Repentance and awareness of sins are of great importance in Orthodoxy. It is known that it was pride and exaltation that caused the fall of the former angel of light - Lucifer. My spiritual father told me about this when I was baptized.
It turns out that repentance alone is not enough, since the human enemy constantly seduces and deceives believers. I will tell you what the publican’s prayer is and how to correctly repent before God in home prayer.
The history of the origin of the publican's prayer
Pride and exaltation in Orthodoxy are considered one of the most terrible sins, because it was these vices that led to the fall of the angel of light. Therefore, a true believer constantly asks God to save him from this sin and checks his spiritual state by turning to the saints and his guardian angel with prayers.
To understand what the publican’s prayer means and in what cases it must be said, it is worth understanding who this person was. It is difficult for a modern person who does not study the Bible and does not attend temple to understand the meaning of the word “publican,” because today there are no such people. However, the publican, or tax collector, can be compared to a modern tax inspector. In ancient times, such people were responsible for filling the emperor's treasury and collecting taxes from all residents of the controlled territory. At the time when Christ performed his earthly ministry, tax collectors were treated with disdain and disliked because they took much more taxes from the people than was required by law.
The Jewish priests considered the tax collectors defiled because they associated with pagans, and tried not to be in their company. The parable that Jesus told his disciples was about a Pharisee, a respected member of Jewish society, and a widely despised publican who went into the temple to pray. The first thanked God for living a righteous life and not looking like the tax collector standing next to him. The second did not dare to raise his head and, realizing his sins, repented and asked for forgiveness from the Lord. Christ said that of these two, the publican will walk more justified than the priest, since he sincerely repented of his actions.
Since then, Orthodoxy has attached great importance to this prayer, since the Lord himself drew attention to it in the Holy Letter.
The Importance of Repentance
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Self-righteousness and awareness of sinfulness are two polar states of man. It is self-righteousness that leads to pride and then to the fall of man. Self-righteousness convinces a person that he is better than others. And if it’s better, it means it deserves more favors from God. This leads to demands for rewards, narcissism and rebellion in the end. This is exactly the path that Lucifer took before his fall: he considered it shameful to serve Adam. Who is Adam before him, morning morning?
The Holy Fathers teach that repentance has a beginning, but there is no end . A person is constantly faced with the manifestation of his sinful nature, which must be constantly repented of. If a person is not aware of his sinful nature, it will sooner or later lead to self-righteousness and fall.
However, repentance should be distinguished from confession . You can repent of your sins at home without a priest if a person catches himself committing a bad act, from the point of view of the church. But one should not think that home repentance replaces or excludes confession. At confession, you need to confess your sin to the priest, and only then is the sin completely annulled. After confession, you don’t even have to remember your repentant sins, since they have lost their spiritual meaning. After confession, the believer can, with a pure heart, partake of the holy gifts without consequences for himself.
Note! It is impossible to partake of the holy gifts without confession, since a person will drink and eat condemnation to himself.
A believer must understand that only Jesus Christ lived on earth without sin. His divine nature allowed him to live in purity and holiness. Even the apostles committed sins. For example, the Apostle Peter succumbed to anger and cut off a soldier’s ear. He acted against the commandments of Christ, succumbing to his sinful nature. However, sincere repentance for what he had done freed him from the heaviness in his soul. As we remember, Jesus called the apostle Peter the cornerstone of the church.
Remember that after death it is impossible to repent of sins. Repentance is accepted only during life.
Many people are interested in the advisability of repentance, since God already knows about all sins. The Holy Fathers teach that man is given the freedom to choose to live as a sinner or as a righteous man. Therefore, God does not force anyone to repent. If a person realizes the gravity of his offense and repents, he brings himself closer to God. And unrepentant sins distance us from God.
When to read
Good deeds performed by a person cannot bring him salvation and forgiveness of committed sins, since God needs a humble heart and sincere repentance. This is why the publican’s prayer is of such great importance in Orthodoxy.
