How to prepare for Confession.
What is required to begin Confession?
To do this, it is enough to know your sins and have the desire to repent of them.
You can begin Confession regardless of whether you fasted or not, whether you ate today or not.
Are you standing in the temple now? IN this moment Is Confession performed in the church? Have you remembered your sins, have a desire to throw off the stone of sin - to confess? Go to Confession right now, you don’t need any instructions for this, you have everything you need: sins and repentance.
When a person decides to begin Confession for the first time, then usually his most O he remembers and understands the greater sins well; they lie “on the surface” of the soul. Go with them to Confession now, express all the sins that you remember now, and bring what you remember later to the next Confession. Do not put off your repentance “until tomorrow,” when you forget your sins, lose the determination to confess, become hardened in soul, and lose the ability to repent.
If you now have a ripe determination to confess in church, but at the moment Confession is not taking place in the church, and there is no priest in the church to ask if he has the opportunity to confess you now, then intend to confess at any upcoming service. Confession is performed at every evening service (during Lent - not at every evening service), which traditionally begins at 17:00 in all churches. In some churches, Confession is also performed during the morning service, which traditionally begins in all churches at 08:30. For accuracy, see the schedule of services at church fence temple, or ask church workers. Currently, all churches are gradually moving the celebration of Confession only to evening services.
If there is time before Confession: one or several days.
If you plan to confess at the next divine service, then it is recommended to use the waiting time for the day and hour of your Confession preparation– repentant REFLECTION (examination of one’s conscience, remembering one’s sins). If you confess for the first time, then you need to try to remember your sins throughout your entire life (starting from the age of seven - everything that is in your memory).
For your convenience, you can write down the sins you remember on a piece of paper, making a cheat sheet for yourself (so as not to forget). When you come to Confession, you can confess from memory, using, if necessary, a compiled list of sins, or you can simply read everything from a piece of paper. It is advisable to read it yourself.
When remembering your sins, you can use a hint to look at the general list of the most common sins, which can be found in a church store or on the Internet. A brochure with a list of sins, usually called “To help the penitent.”
Before going to Confession, you can read the penitential canon at home, or morning prayers, or the 50th Psalm, or the prayer “Our Father”, and simply say a prayerful sigh: “Lord, accept my repentance, grant me forgiveness of my sins.”
But there is no mandatory requirement here, it is at your discretion. For Confession, it is enough to have awareness of your sins and repentance.
Before confession, you need to reconcile with the offenders and forgive the offenses.
Basic concepts about Confession.
Say goodbye All sins in which a person repents. BUT! A necessary condition for receiving forgiveness of sins is personal forgiveness of offenses to your offenders.
Confessed sins do not need to be named next time at Confession, unless they were repeated again.
In subsequent Confessions, one must name the sins that the person still remembers, and those that repeated again.
5. How many times should you confess? How often?
On the day of Baptism, the human soul dresses in white clothes, in clothes of “light”, in clothes of “joy”.
After Baptism, a person gets these clothes dirty. And each of us stained these clothes with our sins.
But an Orthodox person differs from a non-church person (and from a formally Orthodox person) in that these “clothes” are regularly cleansed by the sacrament of Confession. Dirty spots appear, and it is unpleasant for an Orthodox person to be dirty, to walk around in such dirty clothes, and he rather hurries to Confession and repents of his sins. And he receives bright clothes again, and has spiritual joy. No matter how dirty a person’s soul is, no matter how great sins it defiles itself, if a person repents, then the Lord cleanses any dirt and clothes the person’s soul in bright clothes of joy and purity.
A non-church person, who considers his sins to be the norm of life, expresses approximately the following formulations: “Everyone lives “this way”, so there is nothing terrible in sins,” or speaks about sin: “It’s such a trifle,” or like this: “It’s nothing at all.” sin is what you call “sin,” etc.
Orthodox Christians, who keep the clothes of their souls clean, begin Confession regularly. Each person has their own frequency and depends on the degree of spiritual growth. Many confess weekly - every Sunday or during the week.
All Orthodox Christians try to fulfill the 4th commandment of the Law of God: “Work six days, dedicate the seventh to the Lord Thy God,” and every Sunday they come to church: they thank God for the past week (for joys and sorrows), ask God's blessing for the next week, and test their soul: what sins did you commit during the week? If they remember any sins, then they come up to Confession, repent of their sins, and leave the temple in bright robes of joy. This is the most optimal frequency.
Maybe postpone Confession “until tomorrow”?
Under what confession will forgiveness of sins be denied?
Hidden sins.
There are sins that a person cannot confess because he does not remember them; these are forgotten sins. Nothing can be done about this if the Lord does not open the person’s memory. With sincere repentance of known and unknown sins, the Lord forgives forgotten sins.
But if a person knows and remembers his sin for sure, but deliberately does not name it, for example, because of shame, then such a sin is called “hidden”, it becomes more serious, acquires greater severity, and condemnation. And the person leaves Confession with a heavy heart, with the realization that he did not have the courage, the determination to name his sin. But if it was difficult to name his sin, but the person overcame himself and still named his sin, then he leaves Confession with joy and a feeling of victory: it was hard, but the person won and received forgiveness.
Before Confession, the priest pronounces the following teaching:
“Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession: do not be ashamed, and do not be afraid, but without justification, say everything that you have done, so that you may receive forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ. I am only a witness, and I testify before Him, everything that you tell me, If you hide anything from me, you will commit a grave sin. Be careful not to leave the hospital unhealed.”
Sins confessed on earth will be completely blotted out at the Judgment of God, but hidden and unnamed - then they will be revealed to everyone: a person’s conscience as a judge will stand before everyone, exposing all our sins to everyone. Then there will be a day of great shame and disgrace for some, and a day of great glory and reward for others.
Formulation of sins.
At Confession, a person has a temptation: to formulate his sin so that it looks insignificant, or excusable, forced. A person tries to minimize his sin. Or he makes excuses and wants to blame others for his sin. For example, he says: yes, I was angry, but I have “such!” the neighbors are bad. In general, you need to call your sin directly, as it is, without belittling it, and without making excuses: call black - black, white - white.
Sometimes at Confession a person wants to tell not his sins, but what a great righteous man he is, what deeds he performs, how he fasts, how he prays, or wants to tell some lengthy stories from his life about miraculous incidents with him, etc. No, at Confession one must not show off one’s virtues and boast, but say all the dirtiest things about oneself, the worst things, everything that one is ashamed of: it is this dirt that a person came to get rid of at Confession.
What about a person?
The angels would not be able to listen to our sins, but would burn us to ashes, so the Lord appointed for Confession the same person of flesh and blood, who himself had the experience of sin and repentance. If the Apostle Peter had not sinned, what kind of strict shepherd would he have been? But the Apostle Peter denied Christ three times, then repented, wept bitterly, and God forgave him and restored him to the apostolic rank. Likewise, every priest has many sins, struggles with them, repents, confesses, and God grants forgiveness. Those. the priest himself knows what sin, repentance and forgiveness are. And some priests accumulated many sins before becoming priests, and then repented and changed. Therefore the priest, having personal experience forgiveness of his sins at Confession, rejoices for the repentant person, no matter what grave sins the person did not name: the more serious the sin, the more joy about his repentance and forgiveness.
The Church teaches that all the saints who had the same flesh and blood, had the same passions and temptations, but won, will also take part in the Judgment of God. Therefore, the saints will also be our accusers, because... had equal opportunities with us either to fall into sin or to overcome it.
The Sacrament of Confession was established not by man, but by God. The Lord gave power to His disciples to forgive sins, saying: “Whose sins you forgive, their sins are forgiven; on whomever you leave it, it will remain on him” (John 20:23). And this power is transferred in the Church from the apostles to the real priesthood.
How to prepare for Confession.
Confession and Communion are two DIFFERENT Sacraments.
No preparation is required for Confession.
It is possible to confess without Communion. But you cannot receive Communion without Confession
(except for those parishioners who were blessed by the confessor).
The difference between Confession and Communion. Is one available without the other?
If you would like to begin Confession now, but you haven’t prepared for Communion, or you don’t yet know how to prepare for Communion, then you can start Confession now in any case, without any obstacles. To do this, you will not need to know any special instructions, because... Confession does not require any special equipment. knowledge, and no special preparation.
But if you were preparing for Communion(for the first time), then you cannot begin it without Confession. The priest at Confession, in addition to accepting repentance from you, must find out what your idea of the sacrament of Communion is, and perhaps correct you if you are mistaken. The priest must find out how you prepared for St. Communion, and perhaps I can correct you a little on this as well. In addition, the priest at Confession must make sure that you are an Orthodox person, that you do not hold grudges or grudges against other people, that you do not have unrepentant mortal sins. All this needs to be clarified to the priest at Confession so that you do not accept the Sacrament of Communion to your condemnation and harm.
In this case, Confession is also part of the preparation for Communion: the soul prepares for Communion by repentance, remission of sins.
So, it is possible to confess without Communion, but it is impossible to receive communion without Confession (for the first time).
H what is Confession?
Confession is the great Sacrament of reconciliation between God and man, the manifestation of God's love for man. At confession, the believer confesses his sins in the presence of a priest and through him receives forgiveness of sins from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Why do you need to confess?
Through Confession, the purity of the soul that was lost due to sins returns. This Sacrament restores the state received in Baptism. Sin is dirt, and confession is a bath that washes the soul from spiritual dirt.
How to prepare for the first Confession?
When preparing for confession, you need to test your conscience, remember the sins committed in deed, word, feeling and thought for the entire time after Baptism. A person must think through all this and realize what he has sinned against himself, against his neighbors, against God and the Church and repent. Self-condemnation is the first and most important thing with which to come to Confession. If necessary, you can write down your sins so as not to miss anything during confession.
When preparing for confession, it is useful to read the books: “Helping the Penitent” by St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov, “On the Eve of Confession” by Priest Grigory Dyachenko or “The Experience of Constructing a Confession” by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), which will help you realize and see forgotten and unconscious sins. But there is no need to copy sins from books; confession should be completely personal.
What should someone who wants to begin Confession know?
Confession must first be started by reconciling with everyone. At Confession, you need to talk only about your sins, not justify yourself, not condemn others, and ask the Lord for forgiveness for your sins. You should never become despondent from realizing the gravity of your sins, for there are no unforgivable sins, except those that have not been confessed and unrepentant. If for some reason the priest does not have the opportunity to listen in detail, then there is no need to be embarrassed by this. It is important to recognize yourself as guilty before God, to have contrition and self-reproach in your heart. But if some sin lies like a stone on your conscience, then you need to ask the priest to listen in detail.
