Archimandrite John (Krestyankin’s) book “The Experience of Constructing a Confession” is widely known among Orthodox believers. Suffering people from all over the country came to the elder for spiritual advice. Although he objected when they called him that, he said: “There are no elders now.”
After the death of the priest, his books remained - spiritual beacons pointing the right path.
John Krestyankin as the author of the book
Archimandrite John was the confessor of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery for almost forty years. His life was not calm. He experienced himself what persecution for faith is. But the priest always remained kind to people and thanked God for everything.
Biography
The future church minister was born on April 11, 1910 in the city of Orel. His parents, Mikhail Dmitrievich and Elisaveta Ilarionovna, belonged to the bourgeois class. The boy was named in honor of St. John the Hermit, whose celebration took place that day. In total, eight children were born in the family. Ivan was the youngest child.
Already as a child, the boy served in the church. Ivan was a sexton for Archbishop Seraphim, who was later canonized. After graduating from high school, he enrolls in accounting courses. Then he begins to work in his acquired specialty in Orel.
But frequent work on weekends and in the evenings prevents him from participating in religious services. He quits and moves to Moscow, where he gets a job as an accountant. The new work schedule no longer interfered with church attendance.
Church service
On January 14, 1945, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) Ivan Mikhailovich was ordained to the rank of deacon.
On October 25 of the same year, Patriarch Alexy I ordained him to the priesthood. This happened in the Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo. He served there until April 1950. By that time he had completed 4 courses at the Moscow Theological Academy. Father John wrote a candidate's thesis about St. Seraphim of Sarov, which he did not have time to defend.
On the night of April 29, 1950, the priest was arrested. The reason was his pastoral activity and unwillingness to cooperate with the authorities. The sentence was harsh - 7 years in forced labor camps for “anti-Soviet agitation.” According to the priest, it was there that he was closest to God.
He left prison earlier and in 1955 began serving first in the Pskov diocese, then in the Ryazan diocese (1957).
In 1966, the priest became a monk in the Abkhaz city of Sukhumi. In 1967 he became a resident of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. In 1970 he was elevated to the rank of abbot, and three years later to the rank of archimandrite.
February 5, 2006 Fr. John appeared before the Lord.
John the peasant's confession
The distinctive features of Archimandrite John Krestyankin were: love for one's neighbor and spiritual insight - he was revered as an elder and people traveled to him from everywhere. From early childhood he experienced hardships: he was born in 1910 in Orel into a large family, lost his father early, the children were raised by his mother, thanks to whom he became involved in the faith from an early age. It was not without the action of God's providence: at the age of six, Ivan was noticed by a bishop and offered to help at the altar, this was his first obedience, and then there were the obediences of a sexton and subdeacon. Already in adolescence, Ivan Krestyankin felt a craving for monasticism, and his close friends, who later became clergy, predicted a monastic path for him.
But first, Ivan graduated from school, took accounting courses, began to work, but his soul yearned to go to church, which, due to overtime work, he could visit infrequently. In the early 30s, he took a senior position as an accountant in Moscow, and free time appeared, which allowed him to attend divine services.
Ivan Krestyankin was exempted from military service during the Great Patriotic War due to poor eyesight, at which time he began to serve as a psalm-reader in the Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo. At the beginning of 1945, he was ordained as a deacon, and in the fall - as a priest. The parishioners were drawn to Father John, and he was drawn to Heaven. Wanting to deepen his knowledge of God, he went to study at the Moscow Theological Academy. But he did not get to the point of defending his Ph.D. dissertation - the Soviet authorities accused him of anti-Soviet activities and put him first in Lefortovo and then in Butyrka prison.
Priest John Krestyankin had to endure a lot, including betrayal from loved ones, physical illnesses - he was in exile in the Arkhangelsk region in difficult conditions, but this did not break his spirit. In 1966, he was finally tonsured a monk, since he was not allowed to serve in the capital, he went to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, which became his home for the rest of his life. In 1970 he was elevated to the rank of abbot, and three years later - to archimandrite.
At first, Father John was helped by experienced inhabitants of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery and Valaam, who were revered by the elders - hieroschemamonks Simeon Zhelnin, Mikhail Petkevich. Metropolitan Veniamin Fedchenkov and others. Soon people from all over the country began to flock to him; there were so many people who wanted to receive advice from the spirit-bearing priest that he asked to send him letters, to which he answered in detail until the end of his life. His attention and care were felt in each letter, for each he had a word of consolation, “Letters” were republished several times.
Other well-known works of Archimandrite John: small cell books for various occasions, “The Experience of Constructing a Confession” - a kind of primer for new Christians, his sayings are collected in the book “Children of God”.
Father John Krestyankin passed away to the Lord at the age of 95 in 2006 on the day of remembrance of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia.
