Such great church sacraments as confession and communion are carried out after serious preparation. It allows you to understand the deep meaning of these rituals and approach them with the appropriate mental attitude. It is important for every Christian to know how to properly prepare for confession and communion, what can and cannot be done in the period preceding the sacred rites.
Preparing for Confession: A Guide for Beginners
To prepare for confession, you need to start working on yourself at least a week before the upcoming sacrament. During this time you should:
- analyze completed actions;
- highlight negative actions and thoughts;
- record everything you plan to talk about on a piece of paper (writing such a note is especially important for those people who are preparing for the first confession in their lives).
A revision of the basic Christian commandments allows us to correctly understand what is a sin and what is not. Reading spiritual literature and works of outstanding god-pleasing people dedicated to the confessional rite will also help you prepare for confession.
Before going to church, you should clear your conscience. A Christian preparing to confess must be sure that no one holds a grudge against him. To do this, you should sincerely apologize to those who were offended. It is equally important to forgive your own ill-wishers and offenders.
If a child is preparing for confession, adults need to provide him with all possible support. At the same time, you should not decide for the child what he will talk about with the priest: the young Christian himself must understand his behavior and express a sincere desire to repent of his existing misdeeds.
Is fasting always necessary before repentance?
Fasting before confession is not always required. This becomes necessary if communion is to be held after repentance. In this case, you need to limit yourself to certain types of food for at least 3 days and exclude physical relations with your spouse. You should also delve into reading prayer texts and thinking about your life.
What prayers should you read?
Preparing for confession involves thoughtfully reading all morning and evening prayers. Several penitential canons are added to them (to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Most Holy Theotokos, to the Guardian Angel). It is also mandatory to read the repentant prayer of Simeon the New Theologian. In addition, you should visit the temple more often and attend the services held.
About the Ten Commandments and Sins Against Them
To make it easier to systematize everything that has been done over many years and not miss anything, there is a practice of constructing a confession according to the Ten Commandments. In addition, you can make a confession for twenty ordeals.
First commandment
Man is called to honor and know the Lord. You need to have faith in Him and Him, hope in Him, love for Him and reverence. It is important to remember that God sees all the deeds and thoughts of a person, and also to confess Him before people without fear or fear.
Some sins against this commandment:
- godlessness;
- polytheism;
- disbelief;
- heresy;
- split;
- apostasy;
- despair;
- witchcraft, fortune telling, superstition;
- love and hope for man more than for God.
Second Commandment
This commandment prohibits all forms of idolatry. People can worship idols, or they can worship money, human glory, delicious food. Some sins against the second commandment:
- covetousness;
- gluttony;
- pride, vanity.
Third Commandment
It is forbidden to pronounce the Name of the Lord in vain, as a joke, in idle conversations, or to use it for an oath. Sins against the commandment:
- god;
- blasphemy;
- perjury;
- breaking a vow made to God;
- oath in the name of God.
Fourth Commandment
This commandment calls on everyone to devote one day a week, in New Testament times - Sunday (Little Easter), to God. This means spending Sundays in prayer, attending worship services, reading spiritual books and Holy Scripture. In addition to Sunday, you need to honor all holidays and observe the multi-day and one-day fasts established by the Church.
Fifth Commandment
This commandment commands us to honor our parents. For its fulfillment, prosperity and longevity are promised. Parents need to be loved, respected, obeyed, obeyed, not upset, and taken care of. In addition to blood parents, this applies to spiritual parents, educators, and guardians. One must also obey civil authority, unless this goes against the Law of God.
The fifth commandment is to honor your parents
Sixth Commandment
Murder and suicide are forbidden to a person. In the modern world, this sin is widespread in the form of abortion - the taking of the life of an unborn, defenseless child by its own parents.
In addition to physical murder, a sin against this commandment is allowing someone to die by inaction, killing a person with a word, leading to suicide, spiritual murder - seducing a person onto a sinful, disastrous path in life.
Seventh Commandment
Here we are talking about maintaining chastity, maintaining marital fidelity, the marital bed, abstinence, avoiding fornication and other sins against one’s body. A person must keep not only his soul, but also his body pure, because human bodies are “...members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit.” Also, one should not defile oneself by watching pornography and avoid everything that incites lust and stains the mind and heart.
Eighth Commandment
This commandment prohibits any form of theft, appropriation of someone else's property. In addition to theft, robbery, this includes sacrilege - appropriation of property belonging to the Church, bribery, as well as:
- parasitism;
- extortion;
- deception.
Ninth Commandment
It is prohibited to tell any lies, slander, give false testimony in court, or make false denunciations. For an Orthodox person, any lie is unacceptable, even if it does not cause harm to another person. You cannot condemn or reproach anyone. It is important to fight your own language, reject gossip, ridicule, and reproaches.