Confession is not a conversation. If you need to consult with a priest, you should ask him to set aside another time for this
You can start Confession at any time and preferably as often as possible. Confession before Communion is mandatory.
How to overcome shame at Confession?
The feeling of shame at Confession is natural; it was given by God to keep a person from repeating the sin. Understanding that the Church is a physician, and not a court of justice, can help overcome shame. The Lord “does not want the sinner to die, but that the sinner should turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart God will not humble” (Ps. 50:19).
At a doctor’s appointment, a person is not ashamed to talk about his physical illnesses, and at Confession there is no need to be ashamed to reveal his mental illnesses to the priest. There is no other way to heal the soul.
But if it’s still too embarrassing to tell about your sins at Confession, then you can write them down and give them to the priest.
Are Repentance and Confession the same thing?
Repentance (translated from Greek as “change of mind”) is a change in lifestyle through a change in mind and way of thinking: from awareness of untruth - through repentance - to change. Therefore, true repentance is rebirth, internal restructuring, renewal and rebirth of life. Repentance is not a single act of repentance, but a constant, daily act. Repentance is an expression of readiness for spiritual work, for collaboration with God in the name of gaining Paradise.
Repentance implies, first of all, an internal re-evaluation of oneself, a certain critical introspection, the ability to look at oneself from the outside, condemn one’s sins, and surrender oneself to the justice and mercy of God. Repentance is the awareness of one’s sin, the untruth of one’s own life, the recognition that in one’s deeds and thoughts a person has deviated from the moral norm that God put into his nature. Awareness of this is the greatest virtue and at the same time the key to changing life for the better.
Saint Theophan the Recluse defines repentance by four things: 1) awareness of one’s sin before God; 2) reproach ourselves in this sin with full confession of our guilt, without shifting responsibility to demons, other people or circumstances; 3) the determination to leave sin, to hate it, not to return to it, not to give it room in oneself; 4) prayer to God for forgiveness of sin, until the spirit is pacified.
Confession is confession of one's sins (orally or sometimes in writing) in front of a priest as a witness. This is part of the Sacrament of Repentance, during which a repentant person, through the priest reading a special prayer and the sign of the Cross, receives permission (liberation) from sins and forgiveness from God Himself.
At what age should a child confess?
Usually children go to confession from the age of 7. But it is advisable to prepare children for the first confession in advance. Starting from 5-6 years old, bring them to
priest for a confidential conversation, so that they acquire the skill of realizing their wrongdoings.
When does confession take place - before or after the service?
The usual time for confession is before or during the Liturgy, before Communion. Sometimes they confess at an evening service, sometimes (with a large number of people) a special time is appointed. It is advisable to find out about the time of confession in advance.
What is sin, how to destroy it?
Sin is a violation of God's commandments, a crime against God's law, committed voluntarily or involuntarily. The primary source of sin is the fallen world, man is the conductor of sin. The Holy Fathers distinguish the following stages of involvement in sin: preposition (sinful thought, desire); combination (acceptance of this sinful thought, retention of attention on it); captivity (enslavement to this sinful thought, agreement with it); falling into sin (doing in practice what was proposed by a sinful thought).
The fight against sin begins with the awareness of oneself as a sinner and the desire to resist sin and correct oneself. Sin is destroyed by repentance with the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is taught to believers in the Sacraments of the Church.
What is the difference between sin and passion?
Passion is a bad habit, a skill, an attraction to sinful action, and sin is the very action of passion, its satisfaction in thoughts, words and deeds. You can have passions, but not act on them, not commit a sinful act. Confront your passions, fight them - this is one of the main tasks in the life of a Christian.
What sins are called mortal?
There is a list of mortal sins, however, it can be argued that any sin that completely enslaves the will of a person is mortal.
“The mortal sins for a Christian are the following: heresy, schism, blasphemy, apostasy, sorcery, despair, suicide, fornication, adultery, unnatural fornication, incest, drunkenness, sacrilege, homicide, robbery, theft and any cruel, inhuman offense.
Only one of these sins - suicide - cannot be cured by repentance, but each of them mortifies the soul and makes it incapable of eternal bliss until it cleanses itself with satisfactory repentance...
Let him who has fallen into mortal sin not fall into despair! Let him resort to the medicine of repentance, to which he is called before last minute his life by the Savior, who proclaimed in the Holy Gospel: “he who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live” (John 11:25). But it’s disastrous to remain in mortal sin, it’s disastrous when mortal sin turns into a habit!” (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).
Are all people sinners?
- “There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Eccl. 7:20). Human nature was damaged by the fall of the first people, so people cannot live a life without sin. One God without sin. All people sin a lot before God. But some recognize themselves as sinners and repent, while others do not see their sins. The Apostle John the Theologian writes: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).
Condemnation, vanity, self-justification, idle talk, hostility, ridicule, intransigence, laziness, irritability, anger are constant companions. human life. On the conscience of many lie even more serious sins: infanticide (abortion), adultery, contact with sorcerers and psychics, envy, theft, enmity, revenge and much more”;
Why is Adam and Eve's sin called original?
Sin is called original because it was committed by the first people (ancestors) - Adam (forefather) and Eve (foremother) - from whom the first human race originated. Original sin was the beginning for all subsequent human sins.
Why should all the numerous descendants of Adam and Eve be held responsible for their fall?
The fall of the first people damaged their spiritual and physical nature. All people, like the descendants of Adam and Eve, have the same damaged nature, easily inclined to sin.
In the patristic understanding, sin is a disease of the soul. And in liturgical practice Orthodox Church This understanding of sin is expressed in numerous prayers.
With this definition of sin, it is easy to understand why descendants suffer due to the fall of their ancestors. Today everyone knows that whole line serious diseases are inherited. No one is surprised that children of alcoholics, for example, may have a hereditary predisposition to alcoholism, not to mention a whole bunch of concomitant diseases. And if sin is a disease, it may well be inherited.
In the Sacrament of Baptism human soul exempt from original sin, since our Lord Jesus Christ, by His death on the Cross, atoned for the sin of Adam.
What is necessary for the forgiveness of sins?
For the forgiveness of sins, the person confessing requires reconciliation with all his neighbors, sincere contrition for sins and their full confession, a firm intention to correct himself, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and hope for His mercy.
Does God forgive all sins?
There is no unforgivable sin except that which is not repented of. God's mercy is so great that the thief, having repented, was the first to enter the Kingdom of God. No matter how many sins there are and no matter how great they are, God has even more mercy, because just as He Himself is infinite, so His mercy is infinite.
How do you know if a sin is forgiven?
If the priest reads the prayer of permission, the sin is forgiven. But sins tend to leave scars. Some scars heal quickly, while some last a lifetime.
Is it necessary to confess the same thing several times?
sin?
If it is committed again or after its confession continues to burden the conscience, then it is necessary to confess it again. If this sin has not been repeated again, then there is no need to talk about it.
Is it possible to tell not all sins in confession?
Before performing the Sacrament of Repentance, the priest reads a prayer with the following content: “Son, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession. Do not be ashamed, do not be afraid and do not hide anything from me, but tell everything you have sinned without being embarrassed, and you will receive remission of sins from our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is His icon before us: I am only a witness, and everything that you tell me, I will testify before Him. If you hide anything from me, your sin will worsen. Understand that once you have come to the hospital, do not leave it unhealed!”
If someone hides their sins at Confession because of false shame, or because of pride, or because of a lack of faith, or simply because they do not understand the importance of repentance, then they come out of Confession not only not cleansed of sins, but even more burdened them. Earthly life is short-lived and a person can pass into eternity without having time to fully confess.
Confessed sin, as it were, becomes outside the soul, leaves it - just as a splinter taken out of the body becomes outside the body and ceases to harm it.
Is it useful to confess often?
Through frequent confession, sin loses its power. Frequent Confession turns away from sin, protects from evil, confirms goodness, maintains vigilance, and keeps from repeating sins. And unconfessed sins become habitual and cease to burden the conscience.
Is it necessary to repent before a priest? Does it matter which one?
The Sacrament of Repentance is performed in the presence of a priest. This necessary condition. But the priest is only a witness, and the true celebrant is the Lord God. The priest is a prayer book, an intercessor before the Lord and a witness that the divinely established Sacrament of Confession occurs in a legal manner.
It is not difficult to list your sins alone with yourself before the All-Knowing and Invisible God. But discovering them in the presence of a priest requires considerable effort to overcome shame, pride, and recognition of one’s sinfulness, and this leads to an incomparably deeper and more serious result. This is the moral aspect of Confession.
For a person truly suffering from the ulcer of sin, it makes no difference through whom he confesses this tormenting sin - as long as he confesses it as soon as possible and receives relief. The most important thing in Confession is not the personality of the priest receiving it, but the state of the soul of the penitent, his sincere repentance, leading to awareness of sin, heartfelt contrition and rejection of the offense committed.
Can a priest tell anyone the contents of Confession?
The Church obliges priests to keep the secret of Confession. For violating this rule, a clergyman may be defrocked.
Is fasting necessary before Confession?
When preparing for Confession, according to the Church Charter, fasting and a special prayer rule are not required; faith and awareness of one’s sins, and the desire to free oneself from them are required.
Fasting is necessary if there is an intention to take communion after Confession. You should consult with the priest in advance about the extent of fasting before Communion.
Is it necessary to confess in the morning before Communion if you confessed the day before?
If you have sinned again or remembered a forgotten sin, then you must confess again before proceeding to Communion. But this shouldn't become a habit.
What if after Confession, right before Communion, a sin was remembered, but there is no longer an opportunity to confess? Should I postpone Communion?
This sin should be spoken about at Confession in the near future.
There is no need to postpone Communion, but approach the Chalice with a repentant feeling and awareness of your unworthiness.
Is it necessary to take communion after confession? Can I confess and leave?
It is not necessary to receive communion after confession. You can sometimes come to church just for confession. But for those who want to take communion, confess. For those preparing to receive Holy Communion Mysteries of Christ Confession on the eve or on the day of Communion is a pious tradition of the Church.
What should sick people do who cannot come to church for Confession and Communion?
Their relatives can come to the church and ask the priest for Confession and Communion for the sick person at home.
What is penance?
Penance (translated from Greek as “punishment”) is a spiritual medicine, a means of assistance in the fight against sin, a method of healing a repentant sinner, which consists in performing deeds of piety, determined by his confessor. This can be making bows, reading prayers, canons or akathists, intense fasting, a pilgrimage to a holy place - depending on the strengths and capabilities of the penitent. Penance must be performed strictly, and only the priest who imposed it can cancel it.
