What is the difference between formal and live confession? Geronda, can a person exaggerate his sins in order to show the confessor that he is engaged in subtle deeds? And if what you are talking about happens often.
How to confess correctly? What is the worst sin? Is there a sin that God will never forgive? How to prepare for Confession?
How often our soul hurts ... Anxious, a bad premonition, conscience torments. From the realization of one's sinful misdeeds and a wrong life, the heart sometimes breaks and it seems that there is no way out. But there is always a way out - to turn to God for help! And to the question: “What to do when the soul hurts?”, the Orthodox Church answers - to bring repentance. The Lord will forgive us any sin if we repent of it and do not repeat it again. After all, there is no unforgivable sin, except for the unrepentant sin. Confession heals the soul, gives an extraordinary feeling of freedom and lightness, as if the soul has wings and Heaven is getting closer...
If we begin to see our sins and correct ourselves, this is the first sign of the healing of the soul, and we are on the right track! Repentance works wonders. And even a short prayer, “Lord, have mercy,” is also a kind of repentance. But the forgiveness of sins is given to us only in the sacrament of Confession, because the Lord Himself endowed the priests with such power. Confession, like a shower for the soul, washes away our sins, cleanses the soul from all evil committed in deeds, words and thoughts.
PREPARATION FOR THE MYSTERY OF CONFESSION
- There is no special preparation for Confession. You just need to remember everything that weighs on the soul and haunts the conscience, give up evil and decide not to repeat the same sins anymore. Heartfelt repentance and turning to a good life is the most important thing we can do for our soul and the Lord.
- Preparation for the sacrament of Repentance should begin with an analysis of the holy commandments (see Appendix) and the correspondence of your life to them. It must be remembered that Repentance is the sacrament of changing the mind, the rebirth of the soul, and not a formal account of sins.
- You can confess at least every day, at every Liturgy, regardless of whether you are going to receive communion or not.
- Someone confesses aloud, someone writes down their sins on paper - this is of no fundamental importance. Each church has its own tradition of confession.
- Don't worry about someone listening to you. Firstly, you can talk with the priest in a whisper, and secondly, like you, everyone has their own thoughts and experiences at this moment.
- Common Confession often takes place in churches where there are a lot of communicants and few priests, or under other circumstances. In this case, the priest reads and explains the sins, and those who come to Confession repent of them. Then the priest gives a general permission from sins and a blessing for Communion. If any sin disturbs your conscience after the general Confession, it is better to approach the priest and confess in person.
- General Confession (repentance for sins committed from early childhood to the present) happens once in a lifetime and more often for those who came to faith at a conscious age. To perform it, it is better to ask the priest to set a time for a separate conversation, before or after the service, since such a conversation can be long in time.
- After the priest reads the permissive prayer, you can ask him to pray for you and ask for a blessing for Communion, if you were preparing for it.
TO HELP THE PENITENT
- “Don't be ashamed to confess, but be ashamed to sin,” the holy fathers advise us. The shame of repenting at Confession is false and inappropriate, it is instilled by dark forces to leave us in a state of sinful heaviness, which leads to sadness and despondency. Therefore, do not hide anything at Confession and try to sincerely repent of everything.
- If it suddenly seems that the priest can condemn your sins or God will not forgive you, immediately discard these thoughts: they are also inspired by the forces of darkness who want to lead us astray. Let us remember the words of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: “No matter how many sins we have and no matter how great they are, God has even more mercy, because as He Himself is infinite, so His mercy is infinite ...” And as for the priests - for their priestly practice, they confess hundreds of people who, in principle, have the same sins, their essence has not changed over the millennia of history.
- In life, you should never be afraid of anyone, anything, except sin. After all, only the evil we have committed poisons our lives and destroys our souls. Keep your soul pure and protect yourself from evil.
- The Holy Fathers advise confessing and taking communion as often as possible, because there is no other way to earthly happiness, the salvation of the soul and eternal bliss.
“Orthodoxy teaches that salvation is given to people not for the number of prayers, good deeds, deeds, observance of fasts and all the rules, as other religions say, but for the awareness of one’s sinfulness and sincerity of repentance. It is for this reason that the thief who repented on the cross was the first to enter Paradise. Christ directly said: “I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32). In this amazing teaching lies an open challenge to all religions of the world, in which only those who have fulfilled all the prescriptions receive salvation.
“We must strive not only for external beauty and morality, but, first of all, for spiritual purity. But we must understand that we will never cope with evil alone. Our rival and tempting enemy is too strong - the devil. We need to call on the help of our Lord Jesus Christ! After all, only He, in His inexpressible mercy and love for us, through participation in the sacraments of Confession and Communion, grants us His help and strength, love and energy. After all, what is spiritual power? This is, first of all, the ability to resist evil, it is freedom from sins and vices. And only heartfelt sincere repentance opens the infinitely bright and joyful world of faith, full of love, freedom and Divine grace!”
(From the lectures of A.I. Osipov)
CONFESSION SHEET
Many priests in different centuries compiled confession sheets to help the penitent, so that no sin escapes the attention of those preparing for Confession. Here is one such example:
I confess to the many-sinner [name] to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, all my sins and all my evil deeds, even I have done all the days of my life, even I have thought even to this day.
He sinned: he did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, but he lied in everything and did indecent things before God.
Sinned (a): before God, lack of faith and ingratitude for all His great and unceasing good deeds, calling on the name of the Lord in vain.
Sinned (a): lack of love and fear for the Lord, failure to fulfill His holy will and holy commandments, careless depiction of the sign of the cross on oneself, irreverent veneration of holy icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to be baptized and confess the Lord.
