

He uttered blasphemous words, sang shameless, reckless songs, resorted to divination and divination, not realizing the severity of this sin. He sinned with ignorance, petrification of the heart. Often he sinned willingly, in full understanding and consciousness, of his own free will, and deliberately inclined others to sin, violating all the covenants and commandments of God.

I have sinned with all my feelings, willingly and unwillingly, knowledge and ignorance, by myself and through others I have been tempted in all these and other iniquities.

I consider myself guilty before the face of God more than all people, therefore I humbly pray to you, honest father, on the Day of Judgment be my witness. I truly regret these falls and have the will to continue, as far as possible, hoping for God's mercy and help, to guard myself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.

Forgive me, honest father, forgive me from all my sins and iniquities and pray for me, a sinful and unworthy slave (you can ask for penance).

GENERAL CONFESSION,

COMPILED ON THE WORKS OF EP. JUSTINA

I confess to the Lord God the Almighty, in the Holy Trinity, glorified and worshiped by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit ... in all my sins.

I confess that I have sinned against all the commandments of God.

I have sinned: lack of faith and unbelief, doubt in faith; superstition and arrogance, negligence in one's own salvation, forgetfulness of God's justice and lack of devotion to the will of God; a stubborn desire to have everything my way; impatience and murmuring.

I have sinned: self-interest, pride, servility to the spirit of the times and worldly customs; sinned against conscience, hypocrisy.