Confession of sins before communion, what sins. What words should I begin my confession to the priest with? Behavior at the sacrament of repentance

CONFESSION OF THE NEW ONE

Before confession, everyone should try to remember all their sins. You need to carefully and strictly trace your life in order to remember not only the sins committed after the last confession, but also the long-ago ones, not confessed due to oblivion.

And then take paper and pen and write down all your personal sins on a piece of paper according to the samples and examples (or by association with them) given below. Moreover, trying to name your sins literally in one word, so as not to think and save the time of the confessing priest. For example, remembering all the cases of your theft, denote them in one word: “stole” (but at the same time keep in mind every single episode of theft that was remembered this time). And all cases of fornication (which in no case, unlike other sins, can be recalled in detail), write in one word “fornication” or “cheated.” And so on and so forth.

Confess your sins openly, remembering that you are not telling them to a person, but to God Himself, Who already knows your sins, but wants you to repent of them. And you should not be ashamed of the priest: he is only a witness of your repentance and knows well that we are all servile and easily susceptible to falling into sin.

Confess each type of sin separately and in no case in general words and phrases: sinful, guilty, and the like. St. Chrysostom says: “Not only must one say: “I have sinned,” or “I am a sinner,” but all types of sins must also be expressed. “The discovery of sins,” says St. Basil the Great, “is subject to the same rule as the announcement bodily ailments to the doctor." The sinner is spiritually ill, and the priest, or rather the Lord, who receives confession, is a doctor: open your sores to Him and you will receive healing.

Do not try to justify yourself in any way during confession: circumstances, weakness, etc.

Confess your sins with the firm hope that they will certainly be forgiven you. The Apostle John the Theologian writes: “If we say that we have no sin, then 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!”

And before confessing at home, read your personal list of sins two or three times and, clearly and correctly crossing yourself at every mention of what was committed, ask the Lord to let them go and pray to God to help us correct ourselves and not sin again.

We must also think about how to improve our lifestyle, become better, do more good. On the eve of communion and before the liturgy, one should read with heartfelt emotion the prayers laid before communion. These prayers can be found in the prayer book. You should add your petitions to God to the required prayers.

Address to the penitents by Metropolitan Philaret of Ascension

Come to confession with heartfelt contrition, with a consciousness of your guilt, with pain in your heart that you have sinned a lot. Remember how the Lord, with His Providence, His goodness, His sovereign Hand, stopped you, led you away from sin, but you pushed His Hand away, did not listen to His law, did not heed His warnings, and stubbornly sinned and sinned...

And if you do not have such a repentant consciousness and sorrow, then bring to the Lord at least the sad consciousness of this unrepentance of yours. Repent of this to God. You have sinned, but you don’t know how to repent - so at least confess it contritely, the Lord will not reject this humble repentance and will give you His grace.

The Holy Fathers tell us that during repentance, a truly penitent confesses everything and at the same time makes a promise to the Lord to correct his life. Here we are, great sinners, and we have an innumerable number of sins, but that is why a person is given the time of fasting, that is why the Church calls him to intense prayer and fasting, so that he, concentrating, understands his soul and, having seen, realizes his main sin, your main weakness - and almost everyone has it.

The Church calls him to intense prayer and fasting, so that he concentrates, understands his soul and, having seen it, realizes his main sin, his main weakness - and almost everyone has it.

During the fast, you need to give yourself an account of what burdens and binds your soul the most, so that when your spiritual father asks you what you have sinned most about, you can immediately answer.

At the same time, we should never doubt that no matter how great our sins may be, no matter how hard we may have fallen, if we sincerely and contritely confess, the Lord Who said: “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out,” and he will not drive us out and will grant us mercy and forgiveness. Amen.

SAMPLE CONFESSION FOR THOSE ENTERING THE SACRAMENT OF REPENTANCE FOR THE FIRST TIME

I confess to you, my Lord God and before you, honest father, all my sins that I have committed up to this day and hour in deed, word, thought:

I sinned indifference to God, non-observance God's Commandments, holidays, fasts, prayer rules and other church regulations, contempt and evasion of the help of St. To the temple and to those in need.

I sinned false shame to show oneself a Christian, absent-mindedness during prayer, careless and incorrect performance of the sign of the cross (points of the Cross: center of the forehead - navel, right shoulder - left shoulder, while the point on the left shoulder should NEVER be lower than the point on the right!) , missing services and negligence.

I sinned lack of frankness in confession, inattention to divine services, sermons, reading spiritual books and negligence towards one’s salvation.

I sinned doubts in faith, superstitious prejudices, visits to fortune tellers, psychics, sorcerers, fortune telling and gambling.

I sinned bitterness, disobedience, murmuring, contradiction, self-will, reproaches, slander, lies and laughter.

I sinned idle talk, condemnation, flattery, disobedience, insulting neighbors, foul language, disrespect for parents, neglect of the needs of the family, failure to educate children in the law of God.

I sinned daydreaming, pleasure in sinful thoughts, passionate glances, masturbation, seductive behavior, violation of chastity, violation of marital fidelity, lewdness and fornication.

I sinned gloomy thoughts, despondency, relaxation, despair, suicidal thoughts and murmuring.

I sinned wickedness, greed, deceit, malice, insults, recklessness, treachery, intransigence, retention of debts, theft and stinginess.

I sinned pride, vanity, self-praise, enmity, ambition, rancor, hatred, discord, intrigue, idolatry and pretense.

I sinned mockery, revenge, use of stimulants, smoking and drunkenness.

I sinned acquisition of unnecessary things, greed, unmercifulness, envy, anger, slander, insolence, carelessness and irritability.

I sinned gluttony, general excess in drinking and food, laziness, wasting time in front of the TV, watching vulgar films and listening to riotous and exciting music.

I sinned deed, word, thought, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - all my mental and physical feelings.

Sins not listed here, but remembered, must also be told to the confessor.

Sins that were confessed and resolved earlier do not need to be named in confession, because they have already been forgiven, but if we repeated them again, then we need to repent of them again. You also need to repent of those sins that were forgotten, but are now remembered.

When speaking about sins, one should not mention the names of other persons who are accomplices in sin. They must repent for themselves.

CONFESSION COMPLETED IN THE OPTIA DESERT

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

I confess that I was conceived in sins, born in sins, raised in sins, and living in sins from the very Baptism to this day.

I confess that I have sinned against all the commandments of God through lack of faith and unbelief, doubt and free opinion, superstition, fortune-telling, arrogance, negligence, despair in my salvation, relying on myself and on people more than on God.

Forgetfulness of God's justice and lack of sufficient devotion to the will of God.

Disobedience to the orders of God's Providence.

A persistent desire for everything to be “my way.”

People-pleasing and partial love for creatures.

Failure to try to reveal in oneself the full knowledge of God and His will, faith in Him, reverence for Him, fear of Him, hope for Him, love for Him and zeal for His glory.

Sinned: enslavement of oneself to passions: lust, greed, pride, pride, vanity, servility to the spirit of the times, worldly customs against conscience, in violation of God's commandments, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, gluttony, drunkenness.

Sinned: blasphemy, false swearing, breaking an oath, failure to fulfill vows, forcing others to devoutly, swearing, disrespect for sacred things and piety, blasphemy against God, against the saints and against every holy thing, blasphemy, blasphemy, calling the Name of God in vain, in bad deeds, desires, jokes and amusements.

Sinned: disrespect for holidays and activities that degrade the honor of holidays, irreverent standing in church, talking and laughing, laziness in prayer and reading Holy Scripture, leaving the morning and evening prayers, concealing sins at confession, failure to properly prepare for the communion of the Holy Mysteries, disrespect for sacred objects and careless depiction of the sign of the cross, failure to observe fasts according to the charter of the Church, laziness in work and dishonest performance of assigned work and doing things on duty, wasting a lot of time in vain, in idleness, absent-mindedness.

Sinned: disrespect for parents and superiors, disrespect for elders, spiritual shepherds and teachers.

Sinned: vain anger, insulting one's neighbors, hatred, causing harm to one's neighbor, enmity, rancor, temptation, advice to sin, arson, failure to save a person from death, poisoning, murder (of children in the womb) or advice to this effect.

Sinned: carnal sins - fornication, adultery, voluptuousness, passionate kisses, unclean touch, looking at beautiful faces with lust.

Sinned: foul language, delight in unclean dreams, arbitrary lustful irritation, marital intemperance during fasting, Sundays and holidays, incest in spiritual and carnal relationships, excessive panache with the desire to please and seduce others.

Sinned: theft, appropriation of someone else's property, deception, concealing a found thing, accepting someone else's thing, failure to pay a debt for false reasons, interfering with the benefits of others, parasitism, covetousness, sacrilege, lack of compassion for the unfortunate, unmercifulity towards the poor, stinginess, extravagance, luxury, gambling in cards, a generally disorderly life, covetousness, infidelity, injustice, hard-heartedness.