VKontakte community dedicated to John (Krestyankin) - https://vk.com/public50436816
See also: Instructions, Sermons, Manuals
Archimandrite John (Peasant)
EXPERIENCE OF CONSTRUCTION OF CONFESSION
The experience of constructing a confession according to the Ten Commandments
We have gathered here to bring another repentance to the Lord. I would like to preface my confession with a few words. Each of us, to the best of our ability and ability, tries in everyday life to maintain cleanliness in our homes and neatness in our clothing. And there are some especially clean people who zealously maintain cleanliness and order. And how concerned is such a person if, for some reason, this order and cleanliness is violated.
Likewise, a person who is accustomed to monitoring the purity of his heart and the neatness of his soul cannot live without repentance. Such a person waits and longs for another confession, just as parched earth awaits life-giving moisture. In the words of the psalmist David, “...my soul is like a dry land to You” (Ps. 143:6). Imagine for a moment a person who has not washed off bodily dirt all his life! So the soul requires washing, and what would happen if there were no Sacrament of Repentance, this healing and cleansing “second Baptism”!
Everyone has probably seen it more than once, or maybe they remember from childhood what happens when it gets warmer in winter and children roll snow globes. They will take a tiny ball, the size of a fist, and roll it down the hill: in the blink of an eye, this ball turns into a huge, irresistible lump of wet, dirty snow! The same thing happens with the sinful state of our soul. Watch yourself! You sincerely repented with tears, took communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ - what peace and tranquility in your heart! But, on your way from the temple, you met someone and in a conversation you carelessly threw a small lump of condemnation into your heart... That's it! The avalanche has started! Now look at how lightning fast the sinful lump will reel in...
We also have home repentance: in the evening, during prayer, remember what you have done to annoy the Lord during the day and repent. And experienced confessor-mentors generally advise not to put off repentance, but if you have bent your conscience or sinned, immediately reproach yourself and ask the Lord for forgiveness. And the Lord will forgive, for “... God will not despise a contrite and humble heart” (Ps. 50:19).
However, the weight of this lump of sin, which we manage to roll out in the soul, will press on until a prayer of absolution is read over the head of a sincerely repentant sinner during the Sacrament of Confession by a priest who, by the grace of the priesthood, has the power to resolve sins.
We, sinful people, feel and experience this. But this is what the holy people visibly saw. A spiritual daughter came to the last Optina elder Nektary before his death. When she approached him, the elder blessed her and said: “You need to confess, there is a cloud of demons over you!” This is who is attracted to us by spiritual dirt!
And I would also like to say: at the end of the Sacrament of Confession, before reading the prayer of permission, the priest reads a prayer for those who have brought repentance. Pay attention to the words of this prayer: “... reconcile and unite him to the Holy One of Your Church, in Christ Jesus our Lord...” How can this be reconciled with the Church? We go to church, pray, sing akathists and prayers, perform choir obedience (this is who participates in the performance of worship). It turns out that by our sins we have long been separated from God, from grace-filled inner communion with the Church. They cut the spiritual connection, the umbilical cord through which our souls and spirit are fed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. So the priest performing the Sacrament of Confession prays for the joining of us, who have alienated ourselves from the Church through a sinful life.
In fact, we should come to confession having already thought through our actions, having already mourned our sinful life before the Lord. Everyone must bring their personal repentance before the Cross and the Gospel.
Before we begin to repent, we must forgive everyone everything! Forgive without delay, now! Forgive for real, and not like this: “I forgave you, but I can’t see you and I don’t want to talk to you!” We must immediately forgive everyone and everything, as if there were no offenses, grief or hostility! Only then can we hope to receive forgiveness from the Lord.
Help us, Lord, at this moment to forgive everyone everything!
Once during the earthly life of Jesus Christ, a certain lawyer approached him and asked: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And he received the answer: “... love the Lord your God with all your heart... and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10: 25-27). These are our main commandments: love for God and one’s neighbor.
But since our duties to God and our neighbor are varied, the commandments are divided by God into ten and presented in such a way that the first four are related to God, and the other six are related to our neighbor. So now let’s look at how we violated God’s Law?
Lord, accept our feasible repentance!
First commandment
I am the Lord your God,
May you not be blessed or even Men
In Russian translation it sounds like this: “I am the Lord your God, may you have no other gods besides Me.”
What duties should we have in relation to God according to this commandment?
First duty. We must have true knowledge of God. Do we have this true knowledge of God? No, we do not have the correct concept of God, of the Orthodox teaching of our faith, of the Church of which we are members, of receiving Holy Baptism.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And we still make excuses that we have nowhere to learn these correct concepts about God, that no one taught us or is teaching us this, but by this desire to justify ourselves we aggravate our guilt, for this is not true! We lead too inattentive, distracted lives and we ourselves do not want to draw the necessary knowledge from the sources that each of us has.
