A friend of mine said that in modern conditions it is possible to receive communion without confession. She is sure that this is allowed and does not carry any sin. For example, in the Greek church, believers can constantly receive communion, but confess only when necessary to relieve the burden from the soul. I turned to my confessor for clarification: is it possible to receive communion without confession? It turns out that in the Russian Orthodox Church it is not customary to receive Holy Communion without repentance. And this is what it has to do with it.
About the sacrament of communion
Jesus Christ revealed the Sacrament of Communion to his disciples before his death on the cross at the Last Supper. Then he took the cup of wine and said that this was his blood, shed for all people. Having broken the bread, he also distributed it to his disciples, explaining that this was his Body. Since then, all believers regularly take part in Communion, or the Eucharist, in order to remain in spiritual unity with their Savior.
Some Christians mistakenly believe that to save their soul it is enough to do good deeds and periodically offer prayers. However, clergy argue that without unity with God through the sacrament of Communion, it is difficult to resist and abstain from sin. More and more often, such a person has problems in the family, joy and peace in his soul disappear.
Touching the shrine, which is the bread and wine consecrated in the temple, gives spiritual peace and the desire to do good. The desire to participate in dubious worldly entertainment disappears; on the contrary, one is drawn to reading the Holy Letter and prayers. After Communion, any events occurring in a person’s life are perceived as a pattern and God’s providence and do not cause irritation; the Christian begins to realize that any trouble instills in him humility and the habit of relying on the Lord in all his affairs.
Such an important church sacrament as Communion cannot be approached formally, without preparation, since this will not bring any spiritual benefit to a Christian.
Preparatory activities include:
- Fasting, that is, giving up food of animal origin 3 days before Communion. On the last day before the sacrament, some believers completely exclude any fats and eat only plant foods. In the morning before going to the temple, you should not have breakfast, just drink a glass of clean water.
- Reading the Holy Letter, a special prayer rule and following the Holy Communion.
- Prayer in the mornings and evenings, where a person must ask forgiveness before the Lord for committed misdeeds and sins.
Confession is considered one of the main preparatory stages for the sacrament. The clergy recommends not to neglect this rule and approach Communion with a pure heart.
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Only Jesus Christ is sinless, who was able to trample on the devil and defeat death. It is through the holy blood of Christ that a person can be forgiven and gain the kingdom of God in eternity. Before the torment of the cross, the Savior held a Last Supper, at which he called the bread his body and the wine his blood.
What does this mean for the believer? This means that through the blood and flesh of Christ a person becomes involved in the salvation of the soul. Now the question arises: is it possible to receive communion without confession? If your conscience allows, then you can. But will such a communion be true, as the apostles told the believers?
The believer must realize that one can receive communion only with a clear conscience, and a clear conscience can only be after the sacrament of repentance.
Communion in condemnation
Christians who receive communion unworthily do not receive God's grace, but punish themselves. If a person does not fully understand the meaning of the Savior’s suffering on the cross and accepts bread as a simple product, then he condemns himself in his unbelief.
Also included in those who receive communion unworthily are those who in their hearts are hostile to their neighbors, who are secretly involved in the occult and have not confessed mortal sins. Unworthy communion leads to spiritual and physical illnesses .
However, avoiding communion due to awareness of a sinful nature is also not correct. A person must be aware of his sinful nature, strive for correction with the help of the Holy Spirit, and repent of his sins. Otherwise, the path to the heavenly abode will be closed.
The life of a believer is a constant struggle with devilish temptations and resisting them with the power of the Holy Spirit. All the great saints were aware of their sinful nature, fought against it and did not refuse to accept the holy mysteries.
Didn't receive communion before death
Will a person’s soul really go to hell if he doesn’t have time to take communion before his sudden death? There is no definite answer, since everything depends on the state of a person’s soul. If he realized in his heart his sinful nature and sincerely repented, he will be forgiven. We are talking about a baptized person, not an atheist.
For example, if a priest did not have time to come to a seriously ill believer, then the soul will go to heaven if the patient sincerely grieved for his sins. It was not his fault that the priest could not manage to give him communion before his death.