How to prepare for communion for a child? What prayers should you read? Is it possible for pregnant or nursing mothers to meet all the requirements? A lot of bewilderment arises among those who for the first time decided to participate alone or with their children in the main sacrament of the Orthodox Church.
We asked experienced priests to answer some of the most popular questions.
How to prepare for communion: what to read?
IN Orthodox prayer book, even the shortest, you will find a sequence for Holy Communion, consisting of a canon and several prayers. All this must be read the night before or in the morning, before the Divine Liturgy. Additionally, three canons are read: the Savior, the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel. They can be read for several days before Communion. A Christian’s prayer rule can be adjusted by the priest receiving confession, depending on life circumstances. At the end of the liturgy, you need to listen in church or read from the prayer book thanksgiving prayers after Holy Communion.
Common preparation for communion includes fasting (abstaining food of animal origin, entertainment and marital relations from 1 to 3 days), confession (repentance for sins in the presence of a priest and receiving forgiveness), evening worship, reading of the communion sequence and canons. For those who come to church for the first time, the priest during confession can adjust the individual preparation for communion: the measure of fasting or the type of prayer rule.
How to prepare a child for communion?
To prepare children for communion, it is first important to explain to them what it is. Here it would be correct to tell the truth, namely, that the sacrament is the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This should be explained to the child from the very beginning. The words that some parents use are incorrect: “bread with wine”, “sweet bread”. There is no need to say such words to children, because it is not true.
It is important to tell the child that communion is Divine light, the fire of Divine love, which can cleanse and sanctify the soul. If you start communion without special preparation, then this fire can burn your soul.
Preparing a child for communion consists, first of all, of the work of the soul: we need to make peace with everyone, ask God and people for forgiveness for our bad actions. If the child is already an adult, then in order to ask for forgiveness from God, he can participate in the sacrament of confession. The age at which children begin to confess and the frequency of confession are discussed by parents with the family confessor, without whom it will be difficult to find the right solution. In general, children from 7 to 10 years old begin to participate in confession, but can receive communion without it.
Many issues related to preparing a child for communion are discussed in the document adopted by the bishops' conference of the Russian Orthodox Church “On the participation of the faithful in the Eucharist.” The importance of parents approaching the Chalice together with their children is especially emphasized. A child’s correct attitude towards the sacrament is facilitated by the fact that he sees the preparation of his parents, their reverence for the sacrament. A child's fast before communion, of course, is different from an adult's. Starting from the age of three, a young Christian can be taught that he needs to receive communion on an empty stomach, so that by the age of 7 he will be ready for this. Young children can receive communion often - every Sunday or every time they come to church. By adolescence, it is important that the sacrament becomes conscious.
An important element in preparing children for communion is personal prayer to God. From the age of 7, it is worth reading at least one prayer, you can start with those that the priest reads before the Chalice: “I believe, Lord, and I confess...” and “Thy Last Supper is this day.” And be sure to explain their meaning, which may not always be immediately perceived by them. With age, the prayer rule before communion can increase, taking into account the age, spiritual and intellectual development of the child.
How to prepare for communion while pregnant?
Priest Alexander Lavrukhin, cleric of the Church of the Blessed Tsarevich Demetrius at the 1st City Hospital, director of the St. Demetrius School, father of 9 children, Moscow
Pregnancy is a special period in the life of a family, especially a woman. At this time, the inner life of a pregnant woman is important, since the state in which she is, to some extent, affects the baby developing in her womb. Of course, for a Christian, participation in the sacrament of communion is the most important meeting with Christ possible here on earth. It can happen as often as it is feasible for her.
If before pregnancy a woman is accustomed to fasting strictly, take into account prayer rule not only the following to communion, but also the three canons, now this may turn out to be impossible. And instead of receiving communion more often, she, feeling that she cannot fulfill everything, will begin to receive communion less often, which, of course, will be wrong. This is stated in the document adopted by the bishops' conference of the Russian Orthodox Church 3 years ago, “On the participation of the faithful in the Eucharist.” For those Christians who begin to worship More often once a week or once every 2 weeks, the rule for preparation should be slightly different: fasting during the day before communion is considered sufficient, and prayer preparation includes proceeding to communion (canon and prayers). If this practice applies to everyone who often receives communion frequently, then even greater relaxations are possible for a woman during pregnancy: fasting can be completely canceled or limited to not eating meat food, if this does not lead to undesirable health consequences (if there is no anemia, for example ).
It is not necessary to stand during prayer; the expectant mother can pray while sitting. And when you come to church, you should not be shy and sit down. If a woman feels unwell, the task of her loved ones is to help so that she can be present in the temple.
If a pregnant Christian woman is in confinement (at home or in the hospital) and does not have the opportunity to come to church for confession and communion, then, of course, you need to invite a priest. It is very important that a woman can confess and receive communion, and one should not think that this is impossible outside the walls of the church.
How to prepare for nursing communion?
Priest Alexander Lavrukhin, cleric of the Church of the Blessed Tsarevich Demetrius at the 1st City Hospital, director of the St. Demetrius School, father of 9 children, Moscow
When a woman becomes a mother, participation in divine services and sacraments becomes much more difficult for her than even during pregnancy, if, of course, the pregnancy proceeded as normal. In order to come to confession and receive communion, mother and child need to make special efforts.
Ideally, of course, it would be to come to the service not on a holiday, but on a weekday, having found out the schedule in advance on the church website and checking by phone that there will be confession on that day. It is easier to agree with a priest about confession in advance if you have a confessor. It would be great to come to church not alone, but with your husband or grandmother, who could be with the child while the mother goes to confession. It is important to prepare the baby by that time so that he can spend these 20 minutes without his mother: feed him well, change him, so that he either sleeps in a stroller or in a as a last resort was in his mother’s arms, full and satisfied.
You need to understand that for a woman, giving birth to a child, feeding and raising him is a service to God and the Church. Therefore, there is no need to be embarrassed by the fact that there is little time left for prayer, you do not always have time to read the morning and evening rules, and you rarely manage to come entirely to the liturgy. This is the time when it is important for a woman to pray to God, remember Him, and try to pass on her faith and love for God to the baby with milk.
Women nursing a baby, like pregnant women, are in a special state of physical health and are going through an important period of life. And of course, communion with Christ, the Eucharistic life, affects the children whom their mother feeds. It is very important to receive communion often in this position. It is known that it is vital for a nursing woman to drink water at night or in the morning. Relaxations in the preparatory fast, in the Eucharistic fast (after 12 o'clock at night on the eve of communion, they usually do not eat or drink) and in the prayer rule, in which a woman prepares to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ, are acceptable and recommended. This is stated in the document of the bishops' conference of the Russian Orthodox Church - “On the participation of the faithful in the Eucharist.”
It seems to me that the main thing is the mother’s desire to take communion. If it exists, then all the natural difficulties associated with motherhood can be overcome.
How should a young mother prepare for communion?
Archpriest Andrey Romashko, cleric of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Krasnoobsk, head of the Orthodox teenage club “Ark”, father of 8 children, Novosibirsk region
Communion is the main sacrament in which a person mystically unites with Christ, becoming a real, and not a nominal member of the Church - the Body of Christ. Meeting with the Savior is by no means an ordinary event; even in preparation for the arrival of guests, we clean the apartment, put ourselves in order...
A person consists of a soul and a body; accordingly, it is necessary to prepare both the body and the soul for the great Sacrament. Physical preparation includes fasting, spiritual preparation includes reconciliation with neighbors, prayer, repentance of sins. Thus, having cleansed her inner temple, the young mother can begin Communion and invite the Lord to her.
Preparation for lay communion is clearly described in the document ““. For example, before communion you must be at the evening service and not be late for the liturgy, and an exception is possible for the disabled and parents with small children. And mothers who have recently given birth and are breastfeeding can certainly be classified as one of them.
More specific recommendations for preparing for Communion can only be given by a priest who knows the circumstances of your life. And if there is no confessor, if you are going to a new church for yourself, try to ask the local priest in advance what requirements will be made of you, because, as you know, you can have problems with your own rules in a foreign monastery... One priest, based on his experience , will treat you condescendingly, while the other will see serious potential and require more effort. You may be offered different preparation schemes that have one goal: to receive communion for benefit, and not for sin, but they may differ in intensity, be more abrupt or gradual. It’s like with doctors: the surgeon will say “we’ll cut”, the therapist will say “we need to treat”, but the goal is one – human health.
So, we call the church (we send our husband, mother, and mother-in-law there) with the question: how can a young mother receive communion? You say, for example, “I’m a nursing mother, I have three children the same age, no helpers, I’ll come alone with all the children!” It is advisable to hear an answer from the priest, and if there is none, from a librarian, catechist or candle maker. Remember that not all temple workers are equally competent: the watchman or cleaning lady may say exactly the wrong thing. And you need to get answers to three fundamental questions:
1. When to come to confession? Is it realistic in your specific situation (children, breastfeeding, pregnancy) to make an exception and confess not during the service, so as not to ring the church with the crying of a baby?
2. What prayers should I read before Communion? The minimum is the Follow-up to Holy Communion, as it is printed in the Prayer Book. If you really don’t have time, find the audio of these prayers on your tablet or smartphone and listen. You can sit or lie down if you are feeding. The main thing is to listen carefully and pray.
3. How to fast? There are relaxations for pregnant and nursing mothers: only one day or no fasting at all. What is needed in your specific situation should be determined in advance.
If you are not pregnant, are not breastfeeding, have someone to leave your children with - act like everyone else, without giving yourself unnecessary concessions. Well, if it’s really difficult for you, and you were advised not to make any special concessions, don’t be upset, your father is just a surgeon at heart. You will cope, figure it out, or find a priest-“therapist”. The main thing is to start, and then the Lord will help!
Confession is one of the most important church sacraments, during which Christians repent of their sins. Confession takes place in the presence of a priest, however, all sins are resolved by God himself.
Confession has great value for anyone Orthodox Christian, since repentance and atonement for sins are the work of his whole life. Without it, the laity are not allowed to the Sacrament of the Eucharist (communion) and cannot partake of the Holy Gifts.
What is confession and why is it needed?
The Holy Fathers teach that sin is the main barrier between man and God. And this barrier is so huge that people are not able to overcome it on their own. You can cope with it only with God’s help, but for this a person must first admit his sin and repent of it.
It is for deliverance from sin and there is the Sacrament of Confession. When our body is infected with a dangerous virus, we usually go to the hospital for medicine. However, sin is the same deadly virus, only it affects not the body, but the soul. And to recover from it, a person needs the help of the church.
The sacrament of repentance is often compared to baptism. During the baptism of new converts, a Christian gets rid of original sin inherited from our first parents - Adam and Eve. Confession helps to resolve those sins that were committed after baptism and by the person himself personally.
