Confession of sins is the main part of the life of an Orthodox Christian, which is included in the charter of the Church. The soul continues to live after death, and the place where it goes depends on the state of the soul, the fulfillment of God’s commandments and sincere participation in the Holy Mysteries of baptism, repentance and communion.
The following words are written in the Gospel: God will accept with open hands every sinner who turns to Him with repentance. The Lord waits for the correction of our ways and the confession of sins from a pure, sincere heart, does not look at the beauty of the face and clothes. If you serve sin, but want to escape its slavery and the resulting fruit:
- mental anguish,
- experiences,
- fear,
- despondency,
- pride,
- laziness.
You need to bring true repentance before God, go to the Orthodox Church and say: “I have sinned,” otherwise you will be accused by the devil-slanderer, who hates man and wishes spiritual and physical death to all people. Prevent his actions and deprive him of such honor through the sacrament of repentance, get serious about saving your immortal soul. Whoever distances himself from confession and communion is an enemy of God and a friend of the devil.
After repentance, you will literally feel lightness, joy, as if all the burden has been lifted from your shoulders. Also, during the sincere confession of sins, they are burned from the charter of demons that could be presented at the ordeals in order to introduce your soul into eternal fire. After death and during life there is a struggle for your soul. Confessed sin, mourned with tears, will not go with you to the Last Judgment.
How does the Sacrament of Repentance take place, how to prepare for it and how to begin?
The rite of confession: the usual beginning, priestly prayers and an appeal to the repentant “Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession...”, the confession itself. At the end of confession, the priest places the edge of the epitrachelion on the head of the penitent and reads a prayer of permission. The penitent kisses the Gospel and the cross lying on the lectern.
Confession is usually performed after the evening service or in the morning, immediately before the liturgy, since the laity are traditionally allowed to receive communion after confession.
Preparation for confession is not outwardly formal. Unlike the other great Sacrament of the Church - Holy Communion, confession can be performed always and everywhere (in the presence of a legal celebrant - an Orthodox priest). When preparing for confession, the church charter does not require either a special fast or a special prayer rule, but only faith and repentance are needed. That is, the person confessing must be a baptized member of the Orthodox Church, a conscious believer (recognizing all the foundations of Orthodox doctrine and recognizing himself as a child of the Orthodox Church) and repenting of his sins.
Sins must be understood both in a broad sense - as passions characteristic of fallen human nature, and in a more specific sense - as actual cases of transgression of God's commandments. The Slavic word “repentance” means not so much “apology” as “change” - a determination not to allow the same sins to be committed in the future. Thus, repentance is a state of uncompromising self-condemnation for one’s past sins and the desire to continue to stubbornly fight passions.
So, to prepare for confession means to take a repentant look at your life, analyze your deeds and thoughts from the point of view of God’s commandments (if necessary, write them down for memory), pray to the Lord for the forgiveness of sins and the granting of true repentance. As a rule, for the period after the last confession. But you can also confess past sins - either previously unconfessed due to forgetfulness or false shame, or confessed without proper repentance, mechanically. At the same time, you need to know that sincerely confessed sins are always and irreversibly forgiven by the Lord (dirt is washed away, illness is healed, the curse is lifted), this immutability is the meaning of the Sacrament. However, this does not mean that sin should be forgotten - no, it remains in memory for humility and protection from future falls; it can bother the soul for a long time, just as a healed wound can bother a person - no longer mortal, but still noticeable. In this case, it is possible to confess the sin again (to pacify the soul), but it is not necessary, since it has already been forgiven.
And - go to the temple of God to confess.
Although, as already mentioned, you can confess in any setting, it is generally accepted to confess in a church - before the service or at a time specially appointed by the priest (in special cases, for example, for confessing a patient at home, you need to individually agree with the clergyman).
The usual time for confession is before the Divine Liturgy. They usually confess at evening services, and sometimes a special time is set. It is advisable to find out about the time of confession in advance.