The importance and meaning of confession
In recent years, an opinion has emerged that Confession and Communion should not be connected in any way. That is, a Christian needs to repent when he feels an inner need for it. But it is advisable to take Communion every time you visit the temple. However, most clergy do not agree with this formulation of the question, since Confession is one of the 7 main church sacraments, and without it Communion has no meaning. They consider Repentance to be the second Baptism, since during it the purification of the Christian’s soul occurs, after which a person is able to receive holy gifts in church.
It is imperative to confess before the Eucharist, thus cleansing your thoughts of what is displeasing to God and bringing your spiritual state into readiness to participate in the sacrament. Of course, if a person, for some good reason, was unable to come to Confession and does not feel any sins behind him, he is allowed to take communion, but confession cannot be neglected on an ongoing basis. Without it, the sacrament will turn into a formality and will not bear spiritual fruit.
Why is confession needed?
Our first parents Adam and Eve were blameless in the Garden of Eden. They knew no sin until they violated the prohibition about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that moment on, sin began to dominate man, separating him from God. Therefore, a person needs to constantly repent of known and unknown sins in order to overcome this separation.
Without repentance, salvation is impossible. Without repentance, the spiritual life of a Christian turns into a hypocritical farce.
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After confession, the priest gives his blessing for communion of the holy gifts. A believer can accept the flesh and blood of Christ as atonement from the sinful nature.
Many believers are interested in whether it is possible to repent at home? Personal repentance is also heard by the Lord, but it is not a sacrament of the church. That makes all the difference. After church repentance, a person receives not only forgiveness of sins, but also grace from God. It is impossible to obtain grace at home. Grace is necessary so that a person no longer commits the sin that he confessed to the priest.
In the Russian Orthodox Church there is a tradition of confessing before each communion. This tradition must be strictly observed in order to lead a full spiritual life.
Is it possible to receive communion without confession?
It is possible to approach the sacrament of Holy Communion without confessing sins only in certain cases:
- If a person receives the bread and cup of wine a week after the previous sacrament.
- In the case when a Christian, for objective reasons, did not have time to confess in the presence of a priest, but asked God to forgive him for the sin he committed at home in sincere prayer.
- If in a small church that a parishioner attends, there is only one priest, and he did not have the opportunity to conduct a confession on the eve of communion.
Unction and Communion
Many believers believe that the blessing of oil automatically removes all sins, so there is no need to confess. This is a big misconception. Blessing of oil removes those sins that a person has forgotten or did not pay attention to due to his spiritual ignorance. However, the consecration of oil will not remove a hidden sin that a person deliberately did not confess to the priest for any reason.
Therefore, if after unction a believer remembers a sin, he must tell it in confession. It doesn’t matter whether the unconfessed sin was discovered the day after the unction or a month later, it is necessary to confess.
The Sacrament of Repentance is not just repentance, it is a change of mind and lifestyle
Confession exists to clear the conscience. The main thing should be a special mood of the soul, a desire to unite with God.
There must be a creative approach here; in addition to certain rules and fasting, you can read the Gospel, an akathist to Jesus Christ, or something from spiritual literature. This is all done for the internal maturation of the soul.
The Sacrament of Confession, the Holy Fathers call the second Baptism, since in it the soul is healed and cleansed, becoming capable of receiving the grace-filled gifts of the Church
Soul and body must be cleansed from all vice, otherwise, in the words of Gregory Palamas:
“This Body, existing without sin, will not deign to dwell in a body burdened with sins.
Because if it is not permissible to prostrate
hands to Christ and pray to him,
those who are not pure from sins, and also those who
who has not previously removed himself
all hatred and related thoughts;
and if we do not have boldness towards God.”
Gregory Palma
saint
Why is Communion without Confession a sin?
Communion and confession are two independent Sacraments that are not related to each other. The first Christians celebrated the Eucharist daily, being in prayer. They were motivated by love for the Teacher, great morality, purity was the norm of that time.