Typically, for a Christian, repentance consists of three stages:
- Repent immediately after a sin.
- Ask God for forgiveness in the evening, before going to bed.
- Go to confession, during which the Lord will finally resolve this sin.
You can also confess if your soul is heavy or your conscience is tormenting you. And here the Sacrament of Repentance plays the role of an ambulance, since it helps to get rid of the suffering caused by sin and restore lost mental health.
It is very important to learn to ask for forgiveness from those we have offended. But even more important is repentance before God, since we have much more sins before Him than before any other people.
Many people ask why it is necessary to go to church and confess in the presence of a priest. Isn’t it enough that we ask God for forgiveness, that our conscience torments us, and that we repent of what we have done?
No, not enough. Usually priests give the following explanation: if a person, for example, gets dirty, he will not become clean only because he is aware of his dirt and is ashamed of it. To cleanse he needs some kind of external source water in which he can wash himself. The Holy Church plays the role of such a source for a Christian.
However, it is important to remember that confession is not only repentance and liberation from sin. It is also a firm determination not to repeat sinful acts and to bring one’s life into real compliance with Christian teaching.
How does the sacrament work?
Unlike other sacraments, confession does not require the observance of a large number of rituals. It does not require long fasts, any special conditions, or specific days. The sacrament of repentance can be performed always and everywhere: it only requires complete repentance and the presence of a priest. Any member of the Orthodox Church aged 7 years and older can confess.
In the temple itself, this sacrament can be performed at different times:
- After the evening service.
- In the morning, immediately before the liturgy.
- During the liturgy itself, before communion.
If there are too many people in the church, you can agree with the priest for another time. Confession begins with a priestly prayer and an appeal to the penitent (“Behold, child, Christ...”). Then the priest covers the head of the penitent with an epitrachelion (optional), asks what his name is and what he wants to confess.
During confession, the priest can ask clarifying questions, give instructions or advice. In some cases he imposes penance, that is, it orders to do certain actions aimed at atonement for sin. For example, if a penitent stole something, he may be asked to return what was stolen or to compensate for the damage. However, penance is prescribed quite rarely.
When the confession ends, the priest places the edge of the stole on the person’s head and says a prayer of permission. After this, the parishioner kisses the Gospel and the cross, which lie on the analogue, and asks the priest for a blessing.
You need to confess at least before each communion. A church-going Christian should receive communion from once a day to once every three weeks. There is no maximum for the number of confessions.
How to prepare for the Sacrament of Penance
Preparing for confession comes down to a thorough analysis of all your actions, words and thoughts. However, they must be considered not from the point of view of man, but from the point of view of God's commandments.
Such self-analysis requires a person to be extremely honest with himself. In truthfully assessing his deeds, a Christian must put aside pride and false shame, since these shortcomings cause us to remain silent about our sins and even justify them.
Preparing for repentance requires the right attitude. You need to not just mechanically remember everyday sins, but strive with all your soul to ensure that they are left behind. It is also advisable to first make peace with those against whom we have sinned and ask for their forgiveness.
In order not to forget about your sins, you can write them down on a piece of paper. There is no need to create a detailed bureaucratic report - just a rough “cheat sheet” will be enough. It will help you quickly refresh your memory before confession and not forget anything.
If you are afraid of missing something important, use special lists of sins for confession. In Orthodoxy, they play the role of a kind of “check list” and allow us to notice what we, for some reason, did not pay attention to. This is the Pochaev Leaf, which helps to remember sins during confession, lists for women, men, children and teenagers.
However, during confession itself you should not use any lists or texts. It’s better to speak in your own words and from the heart , and reading from a piece of paper can turn into a sacrament into an empty formality.
Another way to remember forgotten sins is This is to look at them by type:
- Sins against God: unbelief, lack of faith, pride, breaking the commandments, mentioning the Lord in vain, turning to psychics, not attending church, and the like.
- Sins against one's neighbor: theft, slander, gossip, insults and betrayal.
- Sins against oneself: gluttony, drunkenness, prodigal sin, smoking, despondency and other acts that destroy the body and soul.
Christians often remember only what happened after last confession. But to this we must definitely add those actions that we kept silent about last time because of shame or forgetfulness. Also, during confession, you can talk about those sins that last time we confessed without proper repentance.
Some ask: is it permissible to confess the same sin repeatedly? In principle, this is allowed, since the memory of past sins strengthens a person in humility. However, it is not necessary to do this, if the repentance was truly sincere.
It is better to find out about the time of the Sacrament of Repentance in advance. If there are many people wishing to confess on this day, it is better to arrange a separate meeting with the priest.
How to prepare for your very first confession
The very first confession in the life of a Christian is called general. We need to prepare for it especially carefully, since it is precisely this that washes away the most old and ingrained dirt from our soul. It is customary to remember all your sins, and not only adults, but also children (starting from the age of six).
Before such a confession, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with Christian literature on this topic. But before you buy books or download them from the Internet, you should definitely consult with your confessor. The fact is that some books on repentance may be too complex for a layman, and some are of dubious origin and written by sectarians.
If your church is large and a lot of people gather for Sunday services, general confession may be held there. In this case, the priest simply lists the main sins, and the parishioners repeat after him. But such short form confession is not suitable for the first time, so it is better to visit the temple on a weekday, when there are usually few people there.
Immediately before the sacrament, you must tell the priest that this is your first time at confession. In this case, he will prompt you and direct your confession to “ the right direction", and then tell you what to do next.
How to confess correctly
The main rule of confession is this: all actions must be as sincere as possible. During the sacrament, formalism must be avoided at all costs so as not to turn it into a ritual “for show.” Here, sincerity is more important than following external instructions.
You need to dress for confession in the same way as for a regular visit to church. Men should wear long pants and a shirt that covers their elbows. To a woman - long skirt and clothing that covers the shoulders and décolleté. When going to church, you should not wear cosmetics, especially lipstick. A woman must have a scarf on her head.
Arriving at the temple, you need to stand in line for confession. At the same time, it is necessary to keep a certain distance from others so as not to disturb anyone and not to hear other people’s words of repentance.
Having waited your turn, you need to go to the lectern (the table where the cross and the Gospel lie) and bow your head. You can also kneel, but this is not at all necessary. Remember that kneeling prayer is canceled on Sundays, great holidays and during the period from Easter to Trinity.
At confession it is customary to talk not only about individual sinful acts, but also about characteristic of man harmful passions. For example, if a penitent is characterized by the love of money, then his sins will be specific manifestations of greed or stinginess.
If you are unfamiliar with church names sins and passions, then just retell everything in your own words. You only need to name the sin itself, briefly and without unnecessary details. If necessary, the priest himself will clarify everything.
If the Lord sees sincere repentance, he will forgive all sins, even those that we ourselves have forgotten. However, it is impossible to deliberately conceal sins, because in this case there will be no forgiveness.
How exactly to talk about your sins? Here are some recommendations that priests usually give:
- Do not approach confession formally. This is not a ritual of “listing sins”: sincere repentance is more important here.
- Avoid “blanks”, that is, pre-memorized phrases and expressions. The best words are those that come from the heart.
- Do not make excuses and do not shift your sins onto others, because in this case the meaning of repentance itself disappears.
- Don't just talk about your life. The purpose of confession is not to pour out the soul, but to get rid of the burden of sin.
- It’s normal to cry during confession, but you don’t need to do it on purpose and for show.
And most importantly: it is necessary to remember that in fact all sins are confessed to God. The priest only fulfills the duty of a witness and intercessor before Him.
During confession, the priest may sometimes ask or clarify something. In this case, you just need to calmly answer all the questions. And vice versa, if something from the priest’s instructions remains unclear, then ask him to explain.
After the priest has listened to the confession and is convinced of the person’s sincerity, he covers his head with the edge of the stole and reads a prayer of permission. After it you need to cross yourself and kiss the cross and the Gospel.
Immediately after confession, a blessing is taken from the priest. To do this, fold your hands with your palms up and right palm put on the left. Then you need to bow your head and say: “Bless, father.” The priest will make a blessing sign and place his palm on his folded hands. The priest should touch his hand with his lips as an image of the blessing right hand of the Lord.
If you are planning to take communion, you should take a blessing for this too. You can simply ask: “Father, do you bless me to receive communion?” In this case, the priest can clarify the observance of fasting and prayers necessary for the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
What to do after confession
The very first thing to do is to thank the Lord for the forgiveness of sins. Unfortunately, some people forget about this. But this is His great gift, thanks to which the human soul is cleansed of filth.
You also need to make a firm decision to change your life. It is not enough to simply confess a sin to God: you must try to never repeat such a thing again in the future. It is important to remember that for a Christian, repentance and the fight against sin is the work of a lifetime that never ends.
With sincere repentance in confession, all sins are forgiven. But this does not mean that you can immediately forget about them. No, we should always remember the sins committed earlier, for we need this for humility and for protection from possible falls in the future.
If you confess regularly enough, over time it becomes difficult to remember your sins. But this does not mean that they do not exist: they simply begin to “hide” from us. In this case, we can ask the Lord to grant us a vision of our own sins.
The sacrament of confession and repentance is the great mercy of God
Every time the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the church, a priest comes out of the altar before the service begins. He heads to the vestibule of the temple, where the people of God are already waiting for him. In his hands, the Cross is a sign of the sacrificial love of the Son of God for the human race, and the Gospel is the good news of salvation. The priest places the Cross and the Gospel on the lectern and, reverently bowing, proclaims: “Blessed is our God always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen".
This is how the Sacrament of Confession begins. The name itself indicates that in this Sacrament something deeply intimate is accomplished, revealing secret layers of a person’s life that in ordinary times a person prefers not to touch. This is probably why the fear of confession is so strong among those who have never started it before. How long do they have to break themselves in order to approach the confessional lectern!
Vain fear!
It comes from ignorance of what actually happens in this Sacrament. Confession is not a forcible “picking” of sins from the conscience, not an interrogation, and, especially, not a “guilty” verdict on the sinner. Confession is the great Sacrament of reconciliation between God and man; this is the sweetness of the forgiveness of sin; This is a tear-touching manifestation of God’s love for man.
We all sin a lot before God. Vanity, hostility, idle talk, ridicule, intransigence, irritability, anger are constant companions of our lives. On the conscience of almost each of us lie more serious crimes: infanticide (abortion), adultery, turning to sorcerers and psychics, theft, enmity, revenge and much more, making us guilty of the wrath of God.