Sinned: false denunciation and testimony in court, slander and denigration of a neighbor’s good name and honor, disclosure of other people’s sins and weaknesses, suspicion, doubt of a neighbor’s honor, condemnation, double-mindedness, gossip, ridicule, witticisms, lies, deceit, deception, hypocritical treatment of others , flattery, groveling before those who are higher in position and have advantages and power; talkativeness and idle talk.

I do not have: straightforwardness, sincerity, simplicity, fidelity, truthfulness, respect, sedateness, caution in words, prudent silence, guarding and defending the honor of others.

Sinned: evil desires and thoughts, envy, mental adultery (lust), selfish and proud thoughts and desires, selfishness and carnality.

I do not have: love, abstinence, chastity, modesty in words and deeds, purity of heart, selflessness, non-covetousness, generosity, mercy, humility, in general I do not diligently care about eradicating sinful dispositions in myself and establishing myself in virtues.

Sinned: despondency, sadness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, unclean lust and all my feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds and my other sins, which I did not mention due to my unconsciousness.

I repent I sincerely regret that I have angered the Lord my God, and I wish to repent and not sin in the future and refrain from sins in every possible way.

With tears, I pray to You, the Lord my God, help me to be confirmed in my intention to live like a Christian, and forgive my confessed sins, as you are Good and Lover of Mankind.

I also ask you, honest father, in whose presence I confessed all this, that you will be my witness on the day of judgment against the devil, the enemy and hater of the human race, and that you will pray for me, a sinner, to the Lord my God.

I ask you, honest father, as you who have from Christ God the authority to allow those who confess and forgive their sins, forgive me, allow me and pray for me, a sinner.

SAMPLE CONFESSION FOR THE CHURCHED

I confess to the Lord my God and before you, honest father, all my countless sins that I have committed up to this day and hour. Every day and every hour I sin ingratitude to God for His great and countless benefits to me and care for me, a sinner.

Sinned: lack of faith, unbelief, doubt, hesitation in faith, slowness in thoughts, from the enemy of everything, against God and the Holy Church, blasphemy, ridicule of sacred things, clergy, doubt and free opinion, fear of professing one’s faith and renunciation of God, not wearing the Cross, by turning to other religious teachings, superstition, belief in omens, fortune telling, reading horoscopes, turning to healers, sorcerers, psychics, he himself practiced healing; arrogance, negligence, despair in one’s salvation, relying on oneself and on people more than on God, forgetfulness of God’s justice and lack of sufficient devotion to the will of God.

Sinned: disobedience to the actions of God's providence, a persistent desire for everything to be my way, people-pleasing, partial love for creatures and things, love of money. He did not try to know the will of God, did not have reverence for God, fear of Him, hope for Him, zeal for His glory.

Sinned: ingratitude to the Lord God for all His great and unceasing blessings, poured out in abundance on each of us and on the whole human race, failure to remember them, murmuring against God, cowardice, despondency, melancholy, despair, thoughts of suicide, hardening of one’s heart , lack of love for Him and failure to fulfill His holy will.

Sinned: enslavement of oneself to passions: voluptuousness, greed, pride, laziness, pride, vanity, ambition, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, secret eating, gluttony, drunkenness, smoking, drug addiction, addiction to gambling and computer games, addiction to computers and television, shows and entertainment .

Sinned: deity, failure to fulfill vows, forcing others to deify and swear, disrespect for sacred things, blasphemy against God, against saints, against every holy thing, calling on the name of God in vain, in bad deeds, desires, thoughts, foul language, swearing, the use of “black” words , that is, with the name of the devil.

Sinned: disrespect for church holidays, working on holidays, missing Sundays and holiday services, did not go to the temple of God out of laziness and negligence, stood in the temple of God irreverently; sinned by talking and laughing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, wandering thoughts, vain memories, being late for services, walking around the temple during services unnecessarily; left the temple before the end of the service, the women touched the shrines in uncleanness.

Sinned: neglect of prayer, abandonment of reading the Holy Gospel and other Divine books, patristic teachings, and spiritual literature.

Sinned: forgetting sins in confession, self-justification in them and belittling their severity, hiding sins, repentance without heartfelt contrition; did not make efforts to properly prepare for communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, without being reconciled with his neighbors, he came to confession and in such a sinful state dared to begin Communion. Rarely went to church and took communion.

Sinned: violation of fasts and failure to observe fast days - Wednesday and Friday (which are equated to the days of Great Lent, as days of remembrance of the sufferings of Christ).

Sinned: intemperance in food and drink, careless and irreverent making the sign of the cross.

Sinned: disobedience to superiors and elders, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, self-justification, laziness towards work and unscrupulous execution of assigned tasks.

Sinned: disrespect for his parents, quarrels with them, abandonment of prayer for them, disrespect for his elders, insolence, waywardness and disobedience, rudeness, stubbornness, he did not raise his children in the Orthodox faith.

Sinned: lack of Christian love for neighbors, impatience, resentment, irritability, anger, arrogance, contempt, causing harm to neighbors, fights and quarrels, slander and insult, intransigence, enmity, repaying evil for evil, unforgiveness of insults, rancor, gloating, jealousy, envy , malice, vindictiveness, condemnation, slander, extortion. Has committed the sin of murder, performed abortions or participated in this sin, and used abortifacient contraceptives.

Sinned: unmerciful towards the poor, had no compassion for the sick and crippled; I sinned through stinginess, greed, wastefulness, greed, infidelity, injustice, and hardness of heart.

Sinned: guile towards others, deceit, insincerity in dealing with them, suspicion, double-mindedness, ridicule, witticisms, lies, deceit, theft, dishonesty, hypocritical treatment of others and flattery, people-pleasing.

Sinned: oblivion about the future eternal life, failure to remember one’s death and the Last Judgment, and an unreasonable, partial attachment to earthly life and its pleasures and affairs.

Sinned: intemperance of his tongue, idle talk, idle talk, laughter, told obscene jokes, made obscene jokes, sang and listened to sinful, obscene songs; He sinned by disclosing the sins and weaknesses of his neighbor, he offended people, he sinned by condemnation, gossip, gossip, slander, seductive behavior, freedom, and insolence.

Sinned: incontinence of one's mental and physical feelings, addiction, voluptuousness, lustful thoughts, mental fornication, looking at seductive pictures, masturbation and all kinds of self-pleasure, unclean dreams and nocturnal defilement (ejaculation in a dream), immodest looking at persons of the other sex, free treatment of them, fornication and adultery, various sins of the flesh, excessive panache, coquetry, shamelessness, flirting, the desire to please and seduce others.

I sinned with sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, and all my feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds. I also repent of my other sins, which due to my lack of memory I did not remember.

I repent before the Lord God of all my sins, ask Him for forgiveness, I sincerely regret them and wish in every possible way to abstain from my sins and correct myself.

I also repent and ask for forgiveness for the fact that out of oblivion I did not confess.

Forgive me and allow me, honest father, and bless me to partake of the Holy and Life-giving Mysteries of Christ, for the remission of sins and eternal life. Amen.

LIST OF SINS TO HELP THE REPENTANT

We sin:

1. Pride. 2. Ingratitude. 3. Tendency to do bad things. 4. Disobedience. 5. Self-justification. 6. Blinding the mind. 7. Complacency. 8. Considering ourselves reasonable and wise. 9. Self-love. 10. Conceit. 11. Arrogance. 12. Inattention to the judgment of God. 13. Willfulness. 14. Self-praise. 15. Self-indulgence. 16. Self-inflicted. 17. Impudence. 18. Insult. 19. Lust for power. 20. Love of popularity. 21. Great praise. 22. By ascension. 23. Arrogance. 24. Arrogance. 25. Highly intelligent. 26. Disobedience. 27. Zealousness. 28. Prepositions. 29. Soaring, thoughts, daydreaming. 30. Desire to teach. 31. Departure from God. 32. Blasphemy. 33. Blasphemy. 34. By wickedness. 35. Unbelief. 36. Delusion. 37. Superstition. 38. Not true. 39. Resistance to good. 40. Contradiction. 41. Impermanence. 42. Loveliness. 43. Heresy. 44. By sorcery. 45. Magic. 46. ​​Fortune telling. 47. Unbelief. 48. Lust of authority. 49. Insisting on your own. 50. Command (passion). 51. Honor by love. 52. Arrogance. 53. Vanity. 54. Flaunting. 55. Envy. 56. Schadenfreude. 57. Negligence. 58. Neglect. 59. Neglect. 60. Contempt for people. 61. Contempt. 62. By exaltation. 63. Insolence. 64. Lack of love for neighbors. 65. By desecration. 66. By censure. 67. Humiliation of others. 68. Insensibility. 69. Disrespect. 70. Misanthropy. 71. Swagger. 72. Suspicion. 73. Peeping. 74. By eavesdropping.