A fairly short time passes, and Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, reports that the Lord revealed to the apostle the secret of communion with His body and blood, subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions. Reverence and fear should accompany Christians who decide to partake of the great Gift that bestows life or death.
Communion is a Sacrament established by the Savior during the Last Supper
Yes, it is illness or even death that is reaped by people who unworthily accept the Sacrifice of Christ. The Apostle Paul conveys Jesus' warnings (Cor. 11:23-25) that an unworthy approach to the Eucharist can cause illness and death.
The Apostle speaks of fear and reverence, that is, of reasoning about one’s sinfulness and uncleanness. It would seem that a person did a godly deed, went to church, took communion, but the illness does not go away, sometimes it gets worse, and the patient does not even realize that the reason lies in the unworthy acceptance of Jesus’ flesh and blood.
According to the Apostle Paul, unworthy acceptance of the Holy Gifts is a condemnation of oneself. Below we read how the apostle compares the Church to the body of Christ, and all Christians are her body. Christians who take part in Christ's meal must leave worldly amusements and sinful feasts, so as not to accidentally touch the cup of the demonic.
Interesting! Only the Holy Spirit moves the Church, instilling in the hearts of Christians love and faith, purity and freedom, which we acquire during Confession.
Each believer himself bears responsibility for unworthy acceptance of Communion, without repentance and Confession. Western churches have long abolished the rule of mandatory confession before the Eucharist, based on the fact that these are two separate sacraments.
Communion with the Body, in which there is no and never has been sin, is impossible for an earthly body burdened with sins. Unclean hands stretched out to the Sacrificial Gifts have no right to touch them without repentance; this is a great sin of disrespect for Christ.
Important! Confession before Communion is important, first of all, for the sinner himself, in order to begin the Sacrificial Gifts of Christ in spiritual purity.
Confession before Communion was introduced in Rus' many centuries ago; this law applies both on ordinary days and during major Christian holidays, including Easter. According to the Holy Fathers, confession can be attributed to the second Baptism, after which the soul finds healing and purification, and is capable of receiving the Grace-filled gifts of the Church.
Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ is necessary to enter eternal life
Having committed a sin, a person tormented by his conscience can go to confession without receiving communion, so as not to bear the sin on the next day, which may not come. It is permissible to confess, even if there are no plans to receive communion afterwards.
Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Strogino
ABOUT THE SACREMENT OF REPENTANCE (CONFESSION)
Literature to read:
1) Return. Repentance and Confession. Archimandrite Nektarios (Antopoulos).
2) Questions about Confession.
3) “On fasting, Confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.” Testament of the clergyman Sergius Pravdolyubov.
Questions about Confession
What is Confession?
— Confession is the great Sacrament of reconciliation between God and man, the manifestation of God’s love for man. At confession, the believer confesses his sins in the presence of a priest and through him receives forgiveness of sins from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Why do you need to confess?
— Through Confession, the purity of the soul that was lost due to sins returns. This Sacrament restores the state received in Baptism. Sin is dirt, and confession is a bath that washes the soul from spiritual dirt.
How to prepare for the first Confession?
— When preparing for confession, it is necessary to test your conscience, remember the sins committed in deed, word, feeling and thought for the entire time after Baptism. A person must think through all this and realize what he has sinned against himself, against his neighbors, against God and the Church and repent. Self-condemnation is the first and most important thing with which to come to Confession. If necessary, you can write down your sins so as not to miss anything during confession.
When preparing for confession, it is useful to read the books: “Helping the Penitent” by St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov, “On the Eve of Confession” by Priest Grigory Dyachenko or “The Experience of Constructing a Confession” by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), which will help you realize and see forgotten and unconscious sins. But there is no need to copy sins from books; confession should be completely personal.
What should someone who wants to begin Confession know?