These few words that the Lord left for believers on the pages of the Bible help to correctly build the spiritual life of a Christian and reconcile him with God.
The prayer of the tax collector is read in several cases:
- when a person feels unreasonable fear or anxiety for himself and his loved ones;
- passing by a church or any Christian temple;
- when gathering for worship and before entering the church;
- before turning to the Lord with any request;
- when a person feels that he has done wrong and his heart is heavy;
- when difficult life circumstances or problems arise;
- before entering any room;
- at the beginning of an important task;
- before going to hospital;
- after waking up and before going to bed;
- when you urgently need to turn to the Lord, but there is no time for long prayers;
- at the beginning of the first part of the seven-bow beginning;
- at the end of the main prayer at home or in church;
- before starting a meal and after finishing a meal.
"Bethlehem - House of Bread"
Issue 1 (October 2010)
Publican's Prayer
Among Christian prayers there is an extremely short but heartfelt prayer. It is called the “ Prayer of the Publican”
"
It is taken from the Gospel of Luke
.
Let us read this passage in Holy Scripture:
“[Jesus] also spoke to some who were confident in themselves that they were righteous, and disparaged others, the following parable: Two men entered the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed to himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people - robbers, offenders, adulterers - or like this publican: I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I acquire. the publican, standing in the distance, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven; but hitting himself on the chest, he said: God! Be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you that this (publican) went home justified more than that (Pharisee): for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
[
Gospel of Luke, ch. 18
].
Who were the Jews called Pharisees?
? “Pharisees” (“perushim”) means “pure.” These were people who were considered especially devout, for they followed all Jewish customs to the smallest detail. But they often did this for show, pleasing not so much God as their own vanity. More than once Jesus denounced their hypocrisy, for they did not show true love for God and neighbor.
Who are publicans
?
These were tax farmers. The Jewish country at that time was under the rule of Roman conquerors. The Romans did not want to collect taxes from the Jewish population themselves, but transferred this matter into the hands of the Jews themselves, in the person of tax
collectors. The publican first used his own money to pay a tax to the invaders for an entire section of the city, and then, taking advantage of their patronage, he collected much larger sums from his fellow tribesmen than he himself contributed to the treasury. Publicans profited from the suffering and ruin of their own people. They were feared, despised and hated by the entire Jewish society. People of this class were considered low and vile. They were shunned like lepers.
So what do we see? The “righteous” Pharisee was himself condemned by God for condemning his neighbor and being proud (the Holy Fathers write that he went to hell). And the despised sinner, the publican, turned out to be justified by God - for sincere repentance. He did not look for excuses for himself, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven, but sincerely mourning his sins, humbly asked for their forgiveness.
Who should we, Christians, be like - the Pharisee or the tax collector? The Holy Fathers say: in sins - neither one nor the other; but one must be jealous of both of them for what they did good
. We must imitate the Pharisee in zeal for the achievements of faith, and the publican in humility and repentance.
Every saint considered himself the greatest sinner on earth, no matter what spiritual heights he reached. Without humility there is no ascent to God, just like Christ
says: “
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted
.”
In church prayers there is even such an expression: “ Humility that lifts up to God
,” that is,
humiliation that elevates the soul
.
This is repentance. Let us pray to God with humility and true repentance, saying the Publican’s Prayer: God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
(Cross yourself and bow.)
Create me, O Lord, and have mercy on me.
(Cross yourself and bow.)
Without number of sins, Lord, have mercy and forgive me, a sinner.
(Cross yourself and bow.) (Translated into Russian from Slavic this means: “
God, be merciful to me, a sinner! You who created me, Lord, have mercy on me! I have sinned countless times, - Lord, have mercy and forgive me sinner!
")
We say this prayer when entering the church and home and bowing to the icons of God. Also from home or church. It is read before lunch and dinner and after meals by those who do not know longer prayers. This prayer of repentance should be with us from childhood to the grave.