75. By earphones. 76. Reproach. 77. Rejection. 78. Ignorance. 79. Imprudence. 80. Lack of reverence. 81. Ignorance. 82. Boasting. 83. Pretense. 84. Taste. 86. Indecent eating of food. 87. Saturation. 88. Polyeating. 89. Gluttony. 90. Laryngeal madness. 91. Gluttony. 92. Saturation. 93. By indulging. 94. Gluttony. 95. Laziness. 96. Laziness. 97. Idleness. 98. Entertainment. 99. Drowsiness. 100. Dozing. 101. Excessive sleep. 102. Long sleep. 103. Sleeping a lot. 104. Weakening. 105. By wandering thoughts. 106. Intemperance. 107. People-pleasing. 108. Drunkenness. 109. By oblivion. 110. By clouding the mind. 111. Joking. 112. Lawlessness. 113. Dishonor. 114. Foul language. 115. By sight. 116. By hearing. 117. Madness. 118. Carelessness. 119. Unconscionability. 120. Shamelessness. 121. Talkativeness. 122. Perkiness. 123. Coquetry. 124. By deceit. 125. Frivolity. 126. Caressing. 127. Addition in thought with sin. 128. Uncleanness. 129. Curiosity. 130. By idle talk. 131. Verbalism. 132. Inappropriate jokes. 133. Laughter. 134. Ridiculousness. 135. Idleness. 136. Idle talk. 137. Idle talk. 138. Pomposity. 139. Curiosity. 140. Decoration (excessive). 141. Dressing up for temptation. 142. Passion for clothes. 143. Temptation. 144. Luxury. 145. Panache. 146. Bliss. 147. Love of the body. 148. Rubbing the face.

149. Smell. 150. Anointing the eyes with evil intent. 151. Showing off. 152. Mockery. 153. Short-sightedness. 154. Promiscuity. 155. Dreaming. 156. Corruption. 157. Sinful thoughts. 158. Conversation with passionate thoughts. 159. By lust. 160. Combination with a sinful thought. 161. Permission to sin. 162. By touch. 163. Fornication. 164. Fornication. 165. Adultery. 166. Rivalry. 167. Jealousy, jealousy. 168. Debauchery. 169. Debauchery. 170. Extravagance. 171. Advice on sin. 172. Cargo land. 173. Obscenity. 174. Insatiability. 175. Violence. 176. Sodomy. 177. Bestiality. 178. Child molestation. 179. Malakia (handjob). 180. Incest. 181. Sodomy (unnatural intercourse). 182. Conspiracy. 183. Slavery. 184. Love of sin. 185. Voluptuousness. 186. Desire for the comforts of this temporary life. 187. Negligence. 188. Love of money. 189. Concealing someone else's things. 190. Heartless. 191. Zeal. 192. Addiction to something. 193. Love of things. 194. Covetousness. 195. Appropriation of someone else's property. 196. Resourcefulness. 197. Godboy. 198. Stinginess. 199. Greed. 200. Trading. 201. Bribery. 202. Extortion. 203. Sacrilege. 204. Theft. 205. Bribery. 206. Selfishness. 207. Robbery. 208. Idolatry, idolatry. 209. Absent-mindedness. 210. Hot temper. 211. Anger. 212. Irritability. 213. By word of mouth. 214. Indignation. 215. Unreason. 216. Non-reasoning. 217. Incontinence. 218. Impatience. 219. Grumpiness. 220. Condemnation. 221. By gossip. 222. By contradiction.

223. Disputes. 224. Controversy. 225. By reproach. 226. By obscenity. 227. Quarrels. 228. By discord. 229. Insolence. 230. Grumpiness. 231. By slander. 232. Backbiting. 233. Fury. 234. With grief. 235. By being angry. 236. Dissatisfaction. 237. Lies (in words, life). 238. Hostility. 239. Discretion. 240. Disagreement in good things. 241. Unconsciousness. 242. By deception. 243. Captivity. 244. Passion. 245. Bilingualism. 246. Double-mindedness. 247. Grudge. 248. Anger. 249. By malice. 250. Mockery. 251. An unrighteous oath. 252. Enmity. 253. Hostility. 254. Beatings. 255. Betrayal. 256. Curse. 257. By slander. 258. Memory malice. 259. Lack of compassion. 260. Insensibility. 261. Vulnerability. 262. Annoyance. 263. Hard-hearted. 264. Cruelty. 265. Hatred. 266. Murder. 267. False speech. 268. Perjury. 269. Bloodshed. 270. By deceit. 271. By perjury. 272. Slander. 273. Perversion of words. 274. Hypocrisy. 275. Flattery. 276. Dejection. 277. Murmuring. 278. Sadness. 279. Pouting. 280. Restlessness. 281. Fear. 282. Lack of faith. 283. Cowardice. 284. Indifference. 285. Hiddenness (concealment of sins). 286. Bitterness. 287. By petrification of the heart. 288. By shame in repentance. 289. By embarrassment. 290. Doubt. 291. Hopelessness. 292. Horror. 293. Fear. 294. Despair. 295. Blasphemous. 296. Murder (in word, deed).

Confession. Unfortunately, we really have a lot of things mixed up in our heads, and it seems to us that if a person cannot help but sin, he must confess almost every day.

Frequent confession can be very useful at a certain stage of our life, especially when a person is just taking his first steps in faith, is just beginning to cross the threshold of the temple, and the space of a new life, almost unknown, opens up for him. He doesn’t know how to pray correctly, how to build his relationships with his neighbors, how to generally navigate this new life of his, so he makes mistakes all the time, all the time, it seems to him (and not only him), he does something wrong That.

Thus, frequent confession for those people whom we call neophytes is a very important and serious stage in their recognition of the Church and understanding of all the foundations of spiritual life. Such people enter the life of the Church, including through confession, through conversation with a priest. Where else can you talk so closely with a priest if not at confession? The main thing is that here they receive their main first Christian experience of understanding their mistakes, understanding how to build relationships with other people, with themselves. Such confession very often is a spiritual, confessional conversation more than repentance of sins. One might say - a catechetical confession.

But over time, when a person already understands a lot, knows a lot, and has gained some experience through trial and error, very frequent and detailed confession can become an obstacle for him. Not necessarily for everyone: some people feel quite normal with frequent confession. But for some it can become a barrier, because a person suddenly learns to think something like this: “If I live all the time, it means I sin all the time. If I sin all the time, then I have to confess all the time. If I don’t confess, how will I approach communion with my sins?” Here there is such, I would say, a syndrome of distrust in God, when a person thinks that for confessed sins he has been awarded the honor of receiving the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Of course this is not true. The contrite spirit with which we come to communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ does not cancel our confession. But confession does not cancel a contrite spirit.

The fact is that a person cannot confess at confession in such a way as to take all his sins and state them. Impossible. Even if he takes and simply rewrites a book listing all the various sins and perversions that exist on Earth. This will not be a confession. This will be absolutely nothing other than a formal act of distrust in God, which in itself, of course, is not very good.
The most terrible spiritual disease

People sometimes come to confession in the evening, then go to church in the morning, and then - ah! - at the Chalice itself they remember: “I forgot to confess this sin!” - and almost from the line for communion they run away to the priest, who continues the confession, in order to say what he forgot to say in confession. This is, of course, a problem.

Or they suddenly begin to babble at the Chalice: “Father, I forgot to say such and such in confession.” What does a person bring to communion? With love or with mistrust? If a person knows and trusts God, then he knows that God came into this world to save sinners. “From them I am first,” the priest says these words, and each of us says when he comes to confession. It is not the righteous who partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, but sinners, of whom each person who comes to the Chalice is the first, because he is a sinner. This means that he even goes to receive communion with sins.

He repents of these sins, laments over them; this contrition is the most important thing that gives a person the opportunity to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Otherwise, if a person confessed before communion and felt confident that now he would receive communion worthily, now he has the right to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ, then I think that nothing could be worse and worse than this.

As soon as a person feels worthy, as soon as a person feels entitled to receive communion, the most terrible spiritual illness that can befall a Christian will occur. Therefore, in many countries, communion and confession are not a mandatory combination. Confession is performed at its own time and place, communion is celebrated during the Divine Liturgy.

Therefore, those who confessed, say, a week ago, two weeks ago, and their conscience is peaceful, their relations with their neighbors are good, and their conscience does not convict a person of any sins that would weigh on his soul like a terrible and unpleasant stain , he can, lamentingly, approach the Chalice... It is clear that each of us is sinful in many ways, each of us is imperfect. We realize that without God’s help, without God’s mercy we will not become different.

To list the sins that God knows about us - why do something that is already clear? I repent of the fact that I am a proud person, but I cannot repent of this every 15 minutes, although every minute I remain the same proud. When I come to confession to repent of the sin of pride, I sincerely repent of this sin, but I understand that, having moved away from confession, I did not become humble, I did not completely exhaust this sin. Therefore, it would be pointless for me to come every 5 minutes and say again: “Sinful, sinful, sinful.”

My sin is my work, my sin is my work on this sin. My sin is constant self-reproach, daily attention to what I brought to God for confession. But I can’t tell God about this every time, He already knows it. I will say this next time when this sin trips me up again and again shows me all my insignificance and all my isolation from God. I once again bear sincere repentance for this sin, but as long as I know that I am infected with this sin, until this sin forced me to turn away from God so much that I felt how strong this distance was, this sin may not be the subject of my constant confession, but must be the subject of my constant struggle.

