Repentance is the sinner’s awareness of his sins before God

Since there are no sinless people on earth and we all constantly make one or another mistake, sooner or later, repentance comes to a person. This repentance should not be just a formality, not just empty words, but sincere regret that through our sins we have caused pain to the Lord and have moved away from His caress at a rather large distance. Often people do not know how to properly repent of their sins and what to do to find long-awaited spiritual peace, so it is worth considering in more detail what exactly repentance should be.

What is repentance to the Lord?

What is this sacrament? Repentance is a sacred act that brings grace. After a believer repents of his sins, he receives remission of them. The priest acts as a mediator between God and man in the sacrament of repentance. Through him, a repentant person receives forgiveness of his sins from Jesus Christ Himself. This sacrament contains two main actions:

1. Confessing all your sins to the priest.
2. Resolution of sins, which is pronounced by the shepherd of the Church.

The sacrament of repentance is also called confession, although it is only one component. However, this component is truly the most important, since without awareness of one’s sins there will be no forgiveness.

The most important thing is to understand that confession is not an interrogation or “pulling out” sins from the soul by force. It does not pass judgment on the sinner. Repentance is also not a conversation about one’s shortcomings, not informing a priest about one’s sins, and not just a good tradition. Confession is sincere repentance for one’s sins, it is an urgent need for cleansing the soul, “mortifying” oneself for sin and resurrection for holiness.

The difference between Confession and Communion. Is one available without the other?

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How to prepare for Confession.

Confession and Communion are two DIFFERENT Sacraments.

No preparation is required for Confession.

It is possible to confess without Communion. But you cannot receive Communion without Confession

(except for those parishioners who were blessed by the confessor).

The difference between Confession and Communion. Is one available without the other?

If you now want to begin Confession, but have not prepared for Communion, or do not yet know how to prepare for Communion, then you can begin Confession now in any case, without any obstacle. To do this, you will not need to know any special instructions, because... Confession does not require any special equipment. knowledge, and no special preparation.

But if you were preparing for Communion (for the first time), then you cannot begin it without Confession. The priest at Confession, in addition to accepting repentance from you, must find out what your idea of ​​the sacrament of Communion is, and perhaps correct you if you are mistaken. The priest must find out how you prepared for St. Communion, and perhaps I can correct you a little on this as well. In addition, the priest at Confession must make sure that you are an Orthodox person, that you do not hold grudges or grudges against other people, that you do not have unrepentant mortal sins. All this needs to be clarified to the priest at Confession so that you do not accept the Sacrament of Communion to your condemnation and harm.

In this case, Confession is also part of the preparation for Communion: the soul prepares for Communion by repentance, remission of sins.

So, it is possible to confess without Communion, but it is impossible to receive communion without Confession (for the first time).

What is required to begin Confession?

To do this, it is enough to know your sins and have the desire to repent of them.

You can begin Confession regardless of whether you fasted or not, whether you ate today or not.

Are you standing in the temple now? Is Confession currently taking place in the church? Have you remembered your sins, have a desire to throw off the stone of sin - to confess? Go to Confession right now, you don’t need any instructions for this, you have everything you need: sins and repentance.

When a person decides to begin Confession for the first time, he usually remembers and realizes his greatest sins well; they lie “on the surface” of the soul. Go with them to Confession now, express all the sins that you remember now, and bring what you remember later to the next Confession. Do not put off your repentance “until tomorrow,” when you forget your sins, lose the determination to confess, become hardened in soul, and lose the ability to repent.

If you now have a ripe determination to confess in church, but at the moment Confession is not taking place in the church, and there is no priest in the church to ask if he has the opportunity to confess you now, then intend to confess at any upcoming service. Confession is performed at every evening service (during Lent - not at every evening service), which traditionally begins at 17:00 in all churches. In some churches, Confession is also performed during the morning service, which traditionally begins in all churches at 08:30. For accuracy, look at the schedule of services on the church fence of the temple, or ask church workers. Currently, all churches are gradually moving the celebration of Confession only to evening services.