It should be remembered that sin is not a fact in biography that can be frivolously forgotten. Sin is a “black seal” that remains on the conscience until the end of days and is not washed away by anything other than the Sacrament of Repentance. Sin has a corrupting power that can cause a chain of subsequent, more serious sins.
One ascetic of piety figuratively likened sins... to bricks. He said this: “The more unrepentant sins a person has on his conscience, the thicker the wall between him and God, made up of these bricks - sins. The wall can become so thick that the life-giving grace of God ceases to reach a person, and then he experiences the mental and physical consequences of sins. Mental consequences include dislike for individuals or society as a whole, increased irritability, anger and nervousness, fears, attacks of anger, depression, development of addictions in the individual, despondency, melancholy and despair, in extreme forms sometimes turning into a craving for suicide. This is not neurosis at all. This is how sin works.
Bodily consequences include illness. Almost all diseases of an adult, explicitly or implicitly, are associated with previously committed sins.
So, in the Sacrament of Confession, a great miracle of God’s mercy is performed towards the sinner. After sincere repentance of sins before God in the presence of a clergyman as a witness of repentance, when the priest reads a prayer of permission, the Lord himself, with His omnipotent right hand, breaks the wall of sin-bricks into dust, and the barrier between God and man collapses.”
When we come to confession, we do not repent before the priest. The priest, being himself a sinful man, is only a witness, a mediator in the Sacrament, and the true celebrant is the Lord God. Then why confess in church? Isn’t it easier to repent at home, alone before the Lord, because He hears us everywhere?
Yes, indeed, personal repentance before confession, leading to awareness of sin, heartfelt contrition and rejection of the wrongdoing, is necessary. But in itself it is not exhaustive. The final reconciliation with God, cleansing from sin, takes place within the framework of the Sacrament of Confession, without fail through the mediation of a priest. This form of the Sacrament was established by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Appearing to the apostles after His glorious Resurrection, He blew and said to them: “...receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; On whomever you leave it, they will stay on it” (). The apostles, the pillars of the ancient Church, were given the power to remove the veil of sin from the hearts of people. From them this power passed to their successors - church primates - bishops and priests.
In addition, the moral aspect of the Sacrament is important. It is not difficult to list your sins in private before the All-Knowing and Invisible God. But discovering them in the presence of a third party—a priest—requires considerable effort to overcome shame, requires crucifixion of one’s sinfulness, which leads to an incomparably deeper and more serious awareness of personal wrong.
The Holy Fathers call the Sacrament of confession and repentance “second baptism.” In it, that grace and purity that were given to the newly baptized person and were lost by him through sins returns to us.
The sacrament of confession and repentance is the great mercy of God towards weak and prone humanity; it is a means available to everyone, leading to the salvation of the soul, which constantly falls into sin.
Throughout our lives, our spiritual clothing is continually stained with sin. They can be noticed only when our clothes are white, that is, cleansed by repentance. On the clothes of an unrepentant sinner, dark with sinful dirt, stains of new and separate sins cannot be noticeable.
Therefore, we must not put off our repentance and allow our spiritual clothing to become completely soiled: this leads to dulling of conscience and to spiritual death.
And only an attentive life and timely cleansing of sinful stains in the Sacrament of Confession can preserve the purity of our soul and the presence of the Holy Spirit of God in it.
If the Sacrament of Confession is neglected, sin will oppress the soul and at the same time, upon leaving it by the Holy Spirit, doors will be opened for entry into it dark force and the development of passions and addictions.
There may also come a period of hostility, enmity, quarrels and even hatred towards others, which will poison the life of both the sinner and his neighbors.
Obsessive bad thoughts (“psychasthenia”) may appear, from which the sinner is not able to free himself and which will poison his life.
This will also include the so-called “persecution mania”, severe wavering in faith, and such completely opposite feelings, but equally dangerous and painful, for some - an insurmountable fear of death, and for others - a desire for suicide.
Finally, mental and physical unhealthy manifestations may occur that are usually called “damage”: seizures of an epileptic nature and that series of ugly mental manifestations that are characterized as obsession and demonic possession.
Holy Scripture and the history of the Church testify that such severe consequences of unrepentant sins are healed by the power of God’s grace through the Sacrament of Confession and subsequent communion of the Holy Mysteries.
The spiritual experience of the elder Hieroschemamonk Hilarion from Optina Pustyn is indicative in this regard.
Hilarion, in his senile service, proceeded from the position stated above, that any mental illness is a consequence of the presence of unrepentant sin in the soul.
Therefore, among such patients, the elder first of all tried, by questioning, to find out all the significant and serious sins that they had committed after the age of seven and were not expressed at the time in confession, either out of modesty, or out of ignorance, or out of oblivion.
After discovering such a sin (or sins), the elder tried to convince those who came to him for help of the need for deep and sincere repentance of sin.
If such repentance appeared, then the elder, like a priest, absolved sins after confession. With the subsequent communion of the Holy Mysteries, complete deliverance usually occurred from the mental illness that tormented the sinful soul.
In cases where the visitor was found to have severe and prolonged enmity towards his neighbors, the elder commanded to immediately reconcile with them and ask their forgiveness for all previously inflicted insults, insults and injustices.
Such conversations and confessions sometimes required great patience, endurance and perseverance from the elder. So, for a long time he persuaded one possessed woman to first cross herself, then drink holy water, then tell him her life and her sins.
At first he had to endure many insults and manifestations of anger from her. However, he released her only when the patient humbled herself, became obedient and brought complete repentance in confession for the sins she had committed. This is how she received complete healing.
One patient came to the elder, suffering from a desire for suicide. The elder found out that he had previously made two attempts at suicide - at the age of 12 and in his youth.
At confession, the patient had not previously brought repentance to them. The elder achieved complete repentance from him - he confessed and gave him communion. Since then, the thoughts of suicide have stopped.
As can be seen from the above, sincere repentance and confession of sins committed bring to a Christian not only their forgiveness, but also completeness spiritual health only upon returning to the sinner is grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit with the Christian.
Since only through the permission of the priest is sin finally erased from our “book of life,” so that our memory does not fail us in this most important of our lives, it is necessary to write down our sins. The same note can be used in confession.
This is what Elder Fr. suggested doing to his spiritual children. . Regarding confession, he gave the following instructions: “When approaching confession, you need to remember everything and consider every sin from all sides, bring all the little things to memory, so that everything in your heart would burn out with shame. Then our sin will become disgusting and the confidence will be created that we will no longer return to it.
At the same time, we must feel all the goodness of God: the Lord shed His Blood for me, takes care of me, loves me, is ready to accept me like a mother, hugs me, comforts me, but I keep sinning and sinning.
And then, when you come to confession, you repent to the Lord crucified on the cross, like a child when he says with tears: “Mom, forgive me, I won’t do it again.”
And whether there is anyone here or not, it will not matter, because the priest is only a witness, and the Lord knows all our sins, sees all our thoughts. He only needs our consciousness of being guilty.
Thus, in the Gospel: “He asked the father of the demon-possessed youth since when this had happened to him (). He didn't need it. He knew everything, but he did it so that the father would acknowledge his guilt in his son’s illness.”
“The Lord is good and forgives the sins of all who turn to Him, no matter who they are, so that He will not remember them anymore.
However, He wants those (those who have been pardoned) to remember the forgiveness of their sins that they have committed so far, so that, having forgotten about this, they would not allow anything in their behavior that would cause them to be forced to give an account of those sins that were committed. have already been forgiven - as happened with that slave to whom the master renewed the entire debt that had previously been released to him ().
Thus, when the Lord forgives us our sins, we must not forgive them to ourselves, but always remember them through (continuous) renewal of repentance for them.”
Elder Silouan also speaks about this:
“Although sins are forgiven, you must remember and grieve about them all your life in order to maintain contrition.”
Here, however, we should warn that remembering one’s sins can be different and in some cases (for carnal sins) can even harm a Christian. The Monk Barsanuphius the Great writes about this:
“I don’t mean remembering sins individually, so that sometimes even through their remembering the enemy does not lead us into the same captivity, but it is enough just to remember that we are guilty of sins.”
It should be mentioned at the same time that the elder Fr. Alexei Zosimovsky believed that although there was remission of some sin after confession, if it continues to torment and confuse the conscience, then it is necessary to confess it again.
For someone who sincerely repents of sins, the dignity of the priest accepting his confession does not matter. Fr. writes about it this way. :
“For a person who truly suffers from the ulcer of his sin, it makes no difference through whom he confesses this sin that torments him; just to confess it as soon as possible and get relief.
In confession, the most important state of the soul of the penitent, whatever the confessor may be. Our repentance is important, not him telling you something. In our country, the personality of the confessor is often given primacy.”
When confessing your sins or asking your confessor for advice, it is very important to catch his first word. Elder Silouan gives the following instructions on this matter.
“In a few words, the confessor speaks his thoughts, or the most essential things about his condition, and then leaves the confessor free.
The confessor, praying from the first moment of the conversation, waits for admonition from God, and if he feels a “notification” in his soul, then he gives such an answer, which should be stopped at, because when the “first word” of the confessor is missed, then at the same time the effectiveness of the Sacrament is weakened , and confession can turn into a simple human discussion.”
Perhaps some who repent of serious sins when confessing to a priest think that the latter will treat them with hostility after learning their sins. But that's not true.
As Archbishop Arseny (Chudovskoy) writes: “When a sinner sincerely, with tears, repents to his confessor, the latter involuntarily has a feeling of joy and consolation in his heart, and at the same time a feeling of love and respect for the penitent.
To the one who has revealed his sins, it may perhaps seem that the shepherd will not even look at him now, since he knows his filth and will treat him with contempt. Oh no! A sincerely repentant sinner becomes dear, dear, and as if dear to the shepherd.”
O. Alexander Elchaninov writes about the same thing:
“Why is a confessor not disgusted with a sinner, no matter how disgusting his sins are? “Because in the Sacrament of Repentance the priest contemplates the complete separation of the sinner and his sin.”
Confession (based on the works of Father Alexander Elchaninov)
Usually people inexperienced in spiritual life do not see the multiplicity of their sins.
“Nothing special”, “like everyone else”, “only minor sins - didn’t steal, didn’t kill” - this is usually the beginning of confession for many.
But self-love, intolerance of reproaches, callousness, people-pleasing, weakness of faith and love, cowardice, spiritual laziness - aren’t these important sins? Can we really claim that we love God enough, that our faith is active and ardent? That we love every person as a brother in Christ? That we have achieved meekness, freedom from anger, humility?
If not, then what is our Christianity? How can we explain our self-confidence in confession if not by “petrified insensibility”, if not by “deadness” of the heart, spiritual death that precedes the physical?