The same applies to everyday sins. Let's say it is very difficult for a person to live a whole day without judging anyone. Or live the whole day without saying a single unnecessary, idle word. The fact that we constantly name these sins in confession will not change anything. If every day in the evening, going to bed, we check our conscience, not just read this memorized prayer, the last one in the evening rule, where money-grubbing, covetousness and any other incomprehensible “possession” is imputed to us as sin, but simply Let us truly examine our conscience and understand that today again was a setback in our life, that today again we did not keep at the height of our Christian calling, then we will bring repentance to God, this will be our spiritual work, this will be exactly the doing that is from us The Lord awaits.

But if we list this sin every time we come to confession, but do absolutely nothing, then this confession turns out to be very doubtful.
There is no heavenly accounting

Every Christian can approach the frequency of confession based on the realities of his spiritual life. But it’s strange to think of God as a prosecutor, to believe that there is some kind of heavenly accounting that takes all our confessed sins as offset and erases them from some ledger when we come to confession. That’s why we are afraid, what if we forgot, what if we didn’t say something, and what if it won’t be erased with an eraser?

Well, they forgot and forgot. It's OK. We hardly know our sins at all. Whenever we become spiritually alive, we suddenly see ourselves as we have not seen ourselves before. Sometimes a person, having lived for many years in the Church, says to the priest: “Father, it seems to me that I was better before, I have never committed such sins as now.”

Does this mean he was better? Of course not. It’s just that then, many years ago, he didn’t see himself at all, didn’t know who he was. And over time, the Lord revealed his essence to man, and then not completely, but only to the very extent to which man is capable of this. Because if at the beginning of our spiritual life the Lord had shown us all our inability for this life, all our weakness, all our inner ugliness, then perhaps we would have despaired of this so much that we would not have wanted to go anywhere further. Therefore, the Lord, by His mercy, even reveals our sins gradually, knowing how sinful we are. But at the same time he allows us to receive communion.
Confession is not training

I don't think confession is something a person trains himself to do. We have spiritual exercises in which we, in a sense, train ourselves, tune ourselves up - this is, for example, fasting. Its regularity is stated in the fact that during fasting a person tries to organize his life. Other spiritual “trainings” include: prayer rule, which also really helps a person organize his life.

But if the sacrament is considered from this point of view, then it is a disaster. You cannot take communion regularly for the sake of regularity of communion. Regular communion is not exercise, not physical education. This does not mean that since I have not taken communion, I have lost something and must take communion in order to accumulate some kind of spiritual potential. It's not like that at all.

A person takes communion because he cannot live without it. He has a thirst to receive communion, he has a desire to be with God, he has a true and sincere desire to open himself to God and become different, uniting with God... And the sacraments of the Church cannot become some kind of physical training for us. They are not given for this, they are still not exercises, but life.

The meeting of friends and relatives does not happen because friends must meet regularly, otherwise they will not be friends. Friends meet because they are very attracted to each other. It is unlikely that friendship will be useful if, say, people set themselves the task: “We are friends, therefore, in order for our friendship to grow stronger, we must meet every Sunday.” This is absurd.

The same can be said about the sacraments. “If I want to confess correctly and develop a real feeling of repentance in myself, I must confess every week,” sounds absurd. Like this: “If I want to become a saint and be with God always, I must take communion every Sunday.” Just ridiculous.

Moreover, it seems to me that there is some kind of substitution in this, because everything is not in its place. A person confesses because his heart hurts, because his soul suffers from pain, because he has sinned and he is ashamed, he wants to cleanse his heart. A person receives communion not because the regularity of communion makes him a Christian, but because he strives to be with God, because he cannot help but receive communion.
Quality and frequency of confession

The quality of confession does not depend on the frequency of confession. Of course, there are people who confess once a year, take communion once a year - and do this without understanding why. Because it’s the way it’s supposed to be and somehow it has to be, the time has come. Therefore, they, of course, do not have some skill in confession, or understanding of its essence. Therefore, as I already said, in order to enter church life and learn something, of course, at first you need regular confession.

But regularity does not mean once a week. The regularity of confession can be different: 10 times a year, once a month... When a person builds his life spiritually, he feels that he needs to confess.

It’s like priests: they each set a certain regularity for their confession. I even think that there is not even any regularity here, except that the priest himself feels the moment when he needs to confess. There is a certain internal obstacle to communion, there is an internal obstacle to prayer, the understanding comes that life is beginning to fall apart, and you need to go to confession.

In general, a person must live like this in order to feel this. When a person does not have a sense of life, when a person measures everything by a certain external element, external actions, then, of course, he will be surprised: “How is it possible to receive communion without confession? Like this? This is some kind of horror!

O. Alexy Umninsky

Confession is a sacrament when a believer confesses their sins to a priest. The representative of the church has the right to forgive sins in the name of the Lord and Jesus Christ.

By biblical stories, Christ endowed the apostles with such an opportunity, which was later passed on to the clergy. During repentance, a person not only talks about his sins, but also gives his word not to commit them again.

What is confession?

Confession is not only cleansing, but also a test for the soul. It helps to remove the burden and cleanse yourself before the face of the Lord, reconcile with him and overcome internal doubts. You need to go to confession once a month, but if you want to do it more often, you should follow the urges of your soul and repent any time you want.

For especially serious sins, a church representative can impose a special punishment called penance. This can be long prayer, fasting or abstinence, which are ways to purify oneself. When a person violates God's laws, it negatively affects his mental and physical well-being. Repentance helps to gain strength and fight the temptations that push people to sin. The believer gets the opportunity to talk about his misdeeds and remove the burden from his soul. Before confession, it is necessary to make a list of sins, with the help of which you can correctly describe the sin and prepare the correct speech for repentance.

How to start a confession to the priest with what words?

The seven deadly sins, which are the main vices, look like this:

• gluttony (gluttony, excessive food abuse)
• fornication (dissolute life, infidelity)
• anger (hot temper, vindictiveness, irritability)
• love of money (greed, desire for material values)
• despondency (laziness, depression, despair)
• vanity (selfishness, sense of narcissism)
• envy

It is believed that when committing these sins, the human soul can perish. By committing them, a person moves further and further away from God, but all of them can be released during sincere repentance. It is believed that it was mother nature who laid them in every person, and only the strongest in spirit can resist temptations and fight evil. But it is worth remembering that every person can commit a sin while going through a difficult period in life. People are not immune from misfortunes and difficulties that can drive everyone to despair. You need to learn to fight passions and emotions, and then no sin will be able to overcome you and ruin your life.

Preparing for Confession

It is necessary to prepare for repentance in advance. First you need to find a temple where the sacraments are held and choose the appropriate day. Most often they are held on holidays and weekends. At this time, there are always a lot of people in the temple, and not everyone will be able to open up when strangers are nearby. In this case, you need to contact the priest and ask him to make an appointment on another day when you can be alone. Before repentance, it is recommended to read Penitential canon, which will allow you to tune in and put your thoughts in order.

You need to know that there are three groups of sins that can be written down and taken with you to confession.

1. Vices against God:

These include blasphemy and insulting the Lord, blasphemy, interest in occult sciences, superstition, thoughts of suicide, excitement, and so on.

1. Vices against the soul:

Laziness, deception, use of obscene words, impatience, disbelief, self-delusion, despair.

1. Vices against neighbors:

Disrespect for parents, slander, condemnation, rancor, hatred, theft, and so on.

How to confess correctly, what should you say to the priest at the beginning?

Before approaching a church representative, get out of your head bad thoughts and get ready to bare your soul. You can start confession in the following way: how to confess correctly, what to say to the priest, for example: “Lord, I have sinned before you,” and after that you can list your sins. There is no need to tell the priest about the sin in great detail; it is enough to just say “Committed adultery” or confess to another vice.

But to the list of sins you can add “I sinned with envy, I constantly envy my neighbor...” and so on. After listening to you, the priest will be able to give valuable advice and help you act correctly in a given situation. Such clarifications will help identify your greatest weaknesses and combat them. The confession ends with the words “I repent, Lord! Save and have mercy on me, a sinner!”

Many confessors are very ashamed to talk about anything; this is an absolutely normal feeling. But at the moment of repentance, you need to overcome yourself and understand that it is not the priest who condemns you, but God, and that it is God who you tell about your sins. The priest is just a conductor between you and the Lord, do not forget about this.

List of sins for a woman

Many representatives of the fair sex, having become familiar with it, decide to refuse confession. It looks like this:

• Rarely prayed and came to church
• During prayer I thought about pressing problems
• Had sex before marriage
• Had unclean thoughts
• I turned to fortune tellers and magicians for help
• Believed in superstitions
• I was afraid of old age
• Abused alcohol, drugs, sweets
• Refused to help other people
• Performed abortions
• Wearing revealing clothes

List of sins for a man

• Blasphemy against the Lord
• Disbelief
• Ridicule of those who are weaker
• Cruelty, pride, laziness, greed
• Evasion of military service
• Insults and use of physical force against others
• Slander
• Inability to resist temptations
• Refusal to help relatives and other people
• Theft
• Rudeness, contempt, greed

A man needs to take a more responsible approach to this issue, since he is the head of the family. It is from him that children will take their role model.