1. Ask your conscience, do we value every service in church, do we listen to the prayers and chants that the Church prays? Here is a school for you, here is the most necessary, the most true theology, here is the most repentant prayer, the most inspired praises to God. Are we feeding our mind and soul with all this? No, Lord, forgive us!
We don’t like to come to church at the beginning of the service; we squeeze through people during the service, crowd together and talk loudly near the candle box, and move from place to place. We ourselves do not hear what is read and sung, and we disturb others; we do not draw anything from this source of true theology.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And some still consider themselves too well-read and omniscient, they still listen with irritation and condemnation: “What, they say, he started talking about the same thing again,” completely forgetting that the priest standing on the pulpit is standing, as it were, on a stone rolled away from the door of the Holy Sepulcher, and the word of the gospel from the holy place cannot be without benefit. Even the most wretched word from the pulpit always teaches the truths of Orthodoxy.
Lord, forgive us who reject Your words!
2. We don’t read soul-saving books, making the excuse that they don’t exist now, and again this is an evil excuse! And the Book of all books. Holy Gospel, are we reading? Almost all of us have the Gospel, and if we still don’t, it’s due to the greatest negligence. Do we learn from this Book of Life? The Holy Church has established obligatory readings of the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles every day. Let's say that not everyone can follow and do this, but who is stopping us from reading at least one chapter every day? How many of us who repent today have at least once carefully read the Gospel, the Apostolic Acts and Epistles?
Forgive us, Lord!
Not only do we not read the Gospel at home, but we also don’t listen to it in church! Reverent behavior in church is always obligatory, and during the reading of the Holy Gospel everyone should freeze and listen attentively with their heads bowed. And it’s good for us if we don’t outwardly push ourselves at this moment (and this happens to us - Lord, forgive us). It’s also good if we don’t pass the candles and thereby distract the attention of others (repent to the Lord who is to blame for this - Lord, forgive us). It’s also good if, taking advantage of the “empty” time, we don’t bother to adjust the candles or light the lamp (this also happens to us - Lord, forgive us). It’s good if we don’t distract others with empty talk, and in this we are sinful. God!
But if we do not even outwardly violate this moment of worship, how many of us can sincerely say that we listen with utmost attention to the words of the Holy Scripture? Don’t the words glide across the surface of the ear, not reaching not only the heart, but simply the mind, which is wandering at this moment who knows where! Lord, forgive our inattention, our insolence, our frivolity and coldness that we show in listening to the reading that the Church offers us during worship. Having now brought repentance to the Lord, let us decide from this day on (this does not require a great mind or extraordinary feat), as soon as the reading of the Gospel in church begins, to stop all extraneous activities, all movement, bow your head and listen most attentively to the words of the Gospel.
Literary heritage
The archimandrite left behind priceless works about the salvation of the soul. His works were republished several times, and his sayings were published in many Orthodox books.
Sermons and words
To the joy of believers, the sermons of the elder, delivered by him during church services in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, have been preserved. The inhabitants published a book of the same name.
Some of the many sermons by Fr. Joanna:
- "Word on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord."
- “The week of the prodigal son. Repentance must not be delayed."
- "The word behind the rite of forgiveness."
The priest’s statements about faith are understandable and accessible to every person.
In his sermons, he paid a lot of attention to seeing his sins and sincere confession. You cannot become despondent from breaking the commandments, but you need to repent and change your life, make it pious. The elder said: “It is common for people to fall, but having fallen, one must immediately get up.”
Letters
When the priest was old, he could not receive many pilgrims every day. These meetings replaced letters, some of which were later published. In them, the elder gave advice and parting words to his spiritual children. He did this with great love for the questioning people.
In 2002, the publishing house of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery published the book “Letters of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin)” for the first time. The instructions in the collection are arranged by topic in alphabetical order.
Titles of some topics:
- "Disease and treatment."
- "God's will."
- "How to Live as a Christian."
- "The rescue".
- "Family life".
In these letters, although they are addressed to specific people, many will find answers to their questions.
Other works and works
The spiritual heritage of the archimandrite was preserved not only in his sermons and letters, but also in books. You can read about repentance, correct spiritual life, the fight against sins, and prayer in the works of Fr. John.
Books published by the publishing house “Holy Dormition Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery”:
- "Handbook for monastics and laity." Written as a general guide to spiritual life for monks and lay people.
- "Christmas and Easter greetings."
- "Reflections on the Immortal Soul." Here Archimandrite John is designated as the compiler. The collection contains sayings about the soul of holy fathers and priests. Enclosed is printed the sermon of Fr. John.
The elder's other works are mainly compiled on the basis of his sermons published earlier.
For example, the book “The main thing is to be with God” (2009, Blagovest publishing house) is compiled from the priest’s statements about how to endure suffering and about its meaning.