He sinned: he did not keep love for his neighbor, he did not feed the hungry and thirsty, he did not clothe the naked, he did not visit the sick, he did not help the needy; From laziness and neglect, I did not learn the Law of God and the Holy Fathers traditions.
Sinned (a): church and private rules by non-fulfillment, going to the temple of God without diligence, with laziness and neglect; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during the church service he sinned with idle talk, laughter, inattention to worship, distraction of mind, not going to the temple of God out of laziness and negligence.
Sinned (a): disobedience to the feasts of God; violation of holy fasts and non-keeping of fasting days - Wednesdays and Fridays; intemperance in food and parasitism; his sinful will by fulfillment, self-righteousness and self-justification; improper veneration of parents, ill-bringing of children and godchildren in the Orthodox faith, cursing, betrayal and the desire to harm others.
Sinned (a): unbelief, superstition, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false atheism, smoking, addiction to alcohol and gambling, divination, witchcraft, sorcery, gossip, gossip.
Sinned (a): pride, conceit, self-love, envy, condemnation, exaltation, suspicion, irritability, anger.
Sinned (a): slander, foul language, remembrance of malice, hatred, evil for evil retribution, slander, reproach, cunning, deceit, hypocrisy, disputes, unwillingness to give in and good to serve one's neighbor, malevolence, malevolence, insult, mockery of people and human pleasing.
Sinned (a): laziness, relaxation, sleeping much, incontinence of mental and bodily feelings, impurity of the soul and body; impure thoughts, voluptuousness, immodest views of the opposite sex, fornication, adultery, masturbation, voluptuous dreams, shameless body movements and touches, reading and watching depraved books and videos, corruption.
Sinned (a): impatience of illnesses and sorrows, love of idleness, captivity of the mind and petrification of the heart, not forcing oneself to every good deed.
Sinned (a): negligence, laziness to read the Word of God (Bible) and negligence to acquire the Jesus Prayer, covetousness, love of money, theft, theft, stinginess, attachment to various kinds of material things and people.
Sinned (a): condemnation and disobedience of the confessor, grumbling and resentment against him and not confessing his sins before him out of forgetfulness, negligence and out of false shame.
Sinned (a): mercilessness, contempt and condemnation of the poor, the poor; going to the temple of God without reverence, deviating into heresy and sectarian teachings.
Has sinned: those who have made abortions for themselves or others, or incited someone to this great sin - infanticide, have sinned grievously; spent time in empty talk and idle pursuits and other shameful sins committed by deed, word, thought.
Lord, forgive and have mercy on us!
ETERNAL TRUTHS
“If we confess our sins, the Lord, being faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9).
“What are we to repent of? 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 one must ask one's conscience and memory and pray to God for its enlightenment.
(St. John Chrysostom)
“The penitent must have contrition of heart and sorrow for the sins with which he has angered God. The penitent must confess all sins in detail, declaring each of them separately. Confession must be humble, reverent, true; when confessing, one should accuse oneself and not blame another. The penitent must have the indispensable intention not to return to those sins that are confessed, and to correct his life.
(St. Tikhon of Zadonsk)
“Blessed is the confession of sins, when correction follows. But what is the use of revealing a disease to a doctor and not using curatives?
(Blessed Augustine)
“It is worth every effort to take care of the full disclosure of your sins. The Lord gave the power to allow not unconditionally, but under the condition of repentance and confession. If this is not done, then it may happen that when the spiritual father says: “I forgive and allow”, the Lord will say: “But I condemn.”
(St. Theophan the Recluse)
“There are also Christians who repent, but they do not express everything at confession, and some sins are hidden and concealed for the sake of shame. Such, according to the apostolic word, commune unworthily of the Holy Mysteries, and for unworthy communion they are subjected to various infirmities and illnesses, and quite a few die.”
(Rev. Ambrose of Optina)
“Christ deprived the devil of the right to do evil. He can do evil only if the person himself gives him the right to do so. By not participating in the church sacraments of confession and Holy Communion, a person gives these rights to the evil one and becomes vulnerable to demonic influence.
(Elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer)
“Do not say: “Today I will sin, but tomorrow I will repent.” But it’s better to repent today, because we don’t know if we will live to see tomorrow.”
(From "Philokalia")
APPS
Preparing for confession
In the sacrament of holy repentance, we are given the opportunity to put off the heavy burden of sin, to break the chains of sin, to see the "fallen and broken tabernacle" of our soul renewed and bright.
How often should one resort to this saving sacrament? As often as possible, at least in each of the four posts.
Usually people who are inexperienced in spiritual life do not see the multitude of their sins, do not feel their heaviness, their aversion to them. They say: “I didn’t do anything special”, “I only have minor sins, like everyone else”, “I didn’t steal, I didn’t kill,” - so many often begin confession. But our holy fathers and teachers, who left us prayers of repentance, considered themselves the first of sinners, with sincere conviction appealed to Christ: "No one has sinned on earth from the beginning, as I have sinned, accursed and prodigal!" The brighter the light of Christ illuminates the heart, the more clearly all the shortcomings, ulcers and wounds of the soul are recognized. And vice versa: people immersed in the darkness of sin do not see anything in their hearts, and if they see, they are not horrified, since they have nothing to compare with, for Christ is closed to them by a veil of sins.