There is also a list of sins for a child, which can be compiled after he answers a series of specific questions. He must understand how important it is to speak sincerely and honestly, but this already depends on the approach of the parents and their preparation of their child for confession.

The importance of confession in the life of a believer

Many holy fathers call confession the second baptism. This helps to establish unity with God and cleanse oneself of filth. As the Gospel says, repentance is necessary condition to cleanse the soul. Throughout life path a person must strive to overcome temptations and prevent vice. During this sacrament, a person receives liberation from the shackles of sin, and all his sins are forgiven by the Lord God. For many, repentance is a victory over oneself, because only a true believer can admit what people prefer to remain silent about.

If you have confessed before, then you should not talk about old sins again. They have already been released and there is no point in repenting for them anymore. When you finish confessing, the priest will give his speech, give advice and instructions, and also say a prayer of permission. After this, the person must cross himself twice, bow, venerate the crucifix and the Gospel, then cross himself again and receive a blessing.

How to confess for the first time - an example?

The first confession may seem mysterious and unpredictable. People are frightened by the expectation that they might be judged by a priest and experience a feeling of shame and embarrassment. It is worth remembering that representatives of the church are people who live according to the laws of the Lord. They do not judge, do not wish harm to anyone and love their neighbors, trying to help them with wise advice.

They will never express a personal point of view, so you should not be afraid that the priest’s words may somehow hurt, offend or shame you. He never shows emotion, speaks in a low voice and speaks very little. Before repentance, you can approach him and ask for advice on how to properly prepare for this sacrament.

There is a lot of literature in church shops that can also help and give a lot of important information. During repentance, you should not complain about others and your life; you need to talk only about yourself, listing the vices to which you have succumbed. If you adhere to fasting, then this is the best moment for confession, because by limiting themselves, people become more restrained and improve, contributing to the purification of the soul.

Many parishioners end their fast with confession, which is the logical conclusion of long abstinence. This sacrament leaves in a person’s soul the most vivid emotions and impressions that are never forgotten. By relieving the soul of sins and receiving their forgiveness, a person gets a chance to start life anew, resist temptations and live in harmony with the Lord and his laws.

Once in our lives we receive Baptism and are anointed with Chrism. Ideally, we get married once. The Sacrament of the Priesthood is not all-encompassing; it is performed only on those whom the Lord has destined to be accepted into the clergy. In the Sacrament of Unction our participation is very small. But the Sacraments of Confession and Communion lead us through our entire lives to eternity, without them the existence of a Christian is unthinkable. We get to them time after time. So sooner or later we still have the opportunity to think: are we preparing for them correctly? And understand: no, most likely not entirely. Therefore, talking about these Sacraments seems very important to us. In this issue, in a conversation with the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Abbot Nektariy (Morozov), we decided to touch upon confession (because covering everything is an impossible task, too “boundless” a topic), and next time we will talk about Communion of the Holy Mysteries.

“I guess, or rather, I guess: nine out of ten who come to confession don’t know how to confess...

- Indeed, it is so. Even people who regularly go to church do not know how to do many things in it, but the worst thing is with confession. Very rarely does a parishioner confess correctly. You have to learn to confess. Of course, it would be better if an experienced confessor, a man of high spiritual life, spoke about the Sacrament of Confession and repentance. If I decide to talk about this here, it’s simply as a person who confesses, on the one hand, and on the other, as a priest who quite often has to accept confession. I will try to summarize my observations of my own soul and how others participate in the Sacrament of Repentance. But by no means do I consider my observations sufficient.

— Let's talk about the most common misconceptions, misconceptions and mistakes. A person goes to confession for the first time; he heard that before receiving communion, one must confess. And that in confession you need to tell your sins. He immediately has a question: for what period should he “report”? Over your entire life, starting from childhood? But can you retell all this? Or do you not need to retell everything, but just say: “In childhood and youth I showed selfishness many times” or “In my youth I was very proud and vain, and even now, in fact, I remain the same”?

— If a person comes to confession for the first time, it is quite obvious that he needs to confess for his entire past life. Starting from the age when he could already distinguish good from evil - and until the moment he finally decided to confess.

How can you tell your whole life in a short time? In confession, we do not tell our whole life, but what is sin. Sins are specific events. However, there is no need to recount all the times when you sinned with anger, for example, or with lies. You must say that you committed this sin, and cite some of the brightest, most terrible manifestations of this sin - those that truly hurt your soul. There is one more pointer: what do you least want to tell about yourself? This is exactly what needs to be said first. If you are going to confession for the first time, it is best for you to set yourself the task of confessing your heaviest, most painful sins. Then the confession will become more complete, deeper. The first confession cannot be like this - for several reasons: this is a psychological barrier (coming for the first time in front of a priest, that is, in front of a witness, telling God about your sins is not easy) and other obstacles. A person does not always understand what sin is. Unfortunately, not even all people living church life know and understand the Gospel well. And except in the Gospel, the answer to the question of what is sin and what is virtue, perhaps, will not be found anywhere. In the life around us, many sins have become commonplace... But even when reading the Gospel to a person, his sins are not immediately revealed, they are gradually revealed by the grace of God. St. Peter of Damascus says that the beginning of the health of the soul is seeing one’s sins as countless as the sand of the sea. If the Lord had immediately revealed to a person his sinfulness in all its horror, not a single person could have endured it. That is why the Lord reveals his sins to a person gradually. This can be compared to peeling an onion - first they removed one skin, then the second - and finally they got to the onion itself. That is why it very often happens: a person goes to church, regularly confesses, takes communion - and finally realizes the need for the so-called general confession. It very rarely happens that a person is ready for it right away.

- What it is? How does general confession differ from ordinary confession?

— General confession, as a rule, is called confession for the entire life lived, and in a certain sense this is true. But a confession that is not so comprehensive can also be called general. We repent of our sins from week to week, from month to month, this is a simple confession. But from time to time you need to give yourself a general confession - a review of your entire life. Not the one that was lived, but the one that is now. We see that we repeat the same sins, and we cannot get rid of them - that’s why we need to understand ourselves. Review your entire life as it is now.

— How to treat the so-called questionnaires for general confession? They can be seen in church shops.

— If by general confession we mean precisely confession for the entire life lived, then here there really is a need for some kind of external assistance. The best guide for confessors is the book by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) “The Experience of Constructing a Confession”, it is about the spirit, the correct attitude of a repentant person, about what exactly needs to be repented of. There is a book “Sin and Repentance of the Last Times. About the secret ailments of the soul" by Archimandrite Lazar (Abashidze). Useful excerpts from St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) - “To help the penitent.” As for the questionnaires - yes, there are confessors, there are priests who do not approve of these questionnaires. They say that you can read in them such sins that the reader has never even heard of, but if he reads them, he will be harmed... But, unfortunately, there are almost no sins left that modern man would not know about. Yes, there are questions there that are stupid, rude, there are questions that are clearly sinning with excessive physiology... But if you treat the questionnaire as a working tool, like a plow with which you need to plow yourself all over once, then, I think, you can use it. In the old days, such questionnaires were called “renewal,” which is so wonderful to modern ears. Indeed, with their help, man renewed himself as the image of God, just as an old, dilapidated and grimy icon is renewed. There is no need to think about whether these questionnaires are in good or bad literary form. The serious shortcomings of some questionnaires include this: the compilers include in them something that, in essence, is not a sin. Didn’t you wash your hands with scented soap, for example, or didn’t you do your laundry on Sunday... If you did the laundry during Sunday service, that’s a sin, but if you did the laundry after the service because there was no other time, I personally don’t see it as a sin.

“Unfortunately, you can sometimes buy this in our church shops...

- This is why it is necessary to consult a priest before using the questionnaire. I can recommend the book by Priest Alexy Moroz “I Confess Sin, Father” - it is a reasonable and very detailed questionnaire.

— Here it is necessary to clarify: what do we mean by the word “sin”? Most of those who confess, when they pronounce this word, mean a sinful act. That is, in essence, a manifestation of sin. For example: “Yesterday I was harsh and cruel to my mother.” But this is not a separate, not some random episode, this is a manifestation of the sin of dislike, intolerance, unforgiveness, selfishness. This means that you shouldn’t say that, not “yesterday I was cruel,” but simply “I’m cruel, there’s little love in me.” Or how should I say it?

— Sin is a manifestation of passion in action. We must repent of specific sins. Not in passions as such, because passions are always the same, you can write one confession to yourself for the rest of your life, but in those sins that were committed from confession to confession. Confession is the Sacrament that gives us the opportunity to start a new life. We repented of our sins, and from that moment our life began anew. This is the miracle that takes place in the Sacrament of Confession. That is why you always need to repent - in the past tense. You shouldn’t say: “I offend my neighbors,” I should say: “I offended my neighbors.” Because I have the intention, having said this, not to offend people in the future.