If there is time before Confession: one or several days.

If you are planning to confess at the next divine service, then it is recommended to use the time of waiting for the day and hour of your Confession for preparation - penitential REFLECTION (testing your conscience, remembering your sins). If you confess for the first time, then you need to try to remember your sins throughout your entire life (starting from the age of seven - everything that is in your memory).

For your convenience, you can write down the sins you remember on a piece of paper, making a cheat sheet for yourself (so as not to forget). When you come to Confession, you can confess from memory, using, if necessary, a compiled list of sins, or you can simply read everything from a piece of paper. It is advisable to read it yourself.

When remembering your sins, you can use a hint to look at the general list of the most common sins, which can be found in a church store or on the Internet. A brochure with a list of sins, usually called “To help the penitent.”

Before going to Confession, you can read the canon of repentance at home, or the morning prayers, or the 50th Psalm, or the “Our Father” prayer, and simply say a prayerful sigh: “Lord, accept my repentance, grant me forgiveness of my sins.” .

But there is no mandatory requirement here, it is at your discretion. For Confession, it is enough to have awareness of your sins and repentance.

Before confession, you need to reconcile with the offenders and forgive the offenses.

Basic concepts about Confession.

All sins of which a person repents are forgiven. BUT! A necessary condition for receiving forgiveness of sins is personal forgiveness of offenses to one’s offenders.

Confessed sins do not need to be named next time at Confession, unless they were repeated again.

In subsequent Confessions, one must name the sins that the person still remembers, and those that repeated again.

5. How many times should you confess? How often?

On the day of Baptism, the human soul dresses in white clothes, in clothes of “light”, in clothes of “joy”.

After Baptism, a person gets these clothes dirty. And each of us stained these clothes with our sins.

But an Orthodox person differs from a non-church person (and from a formally Orthodox person) in that these “clothes” are regularly cleansed by the sacrament of Confession. Dirty spots have appeared, and it is unpleasant for an Orthodox person to be dirty, to walk around in such dirty clothes, and he rather hurries to Confession and repents of his sins. And he receives bright clothes again, and has spiritual joy. No matter how dirty a person’s soul is, no matter how great sins it defiles itself, if a person repents, then the Lord cleanses any dirt and clothes the person’s soul in bright clothes of joy and purity.

A non-church person, who considers his sins to be the norm of life, expresses approximately the following formulations: “Everyone lives “this way”, so there is nothing terrible in sins,” or speaks about sin: “It’s such a trifle,” or like this: “It’s nothing at all.” sin is what you call “sin,” etc.

Orthodox Christians, who keep the clothes of their souls clean, begin Confession regularly. Each person has their own frequency and depends on the degree of spiritual growth. Many people go to confession weekly—every Sunday or during the week.

All Orthodox Christians try to fulfill the 4th commandment of God’s Law: “Work six days, dedicate the seventh to the Lord Thy God,” and every Sunday they come to church: they thank God for the past week (for joys and sorrows), ask for God’s blessing on next week, and test their soul: what sins did you commit during the week? If they remember any sins, then they come up to Confession, repent of their sins, and leave the temple in bright robes of joy. This is the most optimal frequency.

Maybe postpone Confession “until tomorrow”?

Under what confession will forgiveness of sins be denied?

Hidden sins.

There are sins that a person cannot confess because he does not remember them; these are forgotten sins. Nothing can be done about this if the Lord does not open the person’s memory. With sincere repentance of known and unknown sins, the Lord forgives forgotten sins.

But if a person knows and remembers his sin for sure, but deliberately does not name it, for example, because of shame, then such a sin is called “hidden”, it becomes more serious, acquires greater severity, and condemnation. And the person leaves Confession with a heavy heart, with the realization that he did not have the courage, the determination to name his sin. But if it was difficult to name his sin, but the person overcame himself and still named his sin, then he leaves Confession with joy and a feeling of victory: it was hard, but the person won and received forgiveness.