Why did the holy fathers, who left us repentance prayers, considered themselves the first of sinners and with sincere conviction cried out to the Sweetest Jesus: “No one on earth has sinned as I have sinned, the accursed and the prodigal,” and we are convinced that everything is fine with us?
The brighter the light of Christ illuminates the hearts, the more clearly all shortcomings, ulcers and wounds are recognized. And, on the contrary, 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.
Therefore, the direct path to the knowledge of one’s sins is to approach the Light and pray for this Light, which is the judgment of the world and everything “worldly” in ourselves (). In the meantime, there is no such closeness to Christ in which a feeling of repentance is our usual state, we must, when preparing for confession, examine our conscience - according to the commandments, according to some prayers (for example, the 3rd Vespers, the 4th before Holy Communion), in some places of the Gospel and Epistles (for example, , , , ).
When understanding your soul, you must try to distinguish between basic sins and derivative ones, symptoms from deeper-lying causes.
For example, absent-mindedness during prayer, dozing and inattention in church, lack of interest in reading are very important. Holy Scripture. But don’t these sins stem from lack of faith and weak love for God? It is necessary to note in yourself self-will, disobedience, self-justification, impatience of reproaches, intransigence, stubbornness; but it is even more important to discover their connection with self-love and pride.
If we notice in ourselves a desire for society, talkativeness, laughter, increased concern for our appearance and not only our own, but our loved ones, then we must carefully examine whether this is not a form of “diverse vanity.”
If we take everyday failures too much to heart, endure separation with difficulty, grieve inconsolably for those who have passed away, then in addition to the strength and depth of our feelings, doesn’t all this also testify to a lack of faith in God’s Providence?
There is another auxiliary means that leads us to the knowledge of our sins - to remember what other people, our enemies, and especially those who live side by side with us and loved ones usually accuse us of: almost always their accusations, reproaches, attacks are justified. You can even, having conquered your pride, ask them directly about it - you know better from the outside.
Before confession, it is necessary to ask for forgiveness from everyone to whom you are guilty, and to go to confession with an unburdened conscience.
During such a test of the heart, one must be careful not to fall into excessive suspiciousness and petty suspicion of every movement of the heart; Having taken this path, you can lose your sense of what is important and unimportant, and get confused in the little things.
In such cases, you must temporarily abandon the testing of your soul and, with prayer and good deeds, simplify and clarify your soul.
The point is not to remember as fully as possible and even to write down our sins, but to achieve such a state of concentration, seriousness and prayer in which, as if in the light, our sins become clear,
But knowing your sins does not mean repenting of them. True, the Lord accepts confession - sincere, conscientious, even when it is not accompanied by strong feeling remorse.
Still, “contrition of heart”—sorrow for our sins—is the most important thing we can bring to confession.
But what to do if “we have no tears, less than repentance, less than tenderness?” What should we do if our heart, “dried up by the flame of sin,” is not watered by the life-giving waters of tears? What if “weakness of soul and weakness of the flesh” are so great that we are not capable of sincere repentance?
This is still not a reason to postpone confession - God can touch our heart during confession itself: confession itself, the naming of our sins can soften our repentant heart, refine our spiritual vision, sharpen our feelings. Most of all, preparation for confession serves to overcome our spiritual lethargy - fasting, which, exhausting our body, disrupts our bodily well-being and complacency, which is disastrous for spiritual life. Prayer, nightly thoughts about death, reading the Gospel, the lives of saints, the works of the holy fathers, intense struggle with oneself, and exercise in good deeds serve the same purpose.
Our insensitivity in confession is mostly rooted in a lack of fear of God and hidden unbelief. This is where our efforts should be directed.
The main thing is to achieve sincere repentance, if possible - tears, which do not require details, but to identify which often requires a detailed and specific story.
This is why tears in confession are so important - they soften our petrification, shake us “from top to toe”, simplify us, give us graceful self-forgetfulness, and eliminate the main obstacle to repentance - our “self”. Proud and self-loving people do not cry. Once he cried, it means he softened, resigned himself.
That is why after such tears there is meekness, lack of anger, softness, tenderness, peace in the soul of those to whom the Lord sent “joyful crying” (creating joy). There is no need to be ashamed of tears in confession, we need to let them flow freely, washing away our defilements. “The clouds give me tears in fasting every day, so that I may weep and wash away the filth, even from sweets, and I will appear to You cleansed” (1st Week of Great Lent, Monday evening).
The third point in confession is verbal confession of sins. There is no need to wait for questions, you need to make the effort yourself; Confession is a feat and self-compulsion. It is necessary to speak precisely, without obscuring the ugliness of sin with general expressions (for example, “I have sinned against the 7th commandment”). When confessing, it is very difficult to avoid the temptation of self-justification, attempts to explain “mitigating circumstances” to the confessor, and references to third parties who led us into sin. All these are signs of pride, lack of deep repentance, and continued staleness in sin.
Confession is not a conversation about one’s shortcomings, doubts, it is not a confessor’s knowledge of you, and least of all a “pious custom.” Confession is an ardent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification that comes from a sense of holiness, dying to sin and reviving for holiness...
I often notice in those confessing a desire to go through confession painlessly for themselves - either they get off with general phrases, or talk about little things, keeping silent about what should really weigh on their conscience. There is also false shame before the confessor and indecision in general, as before every important action, and especially - a cowardly fear of seriously starting to stir up one’s life, full of small and habitual weaknesses. A real confession, like a good shock to the soul, is terrifying in its decisiveness, the need to change something, or even just to at least think about oneself.
Sometimes in confession they refer to a weak memory, which does not seem to give the opportunity to remember sins. Indeed, it often happens that you easily forget your sins, but does this only happen because of a weak memory?
In confession, a weak memory is not an excuse; forgetfulness - from inattention, frivolity, callousness, insensitivity to sin. Sin that burdens the conscience will not be forgotten. After all, for example, cases that especially hurt our pride or, on the contrary, flattered our vanity, our successes, praise addressed to us - we remember long years. We remember everything that makes a strong impression on us for a long time and clearly, and if we forget our sins, doesn’t this mean that we simply do not attach serious importance to them?
A sign of completed repentance is a feeling of lightness, purity, inexplicable joy, when sin seems as difficult and impossible as this joy was just distant.
Our repentance will not be complete if, while repenting, we do not confirm internally in the determination not to return to the confessed sin.
But, they say, how is this possible? How can I promise myself and my confessor that I will not repeat my sin? Wouldn't the opposite be closer to the truth—the certainty that the sin will be repeated? After all, everyone knows from experience that after a while you inevitably return to the same sins. Observing yourself from year to year, you do not notice any improvement, “you jump and again remain in the same place.”
It would be terrible if that were the case. Fortunately, this is not the case. There is no case when, in the presence of a good desire to improve, consistent confessions and Holy Communion would not produce beneficial changes in the soul.
But the fact is that, first of all, we are not our own judges. A person cannot correctly judge himself whether he has become worse or better, since both he, the judge, and what he judges are changing quantities.
Increased severity towards oneself, increased spiritual clarity, heightened fear of sin can give the illusion that sins have multiplied and intensified: they remained the same, maybe even weakened, but we did not notice them like that before.
In addition, God, in His special providence, often closes our eyes to our successes in order to protect us from the worst sin - vanity and pride. It often happens that sin remains, but frequent confessions and Communion of the Holy Mysteries have shaken and weakened its roots. And the very struggle with sin, suffering about one’s sins – isn’t that an acquisition?
I confess that I am a great sinner (name of rivers) to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honorable father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, which I have done in all the days of my life, which I have thought even to this day.
Sinned: He did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, he did not keep his monastic promise, but he lied about everything and created indecent things for himself before the Face of God.
Forgive us, Merciful Lord (for the people).
Forgive me, honest father (for singles).
Sinned: before the Lord with little faith and slowness in thoughts, from the enemy everything against faith and the Holy Church; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing benefits, calling on the name of God without need - in vain.
Forgive me, honest father.
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.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: he did not preserve love for his neighbor, did not feed the hungry and thirsty, did not clothe the naked, did not visit the sick and prisoners in prison; I did not study the law of God and the holy Fathers' traditions out of laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: church and cell rules by non-compliance, going to the temple of God without diligence, with laziness and negligence; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during church service- I sinned by idle talk, laughter, dozing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, leaving the temple during the service and not going to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: daring to go to the temple of God in uncleanness and touch all holy things.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: disrespect for the feasts of God; violation of holy fasts and failure to preserve fast days– Wednesdays and Fridays; intemperance in food and drink, polyeating, secret eating, disordered eating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism; one’s own will and reason through fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and self-justification; not properly honoring parents, not raising children in Orthodox faith, cursing their children and neighbors.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false religion, dancing, smoking, playing cards, gossip, commemorating the living for their repose, eating the blood of animals*.(* VI Ecumenical Council, 67th canon. Act of the Apostles, 15 ch. )
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: seeking help from intermediaries of demonic power - occultists: psychics, bioenergeticists, non-contact massage therapists, hypnotists, “folk” healers, sorcerers, sorcerers, healers, fortune tellers, astrologers, parapsychologists; participation in coding sessions, removal of “damage and evil eye”, spiritualism; contacting UFOs and “higher intelligence”; connection to “cosmic energies”.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: viewing and listening to television and radio programs with the participation of psychics, healers, astrologers, fortune-tellers, healers.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: studying various occult teachings, theosophy, eastern cults, the teaching of “living ethics”; doing yoga, meditation, dousing according to Porfiry Ivanov’s system.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: reading and storing occult literature.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: attending speeches by Protestant preachers, participating in meetings of Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, the "Virgin Center", "white brotherhood" and other sects, accepting heretical baptism, deviating into heresy and sectarian teaching.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: pride, conceit, arrogance, vanity, ambition, envy, conceit, suspicion, irritability.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: condemnation of all people - living and dead, slander and anger, malicious malice, hatred, evil for evil retribution, slander, reproach, deceit, laziness, deception, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to give in and serve one's neighbor; sinned with gloating, malice, slander, insult, ridicule, reproach and man-pleasing.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: incontinence of mental and physical feelings; spiritual and physical impurity, pleasure and procrastination in unclean thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of wives and young men; in a dream, prodigal desecration at night, intemperance in married life.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: impatience with illnesses and sorrows, love for the comforts of this life, captivity of the mind and hardening of the heart, not forcing oneself to do any good deed.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: inattention to the promptings of one’s conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. I sinned through covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, embezzlement, theft, stinginess, attachment to various kinds of things and people.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: condemnation of bishops and priests, disobedience to spiritual fathers, grumbling and resentment against them and failure to confess one’s sins to them through oblivion, negligence and false shame.