Therefore, in order to overcome our spiritual laziness and insensitivity, the Holy Church laid down preparatory days for the sacrament of repentance - fasting. The fasting period can last from three days to a week, unless there is special advice or instructions from the confessor. At this time, one should observe fasting, keep oneself from sinful deeds, thoughts and feelings, in general, lead a temperate, repentant life, dissolved by deeds of love and Christian goodness. During the fasting period, one should attend church services as often as possible, devote more than usual to prayer at home, devote leisure time to reading the works of the holy fathers, the lives of saints, self-deepening and self-examination.
Understanding the moral state of your soul, you must try to distinguish between the main sins from their derivatives, the roots - from leaves and fruits. One should also beware of falling into petty suspicion of every movement of the heart, losing the sense of what is important and unimportant, getting entangled in trifles. The penitent must bring to confession not only a list of sins, but, most importantly, - penitential feeling; not a detailed account of his life, but broken heart.
Knowing your sins does not mean repenting of them. But what should we do if our heart, dried up from the sinful flame, is not irrigated with life-giving waters of tears? What if the infirmity of the spiritual and the “impossibility of the flesh” are so great that we are not capable of sincere repentance? But this cannot be a reason to put off confession in anticipation of a feeling of repentance.
The Lord accepts confession - sincere and conscientious - even if it is not accompanied by a strong sense of repentance. Only this sin - petrified insensitivity - must be confessed courageously and frankly, without hypocrisy. God can touch the heart even during confession itself - soften it, refine spiritual vision, awaken a feeling of repentance.
The condition that we must certainly comply with in order for our repentance to be accepted by the Lord effectively is the forgiveness of the sins of our neighbors and reconciliation with everyone.
Repentance cannot be perfect without verbal confessions sins. Sins can only be allowed in the sacrament of repentance performed by the priest.
Confession is a feat, self-compulsion. During confession, you do not need to wait for questions from the priest, but make an effort yourself. It is necessary to name sins exactly, without obscuring the ugliness of sin with general expressions. It is very difficult, confessing, to avoid the temptation self-justification, to abandon attempts to explain to the confessor "extenuating circumstances", from references to third parties who allegedly led us into sin. All these are signs of self-love, lack of deep repentance, continuing stagnation in sin.
Confession is not a conversation about one's shortcomings, doubts, it is not just a confessor's awareness of himself, although spiritual conversation is also very important and should take place in the life of a Christian, but confession is different, it is sacrament and not just a pious custom. Confession is an ardent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification, this is the second baptism. In repentance we die to sin and are resurrected to righteousness and holiness.
Having repented, we must be strengthened inwardly in the determination not to return to confessed sin. The sign of perfect repentance is a feeling of lightness, purity, inexplicable joy, when sin seems just as difficult and impossible as this joy was just far away.
Order of general confession
Compiled by Archbishop Sergius (Golubtsov, +1982)
The sacrament of holy repentance has the main goal - to awaken our spiritual consciousness, to open our eyes to ourselves, to come to our senses, to deeply understand what a destructive state our soul is in, how it is necessary to seek salvation from God, to ask tearfully and contritely for forgiveness of our countless sins before Him. The Lord Jesus Christ expects from us a sincere awareness of our deviations from His holy will and humble conversion to Him, as His unworthy servants, who have sinned many times and offended His Divine love for us.
We need to remember and deeply believe in the infinite mercy of God, which extends its arms to every converting sinner. There is no sin that God, in His inexpressible mercy, would not forgive a person who has shown sincere repentance for his sins, a firm determination to correct his life and not return to his former sins.
Coming to confession, let us pray to God that with His almighty help He would open the doors of repentance for us, reconcile and unite us with Himself, grant the Holy Spirit for a new and renewed life.
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! As we prepare to begin the great sacrament of holy confession, looking at the mercy of God, let us ask ourselves whether we have shown mercy to our neighbors, whether we have reconciled with everyone, whether we have enmity in our hearts against anyone, remembering the cherished words of the Holy Gospel: "if you forgive a man their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you" (Matthew 6:14). This is the condition that we must understand and observe in the salvific work of holy repentance.
Human life is so diverse, the depth of our soul is so mysterious that it is difficult even to enumerate all the sins and sins that we commit. Therefore, when approaching the sacrament of holy confession, it is useful to remind ourselves of the fundamental violations of the moral law of the Holy Gospel. Let us carefully check our conscience and repent of our sins before the Lord God.
We, many sinners, confess to the Lord God Almighty, in the Holy Trinity, glorified and worshiped by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and to you, honest father, all our sins, voluntary and involuntary, committed by word, or deed, or thought.
We sinned by not keeping the vows given by us at baptism, but in everything we lied and transgressed, and made ourselves indecent before the face of God.
They sinned with little faith, unbelief, doubt, wavering in faith, slowness in thoughts, from the enemy planted, against God and the Holy Church, blasphemy and mockery of the shrine, doubt and free opinion, superstition, fortune-telling arrogance, negligence, despair in their salvation, hope for themselves and people more than God, by forgetting about the justice of God and lacking sufficient devotion to the will of God.
They sinned with disobedience to the actions of God's providence, a stubborn desire for everything to be our way, pleasing people, and a partial love for creatures and things. They did not try to know the will of God, they did not have reverence for God, fear of Him, hope in Him, zeal for His glory, for He is glorified with a pure heart.
They sinned with ingratitude to the Lord God for all His great and unceasing blessings, poured out in abundance on each of us and on the whole human race, by not remembering them, grumbling at God, cowardice, despondency, hardening of their hearts, lack of love for Him and failure to fulfill His holy will.
They sinned by enslaving themselves to passions: voluptuousness, greed, pride, laziness, self-love, vanity, ambition, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, secret eating, overeating, drunkenness, addiction to games, spectacles and amusements.