Before Confession, the priest pronounces the following teaching:

“Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession: do not be ashamed, and do not be afraid, but without justification, say everything that you have done, so that you may receive forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ. I am only a witness, and I testify before Him everything that you tell me, but if you hide anything from me, you will commit a grave sin. Be careful not to leave the hospital unhealed.”

Sins confessed on earth will be completely blotted out at the Judgment of God, but hidden and unnamed - then they will be revealed to everyone: a person’s conscience as a judge will stand before everyone, exposing all our sins to everyone. Then there will be a day of great shame and disgrace for some, and a day of great glory and reward for others.

Formulation of sins.

At Confession, a person has a temptation: to formulate his sin so that it looks insignificant, or excusable, forced. A person tries to minimize his sin. Or he makes excuses and wants to blame others for his sin. For example, he says: yes, I was angry, but I have “such!” the neighbors are bad. In general, you need to call your sin directly, as it is, without belittling it, and without making excuses: call black - black, white - white.

Sometimes at Confession a person wants to tell not his sins, but what a great righteous man he is, what deeds he performs, how he fasts, how he prays, or wants to tell some lengthy stories from his life about miraculous incidents with him, etc. No, at Confession one must not show off one’s virtues and boast, but say all the dirtiest things about oneself, the worst things, everything that one is ashamed of: it is this dirt that a person came to get rid of at Confession.

What about a person?

The angels would not be able to listen to our sins, but would burn us to ashes, so the Lord appointed for Confession the same person of flesh and blood, who himself had the experience of sin and repentance. If the Apostle Peter had not sinned, what kind of strict shepherd would he have been? But the Apostle Peter denied Christ three times, then repented, wept bitterly, and God forgave him and restored him to the apostolic rank. Likewise, every priest has many sins, struggles with them, repents, confesses, and God grants forgiveness. Those. the priest himself knows what sin, repentance and forgiveness are. And some priests accumulated many sins before becoming priests, and then repented and changed. Therefore, the priest, having personal experience of the forgiveness of his sins at Confession, rejoices for the repentant person, no matter what serious sins the person names: the more serious the sin, the greater the joy of his repentance and forgiveness.

The Church teaches that all the saints who had the same flesh and blood, had the same passions and temptations, but won, will also take part in the Judgment of God. Therefore, the saints will also be our accusers, because... had equal opportunities with us either to fall into sin or to overcome it.

The Sacrament of Confession was established not by man, but by God. The Lord gave power to His disciples to forgive sins, saying: “Whose sins you forgive, their sins are forgiven; on whomever you leave it, it will remain on him” (John 20:23). And this power is transferred in the Church from the apostles to the real priesthood.

How to prepare for Confession.

Confession and Communion are two DIFFERENT Sacraments.

No preparation is required for Confession.

It is possible to confess without Communion. But you cannot receive Communion without Confession

(except for those parishioners who were blessed by the confessor).

The difference between Confession and Communion. Is one available without the other?

If you now want to begin Confession, but have not prepared for Communion, or do not yet know how to prepare for Communion, then you can begin Confession now in any case, without any obstacle. To do this, you will not need to know any special instructions, because... Confession does not require any special equipment. knowledge, and no special preparation.

But if you were preparing for Communion (for the first time), then you cannot begin it without Confession. The priest at Confession, in addition to accepting repentance from you, must find out what your idea of ​​the sacrament of Communion is, and perhaps correct you if you are mistaken. The priest must find out how you prepared for St. Communion, and perhaps I can correct you a little on this as well. In addition, the priest at Confession must make sure that you are an Orthodox person, that you do not hold grudges or grudges against other people, that you do not have unrepentant mortal sins. All this needs to be clarified to the priest at Confession so that you do not accept the Sacrament of Communion to your condemnation and harm.

In this case, Confession is also part of the preparation for Communion: the soul prepares for Communion by repentance, remission of sins.

So, it is possible to confess without Communion, but it is impossible to receive communion without Confession (for the first time).