Preparation for the Sacraments
Chapter from the book of Archimandrite John Krestyankin “The Experience of Constructing a Confession” The First Commandment I am the Lord your God, let there be no gods for you other than Me
In Russian translation it sounds like this: “I am the Lord your God, may you have no other gods besides Me.” What duties should we have in relation to God according to this commandment? First duty. We must have true knowledge of God. Do we have this true knowledge of God? No, we do not have the correct concept of God, of the Orthodox teaching of our faith, of the Church of which we are members, of receiving Holy Baptism.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And we still make excuses that we have nowhere to learn these correct concepts about God, that no one taught us or is teaching us this, but by this desire to justify ourselves we aggravate our guilt, for this is not true! We lead too inattentive, distracted lives and we ourselves do not want to draw the necessary knowledge from the sources that each of us has. 1. Ask your conscience, do we value every service in church, do we listen to the prayers and chants that the Church prays? Here is a school for you, here is the most necessary, the most true theology, here is the most repentant prayer, the most inspired praises to God. Are we feeding our mind and soul with all this? No, Lord, forgive us! We don’t like to come to church at the beginning of the service; we squeeze through people during the service, crowd together and talk loudly near the candle box, and move from place to place. We ourselves do not hear what is read and sung, and we disturb others; we do not draw anything from this source of true theology.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And some still consider themselves too well-read and omniscient, they still listen with irritation and condemnation: “What, they say, he started talking about the same thing again,” completely forgetting that the priest standing on the pulpit is standing, as it were, on a stone rolled away from the door of the Holy Sepulcher, and the word of the gospel from the holy place cannot be without benefit. Even the most wretched word from the pulpit always teaches the truths of Orthodoxy. Lord, forgive us who reject Your words! 2. We don’t read soul-saving books, making the excuse that they don’t exist now, and again this is an evil excuse! And the Book of all books. Holy Gospel, are we reading? Almost all of us have the Gospel, and if we still don’t, it’s due to the greatest negligence. Do we learn from this Book of Life? The Holy Church has established obligatory readings of the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles every day. Let's say that not everyone can follow and do this, but who is stopping us from reading at least one chapter every day? How many of us who repent today have at least once carefully read the Gospel, the Apostolic Acts and Epistles?
Forgive us, Lord!
Not only do we not read the Gospel at home, but we also don’t listen to it in church! Reverent behavior in church is always obligatory, and during the reading of the Holy Gospel everyone should freeze and listen attentively with their heads bowed. And it’s good for us if we don’t outwardly push ourselves at this moment (and this happens to us - Lord, forgive us). It’s also good if we don’t pass the candles and thereby distract the attention of others (repent to the Lord who is to blame for this - Lord, forgive us). It’s also good if, taking advantage of the “empty” time, we don’t bother to adjust the candles or light the lamp (this also happens to us - Lord, forgive us). It’s good if we don’t distract others with empty talk, and in this we are sinful. God! But if we do not even outwardly violate this moment of worship, how many of us can sincerely say that we listen with utmost attention to the words of the Holy Scripture? Don’t the words glide across the surface of the ear, not reaching not only the heart, but simply the mind, which is wandering at this moment who knows where! Lord, forgive our inattention, our insolence, our frivolity and coldness that we show in listening to the reading that the Church offers us during worship. Having now brought repentance to the Lord, let us decide from this day on (this does not require a great mind or extraordinary feat), as soon as the reading of the Gospel in church begins, to stop all extraneous activities, all movement, bow your head and listen most attentively to the words of the Gospel.
Help us, Lord!