As a rule, the priest confesses in front of a lectern (A lectern is a table for church books or icons with an inclined upper surface). Those who come to confession stand one after another in front of the lectern, where the priest confesses, but at some distance from the lectern, so as not to interfere with someone else’s confession; they stand quietly, listening to church prayers, lamenting their sins in their hearts. When it’s their turn, they go to confession.
Approaching the lectern, bow your head; at the same time, you can kneel (if desired; but on Sundays and great holidays, as well as from Easter to the day of the Holy Trinity, kneeling is canceled). Sometimes the priest covers the head of the penitent with an epitrachelion (Epitrachelion is a detail of a priest’s vestment - a vertical strip of fabric on the chest), prays, asks what the confessor’s name is and what he wants to confess before God. Here the repentant must confess, on the one hand, a general awareness of his sinfulness, especially naming the passions and weaknesses most characteristic of him (for example: lack of faith, love of money, anger, etc.), and on the other hand, name those specific sins for which he sees himself, and especially those that lie like a stone on his conscience, for example: abortion, insults to parents or loved ones, theft, fornication, the habit of swearing and blasphemy, non-observance of God’s commandments and church institutions, etc., etc. n. The “General Confession” section will help you understand your sins.
The priest, having heard the confession, as a witness and intercessor before God, asks (if he considers it necessary) questions and gives instructions, prays for the forgiveness of the sins of the repentant sinner and, when he sees sincere repentance and a desire for correction, reads a “permissive” prayer.
The Sacrament of forgiveness of sins itself is performed not at the moment of reading the “permissive” prayer, but through the entire set of rites of confession, however, the “permissive” prayer is, as it were, a seal certifying the fulfillment of the Sacrament.
So, confession is made, with sincere repentance, the sin is forgiven by God.
The forgiven sinner, crossing himself, kisses the cross, the Gospel and takes the priest’s blessing.
To receive a blessing is to ask the priest, by his priestly authority, to send down the strengthening and sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit on himself and on his affairs. To do this, you need to fold your hands palms up (right to left), bow your head and say: “Bless, father.” The priest baptizes the person with the sign of the priestly blessing and places his palm on the folded palms of the person being blessed. One should venerate the priest’s hand with one’s lips—not as a human hand, but as an image of the blessing right hand of the Giver of all good things, the Lord.
If he was preparing for communion, he asks: “Will you bless me for communion?” - and if the answer is positive, he goes to prepare to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
Are all sins forgiven in the Sacrament of Repentance, or only those named?
In the Sacrament all sins are forgiven, with the exception of those intentionally hidden. If you forgot to name some minor sin, then don’t worry. The sacrament is called the Sacrament of Repentance, and not the “Sacrament of listing all sins committed.”
Let’s read the priest’s prayer of permission after confession: “May the Lord and our God, Jesus Christ, by the grace and generosity of His love for mankind forgive your child (name) all your sins. And I, unworthy priest, by His power given to me, forgive and absolve you from all your sins , in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen".
Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev: ...if a person does not consciously hide his sins, if confession is brought to him sincerely, sincerely, with the intention of correction, all sins are forgiven to him: both those that he named, and those that he forgot about, and those that he himself doesn't notice to himself. Once, at a lecture at the Moscow Theological Seminary, I expressed this idea - that sins in confession are either all forgiven, or all are not forgiven, but the third (that is, some kind of partial, incomplete forgiveness) is not given. One seminarian objected to me very sharply, saying that he would “raise the works of all the Holy Fathers” to prove the opposite, namely, that only sins mentioned in confession are forgiven. He worked in the library for six months, and then came to me and said: “You were right: all sins are forgiven.” But, as has already been said, the condition for complete forgiveness is open-heartedness and sincerity of confession, the determination to improve and start a new life. If a person conceals his sins during confession, or if his entire confession is reduced to an empty formality, or if he speaks only about the sins of other people, then the sacrament is profaned. In other words, in this case the Sacrament does not occur at all, because that change of mind that should accompany confession does not occur in a person. (Source).