The Ninth Commandment prohibits telling lies.
Tenth Commandment
It is prohibited not only to do bad things to your neighbors, but even to entertain evil thoughts about other people. The sin against the commandment is envy. Wishing evil to your neighbor in your soul, without having joy about his achievements, you can gradually reach the point of evil deeds and sabotage.
How to prepare for communion
Before receiving communion and receiving the Holy Gifts in the Orthodox Church, a Christian should conduct deep introspection. It must affect the entire essence of a person (body, thoughts and soul).
If a layman has not committed a large number of sins, preparation for communion takes several days. In the case of serious offences, this may require a longer period of time.
In order to properly prepare for a sacred action, it is necessary to strictly observe all God’s commandments, to be humble and merciful. It is important to focus not on the physical body and earthly things, but on spiritual values and your inner world. During the preparation period, you should avoid conflicts with others, avoid quarrels and insults, and provide all possible assistance to those in need.
Mandatory restrictions before receiving the Holy Gifts
Before the rite of communion it is mandatory to fast. This helps to curb sinful desires, conquer passions and resist various temptations. In the past, fasting took a considerable period of time, but now representatives of the Orthodox Church allow the laity to fast for three days. The exception is cases that require longer cleansing.
Fasting carried out before the rite of communion affects both sides of a person - physical and spiritual. Many holy fathers teach that temporary abstinence from animal and other food is of great importance, but it is much more important to abstain from bad actions and thoughts. In addition to following a dietary diet, a person preparing to receive communion must restrain himself in terms of entertainment, pleasure, communication with others, and visiting friends and acquaintances.
On the day on which the ceremony is scheduled, it is forbidden to eat or drink from midnight. Until the sacrament takes place, you cannot even drink holy water.
Prayers before communion
During the period of preparation for the ritual, a Christian must strictly follow the rule established for the morning and evening, and also devote as much time as possible to reading prayer texts. The evening before communion, you should read the canons of repentance, which are also necessary before confession.
Immediately before the rite of communion, several prayers are read:
- prayer of St. John Chrysostom;
- prayer of St. Basil the Great;
- the prayer of Simeon Metaphrastus;
- prayer of St. John of Damascus;
- repentant prayer to St. Isaac the Syrian;
- prayer to the Guardian Angel.
It is allowed to pronounce sacred texts not only out loud, but also mentally. This can be done both at home and directly in the temple.
The Church does not establish strict requirements regarding the language in which prayers and canons of repentance should be read before communion. Such texts sound with equal force both in modern Russian and in Church Slavonic.
Brush your teeth
It is difficult to say where the “legs grow” from such a point of view, because the canons of the Orthodox Church contain the rule according to which, if a person preparing for Communion, “washing his lips,” accidentally swallows water, he can receive communion . Otherwise, “Satan, having found an opportunity to remove him from communion, will more often do the same.”
This suggests that even in ancient times, people, preparing for the Sacrament of Communion, for receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, wanted to accept them, being extremely purified. It was even believed that a person not only can, but should also wash his face and brush his teeth .
How to behave during confession and communion
It is necessary to come to confession and communion on time, without any delays. At the same time, it is important to look like a believer (this rule applies equally to both women and men). Both sexes should wear modest, covered clothing in subdued colors. Laywomen should wear no bright makeup or flashy jewelry, and no high heels. Before entering an Orthodox church, women and girls must cover their heads with a scarf. During critical days, participating in the rites of repentance and communion is prohibited. In such a case, these rituals need to be moved to other dates.
When confessing, it is necessary to avoid making excuses and not trying to hide your negative actions or thoughts from the church minister. Such actions do not make any sense, since the ritual is carried out in the face of the Lord, who knows about all human thoughts and deeds.
While in church, you should not argue with the priest or argue with him. Such behavior is considered sinful, and because of it a person can be excommunicated from participating in the ritual. If someone makes a remark in church, you should not be offended or angry. It is better to act in this situation as befits a true Christian - to show humility, thank you and modestly move aside.
What else is not allowed?
You are not allowed to smoke before the sacrament.
Smoking is also prohibited. Abstaining from it is a small sacrifice for a nicotine addict. Is it possible to have sex before communion? During the Eucharistic fast, spouses should abstain from sex. Women cannot receive communion on menstruation days.
As for worldly entertainment: watching TV, going to the cinema, etc., it is better to put all this aside. After all, fasting concerns not only the body and stomach, but also the mind, vision, and hearing. They also need to be kept from the husks of the world.
It is more logical to devote the preparation time to work and household chores, and even better – to prayers and reading soul-helping literature. Other pastimes are not welcome.