But if a person still squeezes past you, who has not heard confession today and does not know how to behave at this moment, do not angrily pull him back. And then, perhaps, having remembered it, after the service, explain with love and goodwill how to behave while reading the Gospel. This will be Christian! We do not read books with religious and moral content. However, not everyone has them and they are difficult to get. But there are those among us who have them, but they stand on the shelves, and they are either too lazy or too lazy to read them: “I’d better sleep more.” And those who are more educated read the newspaper more readily than serious spiritual reading, while others do not read it themselves and do not give it to others: “What if they don’t give it to you, or you yourself want to read just at this time.” This is how greed overcomes! Here it is also necessary to remember that there is nothing more unreasonable than appropriating other people’s books of spiritual content! What benefits can reading a stolen book have for the soul? If anyone is sinful and has such books, immediately, at the first opportunity, return them to those to whom they belong! Lord, forgive us our foolishness and dishonesty! 3. Finally, one can also learn about God in conversations with well-read and pious people. What are we doing? We love to talk, we are tempted to go to our neighbor, friends and acquaintances, but not to talk about God, the soul and salvation. It’s shameful and scary to admit that we Christians often gather to judge our neighbors, indulge in card games, or even organize wine drinking. I went on a visit empty-handed and returned even more ruined.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And this often happens to us after confession, on the day of communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The second duty prescribed to us by the first commandment of the Law of God is to have true faith in God, hope in Him and love for Him. 1. The most terrible sin against this duty of every person is atheism, that is, the very state in which a great many of our compatriots, our relatives, friends and acquaintances now find themselves. There is no need to even talk about how sad this is, especially for parents whose children are atheists! But we, who came here for confession, do we have a firm and undoubted faith in everything religious? Do we believe in immortality, that beyond the grave there is eternal life with retribution for earthly deeds? As scary as it is to admit, we don’t have a living faith that would permeate our entire consciousness, that would govern our actions. Lord, have mercy on us who doubt Your existence, our immortality, and the coming Last Judgment! 2. Perhaps among those who repent now there are those who do not believe in the existence of the heavenly army of Angels and hordes of evil spirits. The latter is especially common among “educated” people. For some reason, it is a shame in our age to believe in the existence of real beings - evil spirits. And this is all that the enemy of our salvation needs! If there is no malicious influence, then why and from what should we protect ourselves with the Life-giving Cross, holy water, and the Jesus Prayer? Maybe someone doesn’t sufficiently reverence the Mother of God, the holy martyrs, the saints of God? Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
3. There is another type of terrible sin against the first commandment - this is apostasy. God! How close we are to this state! And sometimes, perhaps, they were real apostates and not because of fear of torment, as sometimes happened in the history of Christianity, during the persecution of the Church, but only because of the fear, often imaginary, of losing this or that earthly well-being. It happens that we, believers, hope to receive some kind of help from the Lord, for example, to get a better apartment, a better job, and we ask everyone to pray, but at this time we ourselves hide the icons in the closet, fearing that they will see our faith in God and refuse us. This is how crazy we are getting. Have mercy on us, Lord! Out of cowardice, when we go to see a doctor, we take off the cross, fearing that the doctor won’t treat us or won’t give us sick leave! Lord, forgive our apostasy and cowardice! And if at work a conversation suddenly turns up about faith in God, then the unfortunate, cowardly person is ready to disappear into thin air. If only, even from the expression of his face, no one would guess that he was a Christian - and the words of renunciation of Christ were already hanging on the tip of his tongue... Repent to the Lord those who recognize themselves in the painted image of a cowardly Christian!
Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!
It's embarrassing to admit it, even to say it out loud. Not only young people, but also old people, who have already been freed from public duties, who have already earned both rest and pension, are also afraid to openly hang icons in their houses!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
Out of fear of showing our religiosity, we now often commit the sin of spiritual murder of our dying relatives by not inviting a priest with the Holy Gifts to bid farewell to the dying, ashamed of our neighbors. And woe to us if, through our fault, one of our loved ones went into eternity without repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. God! Forgive us these sins and do not be ashamed of us before Your Angels on the Day of the Last Judgment for our renunciation of You here on earth. 4. We have little true living faith, but we are extremely affected by superstitions. Superstition, superstition, empty, false faith. And what do we not replace true faith in the good Providence of God! We believe in some “happy” and “unhappy” days, in “hard” and “easy” days. We are afraid to start even a good deed on a “hard” day, without thinking at all that we may not live to see another day. We believe all sorts of dreams, interpreting them, guessing from them, being deceived by dreams, we begin to see some other “prophetic” dreams and through this we reach the point of darkness of mind and illness... Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
Be afraid to believe dreams, so as not to fall into delusion - a terrible spiritual disease! And we bring these superstitions to the temple and hold on to them more tightly than to true piety. And with our ridiculous remarks we violate the prayers of those around us. Here they are passing candles - who came up with the idea that they should be passed over the right shoulder, and not vice versa? (I don’t even want to clutter my brain with the memory of this.) You just need to pass the candles in such a way as not to break them, so as not to push the person who raised his hand to make the sign of the cross, and not to shove candles into him at that moment. Or do not pass them on at important moments of the service, but hold them in your hand for a while, and then quietly pass them on without any prejudice. These superstitions were inherited from our distant pagan ancestors. This is the day of the Holy Trinity. What is going on in our cemeteries, on the graves where there are crosses! This is truly a dark day for our departed! Instead of prayer, instead of candles and incense, real pagan funeral feasts are celebrated at the graves on this day. And our deceased in the next world burn with the fire of grief and pity, like the evangelical rich man who asked the Lord to tell his brothers, still alive, what awaits them after death. If any of you celebrated these funeral feasts and collected a table at the grave, go to the cemetery and ask forgiveness from your deceased relatives for the terrible suffering that you brought to them with your foolishness, and never do this again on the holy day of the holiday, when the Church prays with a special kneeling by praying for the repose of our deceased loved ones, do not make this day the most painful for them. Now ask the Lord for forgiveness for your foolishness.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
We believe all sorts of signs and say that it is impossible not to believe, because they come true. But the Monk Seraphim answered in this case: “But you don’t believe, and they won’t be fulfilled!”
Lord, forgive us sinners!