Learn it by heart, pray with it more often. Pronounced with reverence and with all the soul, it is capable of softening even the hardest heart, bringing a hardened soul into contrition, kindling in it love for God, appeasing the Lord and cleansing a person from many sinful defilements.
May our Lord Jesus Christ, who has forgiven the publican, give us true humility and repentance, and may He lead us all into His Kingdom of Heaven, Whose glory is, with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.
given in the newsletter
Reading rules
Even such a prayer as the address of a publican must be read correctly so that it is beneficial and not a static pronunciation of memorized words. A person must realize his sinfulness and the need for the Lord to fight dark forces. Also, the person praying must sincerely want to change his life and understand that this is only possible with God’s help.
If the text is pronounced by a woman, she needs to cover her head with a headscarf or scarf, and change the words to “sinful”, “sinful”. The prayer is also accompanied by three bows from the waist, one for each line of the spoken text.
If a person says a prayer with complete humility, God will always come to his aid in a difficult situation and protect him from evil.
Archim. Pauline (Lecca). The Publican's Prayer / Orthodoxy.Ru
2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous Romanian confessor Archimandrite Pavlin (Lecchi; 1914–1996). He was a religious thinker, an erudite, an expert in the Holy Scriptures and the Russian language, and a spiritual writer. Translated into Romanian the books of Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) “Seeing God as He is”, I.K.
Smolich “The Life and Teachings of the Elders”, the book “Frank Stories of a Wanderer to His Spiritual Father” and others, wrote his own books: “From Death to Life” (1996), “What is Death” (1997), “The Divine Beauty in the Works of Dostoevsky” (1998) - the most in-depth study of the work of Theodore Mihailović in Romanian theology, “The Publican’s Prayer” (1998).
We present for readers of the Pravoslavie.Ru portal an abbreviated fragment from the latest book of Archimandrite Pavlin.
Lord Jesus, I remember. I was lonely. Abandoned by everyone. He lay broken at the bottom of a deep abyss. There is deathly silence all around. There was no one to help me. All wounded, with broken bones, I quietly sobbed from time to time.
I had only one desire, one thirst - to get out of this abyss.
But I could not do anything other than raise my little finger - as a sign that I did not agree with the state in which I was, and would be happy if there was someone who would pull me out of this darkness and hopelessness into which I failed.
Above, high, high, I saw a small blue patch of sky. Oh, how I longed for an immaculate, pure, crystal world, in which there would be nothing of the dirt, worms and stench in which I was drowning. I wanted a breath of clean, ozonated air, and I felt that I was suffocating without it, that I was burning out.
But You, beloved of the Shepherd, who always goes out in search of lost sheep, heard my sob, saw my raised little finger, guessed my desire to get out of this bitter and pitiful state in which I was. And I immediately heard some sounds overhead. Dry brushwood crackled, pebbles rolled, leaves rustled. Someone was walking in a hurry. And I foresaw and anticipated tears of joy.
And when I turned my head, what did I see? It was You, sweet Jesus! Through tears I saw You all, in full growth. You were tall, like the Cross on which You were crucified! The head, bowed as if under a heavy burden, was bloodied and crowned with thorns.
There were bloody trails from the hands and feet pierced with nails. But You, Jesus, did not pay attention to Your suffering, You did not look at Your wounds, You looked straight at me. Tears of pity flowed from Your kind eyes for the unfortunate state in which I was.
How kind You have been to me! There is no mother on all earth who could comfort me the way You comforted me!
And, Lord God, how wonderfully You treated me! How lovingly he took care of me! With what tenderness, with what delicacy, with what care he bandaged my wounds and poured oil and wine on them! How kind You have been to me! There is no mother on all earth who could comfort me the way You comforted me!
You knelt down next to my soul, broken and torn to shreds by sin, and began to tell me that my dream of an azure sky would come true. After all, there is another world up there, a thousand times better, cleaner, happier! There is the singing of winged angels, there are birds, flowers, butterflies, the likes of which are not found on earth. There is eternal spring and eternal happiness.