Sinned: unmercifulness, contempt and condemnation of the poor; going to the temple of God without fear and reverence.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: laziness, relaxation, love of bodily rest, excessive sleeping, voluptuous dreams, biased views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, fornication, unmarried marriages; (those who performed abortions on themselves or others, or inclined someone to this great sin - infanticide, sinned gravely).
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: spending time in empty and idle activities, in empty conversations, in excessive watching of television.
Sinned: despondency, cowardice, impatience, murmuring, despair of salvation, lack of hope in God's mercy, insensibility, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness,
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: slander of one's neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, non-reconciliation, enmity and hatred, discord, spying on other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: coldness and insensibility in confession, belittling sins, blaming others rather than condemning oneself.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: against the Life-giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching Them without proper preparation, without contrition and the fear of God.
Forgive me, honest father.
Sinned: word, thought and all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - willy or involuntarily, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and unreason, and it is not possible to list all my sins according to their multitude, But in all of these, so in unspeakable through oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to observe.
You, honest father, forgive me and release me from all of this and pray for me, a sinner, and on that day of judgment testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen.
The end and glory to God.
General Confession
As you know, the church practices not only separate, but also the so-called “general confession”, in which the priest absolves sins without hearing them from the penitents.
The replacement of a separate confession with a general one is due to the fact that now the priest often does not have the opportunity to accept confession from everyone. However, such a replacement is, of course, extremely undesirable and not everyone and not always can participate in general confession and after it go to Communion.
During general confession, the penitent does not have to reveal the dirt of his spiritual vestments, does not have to be ashamed of them in front of the priest, and his pride, pride and vanity will not be hurt. Thus, there will not be that punishment for sin, which, in addition to our repentance, would gain us God's mercy.
Secondly, general confession is fraught with the danger that such a sinner will approach Holy Communion who, during a separate confession, would not be allowed to come to Him by the priest.
Many serious sins require serious and lengthy repentance. And then the priest prohibits communion for a certain period and imposes penance (prayers of repentance, bows, abstinence in something). In other cases, the priest must receive a promise from the repentant not to repeat the sin again and only then be allowed to take communion.
Therefore, general confession cannot be started in the following cases:
1) those who have not been to a separate confession for a long time - several years or many months;
2) those who have either a mortal sin or a sin that greatly hurts and torments his conscience.
In such cases, the confessor must, after all other participants in the confession, approach the priest and tell him the sins that lie on his conscience.
Participation in general confession can be considered acceptable (due to need) only for those who confess and receive communion quite often, check themselves from time to time in separate confession and are confident that the sins that they say in confession will not serve as a reason for prohibition for them Participles.
At the same time, it is also necessary that we participate in general confession either with our spiritual father or with a priest who knows us well.
Confession from Elder Zosima
The possibility in some cases of silent (that is, without words) confession and how one should prepare for it is indicated by the following story from the biography of Elder Zosima from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
“There was a case with two ladies. They go to the elder’s cell, and one of them repents of her sins all the way - “Lord, how sinful I am, I did this and that wrong, I condemned this and that, etc.” ...forgive me, Lord.” ...And the heart and mind seem to fall at the feet of the Lord.
“Forgive me, Lord, and give me strength not to offend You like this again.”
She tried to remember all her sins and repented and repented along the way.
The other one calmly walked towards the elder. “I’ll come, I’ll confess, I’m a sinner in everything, I’ll tell you, I’ll take communion tomorrow.” And then she thinks: “What kind of material should I buy for my daughter’s dress, and what style should I choose for her to suit her face...” and similar worldly thoughts occupied the heart and mind of the second lady.
Both entered Father Zosima’s cell together. Addressing the first one, the elder said:
- Get on your knees, I will now forgive you your sins.
- Why, father, I haven’t told you yet?..
“No need to say, you told them to the Lord all the time, you prayed to God all the way, so now I will allow you, and tomorrow I will bless you to take communion... And you,” he turned to another lady, “you go, buy some material for your daughter’s dress, choose a style, sew what you have in mind.
And when your soul comes to repentance, come to confession. And now I won’t confess to you.”
About penances
In some cases, the priest may impose penances on the penitent - spiritual exercises prescribed with the aim of eradicating the habits of sin. In accordance with this goal, feats of prayer and good deeds are assigned, which must be directly opposite to the sin for which they are assigned: for example, works of mercy are assigned to the lover of money, fasting to the unchaste, kneeling prayers to those weakening in faith, etc. Sometimes, due to the persistent unrepentance of a person confessing to some sin, the confessor may excommunicate him for some period of time from participating in the Sacrament of Communion. Penance must be treated as the will of God, spoken through the priest about the penitent, and must be accepted for obligatory fulfillment. If it is impossible for one reason or another to perform penance, you should contact the priest who imposed it to resolve the difficulties that have arisen.
About the time of the sacrament of confession
According to existing church practice, the Sacrament of Confession is performed in churches in the morning on the day of the Divine Liturgy. In some churches, confession also happens the night before. In churches where the Liturgy is served every day, confession is daily. Under no circumstances should you be late for the beginning of Confession, since the Sacrament begins with the reading of the rite, in which everyone who wishes to confess must prayerfully participate.
Final actions at confession: after confessing sins and reading the prayer of absolution by the priest, the penitent kisses the Cross and Gospel lying on the lectern and takes a blessing from the confessor.
The connection of the sacrament of anointing with forgiveness and the forgiveness of sins
“The prayer of faith will heal the sick person... and if he has committed sins, they will forgive him” ().
No matter how carefully we try to remember and write down our sins, it may happen that a significant part of them will not be told in confession, some will be forgotten, and some will simply not be realized and not noticed due to spiritual blindness.
Thus, in the Sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing, we are forgiven of sins that were not said in confession due to ignorance or forgetfulness. And since illness is a consequence of our sinful state, liberation from sin often leads to healing of the body.
Some of the careless Christians neglect the Sacraments of the church and do not attend confession for several or even many years. And when they realize its necessity and come to confession, then, of course, it is difficult for them to remember all the sins they have committed over many years. In these cases, the Optina elders always recommended that such repentant Christians take part in three Sacraments at once: confession, Blessing of Anointing and Communion of the Holy Mysteries.
Some of the elders believe that in a few years not only the seriously ill, but also all those who are zealous for the salvation of their souls can participate in the Sacrament of Anointing.
At the same time, it should be pointed out that those Christians who do not neglect the fairly frequent Sacrament of Confession were not advised by the Optina elders to undergo unction unless they had a serious illness.
In modern church practice, the Sacrament of Anointing is performed in churches annually during Great Lent.
Those Christians who for some reason will not have the opportunity to take part in the Sacrament of Anointing, need to remember the instructions of the elders Barsanuphius and John, which were given to the disciple in response to the question - “oblivion destroys the remembrance of many sins - what should I do?” The answer was:
“What kind of lender can you find more faithful than God, who knows what has not yet happened? So, lay the account of the sins you have forgotten on Him and tell him:
“Master, since it is a sin to forget one’s sins, I have sinned in everything against You, the One Knower of the Heart. Forgive me for everything according to Your love for mankind, for there the splendor of Your glory is manifested, when You do not repay sinners according to their sins, for You are glorified forever. Amen"".
Communion of the holy mysteries of the body and blood of Christ
The meaning of the Sacrament
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you” ()
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” ()
With these words, the Lord pointed out the absolute necessity for all Christians to participate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Sacrament itself was established by the Lord at the Last Supper.
“Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying: Take, eat: this is My Body. And, taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them and said: drink from it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” ().
“The Eucharist is the basis of that real unity that is expected in the general resurrection, for both in the transubstantiation of the Gifts and in our Communion is the guarantee of our salvation and resurrection, not only spiritual, but also bodily.”
So, if repentance cleanses us from the defilement of our soul, then the communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord will fill us with grace and block the return into our soul of the evil spirit expelled by repentance.
Therefore, according to the custom of the church, the Sacraments of Repentance (confession) and Communion follow directly one after the other. And Rev. says that the rebirth of the soul is accomplished through two sacraments: “through repentance and complete cleansing from all sinful filth by the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ.”
At the same time, no matter how necessary the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is for us, it cannot take place if repentance does not precede it.
As Archbishop Arseny (Chudovskoy) writes:
“It is a great thing to receive the Holy Mysteries and the fruits that come from this are great: the renewal of our hearts by the Holy Spirit, a blissful mood of spirit. And as great as this task is, it requires so much preparation from us. And therefore, if you want to receive the grace of God from Holy Communion, try your best to correct your heart.”
How often should one partake of the holy mysteries?
To the question: “how often should one partake of the Holy Mysteries?” the saint answers: “the more often, the better.” However, he sets an indispensable condition: to approach Holy Communion with sincere repentance for one’s sins and a clear conscience.
In the biography of the monk, there are his words to one woman who suffered cruelly from the spell of a sorcerer: “You have been exposed to misfortune because you have not received the Holy Mysteries for five weeks.”
“Without frequent communion, spiritual life in the world is impossible. After all, your body dries up and becomes powerless when you do not give it food. And the soul demands its heavenly food. Otherwise, it will dry out and become weak.
Without communion, the spiritual fire in You will die out. It will be filled with worldly rubbish. To free ourselves from this rubbish we need a fire that burns the thorns of our sins.
Spiritual life is not abstract theology, but real and most undoubted life in Christ. But how can it begin if you do not accept the fullness of the Spirit of Christ in this terrible and great sacrament? How can you live in Him without accepting the Flesh and Blood of Christ?
And here, as in repentance, the enemy will not leave you without attacks. And here he will plot all sorts of intrigues for you. He will erect many external and internal barriers.
Either you will have no time, then you will feel unwell, or you will want to put it off for a while, “to better prepare.” Do not listen. Go. Confess. Take communion. You don’t know when the Lord will call you.”
Let every soul listen sensitively to its heart and be afraid to listen to the hand of the Distinguished Guest knocking on its door; let her be afraid that her hearing will become coarse from the vanity of the world and will not be able to hear quiet and gentle calls coming from the kingdom of Light.
Let the soul be afraid of replacing the experience of heavenly joy of unity with the Lord with the muddy entertainments of the world or the base consolations of bodily nature.
And when she is able to tear herself away from the world and everything sensory, when she yearns for the light of the Heavenly world and reaches out to the Lord, let her dare to unite with Him in the great Sacrament, while dressing herself in the spiritual clothes of sincere repentance and the deepest humility and the unchanging fullness of spiritual poverty.