5. Many sin against the first commandment of the Law of God, that they deduce some kind of omens from every case. Those who spread all sorts of rumors: about famine, flood, and some go so far as to indicate the exact date of the end of the world are grievously sinning before God. How can you guess something that even the Angels do not know, but only the Heavenly Father knows! We sin no less if we listen to and believe these impudent speeches and predictions.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
6. Wizards, sorcerers, sorcerers and fortune-tellers also sin against the first commandment - all these people who have abandoned faith in the power of God, and believe in the secret powers of creatures, especially evil spirits, and try to act in alliance with them to the detriment of others. If there are such sinners among you, you must repent personally, with the bitterest tears, before the Lord! For participation in magic, the Church prohibits communication with her for 20 years, on a par with murderers. And those who are rigid and unrepentant are completely thrown out. Do not be consoled that now everyone can cross the church threshold and approach the Holy Chalice. People and a priest can be deceived, but who and how can deceive God! We said at the beginning of confession how you can inwardly excommunicate yourself from the Church, then outwardly, even though you don’t leave the church, grace will recede! Well, the most bitter example of the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ for condemnation is the communion of Judas. Repent while there is still time, before death has yet befallen you, and you have not finally fallen into the society of evil demons, to whose help and fellowship you have resorted until now. How scary it is! Just think: a Christian who has renounced Satan and all his works during the Sacrament of Baptism turns to communion with them. And he still dares to fearlessly unite with Christ, approaching Holy Communion without irrevocable repentance! Don’t think, everyone else standing here, that there are sinners, but we, thank God, don’t do magic! If any of you told fortunes or turned to sorcerers for help, or were treated, or treated someone with conspiracies, perhaps advised someone to turn to “grandmother” for help, he is sinning no less than the sorcerers themselves, abandoning faith in the power of God and expecting help for themselves from these people. You say: “Why, prayers are read and the sign of the cross is applied.” But listen to what St. John Chrysostom says: “If the name of the Holy Trinity is spoken to the gray ones, if the saints are also called upon, if the sign of the cross is instilled, then the gray ones should flee.” The Holy Church excommunicates such people from Holy Communion for five to six years.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
We have such Sacraments of the Church as the Blessing of Anointing (or Unction), established by the Church for the treatment of ailments, we have a great shrine - baptism water, we have artos (Easter bread), and finally, in the Sacrament of Communion we unite with God Himself! And we have little faith in this, but running to the “grandmother” seems to us to be a real and sure remedy. Lord, we are completely mad and confused in the concepts of where is the light, where is the darkness, where is the truth, where is the lie!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
7. Lord, we are so mad that we make fortunes from the Holy Gospel, the Bible, instead of learning the truths of faith from them. We tell fortunes with cards, and maybe some of you are also interested in spiritualism, spin saucers, call on some spirits (obviously not saints) and ask them about various destinies and events. Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
This is all disbelief in the good Providence of God, this impudent curiosity, the lack of hope in God! 8. Many of us sin against the first commandment of the Law of God by loving one of the people more than God. It happens that we even say: “If he or she dies, I have nothing to live for, they say, all my life is in him,” - in this person, and not in the Lord, who gave his life for us!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And sometimes you can hear the following words: “I love animals more than people.” What madness! It is true that it is said: “Blessed is he who has mercy on cattle,” but giving all your affection to animals is a sin. Whoever is guilty of this, repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
9. Sins against the first commandment of the Law of God include such sins as man-pleasing and human-reliance. Why is man-pleasing and flattery so terrible that the words of Holy Scripture say: “... the Lord abhors a man of blood and flattery” (Ps. 5:7). Yes, because “with our speeches we deceive those whom we flatter and with our praises we bring curses on the lives of those praised and become the culprits of their eternal condemnation for the error into which we lead gullible people who believe our flattery,” says St. Basil the Great. Perhaps one of you pleases a person so much that you make him, as it were, your god. Nowadays even a mother grovels before her children, often neglecting her duties towards God to please them. It is necessary to go to church on Sunday, but adult children have arrived from the city, and the mother, to please her drunken son or son-in-law, remains at home, although there would be no damage to family relations if she went to church for two hours. Of course, if it were one day, one exceptional time, then in the name of love for them it would not be a sin to stay at home, but this is repeated every Sunday, and churches, especially in rural areas, in parishes, are empty, and not because There are atheists living all around us, but because of our inability to live like Christians! Wouldn't the mother deserve more respect if the children knew that their mother would do everything for them, but on Sunday she has the right to go to church for two or three hours?
Lord, forgive us!
The sin of relying on man lies in the fact that we very often rely on ourselves and our strengths, on our prayers, fasts, various deeds, on our often imaginary good deeds, completely forgetting that only with the assistance of God’s grace can we be saved. Or we rely on someone more than on God, and thereby push God into the background from our lives, resorting to his help when everything else has already been tried. We cannot even imagine how serious this sin is and how it angers God! “...Cursed is man,” says the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah, “who trusts in man...” (Jer. 17:5). God! Forgive us, we did not even realize that we had brought upon ourselves Your curse! Repent to the Lord!