Each sin in confession should be named so that it is clear what exactly it is. If we repent of idle talk, we do not need to retell all the episodes of our idle talk and repeat all our idle words. But if in some case there was so much idle talk that we tired someone with it or said something completely unnecessary, we probably need to talk about this in confession in a little more detail, more definitely. There are such words from the Gospel: For every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). You need to look at your confession in advance from this point of view - whether there will be idle talk in it.

- And yet about passions. If I feel irritated by my neighbor’s request, but I don’t show this irritation in any way and provide him with the necessary help, should I repent of the irritation I experienced as a sin?

- If you, feeling this irritation within yourself, consciously fought against it - this is one situation. If you accepted this irritation of yours, developed it in yourself, reveled in it - this is a different situation. Everything depends on the direction of a person's will. If a person, experiencing a sinful passion, turns to God and says: “Lord, I don’t want this and I don’t want it, help me get rid of it,” there is practically no sin on the person. There is sin - to the extent that our heart participated in these tempting desires. And how much we allowed him to participate in this.

— Apparently, we need to dwell on the “disease of telling,” which stems from a certain cowardice during confession. For example, instead of saying “I behaved selfishly,” I begin to tell: “At work... my colleague says... and in response I say...”, etc. I eventually report my sin, but - just like that, within the frame of the story. This is not even a frame, these stories play, if you look at it, the role of clothing - we dress in words, in the plot, so as not to feel naked in confession.

- Indeed, it’s easier this way. But you don’t need to make it easy for yourself to confess. Confession should not contain unnecessary details. There shouldn't be any other people with their actions. Because when we talk about other people, we most often justify ourselves at the expense of these people. We also make excuses due to some of our circumstances. On the other hand, sometimes the extent of the sin depends on the circumstances of the sin. Beating a person out of drunken anger is one thing, stopping a criminal while protecting the victim is quite another. To refuse to help one's neighbor because of laziness and selfishness is one thing, to refuse because the temperature that day was forty is another. If a person who knows how to confess confesses in detail, it is easier for the priest to see what is happening to this person and why. Thus, the circumstances of the sin need to be reported only if the sin you committed is not clear without these circumstances. This is also learned through experience.

Excessive telling during confession may also have another reason: a person’s need for participation, spiritual help and warmth. Here, perhaps, a conversation with a priest is appropriate, but it should be at a different time, certainly not at the time of confession. Confession is a Sacrament, not a conversation.

— Priest Alexander Elchaninov in one of his entries thanks God for helping him every time experience confession as a catastrophe. What should we do to ensure that our confession, at least, is not dry, cold, formal?

“We must remember that the confession that we say in church is the tip of the iceberg. If this confession is everything, and everything is limited to it, we can say that we have nothing. There was no actual confession. There is only the grace of God, which, despite our foolishness and recklessness, still acts. We have the intention to repent, but it is formal, it is dry and lifeless. It’s like that fig tree, which if it bears any fruit, it will be with great difficulty.

Our confession is performed at another time and prepared at another time. When we, knowing that tomorrow we will go to church, confess, sit down and sort out our lives. When I think: why have I judged people so many times during this time? But because, judging them, I myself look better in my own eyes. Instead of dealing with my own sins, I condemn others and justify myself. Or I find some kind of pleasure in condemnation. When I understand that as long as I judge others, I will not have the grace of God. And when I say: “Lord, help me, otherwise, how long will I kill my soul with this?” After this, I will come to confession and say: “I condemned people countless times, I exalted myself over them, I found sweetness in this for myself.” My repentance lies not only in the fact that I said it, but in the fact that I decided not to do it again. When a person repents in this way, he receives very great grace-filled consolation from confession and confesses in a completely different way. Repentance is a change in a person. If no change occurred, confession remained to a certain extent a formality. “Fulfillment of Christian duty,” as for some reason it was customary to express it before the revolution.

There are examples of saints who brought repentance to God in their hearts, changed their lives, and the Lord accepted this repentance, although there was no stole over them, and the prayer for the remission of sins was not read. But there was repentance! But with us it’s different - the prayer is read, and the person receives communion, but repentance as such has not occurred, there is no break in the chain of sinful life.

There are people who come to confession and, having already stood in front of the lectern with the cross and the Gospel, begin to remember what they sinned. This is always a real torment - both for the priest, and for those who are waiting for their turn, and for the man himself, of course. How to prepare for confession? Firstly, an attentive, sober life. Secondly - there is good rule, in place of which you can’t think of anything: every day in the evening, devote five to ten minutes not even to thinking about what happened during the day, but to repentance before God for what a person considers himself to have sinned. Sit down and mentally go through the day - from morning hours until evening. And realize every sin for yourself. A big sin or a small one - you need to understand it, feel it and, as Anthony the Great says, put it between yourself and God. See it as an obstacle between yourself and the Creator. Feel this terrible metaphysical essence of sin. And for every sin ask God for forgiveness. And put in your heart the desire to leave these sins in the past. It is advisable to write down these sins in some kind of notebook. This helps to put a limit on sin. We did not write down this sin, we did not do such a purely mechanical action, and it “passed on” to the next day. And then it will be easier to prepare for confession. There is no need to “suddenly” remember everything.

— Some parishioners prefer confession in this form: “I sinned against such and such a commandment.” This is convenient: “I sinned against the seventh” - and there is no need to say anything more.

“I believe this is completely unacceptable.” Any formalization of spiritual life kills this life. Sin is pain human soul. If there is no pain, then there is no repentance. Reverend John Climacus says that the forgiveness of our sins is evidenced by the pain that we feel when we repent of them. If we do not experience pain, we have every reason to doubt that our sins have been forgiven. And the Monk Barsanuphius the Great, answering questions from various people, repeatedly said that a sign of forgiveness is a loss of sympathy for previously committed sins. This is the change that must happen to a person, an internal turn.

- Another common opinion: why would I repent if I know that I won’t change anyway - it will be hypocrisy and hypocrisy on my part.

“What is impossible with men is possible with God.” What is sin, why does a person repeat it again and again, even realizing that it is bad? Because this is what prevailed over him, what entered his nature, broke it, distorted it. And a person himself cannot cope with this; he needs help - the gracious help of God. Through the Sacrament of Repentance, a person resorts to His help. The first time a person comes to confession and sometimes is not even going to leave his sins, but let him at least repent of them before God. What do we ask God for in one of the prayers of the Sacrament of Repentance? “Loosen up, leave, forgive.” First, weaken the power of sin, then leave it, and only then forgive. It happens that a person comes to confession many times and repents of the same sin, not having the strength, not having the determination to leave it, but he repents sincerely. And the Lord, for this repentance, for this constancy, sends His help to a person. There is such a wonderful example, in my opinion, from St. Amphilochius of Iconium: a certain man came to the temple and there knelt before the icon of the Savior and tearfully repented of a terrible sin, which he committed again and again. His soul was so tormented that he once said: “Lord, I am tired of this sin, I will never commit it again, I call You Yourself as a witness to Last Judgment“This sin will no longer be in my life.” After this, he left the temple and again fell into this sin. So what did he do? No, he didn’t hang himself or drown himself. He came to the temple again, knelt down and repented of his fall. And so, near the icon, he died. And the fate of this soul was revealed to the saint. The Lord had mercy on the repentant. And the devil asks the Lord: “How is this possible? Didn’t he promise You many times, call You as a witness, and then deceive You?” And God answers: “If you, being a misanthrope, accepted him back to yourself so many times after his appeals to Me, how can I not accept him?”

But here is a situation known to me personally: a girl regularly came to one of the Moscow churches and confessed that she earned her living by what is, as they say, the most ancient profession. No one allowed her to receive Communion, of course, but she continued to walk, prayed, and tried to somehow participate in the life of the parish. I don’t know if she managed to leave this craft, but I know for sure that the Lord protects her and does not leave her, waiting for the necessary change.

It is very important to believe in the forgiveness of sins, in the power of the Sacrament. Those who do not believe complain that after confession there is no relief, that they leave the church with a heavy soul. This comes from a lack of faith, even from a lack of faith in forgiveness. Faith should give a person joy, and if there is no faith, there is no need to hope for any spiritual experiences and emotions.

- Sometimes it happens that some long-standing (usually) action of ours evokes in us a reaction that is more humorous than repentant, and it seems to us that talking about this action in confession is excessive zeal, bordering on hypocrisy or coquetry. Example: I suddenly remember that once in my youth I stole a book from the library of a holiday home. I think that we need to say this in confession: no matter how you look at it, the eighth commandment has been broken. And then it becomes funny...

“I wouldn’t take it so lightly.” There are actions that cannot even be formally committed, because they destroy us - not even as people of faith, but simply as people of conscience. There are certain barriers that we must set for ourselves. These saints could have spiritual freedom, which allows them to do things that are formally condemned, but they did them only when these actions were for the good.