They sinned with God, by not fulfilling vows, by forcing others to worship and swearing, by imperviousness to sacred things, by blasphemy against God, against saints, against every holy object, by blasphemy, by calling on the name of God in vain, in bad deeds, desires, thoughts.
They sinned by disrespecting church holidays, did not go to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence, in the temple of God they stood reverently; they sinned with conversations and laughter, inattention to reading and singing, distraction of the mind, wandering thoughts, vain memories, walking around the temple during worship without need; they left the temple before the end of the service, they came to the temple in uncleanness and touched its shrines.
They sinned by negligence in prayer, by abandoning the reading of the Holy Gospel, the Psalter and other Divine books, patristic teachings.
They sinned by forgetting sins at confession, self-justifying them and minimizing their severity, hiding sins, repenting without contrition of heart; they did not make efforts to properly prepare for the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, without being reconciled with their neighbors, they came to confession and, in such a sinful state, dared to come to Communion.
They sinned by breaking fasts and not keeping fasting days - Wednesdays and Fridays, which are equated with the days of Great Lent, as days of remembrance of the sufferings of Christ. They sinned by intemperance in food and drink, careless and reverent overshadowing of themselves with the sign of the cross.
They sinned by disobedience to superiors and elders, by self-righteousness, self-will, self-justification, laziness to work and unscrupulous performance of assigned tasks. They sinned by disrespecting their parents, abandoning prayer for them, disrespecting their elders in age, insolence, waywardness and disobedience, rudeness, stubbornness.
They sinned with the lack of Christian love for one's neighbor, impatience, resentment, irritability, anger, harming one's neighbor, fights and quarrels, intransigence, enmity, retribution evil for evil, unforgiveness of insults, rancor, jealousy, envy, malevolence, vindictiveness, condemnation, slander, covetousness .
They sinned with mercilessness towards the poor, did not have compassion for the sick and crippled; sinned by stinginess, greed, extravagance, covetousness, unfaithfulness, injustice, hardness of heart.
They sinned with slyness in relation to their neighbors, deceit, insincerity in dealing with them, suspicion, duplicity, gossip, ridicule, witticisms, lies, hypocritical treatment of others and flattery, human pleasing.
They sinned by forgetting about the future eternal life, not remembering their death and the Last Judgment, and by an unreasonable, partial attachment to earthly life and its pleasures and deeds.
They sinned with the intemperance of their tongue, idle talk, idle talk, laughter, told jokes; they sinned by revealing the sins and weaknesses of their neighbor, by seductive behavior, liberty, and insolence.
They sinned with intemperance of their spiritual and bodily feelings, addiction, voluptuousness, indiscreet look at persons of the opposite sex, free treatment of them, fornication and adultery, various carnal sins, excessive panache, a desire to please and seduce others.
They sinned in the lack of straightforwardness, sincerity, simplicity, fidelity, truthfulness, respect, degree, caution in words, prudent silence, did not guard and did not defend the honor of others. They sinned by lack of love, temperance, chastity, modesty in words and deeds, purity of heart, non-possessiveness, mercy and humility.
We sinned with despondency, longing, sadness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, lust, impurity and all our feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds. We also repent of our other sins, which, because of our unconsciousness, we did not remember.
We repent that we have angered the Lord our God with all our sins, we sincerely regret this and wish to refrain from our sins in every possible way and to correct ourselves.
Lord our God, with tears we pray to You, our Savior, help us to establish ourselves in the holy intention to live as a Christian, and forgive the sins we have confessed, as Good and Humanitarian. The grave sins not listed here must be specially said to the confessor. Sins that were previously confessed and resolved should not be named at confession, for they have already been forgiven, but if we repeat them again, then we need to repent of them again. It is also necessary to repent of those sins that were forgotten, but are now remembered.
Speaking of sins, one should not mention the names of other persons - accomplices in sin. Such must repent for themselves.
Habits for sin are eradicated by prayer, fasting, abstinence, good deeds.
I confess I am a sinner (name) to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honest father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, even I have done all the days of my life, even thought even to this day. He sinned: He did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, he did not keep his monastic promise, but he lied in everything and made himself indecent before the Face of God. Forgive us, Merciful Lord (for the people).
Forgive me, honest father (for the lonely). He sinned: before the Lord, lack of faith and slowness in thoughts, from the enemy planted against faith and St. Churches; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing blessings, invoking the Name of God without need - in vain. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: lack of love for the Lord is lower than fear, non-fulfillment of St. His will and St. Commandments, careless depiction of the sign of the cross, irreverent veneration of St. icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to baptize and confess the Lord. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: he did not keep love for his neighbor, he did not feed the hungry and thirsty, he did not clothe the naked, he did not visit the sick and prisoners in dungeons; Law of God and St. fathers did not learn traditions from laziness and neglect.
Forgive me, honest father. I have sinned: church and private rules by non-fulfillment, going to the temple of God without zeal, with laziness and neglect; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during the church service - he sinned with idle talk, laughter, drowsiness, inattention to reading and singing, distraction of the mind, leaving the temple during the service and not going to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence. Forgive me, honest father. I sinned: daring to go to the temple of God in uncleanness and touch all the holy things. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: by disrespecting the feasts of God; violation of St. fasting and non-keeping of fasting days - Wednesdays and Fridays; intemperance in food and drink, polygamy, secret eating, polyeating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism; own will and mind by fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-will and self-justification; not properly honoring parents, not raising children in the Orthodox faith, cursing their children and neighbors.
Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false worship, dancing, smoking, playing cards, divination, witchcraft, sorcery, gossip, commemorated the living for repose, ate the blood of animals. Forgive me, honest father. Sinned: pride, conceit, arrogance, self-love, ambition, envy, arrogance, suspicion, irritability. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: condemnation of all people - the living and the dead, slander and anger, remembrance of malice, hatred, evil for evil by retribution, slander, reproach, deceit, laziness, deceit, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to yield and serve one's neighbor; sinned with gloating, malevolence, mourning, insult, mockery, reproach and pleasing to people. Forgive me, honest father. Sinned: intemperance of spiritual and bodily feelings; impurity of soul and body, pleasure and slowness in impure thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, an immodest look at wives and young men; in a dream of a prodigal night; defilement, intemperance in married life. Forgive me, honest father. I have sinned: impatience with sickness and sorrow, love for the comforts of this life, captivity of the mind and petrification of the heart, not forcing myself to do any good deed. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: by inattention to the promptings of his conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the Word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. He sinned with covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, theft, theft, stinginess, attachment to all sorts of things and people.
Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: by condemning and disobeying the spiritual fathers, grumbling and resentment against them and not confessing his sins before them out of forgetfulness, negligence and out of false shame. Forgive me, honest father. Sinned: unmercifulness, contempt and condemnation of the poor; going to the temple of God without fear and reverence, deviating into heresy and sectarian teaching. Forgive me, honest father. Sinned: sloth, relaxation, love of bodily peace, many sleeps, voluptuous dreams, partial views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, masturbation, unmarried marriages, those who aborted themselves or others or persuaded someone have sinned grievously to this great sin - infanticide. He spent his time in empty and idle pursuits, in empty talk, jokes, laughter and other shameful sins. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: despondency, cowardice, impatience, murmuring, despair in salvation, lack of hope in God's mercy, insensitivity, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness.
Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: slandering his neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, non-reconciliation, enmity and hatred, contradiction, peeping into other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: coldness and insensitivity at confession, diminishing sins, blaming others, and not condemning himself. Forgive me, honest father. He sinned: against the Life-Giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching them without proper preparation, without contrition and fear of God. Forgive me, honest father. I have sinned: in word, thought and all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - willingly or not, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and foolishness, and not list all my sins according to their multitude. But in all these, as well as in indescribable oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to be kept. But you, honest father, forgive me and forgive me from all these and pray for me a sinner, and on that judgment day testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen.
* This text is read by the priest before confession and is given here as one of the samples of confession, in order to better prepare the believer for this sacrament, as well as to better understand his sinfulness and arouse repentant feelings during home prayer.
Question #1318I confess to the many-sinner (name of the rivers) to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honest father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, I have done all the days of my life, I have thought even to this day.What is the difference between formal and live confession?
Dmitry , Moscow, Russia
27/04/2004Hello again Father Oleg!
I would like to confess and I have a question, do I need to answer all the questions that are given in the "Confession" section?Father Oleg Molenko's answer:
Hello Dimitri.
It is not necessary to answer all the questions, but only those that relate to your specific sins. Just omit unnecessary questions.
With regard to confession, there is a need to point out the great shortcoming that most confessors have.
I will present it in the form of a letter to a conditional spiritual child.Suppose that my spiritual child found a version of the confession compiled by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, used it as the basis of his confession, and sent it to me. (It should be noted that St. Ignatius's confession is presented in general terms).
Father Oleg: I don't like this type of confession. This is an excellent example of a formal confession, which seems to list all the main types of sins that are relevant to each of us, but there is no specificity. For this reason, it is easy for them to hide behind when checking their conscience. Like, I did this, and I was involved in this, and this is not alien to me. But, in reality, there is nothing concrete mine. This is a scheme or a general pattern that you must enliven with real content, and not only with a sense of consent of your participation in the names of the indicated types and types of sins. There is no real indication of your specific sins. In this case, it is very easy to "repent" of common sins and confess them in general. It is much more difficult to say with a repentant feeling that he sinned, for example, not just by stealing, but precisely he took a bucket from a neighbor Praskovya Ivanovna in her absence, and appropriated it for himself.
Child: All the time I felt embarrassed when I went to confession because it seemed that I was doing it in an inappropriate way.
Father: And you keep doing it, changing options.
Child: And here at the Prelate Ignatius Brianchaninov I met a sample of the God-pleasing Confession.
Child: If you don't mind, father Oleg, I will make it a rule to use this marvelous example of human humility for my repentance.
Father: I object to the mechanical use of someone else's models of someone else's humility. You have to adapt it for yourself, creatively revive it and fill it with real and concrete content from your life and work.
Child: Returned after confession of sins to the beginning of the letter. I know your strict attitude, father Oleg, to a formal confession. Believe me, every word written below resonated with my conscience and made me want to end what I wrote.
Father: I believe so, but you can not leave theft in principle or in general. You can leave the specific theft of seeds in the market, buns in the local bakery, cucumbers from a neighbor in the garden, etc.
I'll go through the commentary with comments on your "confession".
Child: I confess I am the sinful R.B. Imyarek
Father:“Multiple” speak only when you really experience this feeling. If you don’t feel it, then write the truth: I understand that I am sinful, but, alas, I don’t feel this from my heart.
Child: I confess to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honest father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, which I have done all the days of my life,
Father: There is no need to write a confession in the beautiful Church Slavonic language. It is good for church prayers. It is best to confess in the modern Russian language familiar to you, with your own system, style and features.