— Confession must be started after having reconciled with everyone. At Confession, you need to talk only about your sins, not justify yourself, not condemn others, and ask the Lord for forgiveness for your sins. You should never become despondent from realizing the gravity of your sins, for there are no unforgivable sins, except those that have not been confessed and unrepentant. If for some reason the priest does not have the opportunity to listen in detail, then there is no need to be embarrassed by this. It is important to recognize yourself as guilty before God, to have contrition and self-reproach in your heart. But if some sin lies like a stone on your conscience, then you need to ask the priest to listen in detail.
Confession is not a conversation. If you need to consult with a priest, you should ask him to set aside another time for this
You can start Confession at any time and preferably as often as possible. Confession before Communion is mandatory.
How to overcome shame at Confession?
— The feeling of shame at Confession is natural, it was given by God to keep a person from repeating the sin. Understanding that the Church is a physician, and not a court of justice, can help overcome shame. The Lord “does not want the sinner to die, but that the sinner should turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart God will not humble” (Ps. 50:19).
At a doctor’s appointment, a person is not ashamed to talk about his physical illnesses, and at Confession there is no need to be ashamed to reveal his mental illnesses to the priest. There is no other way to heal the soul.
Are Repentance and Confession the same thing?
— Repentance (translated from Greek as “change of mind”) is a change in lifestyle through a change in mind and way of thinking: from awareness of untruth - through repentance - to change. Therefore, true repentance is rebirth, internal restructuring, renewal and rebirth of life. Repentance is not a single act of repentance, but a constant, daily act. Repentance is an expression of readiness for spiritual work, for collaboration with God in the name of gaining Paradise.
Repentance implies, first of all, an internal re-evaluation of oneself, a certain critical introspection, the ability to look at oneself from the outside, condemn one’s sins, and surrender oneself to the justice and mercy of God. Repentance is the awareness of one’s sin, the untruth of one’s own life, the recognition that in one’s deeds and thoughts a person has deviated from the moral norm that God put into his nature. Awareness of this is the greatest virtue and at the same time the key to changing life for the better.
Saint Theophan the Recluse defines repentance by four things: 1) awareness of one’s sin before God; 2) reproach ourselves in this sin with full confession of our guilt, without shifting responsibility to demons, other people or circumstances; 3) the determination to leave sin, to hate it, not to return to it, not to give it room in oneself; 4) prayer to God for forgiveness of sin, until the spirit is pacified.
Confession is confession of one's sins (orally or sometimes in writing) in front of a priest as a witness. This is part of the Sacrament of Repentance, during which a repentant person, through the priest reading a special prayer and the sign of the Cross, receives permission (liberation) from sins and forgiveness from God Himself.
At what age should a child confess?
— Children usually confess from the age of 7. But it is advisable to prepare children for the first confession in advance. Starting from 5-6 years old, bring them to
priest for a confidential conversation, so that they acquire the skill of realizing their wrongdoings.
When does confession take place - before or after the service?
— In different churches, confession is performed at different times. Somewhere they don’t confess at all in the morning, and somewhere, on the contrary, they confess only in the morning. Somewhere only before the service, and somewhere during and after the service, both in the morning and in the evening. You can find out about the time of confession in your church by asking directly from the staff of your church.
In our church you can confess every morning and evening. But it is better to confess in the evening during the evening service after 18.30. In the morning during the Liturgy you can confess only as a last resort. During the summer holidays and during Lent, confession may be canceled on weekday evenings. Confession always takes place on Saturday during the All-Night Vigil at about 6 p.m.
What is sin, how to destroy it?
— Sin is a violation of God’s commandments, a crime against God’s law, committed voluntarily or involuntarily. The primary source of sin is the fallen world, man is the conductor of sin. The Holy Fathers distinguish the following stages of involvement in sin: preposition (sinful thought, desire); combination (acceptance of this sinful thought, retention of attention on it); captivity (enslavement to this sinful thought, agreement with it); falling into sin (doing in practice what was proposed by a sinful thought).
The fight against sin begins with the awareness of oneself as a sinner and the desire to resist sin and correct oneself. Sin is destroyed by repentance with the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is taught to believers in the Sacraments of the Church.
What is the difference between sin and passion?