— Is it true that you do not need to repent of sins committed before Baptism if you were baptized in adulthood?

- Formally correct. But the point is this: previously, the Sacrament of Baptism was always preceded by the Sacrament of Repentance. The Baptism of John and the entry into the waters of the Jordan were preceded by the confession of sins. Now adults in our churches are baptized without confessing their sins; only some churches have the practice of pre-baptismal confession. So what's going on? Yes, in baptism a person’s sins are forgiven, but he did not realize these sins, did not experience repentance for them. That is why he, as a rule, returns to these sins. There was no break; the line of sin continues. Formally, a person is not obliged to talk about sins committed before baptism in confession, but... it is better not to delve into such calculations: “I must say this, but I don’t have to say this.” Confession is not the subject of such bargaining with God. It's not a matter of the letter, it's a matter of spirit.

— We have talked quite a lot here about how to prepare for confession, but what should we read or, as they say, proofread at home the day before, what prayers? The prayer book contains the Follow-up to Holy Communion. Do I need to proofread it in its entirety and is that enough? In addition, Communion may not follow confession. What to read before confession?

— It is very good if a person reads the Canon of Repentance to the Savior before confession. There is also a very good Penitential Canon of the Mother of God. This could be simply a prayer with the repentant feeling “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And it is very important, remembering every sin committed, bringing to the heart the awareness of its destruction for us, from the heart, in your own words, ask God for forgiveness for it, simply standing in front of icons or bowing. To come to what St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountainer calls the feeling of being “guilty.” That is, to feel: I am dying, and I am aware of it, and I am not justifying myself. I recognize myself as worthy of this death. But with this I go to God, surrender myself before His love and hope for His mercy, believing in it.

Abbot Nikon (Vorobiev) has a wonderful letter to a certain woman, no longer young, who, due to age and illness, had to prepare for the transition to Eternity. He writes to her: “Remember all your sins and repent of each one - even the one you confessed - before God until you feel that the Lord forgives you. It’s not a charm to feel that the Lord forgives; this is what the holy fathers called joyful crying—repentance that brings joy.” This is the most necessary thing - to feel peace with God.

Interviewed by Marina Biryukova

Many people do not know and do not know how to properly prepare for confession and confess. They go, go to Confession and Communion for years, but still don’t change, and in their lives everything is the same, no changes for the better: just as the husband and wife were arguing, they continue to swear and quarrel. Just as the husband drank, he continues to drink and party and cheat on his wife. Just as there was no money in the house, there is no money. Just as the children were disobedient, they became even more rude and impudent and stopped studying. Just as a person was lonely in life, without family and children, he still remains lonely. And the reasons for this are as follows: either a person does not repent of his sins and lives a sinful life, or he does not know how to repent, does not know and does not see his sins, and does not really know how to pray, or a person is cunning before God and deceives Him, does not consider himself as a sinner, hides his sins or considers his sins small, insignificant, justifies himself, shifts his guilt onto other people or repents and again commits sins with a light heart and desire, does not want to give up his bad habits.

For example, a person repented of drunkenness, smoking and swearing, and again, as soon as he left the Church and started smoking again, began to swear, and in the evening he got drunk. How can God accept such a FALSE Repentance and forgive a person and begin to help him?! That’s why nothing in their lives changes for the better for such people, and they themselves do not become kinder or more honest!

Repentance is an amazing GIFT to man from God, and it must be EARNED, and this gift can only be earned by GOOD deeds and honest confession to oneself and to God of all sins, one’s bad deeds and actions, one’s character flaws and bad habits, and much more. desire from all this bad - to GET RID of and correct yourself, and BECOME a good person.

Therefore, before you go to Confession, KNOW that if you do not pray every day and ASK God for Him to ALLOW you to COME to Confession, then Confession may not happen. If God DOES NOT GIVE you a way to church, then you WILL NOT GET TO CONFESSION! And on the way, pray that God, in confession, will FORGIVE all your sins.

Don’t rely on yourself that you can calmly reach the Church at your own request - you may NOT REACH, and this very often happens, because the devil fiercely hates those people who are going to go to confession and begins to INTERFERE with them in every possible way. That’s why we should ask God and the Mother of God for help every day, already a week, or even two before, when you decided to go to confession, so that God GIVES you HEALTH, strength and the way so that you go to church. .

Otherwise, it usually happens like this: a person is about to go to Confession, and suddenly, the person gets ILL, then suddenly falls and sprains a leg or arm, then he has an upset stomach, then someone at home close to you gets very sick - so the person CAN’T go to Confession . Or sometimes troubles start both at work and at home, or an accident happens, or at home the day before there is a major quarrel or you commit a new grave sin. Sometimes a man is getting ready for confession, and guests come to him and offer him a drink of wine and vodka, he gets so drunk that he cannot get up in the morning, and again the man CANNOT GO TO CONFESSION. Anything can happen because the devil, having learned that a person is going to confession, begins to do everything so that the person will never be able to go to confession and even FORGET to think about it! Remember this!

When a person is PREPARING for Confession, the most IMPORTANT thing he must honestly ask himself is: “Is God in the FIRST place in my life?” Only with this does real Repentance begin!

Maybe it’s not God that comes first for me, but something else, for example - Wealth, personal well-being, acquiring property, work and a successful career, sex, entertainment and pleasure, clothes, smoking, the desire to attract attention and the desire for fame , fame, receiving praise, spending time carelessly, reading empty books, watching TV.

Maybe because of CONCERNS about my family and a LOT of household chores, I always HAVE NO TIME and therefore I FORGET about God and do not please Him. Maybe art, sports, science or some kind of hobby or hobby takes first place in my mind?

Could it be that some kind of passion - love of money, gluttony, drunkenness, sexual lust - has taken over my heart, and all my thoughts and desires are only about this? Am I making myself an “Idol” out of my pride and selfishness? If this is so, it means that I SERVE my “Idol”, my idol, he is in my first place, and not God. This is how you can and should check yourself when preparing for confession.

It is necessary to go to the evening service the day before. Before Communion, if a person has never confessed and has not fasted, he must fast for 7 days. If a person complies fast days Wednesday and Friday, then it is enough for him to fast for two to three days, but fasting is only for healthy people. At home, be sure to prepare for confession and Communion, if you have a prayer book, then read: The Penitential Canon to Jesus Christ and to the Mother of God, or simply the canon to the Mother of God “We contain many adversities,” read the canon to the Guardian Angel, and if they take communion, then “Following to Communion." If there is no prayer book, then you need to read the Jesus Prayer 500 times and the “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary” 100 times, but this is an exception. Then they take a piece of blank paper and write all their sins on it in detail, otherwise you will simply forget many sins, the demons will not allow you to remember them, that’s why people write down their sins on pieces of paper, which after confession must be carefully and carefully burned. You will either give your sins to confession to a priest who will confess you, or you yourself will read out loud to the priest all the sins written on the piece of paper.

From 12 o'clock at night they don't eat or drink anything, in the morning they got up, prayed and went to the temple and all the way - you need to intensely PRAY to yourself and ask the Lord for God to FORGIVE your sins. At church we stood in line and silently to ourselves - CONTINUE TO PRAY TO GOD, that God would forgive us and deliver us from our sins and bad habits. When you are standing in church and waiting for your turn for confession, you must not think about strangers, you must not look idly around and do not even think about talking about anything with those next to you. standing people. Otherwise, God will not accept your repentance, and this is a disaster! You must stand and be silent, and with all your heart beg God to have mercy on you and forgive you your sins and give you strength not to commit the same sins again, you must mourn before God that you have committed so many sins, done so much evil and bad deeds, and many people were offended and condemned. Only in this case can God forgive you, not the priest, but the Lord, who sees your Repentance - how sincere or false it is! When the priest begins to read a prayer of permission for the resolution of your sins, at this time you will intensely pray to God to yourself, so that God will forgive you and give you the strength to live honestly, according to the Laws of God and not to sin.

Many people standing in line for confession are TALKING to each other, looking around carelessly - how can God accept such Repentance? Who needs such Repentance at all if people don’t even think about and don’t understand what Great and Terrible Sacrament they came to? What now – their FATE is being decided!

Therefore, all those people who CONDUCT conversations in line for confession and do not pray intensely to God for the forgiveness of their sins - CAME to confession in vain! The Lord DOES NOT FORGIVE such people and DOES NOT ACCEPT their hypocritical Repentance!

After all, if God forgives a person, FORGIVES him his sins, then the person’s life and destiny change for the better - the person himself CHANGES - BECOMES kind, calm, patient and an honest man, people - RECOVERED from serious and often incurable fatal diseases. People got rid of their bad habits and passions.

Many bitter drunkards and drug addicts, after True Confession, STOP DRINKING and taking drugs - became NORMAL people!

People IMPROVED family relationships, families were restored, children CORRECTED, people found good jobs, and single people CREATED families - this is what True Repentance of a person means!