Question No. 2171

Is it necessary to repent before a priest?

By confessing, a person brings repentance for sins not to the priest, but to God. The priest is also a person, and accordingly, he is also not sinless. In this sacrament he is only a mediator between the repentant and the Lord. The real performer of the mystery is only God Himself, and no one else. The Shepherd of the Church acts as an intercessor before Him and ensures that the sacrament is performed properly.

There is another important aspect to confessing to a priest. When we admit our sins to ourselves, this is, of course, very important. But this is much easier to do than, for example, telling a third party about them. By repenting of his sins before a minister of the Church, a person also overcomes the sin of pride. He overcomes shame, admits his sinfulness, telling those things that people usually try to keep silent about. This mental suffering makes confession even deeper and more meaningful for the purification of the soul.

Are all people sinners?

Some believe that they have nothing to repent of. They do not commit murder, theft or other serious crimes. However, this is fundamentally wrong. Constant companions of human life are such feelings as laziness, envy, revenge, anger, vanity, irritability and other states of the soul that are displeasing to God. In addition, some women commit the sin of infanticide (abortion), the blame for which lies with both the woman and the man who supported her or even persuaded her to make this decision. What about adultery, turning to fortune tellers and other actions? If we take into account all these points, it turns out that we are all sinners before God, and therefore each of us needs repentance and forgiveness of sins.

Repentance is the only true path to the Lord. One who does not consider himself a sinner is more sinful than one who is aware of his sins, even if he has even more of them than an unrepentant person.

How to eliminate sin within yourself

Sin is the voluntary violation of God's commandments. It has this property: increasing from smaller to larger. What harm does sin bring? It leads to degeneration, can shorten earthly life, and worst of all, it can deprive one of eternal life. The source of sin is the fallen world. And the person in it is the guide.

Sin has the following phases of involvement:

• Prilog is the emergence of a sinful desire or thought.
• The combination is fixing attention on a sinful thought, accepting it in one’s thoughts.
• Captivity is an obsession with a given desire, agreement with this thought.
• Falling into sin is the embodiment in practice of what was present in sinful desire.

Repentance is the beginning of the fight against sin. To overcome sin, you need to realize it and repent. You need to have a firm intention to fight it in order to ultimately eradicate it in yourself. To atone for sin, you need to do good deeds, as well as build your life according to God's commandments. Life must be spent in obedience to the Lord, the Church, and also to your spiritual mentor.

Is it possible to live without repentance?

Often people live without thinking about what they are doing. It seems to them that there is still enough time ahead to change for the better, repent and atone for their sins. They live for their own pleasure, without particularly caring about the soul. But in fact, repentance is something that cannot be put off until later. What happens when we are in no hurry to understand ourselves and analyze our actions, correlating them with God’s commandments? There is not a single bright spot left on our “spiritual clothing”. And this is fraught with the fact that conscience - this Divine spark - gradually fades away. We will begin to move towards spiritual death.

Figuratively speaking, the soul without repentance becomes open to sinful thoughts, passions and evil deeds. In turn, because of this, a difficult period may begin in a person’s earthly life. And even if during life a person does not experience the full weight of his sinfulness, then after death, when it is too late to correct anything, the consequence of an unrepentant soul will be its death.

Can repentance be invalid?

The essence of repentance is not to formally tell the priest about your shortcomings. Repentance cannot be accepted by the Lord if it is not sincere, is done in order to pay tribute to fashion, to look better in someone’s eyes, or if a person repents to ease his conscience, without a firm intention to correct his sins. Cold, dry and mechanical repentance is not considered valid. It will not bring any benefit to a repentant sinner. In order for repentance to truly serve a person’s benefit, it must come from the heart itself, conscious and ardent. Moreover, awareness and repentance alone are also not enough. A person must intend to fight his sin. He must call the Lord to be his assistant, because human flesh is weak, and it is almost impossible to fight his sinful nature on his own. But it is God who helps us in this difficult matter. The most important thing is to have a strong desire.