Lord, forgive us sinners!
Finally, our third duty, prescribed to us by the first commandment of the Law of God: to honor God, to serve Him, for example, through prayer in church and at home, by caring and trying to fulfill His commandments. God! We are all sinners before You by abandoning household rules, and by neglect and inattention to our lives. Let's look within ourselves! How many of you, having gotten up in the morning and carefully read your morning prayers, set yourself the goal of pleasing the Lord all day long by fulfilling His commandments? Where is it, Lord! Even if we read prayers, our thoughts are already far away, we are all already immersed in everyday worries. Few people will remember: after all, I am a Christian; Today there may be certain circumstances, how can I, with God’s help, live the day holy, peacefully and sinlessly. Where are such pious thoughts?! Before we even have time to open our eyes, everything makes us angry, everything irritates us: we are rude to our mother, who got up almost an hour earlier than us to help us go to work, we walk around the apartment like an animal in a cage, we don’t look at our neighbors, we say hello through clenched teeth, we slam doors, yell at children who may be naughty - after all, they were woken up and dragged to the nursery at dawn, or pushed out to school. Then, if we live in a big city, we find ourselves in transport crowded with people and completely lose our human appearance! At this point we get extremely irritated, push each other, swear, we say such barbs to each other, as if we were our mortal enemies all around. We don’t want to suffer any inconvenience or trouble! This is how, Lord, we begin almost every day.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
Acts 17:15-34
The experience of constructing a confession
The book “The Experience of Constructing a Confession” by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), published by the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, was written to help penitents. It was first published in 1992 and has been reprinted many times since then.
History of writing
The work was compiled from conversations that the archimandrite conducted during the first week of Lent in the 70s. His sermons were recorded on audiotape. The recording was passed between parishioners. Then a typewritten text appeared, which served as the basis for the printed edition.
Idea and essence
In this book Fr. John talks about how to properly prepare for confession. After each commandment, he indicates with what sins people break it. And although his words are accusatory (it could not be otherwise), there is no arrogance or humiliation in them. The publication is also valuable because it provides examples, including from modern life.
How often we do not see our sins and passions. And if someone points them out, there are a thousand excuses: “Everyone does it,” “I didn’t know,” “It just happened.” With the help of this book, Father John wanted the believer to sincerely realize that he is a sinner and bring repentance.
Father warns that if you cannot sincerely repent, then you need to “humbly accept the suffering that is sent.”
Preparation for confession should not be formal. He calls on believers to show the Lord a “firm determination to renounce sin.”
Genre of the work
The book represents the pastoral conversations of the archimandrite before confession in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, transferred to paper. These sermons are valuable because they contain the experience of Fr. John: he was the confessor of many people for many years. Also, the conversations are based on the Holy Scriptures and the instructions of the holy fathers.
Text structure
The book begins with a preface dedicated to repentance and confession.
The work consists of two sections, approximately equal in size. The first section lists sins against the Ten Commandments (Old Testament), the second section lists sins against the Beatitudes (New Testament).
Before the last section there is a short introduction about why we fail to live godly lives.
For better understanding, each commandment in Church Slavonic is followed by its Russian translation.
Among the temptations and seductions of our life, the works of Archimandrite John have become invaluable helpers for believers in the most important matter - the salvation of the soul.
Archimandrite John (Peasant)
EXPERIENCE OF CONSTRUCTION OF CONFESSION
The experience of constructing a confession according to the Ten Commandments
We have gathered here to bring another repentance to the Lord. I would like to preface my confession with a few words. Each of us, to the best of our ability and ability, tries in everyday life to maintain cleanliness in our homes and neatness in our clothing. And there are some especially clean people who zealously maintain cleanliness and order. And how concerned is such a person if, for some reason, this order and cleanliness is violated.
Likewise, a person who is accustomed to monitoring the purity of his heart and the neatness of his soul cannot live without repentance. Such a person waits and longs for another confession, just as parched earth awaits life-giving moisture. In the words of the psalmist David, “...my soul is like a dry land to You” (Ps. 143:6). Imagine for a moment a person who has not washed off bodily dirt all his life! So the soul requires washing, and what would happen if there were no Sacrament of Repentance, this healing and cleansing “second Baptism”!
Everyone has probably seen it more than once, or maybe they remember from childhood what happens when it gets warmer in winter and children roll snow globes. They will take a tiny ball, the size of a fist, and roll it down the hill: in the blink of an eye, this ball turns into a huge, irresistible lump of wet, dirty snow! The same thing happens with the sinful state of our soul. Watch yourself! You sincerely repented with tears, took communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ - what peace and tranquility in your heart! But, on your way from the temple, you met someone and in a conversation you carelessly threw a small lump of condemnation into your heart... That's it! The avalanche has started! Now look at how lightning fast the sinful lump will reel in...