It is not necessary to repeat every confession: all the days of my life. This is a lie and formalism. After all, in fact, this will not be further exposition. Therefore, speak the truth that you confess those sins that noticed(precisely noticed, because we do not notice all the sins) behind us from the day of the last confession, as well as those that came to mind from those previously committed and not confessed out of oblivion.
Child: I have thought even to this day. Sinned: before the Lord with little faith
Father: How? In what way did it manifest itself or manifest itself?
Child: and slowing down in thoughts, from the enemy, sown against faith and St. Churches;
Father: You have to explain what you think slowing down in thoughts means? Why do you indicate only one kind of thoughts - against faith and the Church? The rest, what, you do not accept? And against the spiritual father? And against neighbors? And the love of money? What about fornication? What about anger? etc.
Child: ingratitude for all His great and unceasing benefits,
Father: What ingratitude? Ingratitude in their prayers; Or in your feelings? Or do you forget to say thank you? Or do you not always and not every time thank you? Or do you thank not sincerely and not from the heart, but only repeating other people's words formally?
Child: calling on the name of God without need - in vain.
Father: And we are called to unceasing prayer in the name of God, and not just out of need. We need to call on His name continually. Another thing is that he called on His name in vain, i.e. without proper attention, without control, for a bunch of words, in vain deeds and cares, without proper remembrance of Him, without a sense of standing before Him, without due reverence, faith and love.
Child: He sinned: before the Lady of the Most Holy Theotokos, ingratitude for mercy, first aid in circumstances and the cover of many infirmities.
Father: How and in what way? We need to be specific.
Child: He sinned: not having love for the Lord, lower than fear, not fulfilling St. His will and St. commandments, careless depiction of the sign of the cross, irreverent veneration of St. icons; I was ashamed to be baptized and confess the Lord.
Father: Again, public water. Explain what it means in your case "you do not love the Lord." What does "do not fear Him" mean? What does "do not do His holy will" mean? How does this not fulfillment happen to you, in what exactly? How do you notice it and why don't you fix it?
For example, you should have said this: “The Lord commands through the holy fathers to bear unfeigned obedience to your spiritual father and try not to upset him in any way. I, the accursed one, disobeyed my father in that I received a thought from a demon or from my fallen nature and went without blessing and the permission of the father (and hence God) to visit such and such.At the same time, woe to me, insane and darkened, I incited other people to go with me to an unblessed cause, which drew them into the sin of disobedience and framed them under blow. Forgive me this, the merciful Lord, and you, honest father, forgive me this insolence."
You see the difference between a sample of a living concrete confession and a general mention, in general!
Child: He sinned: he did not keep love for his neighbor,
Father: What love? What specifically did not save? What did he show dislike? List specifically all the cases you have noticed and, from them, determine the passion or passions that lead you away from love and its affairs.
Child: did not feed the hungry and thirsty, did not clothe the naked, did not visit the sick and prisoners in prisons;
Father: Child, this use of common words of yours just makes me cringe! Well, how can you be so hypocritical?
What kind of hungry people have you not fed? Give names, addresses, specific non-feeding or passing hungry people. Without this, your application is invalid. It's the same as a person who has suffered from a thief comes to the police to write a statement and only indicates that he was robbed in principle, but does not indicate what exactly they took, when and under what circumstances. Will anyone investigate just "theft" in principle?
Child: the law of God
Father: What law? What exactly? In what paragraphs of the Law, and in what way?
Child: and St. Fathers of legends
Father: Child, what legends?
Child: from laziness and neglect did not learn.
Father: What is it like? There is, they say, a book of the holy father on the table, you have the time, strength and opportunity to read it, but you are lazy and indulge in bliss - you continue to lie in bed or on the grass and look at the ceiling or at the sky, thinking about earthly things.
Child: Sinned: home rule by non-fulfilment,
Father: What is it like? What, you don’t follow the rules at all (by the way, which one)? Or left several times? If so, how many times? And why didn't he do it?
Child: leaving morning, evening and other prayers;
Father: Specifically, how many times, why, and what other prayers? If other prayers are not included in the rule, then you are free to leave them at your discretion.
Child: in the home service - sinned by inadequate preparation for the service
Father: What exactly are we talking about? What was this lack of preparation? What should be worthy?
Child: through laziness and indolence,
Father: How is it, specifically?
Child: inattention to reading, distraction of the mind,
Father: What inattention? How did it manifest itself and why? What got in the way of attention? What passion?
Child: forgetting that I stand before the Lord.
Father: Didn't you remember at all before Whom you stood and Whom you prayed to? Or was there not a full sense of awareness of this? And the experience of feeling God in prayer, which is a gift from God.
Child: He sinned: not honoring the feasts of God;
Father: How? What? When? how? What did he do in return for respect?
Child: of their will and mind by fulfillment,
Father: How, when, under what circumstances, for what reasons, what, etc.
Child: arrogance,
Father: How exactly did it show up for you? In what? How many times?
Child: self-made
Father: In what? How many times? Causes?
Child: and self-justification;
Father: What exactly? How? How many times? Causes? What do you intend to do (this is indicated in each case)?
Child: improper respect for parents
Father: What exactly are we talking about? Spit in your face? Didn't give money when needed? Didn't congratulate you on the holiday? Rude at the meeting? Thank you for specific help? Did he speak badly about them in front of his wife? etc.
Child: improper upbringing of children in the Orthodox faith.
Father: How exactly? What is not due and how should it be? How does he intend to correct the wrong and for what?
Child: Sinned: unbelief,
Father: To what or to whom (to whom)? What exactly?
Child: superstition
Father: What exactly?
Child: doubt
Father: What exactly? How many times?