After Confession, you need to THANK God, bow to the ground, and light a candle in gratitude, and try to AVOID sins, try not to commit them.

LIST OF SINS. Whoever does not consider himself a Sinner is not heard by God!
Based on this list of human sins, you need to prepare for Confession.
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Do you believe God? Don't you doubt it? Do you wear a cross on your chest? Aren't you ashamed to wear a cross, go to church, and be baptized in public? Aren't you acting carelessly? Sign of the Cross? Are you breaking your vows to God and your promises to people? Are you hiding your sins during confession, have you deceived the priests? Do you know all the Laws and Commandments of God, do you read the Bible, the Gospel, and the lives of the saints? Are you justifying yourself in confession? Don't you condemn the priests and the Church? Do you go to church on Sunday? Did you desecrate shrines? Are you blaspheming God?

Aren't you complaining? Do you keep fasts? Do you patiently bear your cross, sorrows and illnesses? Do you raise your children according to the Laws of God? Are you setting a bad example for your children and others? Do you pray for them? Do you pray for your country, for your people, for your city, village, for your family, friends, for your friends... (living and deceased)? Don't you pray somehow, hastily and carelessly? While in the womb Orthodox Church, did you turn to other religions and sects? Did you protect Orthodox faith and the Church before sectarians and heretics? Have you been late for church services or left services without a good reason? Didn't you talk in the temple? Didn’t you sin by self-justification and belittling your sins? Have you told other people about other people's sins?

Didn’t he tempt people to sin by giving them a bad example? Don't you gloat over someone else's misfortune, don't you rejoice at the misfortunes and failures of other people? Don't you consider yourself better than others? Have you sinned with vanity? Have you sinned with selfishness? Have you sinned by indifference to people and to your work, to your responsibilities? Didn't he do his job formally and poorly? Did you deceive your superiors? Don't you envy people? Aren't you sinning with despondency?

Do you honor, respect and obey your parents? Do you treat people older than you with respect? Did you offend your parents, quarrel with them, or shout at them? Do you honor and obey your husband, do you recognize him as the master in your family? Don't you contradict your husband, don't you yell at him? Do you give to the poor and needy from your abundance? Do you visit patients in hospitals and at home? Are you helping your neighbor? Didn’t you condemn beggars and poor people, didn’t you disdain them?

Didn't they get married, didn't they get married without love for convenience? Did you commit an unjust divorce (rejection of marriage)? Are you killing the baby in the womb (abortion or other means)? Don't you give such advice? Is your marriage blessed by God (has the sacrament of wedding been performed)? Are you jealous of your husband or wife? Have you ever engaged in sexual perversion? Are you cheating on your husband (wife)? Have you engaged in fornication and tempted other people to commit this sin? Did you engage in masturbation and sexual perversions?

Are you getting drunk on wine? Did you get anyone drunk? Do you smoke tobacco? Do you have any bad habits? Don't you arrange a wake with wine, don't you remember dead people with wine? Did you give your consent to the bodies of your deceased relatives and friends being burned in a crematorium, instead of being buried in the ground? Do you curse your children, loved ones or neighbors? Are you calling anyone names? Do you have the fear of God? Are you not reproaching anyone? Do you not do good deeds for show or in order to be praised or with the expectation of benefit? Aren't you talkative? Don't you disdain anything?

Didn't you commit murder? Did you do anything to harm someone? Did you mock the weak and helpless? Are you at odds with people? Don't you argue, don't you argue with anyone? Are you swearing? Have you persuaded anyone to commit an evil deed? Are you quarreling with anyone? Did you threaten anyone? Aren't you annoyed? Are you insulting or humiliating anyone? Are you offending anyone? Don't you wish death for yourself and others? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Do you love your enemies? Are you making fun of people? Don't you answer evil for evil, don't you take revenge? Do you pray for those who attack and persecute you? Do you yell at people? Are you angry in vain? Have you sinned with impatience and haste?

Aren't you curious? Didn’t you kill livestock, birds, and insects in vain? Did you litter and pollute the forest, lakes and rivers? Don't you judge your neighbor? Are you blaming anyone? Do you despise anyone?)? Aren't you pretending? Are you lying? Aren't you informing on anyone? Have you sinned with people-pleasing and sycophancy?

Didn’t you please your superiors, didn’t you serve them, didn’t you engage in fawning? Aren't you talking idlely (empty talk)? Did you sing obscene songs? Did you tell obscene jokes? Didn't he bear false witness? Did you slander people? Do you have any addiction to food or treats? Do you have a taste for luxury and things? Don't you love honors and praise? Have you advised people anything bad and vicious? Have you ridiculed anyone’s chastity or modesty, or their obedience to parents and elders, or their conscientiousness in work, service or study?

Have you looked at obscene pornographic images in newspapers and magazines? Have you watched erotic and pornographic films and videos, or looked at erotic and pornographic sites on the Internet? Do you watch horror films and bloody action films? Do you read obscene, depraved pornographic magazines, newspapers and books? Are you seducing anyone with obscene seductive behavior and clothing?

Are you involved in witchcraft or spiritualism? Don't you read magic and books on extrasensory perception? Don't you believe in omens, astrology and horoscopes? Were you interested in Buddhism and the Roerich sect? Didn't you believe in the transmigration of souls and the law of recarnation? Are you bewitching anyone? Are you telling fortunes by cards, by hand, or something else? Haven't you done yoga? Are you not boasting? Have you thought or wanted to commit suicide?

Aren't you taking anything from the government? Aren't you stealing? Don't you hide, don't you appropriate other people's found things? Did you sin with the postscripts? Are you not living on the labor of others, being lazy? Do you protect and value other people’s work, your own and other people’s time? Didn’t you cheat on someone else’s labor by paying a small salary? Was he engaged in speculation? Didn’t he buy valuable and expensive things for cheap, taking advantage of people’s needs? Did you hurt anyone? Don't you measure, don't weigh, don't you shortchange when trading? Did you sell damaged and unusable goods? Did you engage in extortion and force people to give bribes? Aren't you deceiving people in word and deed? Do you take or give bribes? Did you buy stolen goods? Did he cover up for thieves, criminals, rapists, bandits, drug dealers and murderers? Do you use drugs? Didn't he sell moonshine, vodka and drugs and pornographic magazines, newspapers and videos?

Aren't you spying, aren't you eavesdropping? Were the people helping you paid for their services and labor? Do you take or use things, or wear clothes and shoes without the owner’s permission? Do you pay for travel on the metro, buses, trolleybuses, trams, electric trains, etc.? Don't you listen to rock music? Do you play cards or other gambling games? Do you play in casinos and slot machines? Do you play computer games and go to computer gaming salons?

Here is a LIST of sins, it lists the majority of sins. They are in the form of questions. You can prepare for Confession using this List.

Take a large blank sheet of paper and begin to write down the sins you have committed. Then, according to the List of Sins, you read in order all the listed sins and answer these questions about sins, but only those sins that you have committed and write something like this: “I sinned: I was drunk, I drank my money away, I did not take care of the peace of my neighbors. I swore, used foul language, offended my neighbors, lied, deceived people - I repent, etc.” This is roughly how you write your sins. If, of course, there is something serious, then you need to describe your sin in more detail. Those sins that you read in the list and you did not commit - you skip and honestly write only those sins that you did. If you are going to confession for the first time, then tell the priest about it. Tell him that you prepared for confession using a list of sins and confess. You may end up with several sheets of paper with sins written on them - this is normal, just write your sins clearly and clearly so that the priest can read them.

It’s better, of course, to READ your sins out loud to the priest yourself. If you read your sins out loud, then DO NOT READ them indifferently, in a tongue twister, but rather as if you were doing it yourself - REPRESENT the sins in your own words, sometimes looking at the sheet of paper with the sins written down - Blame yourself, Don’t make excuses, worry at this moment about your sins - Be ashamed of them – then God will forgive your sins. Only then will Confession be of any use and the benefit will be great.

The main thing is that after Confession a person SHOULD NOT return to his previous sins and bad habits.

After confession, thank God. Before receiving Communion, when the Holy Gifts are brought out, make three prostrations and then with the prayer “Lord, bless me, unworthy, to receive the Holy Mysteries and preserve Your Gracious Gift” - take Communion.

After receiving Communion, stop, turn to the altar of the church and with all your heart, with a bow from the waist, thank the Lord again, Mother of God and your Guardian Angel, for the fact that they have given you such great mercy and ask God to carefully preserve the gift of Communion. When you get home, be sure to read it while standing. thanksgiving prayers after receiving Communion and read Three Chapters from the Gospel.

Communion of the Holy Mysteries is a great Mystery and the most powerful medicine for the human soul and for the healing of all kinds of diseases, including serious ones that cannot be treated. Only after an honest and sincere confession does communion of the Body and Blood of Christ revive a person, heal illnesses, give peace and tranquility to a person’s soul, and add physical strength and energy to the body.

An excerpt from the Orthodox book “Secrets of Family Happiness.” Cherepanov Vladimir.