Should I use lists of sins? If yes, which ones are better?

There is a lot of literature with various lists of sins, after reading which you are surprised - either how sinful you are, or how far these lists are from you. There are also separate lists of sins for women and for men, although in fact the only difference is that women have a period of purification, when they cannot participate in the Sacraments and touch shrines. And so, in essence, there is no difference and everyone will give the answer with equal responsibility.

Yes, a list of sins for confession for beginners can bring both benefit and harm, since few books really explain in an accessible and detailed way what this or that sin means. For example, many will be able to say what molestation is?

Therefore, it is better to look for books or articles on preparing for Confession with an explanation of sins. There is a good book, “The Experience of Constructing a Confession,” the author of which is Archimandrite John Krestyankin. This work clearly explains the main sins. The first part is based on the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament, the second part is based on the Beatitudes from the New Testament. It is very useful to study it, feel it, think it over, and compare it with your life.

Is it necessary to repent of those sins that we are unable to renounce?

You need to repent as long as this sin will bind and torment you. But you also need to fight, take small steps, little by little to move towards the goal and not lose hope that the moment will come when you will be freed from these shackles. As St. John Chrysostom said: “The Lord not only accepts fruits, but also kisses intentions.”

Confessing this sin again, ask the Lord with all your soul for forgiveness and help in overcoming your destructive passion.

How to behave after Confession?

After the Sacrament has been performed, especially if you have also received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, you should try to maintain this reverent state within yourself for as long as possible. Of course, the bustle of this world will sooner or later begin to absorb the mind again, but you must try to preserve the Grace of the Holy Spirit in your soul for as long as possible.

You must try to protect yourself from sin in all your actions, and also give your entire nature to God. This can be achieved if you keep in your memory the thought of the Grace received and the opportunity of salvation given.

Even if there is no trembling state inside, and the devil often steals this amazing feeling in order to convince a person that there is no power in the Sacrament, it is still necessary to keep your soul and conscience pure and ask the Lord for a contrite heart.

In order to remain in Christ as long as possible, the holy fathers of the Church advise being laconic, avoiding quarrels and any other vanity on this day, and devoting more time to prayer and reading Holy Scripture or various teachings. You can’t do without good deeds, that is, if possible, help your neighbors and those in need, respect your elders, and the like. This way of life must be observed not only on the day when the Sacrament is performed, but, with God’s help, penetrate into the ordinary life of a Christian who wants to be with the Creator.

Of course, maintaining the Grace of the Holy Spirit within oneself for a long time will initially not be easy, but the more effort one makes and gives all one’s thoughts and actions to God, the longer Christ will be in the heart of an Orthodox Christian.

Sometimes the Lord grants this unearthly feeling to his creation at the beginning of the journey, and as time passes, the Grace becomes less and less tangible, and many begin to be disappointed. You need to take this as a test that needs to be overcome. Over time, when a person learns patience and humility and begins to surrender into the hands of God, this reverence and contrite heart will return, the feeling will come again as if the soul has ascended somewhere high, away from this vain world.

How to prepare for confession

In order to prepare for confession, you first need to analyze your life alone with yourself and realize all your sins. By correlating all our thoughts and actions with God’s commandments, we can easily understand what we did wrong, where we angered the Lord. The repentance of the soul must consist in recognizing each sin separately, repenting of it and confessing it to the priest. For convenience, before confession, you can write down all your sins on paper so as not to forget anything. There are special brochures that contain a list of sins. It happens that a person does not even suspect that he is sinful in certain matters, and is very surprised when among this list there are many acts contrary to God that he committed in his life. A person who decides to confess needs:

• firmly believe and hope in the Lord;
• regret having angered the Lord;
• forgive the offenders for all offenses and do not hold a grudge against anyone;
• declare all your sins before the priest without concealment;
• firmly resolve not to anger the Lord in the future and live according to His commandments.

The School of Repentance can help a person who has decided to confess. The materials and lectures describe the entire process in detail; not a single nuance of this sacred rite is missed.