We also have home repentance: in the evening, during prayer, remember what you have done to annoy the Lord during the day and repent. And experienced confessor-mentors generally advise not to put off repentance, but if you have bent your conscience or sinned, immediately reproach yourself and ask the Lord for forgiveness. And the Lord will forgive, for “... God will not despise a contrite and humble heart” (Ps. 50:19).
However, the weight of this lump of sin, which we manage to roll out in the soul, will press on until a prayer of absolution is read over the head of a sincerely repentant sinner during the Sacrament of Confession by a priest who, by the grace of the priesthood, has the power to resolve sins.
We, sinful people, feel and experience this. But this is what the holy people visibly saw. A spiritual daughter came to the last Optina elder Nektary before his death. When she approached him, the elder blessed her and said: “You need to confess, there is a cloud of demons over you!” This is who is attracted to us by spiritual dirt!
And I would also like to say: at the end of the Sacrament of Confession, before reading the prayer of permission, the priest reads a prayer for those who have brought repentance. Pay attention to the words of this prayer: “... reconcile and unite him [that is, the repentant] of Your Holy Church, in Christ Jesus our Lord...” How to reconcile this with the Church? We go to church, pray, sing akathists and prayers, perform choir obedience (this is who participates in the performance of worship). It turns out that by our sins we have long been separated from God, from grace-filled inner communion with the Church. They cut the spiritual connection, the umbilical cord through which our souls and spirit are fed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. So the priest performing the Sacrament of Confession prays for the joining of us, who have alienated ourselves from the Church through a sinful life.
In fact, we should come to confession having already thought through our actions, having already mourned our sinful life before the Lord. Everyone must bring their personal repentance before the Cross and the Gospel.
Before we begin to repent, we must forgive everyone everything! Forgive without delay, now! Forgive for real, and not like this: “I forgave you, but I can’t see you and I don’t want to talk to you!” We must immediately forgive everyone and everything, as if there were no offenses, grief or hostility! Only then can we hope to receive forgiveness from the Lord.
Help us, Lord, at this moment to forgive everyone everything!
Once during the earthly life of Jesus Christ, a certain lawyer approached him and asked: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And he received the answer: “... love the Lord your God with all your heart... and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10: 25-27). These are our main commandments: love for God and one’s neighbor.
But since our duties to God and our neighbor are varied, the commandments are divided by God into ten and presented in such a way that the first four are related to God, and the other six are related to our neighbor. So now let’s look at how we violated God’s Law?
Lord, accept our feasible repentance!
First commandment
I am the Lord your God,
May you not be blessed or even Men
In Russian translation it sounds like this: “I am the Lord your God, may you have no other gods besides Me.”
What duties should we have in relation to God according to this commandment?
First duty
. We must have true knowledge of God. Do we have this true knowledge of God? No, we do not have the correct concept of God, of the Orthodox teaching of our faith, of the Church of which we are members, of receiving Holy Baptism.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And we still make excuses that we have nowhere to learn these correct concepts about God, that no one taught us or is teaching us this, but by this desire to justify ourselves we aggravate our guilt, for this is not true! We lead too inattentive, distracted lives and we ourselves do not want to draw the necessary knowledge from the sources that each of us has.
1. Ask your conscience, do we value every service in church, do we listen to the prayers and chants that the Church prays? Here is a school for you, here is the most necessary, the most true theology, here is the most repentant prayer, the most inspired praises to God. Are we feeding our mind and soul with all this? No, Lord, forgive us!
We don’t like to come to church at the beginning of the service; we squeeze through people during the service, crowd together and talk loudly near the candle box, and move from place to place. We ourselves do not hear what is read and sung, and we disturb others; we do not draw anything from this source of true theology.
Lord, forgive us sinners!
And some still consider themselves too well-read and omniscient, they still listen with irritation and condemnation: “What, they say, he started talking about the same thing again,” completely forgetting that the priest standing on the pulpit is standing, as it were, on a stone rolled away from the door of the Holy Sepulcher, and the word of the gospel from the holy place cannot be without benefit. Even the most wretched word from the pulpit always teaches the truths of Orthodoxy.
Lord, forgive us who reject Your words!
2. We don’t read soul-saving books, making the excuse that they don’t exist now, and again this is an evil excuse! And the Book of all books. Holy Gospel, are we reading? Almost all of us have the Gospel, and if we still don’t, it’s due to the greatest negligence. Do we learn from this Book of Life? The Holy Church has established obligatory readings of the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles every day. Let's say that not everyone can follow and do this, but who is stopping us from reading at least one chapter every day? How many of us who repent today have at least once carefully read the Gospel, the Apostolic Acts and Epistles?