— Passion is a bad habit, a skill, an attraction to sinful action, and sin is the very action of passion, its satisfaction in thoughts, words and deeds. You can have passions, but not act on them, not commit a sinful act. Confront your passions, fight them - this is one of the main tasks in the life of a Christian.
What sins are called mortal?
— There is a list of mortal sins, however, it can be argued that any sin that completely enslaves the will of a person is mortal.
“The mortal sins for a Christian are the following: heresy, schism, blasphemy, apostasy, sorcery, despair, suicide, fornication, adultery, unnatural fornication, incest, drunkenness, sacrilege, homicide, robbery, theft and any cruel, inhuman offense.
Only one of these sins - suicide - cannot be cured by repentance, but each of them mortifies the soul and makes it incapable of eternal bliss until it cleanses itself with satisfactory repentance...
Let him who has fallen into mortal sin not fall into despair! Let him resort to the medicine of repentance, to which he is called until the last minute of his life by the Savior, who proclaimed in the Holy Gospel: “He who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live” (John 11:25). But it’s disastrous to remain in mortal sin, it’s disastrous when mortal sin turns into a habit!” (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).
Are all people sinners?
- “There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Eccl. 7:20). Human nature was damaged by the fall of the first people, so people cannot live a life without sin. One God without sin. All people sin a lot before God. But some recognize themselves as sinners and repent, while others do not see their sins. The Apostle John the Theologian writes: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).
Condemnation, vanity, self-justification, idle talk, hostility, ridicule, intransigence, laziness, irritability, anger are constant companions of human life. On the conscience of many lie even more serious sins: infanticide (abortion), adultery, contact with sorcerers and psychics, envy, theft, enmity, revenge and much more”;
Why is Adam and Eve's sin called original?
— Sin is called original because it was committed by the first people (ancestors) - Adam (forefather) and Eve (foremother) - from whom the first human race originated. Original sin was the beginning for all subsequent human sins.
Why should all the numerous descendants of Adam and Eve be held responsible for their fall?
— The fall of the first people damaged their spiritual and physical nature. All people, like the descendants of Adam and Eve, have the same damaged nature, easily inclined to sin.
In the patristic understanding, sin is a disease of the soul. And in the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church, this understanding of sin is expressed in numerous prayers.
With this definition of sin, it is easy to understand why descendants suffer due to the fall of their ancestors. Today everyone knows that a number of serious diseases are inherited. No one is surprised that children of alcoholics, for example, may have a hereditary predisposition to alcoholism, not to mention a whole bunch of concomitant diseases. And if sin is a disease, it may well be inherited.
In the Sacrament of Baptism, the human soul is freed from original sin, since our Lord Jesus Christ, by His death on the Cross, atoned for the sin of Adam.
What is necessary for the forgiveness of sins?
— For the forgiveness of sins, the person confessing requires reconciliation with all his neighbors, sincere contrition for sins and their full confession, a firm intention to correct himself, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and hope for His mercy.
Does God forgive all sins?
“There is no unforgivable sin except that which is not repented of.” God's mercy is so great that the thief, having repented, was the first to enter the Kingdom of God. No matter how many sins there are and no matter how great they are, God has even more mercy, because just as He Himself is infinite, so His mercy is infinite.
How do you know if a sin is forgiven?
- If the priest read the prayer of permission, then the sin is forgiven. But sins tend to leave behind some kind of scars. Sometimes sin continues to torment us, or pops up in our memories. Sometimes he becomes attractive to us again, and we fall into this sin again. In the latter cases, our repentance was incomplete, since sin was never completely expelled from our lives. Therefore, you need to go to confession again and repent of it.
Is it necessary to confess the same thing several times?
sin?
- If it is committed again, then you need to confess it again. If this sin has not been repeated again, then there is no need to talk about it.
Is it possible to tell not all sins in confession?
— Before performing the Sacrament of Repentance, the priest reads a prayer with the following content: “Son, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession. Do not be ashamed, do not be afraid and do not hide anything from me, but tell everything you have sinned without being embarrassed, and you will receive remission of sins from our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is His icon before us: I am only a witness, and everything that you tell me, I will testify before Him. If you hide anything from me, your sin will worsen. Understand that once you have come to the hospital, do not leave it unhealed!”