Child: desperation
Father: What exactly? How? How did it manifest? What did he do or not do, although he should have?
Child: despondency
Father: Why gave in to despondency? To what extent? How did it manifest itself? What did you do against depression?
Child: blasphemy
Father: What is it like? what exactly?
Child: gossip.
Father: What kind of gossip? About whom? How? How many times?
Child: Sinned: pride,
Father: How exactly? How does it manifest itself? How do you notice its manifestation in yourself? In what? How do you resist?
Child: conceit,
Father: What do you think about yourself? Why? What are you doing against it?
Child: arrogance,
Father: What exactly?
Child: pride,
Father: What exactly was it for you?
Child: ambition
Father: What exactly?
Child: envy
Father: What did it show up? To whom specifically? How did envy show up?
Child: exalted,
Father: Over whom and how?
Child: suspicion
Father: For whom or what?
Child: irritability.
Father: For whom or what? How did it show up? How many times? What did he do?
Child: Sinned: reproach,
Father: Whom, how, when, in what and under what circumstances?
Child: cunning,
Father: In what and how specifically?
Child: laziness
Father: What exactly?
Child: disputes
Father: With whom, in what and how? Why?
Child: stubbornness
Father: In what? How do you see the sinfulness of this?
Child: unwillingness to yield and serve one's neighbor;
Father: Which neighbor? What exactly did you not want to give up and what to serve?
Child: sinned with malice,
Father: For what reason and for whom?
Child: an insult
Father: Who, how, what, how, why? Did you ask for forgiveness?
Child: derision
Father: Who did you laugh at? and why?
Child: human pleasing.
Father: Whom did he please, in what exactly?
Child: Sinned: idle talk,
Father: When did you notice? In what? How did it manifest? Why didn't you stop?
Child: ludicrous
Father: On what occasion?
Child: listening to and remembering worldly songs,
Father: What kind of songs, and how do you see that it is sinful and why?
Child: liberty,
Father: In what?
Child: audacity
Father: In what, for whom? How did he show?
Child: indulgence in the spirit of the times and worldly customs,
Father: How specifically and to what customs?
Child: contrary to the Orthodox faith.
Father: Obviously, it's disgusting. What are they opposed to?
Child: Sinned: intemperance of spiritual and bodily feelings;
Father: What feelings? How did he not resist them? How did it manifest itself?
Child: pleasure and slowness in impure thoughts,
Father: Why? How long did you delay?
Child: addiction
Father: What exactly? How did it manifest? How did you notice?
Child: voluptuousness
Father: What exactly? And How?
Child: immodest view of women.
Father: What is it like? What wives? Where? And if modestly, what can you watch?
Child: I have sinned: by loving the comforts of this life,
Father: What amenities and what kind of love? How do you know it's sinful?
Child: the captivity of the mind
Father: What and how?
Child: petrification of the heart,
Father: How? Why?
Child: not compelling yourself to do every good deed.
Father: Why? What good deeds?
Child: He sinned: inattention to the suggestions of his conscience,
Father: Like this? Why? How did he suppress his conscience?
Child: negligence,
Father: In what and how?
Child: Laziness to read the word of God
Father: How did it manifest itself specifically?
Child: negligence towards the acquisition of the Jesus Prayer.
Father: How? Why? What hinders?
Child: Sinned by covetousness,
Father: What exactly did you want to acquire or how did it manifest itself (for example, in thoughts of having something)?
Child: love of money,
Father: Specify specific manifestations.
Child: wrongful acquisition,
Father: What and how? How did you fix it?
Child: theft
Father: What exactly did he steal, from whom, how, under what circumstances? What prompted you to steal? Did you return what was stolen? If not, why not?
Child: stinginess
Father: What and how did it manifest itself?
Child: attachment to different things
Father: What kind of things and what affection?
Child: and people.
Father: What kind of people and what affection?
Child: Sinned: condemnation and disobedience of the spiritual father
Father: What exactly did he condemn and what exactly did he disobey? Why?
Child: not confessing your sins before him out of forgetfulness, negligence and false shame.
Father: What sins - by false shame - specifically? What sins are due to negligence?
Child: Sinned: coldness and insensibility at confession,
Father: The reason of that?
Child: By diminishing your sins,
Father: How? What sins? For what reason?
Child: blaming others, not condemning yourself.
Father: Who, for what and how exactly did he blame?
Child: Sinned: against the Life-Giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching Them without proper preparation,
Father: What preparation? In what way should it manifest itself and why didn't you do it?
Child: without contrition and fear of God.
Father: Why? Did you ask for this?
Child: I have sinned: in word, deed, thought and all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, willy or not, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and foolishness, and not list all my sins according to their multitude.
Father: This is true.
Child: But in all these, as well as in indescribable oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to be observed.
Father: How can one avoid abstract sins, told abstractly according to someone else's and general pattern, without a concrete application to oneself?