Let the soul also not be embarrassed by the fact that, despite all its repentance, it is still unworthy of Communion. Elder Fr. says this about it. Alexy Mechev:
“Take Communion more often and do not say that you are unworthy. If you talk like that, you will never receive communion, because you will never be worthy. Do you think that there is at least one person on Earth worthy of receiving the Holy Mysteries?
No one deserves this, and if we do receive communion, it is only by the special mercy of God.
We are not created for communion, but communion is for us. It is we, sinners, unworthy, weak, who more than anyone else need this saving source.”
And here is what the famous Moscow pastor Fr. said about frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries. :
“...You need to be ready every day for communion, as if you were ready for death... Those who receive communion often are my friends. Ancient Christians took communion every day.
We must approach the Holy Chalice and think that we are unworthy and cry out with humility: everything is here, in You, Lord - mother, father, husband - you are all, Lord, and joy and consolation.”
Known throughout Orthodox Russia old man Pskov-Pechersky Monastery Schema-abbot Savva (1898-1980) in his book “On the Divine Liturgy” wrote this:
“The most pleasant confirmation of how much our Lord Jesus Christ Himself desires for us to begin the Lord’s Table is his appeal to the apostles: “With the desire I desire to eat this Easter with you, first I will not even accept torment” ().
He did not speak to them about the Old Testament Passover: it took place annually and was ordinary, but from now on it must stop completely. He ardently desired the Passover of the New Testament, that Passover in which He sacrifices Himself. He offers himself as food.
The words of Jesus Christ can be expressed this way: with the desire of love and mercy, “I longed to eat this Passover with you,” because it embodies all my love for you, and all yours. true life and bliss.
If the Lord, out of His ineffable love, so ardently desires it not for His own sake, but for our sake, then how ardently we should desire it, out of love and gratitude to Him, and for our own good and bliss!
Christ said: “Take, eat...” (). He offered us His Body not for a one-time or infrequent and occasional use, as medicine, but for constant and everlasting nourishment: eat, not taste. But if the Body of Christ were offered to us only as a medicine, then even then we would have to ask permission to receive communion as often as possible, since we are weak in soul and body, and spiritual weaknesses especially affect us.
The Lord gave us the Holy Mysteries as our daily bread, according to His word: “I will give the bread that My flesh eats” ().
From this it is clear that Christ not only allowed, but also commanded so that we often begin to eat His meal. We do not leave ourselves for a long time without ordinary bread, knowing that otherwise our strength will weaken and bodily life will cease. How can we not be afraid to leave ourselves for a long time without the bread of heaven, the divine, without the bread of life?
Those who rarely approach the Holy Chalice usually say in their own defense: “We are unworthy, we are not ready.” And whoever is not ready, let him not be lazy and get ready.
Not a single person is worthy of communion with the all-holy Lord, because God alone is sinless, but we are given the right to believe, repent, correct, be forgiven and trust in the grace of the Savior of sinners and the Discoverer of the lost.
Whoever carelessly leaves himself unworthy of communion with Christ on earth will remain unworthy of communion with Him in Heaven. Is it wise to remove yourself from the source of life, power, light and grace? He is reasonable who, to the best of his ability, correcting his unworthiness, resorts to Jesus Christ in His Most Pure Mysteries, otherwise the humble consciousness of his unworthiness can turn into coldness towards faith and the work of his salvation. Deliver, Lord!”
In conclusion, we present the opinion of the official publication of the Russian Orthodox Church - the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate (JMP No. 12, 1989, p. 76) regarding the frequency of communion:
“Following the example of Christians of the first centuries, when not only monks, but also ordinary laymen, at every opportunity, resorted to the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion, realizing what a great saving significance they have, and we should, as often as possible, cleanse our conscience with repentance, strengthen our life by confessing faith in God and proceeding to the Sacrament of Holy Communion, in order to thereby receive from God mercy and forgiveness of sins and to unite more closely with Christ...
In modern practice, it is customary for all believers to receive communion at least once a month, and more often during fasting – two to three times per fast. They also receive communion on Angel's Day and birthdays. Believers clarify the order and frequency of communion of the Holy Mysteries with their confessor and, with his blessing, try to maintain the timing of communion and confession.”
How to prepare for Holy Communion
The basis of preparation for the Sacrament of Communion is repentance. Awareness of one's sinfulness reveals personal weaknesses and arouses the desire to become better through unity with Christ in His Most Pure Mysteries. Prayer and fasting set the soul in a repentant mood...
On the days of fasting, one should attend services in church, if circumstances permit, and more diligently follow the household prayer rule: whoever usually does not read all the morning and evening prayers, let him read everything in full. On the eve of communion, you must be at the evening service and read at home, in addition to the usual prayers for the future, the canon of repentance, the canon to the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel. The canons are read either one after the other in full, or combined in this way: the Irmos of the first canto is read penitential canon(“Like on dry ground...”) and troparia, then the troparia of the first song of the canon to the Mother of God (“With many we contain...”), omitting the irmos “The water has passed,” and the troparia of the canon to the Guardian Angel, also without the irmos “Let us drink to the Lord.” The following songs are read in the same way. The troparia before the canon to the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel are omitted in this case.
The canon for communion is also read and, for those who wish, an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus. After midnight they no longer eat or drink, for it is customary to begin the Sacrament of Communion on an empty stomach. In the morning, morning prayers are read and all the preparations for Holy Communion are read, except for the canon read the day before.
Before communion, confession is necessary - either in the evening or in the morning, before the liturgy.”
It should be noted that many believers rarely receive communion, because they cannot find the time and energy for long fasting, which thereby turns into an end in itself. In addition, significant, if not most The modern flock consists of Christians who have recently entered the Church, and therefore have not yet acquired the proper prayer skills. As such, the specified preparation may be overwhelming.
The Church leaves the question of the frequency of Communion and the scope of preparation for It to priests and spiritual fathers to decide. It is with the spiritual father that one must agree on how often to take communion, how long to fast and what prayer rule to perform before this. Different priests bless in different ways depending on the state of health, age, degree of church membership and prayer experience of the person who is fasting,
Schema-abbot Parfeniy in his book “The Path to the One Needed – Communion with God” writes:
“For Great Lent, the Church Charter appoints a great fast - a whole week: one should prepare with a little less strictness for the other three multi-day fasts. Fasting on other days of the year can be limited to one day, that is, on the eve of observing strict fast– eat food without vegetable oil.”
In general, we must take into account the following instruction of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt:
“Some put all their well-being and service before God in reading all the prescribed prayers, not paying attention to the readiness of the heart for God - to their internal correction, for example, many read the rule for communion in this way. Meanwhile, here, first of all, we must look at the correction and readiness of the heart to receive the Holy Mysteries.
If your heart has become right in your womb, by the grace of God, if it is ready to meet the Bridegroom, then thank God, although you did not have time to read all the prayers.
“The kingdom of God is not in words, but in power” (). It is good to obey the Mother Church in everything, but with prudence, and, if possible, “he who is able to accommodate” - a long prayer - “may he accommodate.” But “not everyone can comprehend this word” (); if prolonged prayer is incompatible with fervor of the spirit, it is better to say a short but fervent prayer.
Let us remember that one word of the publican, spoken from a warm heart, justified him. God does not look at the multitude of words, but at the disposition of the heart. The main thing is living faith hearts and warmth of repentance for sins.”
Those who come to the Sacraments of Confession and Communion for the first time can be recommended to focus all their attention on preparing for the first confession in their lives.
It is very important to forgive all your offenders before Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In a state of anger or hostility towards someone, you should under no circumstances take communion.
About the communion of children
According to the custom of the Church, after their baptism, infants up to the age of seven can receive communion very often, not only every week, but every day, moreover, without prior confession and fasting. Starting from 5-6 years, and if possible - from more early age, it is useful to teach children to take communion on an empty stomach.
Church customs for the day of communion of the holy mysteries
Having risen in the morning, the one preparing for Communion must brush his teeth so that no unpleasant odor is felt from him, which in some way offends the very sanctity of the Gifts. In this case, it may happen that a person accidentally swallows a little water; can he begin Holy Communion? Must according to the rules of the Church. “Otherwise Satan, having found the opportunity to remove him from communion, will more often do the same” (Timothy of Alexandria, canonical answer 16).
You need to come to the temple at the beginning of the Liturgy without delay. When carrying out the Holy Gifts, all communicants bow to the ground. The prostration is repeated when the priest finishes reading the pre-communion prayer “I believe, Lord, and I confess...”.
The communicants should approach the Holy Chalice gradually, without crowding, pushing, or trying to get ahead of each other. It is best to read the Jesus Prayer while approaching the Chalice: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”; or prayerfully sing with everyone in the temple: “Receive the Body of Christ, taste the immortal source.” When approaching the Holy Chalice, you do not need to cross yourself, but have your hands folded crosswise on your chest (right to left) for fear of touching the Chalice or the spoon.
Having received the Body and Blood of the Lord from the spoon into the mouth, the communicant must kiss the edge of the Holy Chalice, as if the very rib of the Savior, from which blood and water flowed. It is extremely reprehensible for women to receive Communion with painted lips.
Moving away from the Holy Chalice, you need to make a bow in front of the icon of the Savior and go to the table “with warmth,” and wash your mouth while drinking so that no small particle remains in your mouth.
The day of communion is a special day for the Christian soul, when it is united with Christ in a special, mysterious way. Just as for the reception of the most honored guests the whole house is cleaned and put in order and all ordinary affairs are abandoned, so the day of communion should be celebrated as a great holiday, devoting them, as far as possible, to solitude, prayer, concentration and spiritual reading.
“True communicants are always in a tactile state of grace after Communion. The heart then tastes the Lord spiritually.
But just as we are constrained in body and surrounded by external affairs and relationships in which we must take part for a long time, the spiritual taste of the Lord, due to the splitting of our attention and feelings, is weakened day by day, obscured and hidden...
Therefore, zealots, sensing its impoverishment, hasten to restore it in strength, and when they restore it, they feel that they are tasting the Lord again.”
The end and glory to God!
List of used literature
1) Ep. . "To help the penitent." St. Petersburg, "Satis". 1994.
2) St. rights. John of Kronstadt. “Thoughts of a Christian about Repentance and Holy Communion.” M., Synodal Library. 1990.
3) Prot. . “Questions for Confession of Children.” M., “Pilgrim”. 1994.
4) Schema-abbot Savva. "On the Divine Liturgy." Manuscript.
5) Schema-abbot Parthenius. “The path to the one thing needed—Communication with God.” Manuscript.
6) ZhMP. 1989, 12. p. 76.
7) . "Modern Practice of Orthodox Piety." T. 2. St. Petersburg, “Satis”. 1994.
Loading...