How to find a confessor?

A confessor is a priest with whom a believer regularly confesses and is guided by his advice in spiritual life. The confessor helps to adjust the severity of fasting and gives more accurate advice during confession, since he knows the person well. Finding such a mentor is an ideal, but not mandatory, option for a believer.

“Reverend Simeon the New Theologian advises to pray a lot so that the Lord will send a confessor. One more piece of advice: don’t rush... You shouldn’t immediately ask to become a spiritual child of the priest who you like and who meets your inner needs today. Tomorrow this may not be the case!”

If you want to find a confessor, Archpriest Vladimir Volgin will tell you how to do this and avoid typical mistakes (the priest has been caring for spiritual children for many years, listen to his advice).

What a person preparing for confession needs to know

You can confess at any time, whenever possible, in church. This should be done as often as possible. Confession before communion is especially necessary. During confession, you need to remember that this is not a conversation with a priest. If you have any questions for him, they need to be discussed at another time. During confession, you need to list your sins, without trying to justify yourself or blame someone. Under no circumstances should you proceed to confession and then to communion if you have not made peace with everyone and hold a grudge or grudge against someone. This would be a great sin. If the priest doesn’t have time to listen to all the sins in detail, it’s okay, you can tell them briefly. However, you can tell the particularly depressing ones in more detail and ask the priest to listen to them. In any case, the Lord knows your true intentions. Let your candle of repentance be lit. And the Lord will certainly hear you.

Confession of prodigal sins

Archpriest Dimitry KARTSYZ
Prodigal sins are not some special “caste” of sins, they are not “heavier” or “easier” than all other sins. However, their intimacy leaves an imprint on a person’s conscience, so confession of prodigal sins is a very difficult and shameful matter for many. There is no need to repent in detail about prodigal sins. Their detailed description may confuse you and tempt the priest. It is important to understand: the Lord sees our soul, He knows our life and understands at a glance everything that we are trying to express during the Sacrament of Confession. At the same time, it is important and necessary to choose the exact words and make it clear to the priest who is confessing you what happened to you. Often these sins are spoken of in general terms, hiding behind them distortions of the relationship between a man and a woman (intimate relationships before marriage, infidelity, etc.) or even more terrible distortions. It is necessary to speak, although without unnecessary details, but clearly and clearly, without concealing or hiding the essence. You can’t just say, “I have a lust.” We need to try to clarify how it manifests itself.

Is it possible to confess not all sins?

The Lord can accept repentance only if it is sincere. What reason could there be to hide some sin? After all, a person who strives to get rid of the burden of sin, on the contrary, will delve into himself with special care so as not to leave the slightest sin. The desire to cleanse a sincerely repentant sinner is so great that without the slightest shame or pride he will rush to tell everything to the priest in confession. If a person conceals his sins, it means that he suffers from the sin of pride, lack of faith, false shame, or does not realize the full importance of this sacrament. Unconfessed sin is not forgiven. Moreover, if a person does not confess to the priest of any wrongdoing, then perhaps subconsciously he does not want to part with him. Such a confession will not bring any benefit. Moreover, it can cause even more harm, since in addition to all other sins the additional ones listed above will be added.

Can a priest violate the secret of confession?

A question that concerns many new Christians due to lack of experience. Everything that a person tells the priest during confession remains between them. This is not just a rule of “church etiquette”: for violating the secret of confession, a priest will be severely punished - he will be banned from serving for several years and may even be defrocked. There is even a special state law that protects the secrecy of confession and prohibits the involvement of priests as witnesses about the circumstances that became known to them during the sacrament.

“Theophan the Recluse has an interesting remark to confessing priests that a cross and the Gospel should be placed on the lectern for the one confessing, and a knife for the one accepting confession. If he wants to tell anyone something from his confession, he had better cut out his tongue. It’s very tough, but it’s right.”

Similarly, Archpriest Igor Fomin spoke about the secret of confession and issues of repentance in an interview.