Now, I hope you have clarified for yourself the difference between a formal confession (that is, a general, crafty one that does not specifically target the passions and sins that you have noticed behind you) and a living, concrete and creatively assimilated one. Such a confession, in addition to repentant feelings and hatred of sins in appearance, allows you to track them in their concrete manifestation, to determine the passion that dominates today and other tormenting passions. It helps to correctly set the task of fighting passions and overcoming specific sinful manifestations, skills, thoughts or feelings, choosing the right means against them, etc. Do you see how difficult it is to confess correctly, usefully and pleasing to God? And how easy it is to deceive oneself by a mechanical enumeration of certain general types of sin, with an inner sense of belonging to each of them: somehow, to some extent, in some way, etc. It is one thing to say: “I sin in general with fornication,” and quite another, for example, like this: “I sinned, father, last week with fornication: I watched 10 minutes of a pornographic film and set myself on fire; I noticed a pleasant-looking young lady on the bus and stared into her figure , to become, face, and enjoyed it, while allowing thoughts of fornication with her intercourse, which was interrupted only by her departure at the bus stop. her, thought about the shameful copulation with her and enjoyed these thoughts and prodigal feelings.Upon arrival home, he attacked his wife because of the preliminary fornication of self-inflammation, in order to "lawfully" satisfy his lawless fornication lust.At the same time, he did not think about his wife and her feelings, but acted at night in a dream he had prodigal dreams, in which he copulated with various female persons, while sinning in a dream with expiration (semen eruption) and desecration. I regret what I did. I repent and ask God to help me and diminish the passion and lust that torments me. He intends to do something against her. I also ask you for advice and holy prayers.
Etc. etc. for every sin and every passion.
He sinned: He did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, but he lied in everything and made himself indecent before the Face of God. Forgive us, Merciful Lord.
He has sinned: before the Lord with lack of faith and slowness in thoughts, from the enemy planted against faith and the holy Church; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing good deeds, invoking the name of God without need - in vain.
I have sinned: lack of love for the Lord, below fear, failure to fulfill His holy will and holy commandments, careless depiction of the sign of the cross, irreverent veneration of holy icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to be baptized and confess the Lord.
He sinned: he did not keep love for his neighbor, he did not feed the hungry and thirsty, he did not clothe the naked, he did not visit the sick and prisoners in dungeons; the law of God and the Holy Fathers did not learn the traditions from laziness and neglect.
I have sinned: church and private rules by non-fulfillment, going to the temple of God without zeal, with laziness and neglect; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during the church service - he sinned with idle talk, laughter, drowsiness, inattention to reading and singing, distraction of the mind, leaving the temple during the service and not going to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence.
I sinned: daring to go to the temple of God in uncleanness and touch all the holy things.
He sinned: by disrespecting the feasts of God; violation of holy fasts and non-keeping of fasting days - Wednesday and Friday; intemperance in food and drink, polygamy, secret eating, polyeating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism; own will and mind by fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-will and self-justification; not properly honoring parents, not raising children in the Orthodox faith, cursing their children and neighbors.
Sinned: unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false worship, dancing, smoking, playing cards (also computer addiction), gossip, commemorated the living for repose, ate the blood of animals *. (* VI Ecumenical Council, 67th rule, Acts of the Apostles, ch. 15).
Sinned: by turning for help to intermediaries of demonic power - occultists: psychics, bioenergetics, non-contact masseurs, hypnotists, "folk" healers, sorcerers, soothsayers, healers, fortune-tellers, astrologers, parapsychologists; participation in sessions of coding, removal of "damage and evil eye", spiritualism; contact with UFOs and "higher intelligence"; connection to "cosmic energies".
Sinned: by watching and listening to television and radio programs with the participation of psychics, healers, astrologers, fortunetellers, healers.
Sinned: studying various occult teachings, theosophy, Eastern cults, the teaching of "living ethics"; doing yoga, meditation, etc.
Sinned: by reading and keeping occult literature.
Sinned: attending speeches by Protestant preachers, participating in meetings of Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, "Mother of God Center", "white brotherhood" and other sects, accepting heretical baptism, deviating into heresy and sectarian doctrine.
Sinned: pride, conceit, arrogance, self-love, ambition, envy, arrogance, suspicion, irritability.
He sinned: condemnation of all people - the living and the dead, slander and anger, remembrance of malice, hatred, evil for evil by retribution, slander, reproach, deceit, laziness, deceit, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to yield and serve one's neighbor; sinned with gloating, malevolence, ill-advising, insulting, mocking, reviling and pleasing people.
Sinned: intemperance of spiritual and bodily feelings; impurity of soul and body, pleasure and slowness in impure thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest glance at wives or young men; in a dream, prodigal desecration of the night, intemperance in married life.
I have sinned: impatience with sickness and sorrow, love for the comforts of this life, captivity of the mind and petrification of the heart, not forcing myself to do any good deed.
He sinned: by inattention to the promptings of his conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. He sinned with covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, theft, theft, stinginess, attachment to all sorts of things and people. He sinned: condemning bishops and priests, disobeying the spiritual father, grumbling and resenting him and not confessing his sins before him out of forgetfulness, negligence and out of false shame.
Sinned: unmercifulness, contempt and condemnation of the poor; walking in the temple of God without fear and reverence.
I have sinned: by laziness, relaxation by it, love of bodily peace, many sleeps, voluptuous dreams, biased views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, masturbation, unmarried marriages; (those who aborted themselves or others, or persuaded someone to this great sin - infanticide, have sinned gravely).
Sinned: spending time in empty and idle activities, in empty conversations, in the immoderate watching of television.
He sinned: despondency, cowardice, impatience, grumbling, despair in salvation, lack of hope in God's mercy, insensitivity, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness,.
He sinned: slandering his neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, non-reconciliation, enmity and hatred, contradiction, peeping into other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations.
He sinned: coldness and insensitivity at confession, diminishing sins, blaming others, and not condemning himself.
He sinned: against the Life-Giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching Them without proper preparation, without contrition and fear of God.
I have sinned: in word, thought and all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, - willy or not, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and foolishness, and do not list all my sins according to their multitude, But in all these, so and in ineffable oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to be observed. But you, honest father, forgive me and forgive me from all these and pray for me a sinner, and on that judgment day testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen.
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