If someone hides their sins at Confession because of false shame, or because of pride, or because of a lack of faith, or simply because they do not understand the importance of repentance, then they come out of Confession not only not cleansed of sins, but even more burdened them. Earthly life is short-lived and a person can pass into eternity without having time to fully confess.
Confessed sin, as it were, becomes outside the soul, leaves it - just as a splinter taken out of the body becomes outside the body and ceases to harm it.
Is it useful to confess often?
—Through frequent confession, sin loses its power. Frequent Confession turns away from sin, protects from evil, confirms goodness, maintains vigilance, and keeps from repeating sins. And unconfessed sins become habitual and cease to burden the conscience. But one must treat the sacrament of Repentance with reverence, and not turn it into a petty habit and confuse it with the daily revelation of thoughts in monasteries.
Is it necessary to repent before a priest? Does it matter which one?
— The Sacrament of Repentance is performed in the presence of a priest. This is a necessary condition. But the priest is only a witness, and the true celebrant is the Lord God. The priest is a prayer book, an intercessor before the Lord and a witness that the divinely established Sacrament of Confession occurs in a legal manner.
It is not difficult to list your sins alone with yourself before the All-Knowing and Invisible God. But discovering them in the presence of a priest requires considerable effort to overcome shame, pride, and recognition of one’s sinfulness, and this leads to an incomparably deeper and more serious result. This is the moral aspect of Confession.
For a person truly suffering from the ulcer of sin, it makes no difference through whom he confesses this tormenting sin - as long as he confesses it as soon as possible and receives relief. The most important thing in Confession is not the personality of the priest receiving it, but the state of the soul of the penitent, his sincere repentance, leading to awareness of sin, heartfelt contrition and rejection of the offense committed.
Can a priest tell anyone the contents of Confession?
— The Church obliges priests to keep the secret of Confession. For violating this rule, a clergyman may be defrocked.
Is fasting necessary before Confession?
— When preparing for Confession, according to the Church Charter, fasting and special prayer rules are not required; faith and awareness of one’s sins, and the desire to free oneself from them are required.
Fasting is necessary if there is an intention to take communion after Confession. You should consult with the priest in advance about the extent of fasting before Communion.
Is it necessary to confess in the morning before Communion if you confessed the day before?
- If you remember a forgotten grave sin, then it would be good to confess again before proceeding to Communion.
If between Confession and Communion you sinned in word or deed, for example, you quarreled with someone or desecration happened in a dream, then you need to confess. But if you only had thoughts or other less serious sins, then you do not need to confess in the morning, provided that you have internal repentance and intention to reconcile with everyone.
In the morning before Communion, you should not take up the priest’s time with your Confession. Give the opportunity to confess to those who were unable to come to Confession the day before - the infirm and parents with small children.
What if after Confession, right before Communion, a sin was remembered, but there is no longer an opportunity to confess? Should I postpone Communion?
— This sin should be spoken about at Confession in the near future.
There is no need to postpone Communion, but approach the Chalice with a repentant feeling and awareness of your unworthiness.
Is it necessary to take communion after confession? Can I confess and leave?
— It is not necessary to receive communion after confession. You can sometimes come to church just for confession. But for those who want to receive Communion, they need to confess, preferably the day before, or even a few days before Communion.
What should sick people do who cannot come to church for Confession and Communion?
“Their relatives can come to the church and ask the priest for Confession and Communion for the sick person at home.
What is penance?
— Penance (translated from Greek as “punishment”) is a spiritual medicine, a means of assistance in the fight against sin, a method of healing a repentant sinner, which consists in performing deeds of piety, determined by his confessor. This can be making bows, reading prayers, canons or akathists, intense fasting, a pilgrimage to a holy place - depending on the strengths and capabilities of the penitent. Penance must be performed strictly, and only the priest who imposed it can cancel it.