Penance for masturbation
Each spiritual father prescribes punishment individually, knowing the characteristics of his child, but usually they are not very cruel and difficult. Some simply do not allow people to receive Communion, while others prescribe fasting and abstinence. There were cases when 50 bows every day with special prayers were blessed.
But the Church does not prescribe strictly punishing masturbators, since Moral Theology states:
How often should you go to confession?
The minimum is before each Communion (according to church canons, the faithful receive communion no more than once a day and no less than once every 3 weeks), the maximum number of confessions is not established and is left to the discretion of the Christian himself.
It should be remembered that repentance is a desire to be reborn, it does not begin with confession and does not end with it, it is a matter of a lifetime. That is why the Sacrament is called the Sacrament of Repentance, and not the “Sacrament of the Enumeration of Sins.” Repentance for sin consists of three stages: Repent of the sin as soon as you have committed it; remember him at the end of the day and again ask God for forgiveness for him (see the last prayer in the Evening Prayer Rule); confess it and receive absolution from sins in the Sacrament of Confession.
Bottom line
Never forget the importance of Repentance and the fight against passions. Trust in the Lord. Pray, pray without ceasing. Take communion, confess. Speak up, don't be silent. It is these tips that will prevent such a sin as masturbation.
No matter what society says, you must understand the harmfulness of some actions. Masturbation has never made anyone happy. Satisfied for a while - yes. But is that the point? The meaning is something more important. This is what you strive for. May the Lord help you!
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Inga Yamb
How to see your sins?
Since sins are a violation of the Commandments of God, it is necessary to study the Commandments and the Gospel. And you should ask God to see your sins. When a person does not see anything bad in himself, this never indicates the absence of sins. This is usually a consequence of pride and spiritual apathy. Anyone who does not see sins in himself must begin by confessing this spiritual blindness, then the priest will help him remember other vices.
Can a priest refuse to accept confession?
Apostolic Canons (52nd canon) “If anyone, a bishop or presbyter, does not accept someone converted from sin, let him be expelled from the sacred rank. For [he] grieves Christ, who said: There is joy in heaven over one repentant sinner (Luke 15:7).”
You can refuse confession if, in fact, there is none. If a person does not repent, does not consider himself guilty of his sins, does not want to be reconciled with his neighbors. Also, those who are not baptized and excommunicated from church communion cannot receive absolution from sins.
There are also several other reasons: Penitents who cannot be resolved.
Why do Orthodox Christians confess?
Man consists of spirit, soul and body. Everyone knows that the body will turn to dust, but concern for bodily cleanliness occupies an important place in the life of Christians. The soul, which will meet the Savior at the end of life, also needs to be cleansed from sins.
Only confession of sinful deeds, thoughts, and words can wash away the dirt from the soul. The accumulation of impurities in the soul causes negative emotions:
- irritation;
- anger;
- depression;
- apathy.
Often Orthodox Christians themselves cannot explain their behavior; they do not even suspect that the cause is unconfessed sins.
A person’s spiritual health and a calm conscience directly depend on the frequency of confessing his vicious inclinations.
Confession accepted by God is directly related, or rather, is the result of sincere repentance. A repentant person sincerely desires to live according to the commandments of the Lord; he is constantly critical of his errors and sins.
Confession in the Orthodox Church
According to Saint Theophan the Recluse, repentance occurs in four stages:
- realize sin;
- admit your guilt in committing an offense;
- decide to permanently break off your relationship with wrong actions or thoughts;
- tearfully pray to the Creator for forgiveness.
Important!
Confession must be spoken out loud, for God knows what is written, but demons hear what is spoken by voice. In obedience, going to the frank opening of his heart, which occurs in the presence of a priest, a person first of all steps over his pride. Some believers argue that one can confess directly in the presence of the Creator, but according to the laws of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Sacrament of Confession is considered legal if it is performed through an intercessor, prayer book and witness in one person, through a clergyman.
The main thing when confessing sins is not the rank of mediator, but the state of the sinner’s heart, his heartfelt contrition and complete renunciation of the committed offense.
