I cannot repent of my sins because I am afraid that the priest will think badly of me. What should I do? At confession, I regularly repent that I live in fornication, but I continue to live like this - I'm afraid that my loved one will not understand me

How should one prepare for the first confession? Ksenia

Dear Xenia! The most important thing is not to change your mind and not put off until later what the soul asks for and strives for. External preparation can be different, and you will later determine its measure together with the priest who will someday become your spiritual mentor, don’t even think about it now. And try to carefully remember your life from adolescence, from the time when you began to distinguish between white and black, bad and good - and everything that your conscience reproached for, all those pages that you want to quickly turn over, everything that the evil one will whispering: “But don’t say this, it’s too long, it’s too embarrassing, it’s too impossible to pronounce and explain,” - this is exactly what to bring to confession, along with the determination to never return to some sins, but with others, rather skills, passions, sinful habits to wage an uncompromising struggle.

Another practical advice - try to find out in advance about the temple where you are going to go to confession, when there is an opportunity to confess in detail. It is even better to agree in advance with the priest, warning him that you will be at confession for the first time. Priest Maxim Kozlov

How should you prepare for confession? According to what principle should a confession be composed - according to the commandments, or according to the chronology of the sins I have committed? How much should be said? Is it enough to simply confess that you have sinned? Olga

Dear Olga. You need to come to the temple for confession, listening to the advice of the priest already given to you. You can pre-record a confession, starting from the age of 7. Recurring sins can be simply named, or you can describe the situations that led to the sin. Sometimes a person painfully feels that under some circumstances his soul was severely crippled by sin, and wounds remained on the heart, touching which causes acute or dull pain with time.

Then it really takes courage to reveal to the priest what is sometimes painful and embarrassing to tell. But if not opened, then the hidden sin will continue to destroy the soul and heart from the inside. It happens that some sins cannot be remembered, and some actions or thoughts may not seem like a sin, then regular further confessions and fervent prayer will lead them out of the darkness of oblivion.

You must come to confession, especially the first one, when the priest has enough time to talk with you, i.e. at the evening service. Having accepted your confession, the priest will decide whether you are ready to take communion, or whether you need to fast, pray, go to church. But you can resolve all this with him directly in a conversation. As for tears during confession, they are natural for a penitent. May the Lord and your Guardian Angel help you overcome all obstacles that prevent the purification of the soul. God help, priest Alexander Ilyashenko

Can I confess by correspondence without going to church? Tatiana.
Hello Tatyana, confession is a sacrament that the Lord Himself performs, and the priest is a witness that repentance has happened. A penitent person overcomes the most terrible and constant adversary - himself. He wins a major victory over himself, and the priest testifies that it really happened. We repent in order to change inwardly, to correct ourselves with the help of God. God help you find a confessor to whom your soul would be located, priest Alexander Ilyashenko

I confessed by email, is that correct? Irina.
Hello Irina. In my opinion, confession on the Internet is an unacceptable thing. Of course, confessing sins can be both bitter and shameful. Confession is a sacrament in which the priest is a witness to your repentance for sin. Repentance separates sin from a person; it is a grace-filled change in the state of the soul.

Why is it bad when a priest witnesses how a shameful sin is separated from a repentant person? If a person really repents, then the priest will rejoice for him and thank God. And if there is no repentance, then it is not easy to open up at confession. Repentance is a gift from God, one must ask the Lord for it. There have been cases in history when, due to circumstances, a person could not confess to a priest. But these were extreme situations. For example, a person dies far from the temple and gives his last confession to a friend, so that when the opportunity arises, he retells it to the priest. There was a case described by Bishop Veniamin (Fedchenkov) when the Governor General Byunting, who was in mortal danger, had the opportunity to confess for the last time in his life by telephone. But you need to overcome embarrassment. Repentance exists for this purpose, to bring to light that which hinders the union of the soul with God. Help you Lord! Priest Alexander Ilyashenko

The closer to confession, the more "twists". Such thoughts creep into my head, which seems to be from shame and I will die of fear ... ... What to do, what prayer to read in order to endure? I thank you in advance from the bottom of my heart! Marina.

Hello Marina.
You can pray in your own words that the Lord will help you resist all these thoughts. But you still need to come to confession in any case and in any condition. God help you, priest Mikhail Nemnonov.

I went to confession many times and did not feel relief. I often come across people who say they feel such joy and lightness after confession. If you do not feel relief, joy and lightness, does this mean that sins are forgiven anyway? Irina

Dear Irina!
St. Theophan the Recluse says that to whom joy is useful, joy is given, and to whom sorrow is useful, sorrow is given, if only this sorrow was according to God. This means that our repentance should become more serious and the testing of our relationships with other people more severe.
The Monk Macarius the Great testifies that he knew many who at the beginning of their journey were exceedingly blessed, but then fell in the most miserable way. And even more are those who have labored all their lives in the humble obedience of faith, having no special consolations, and have attained salvation in the eternal Pascha. With sincere repentance for sins, a person receives from the Lord their forgiveness in the sacrament of confession, even if after confession there is no feeling of any special joy.

Sincerely, Priest Alexander Ilyashenko

In confession, I forgot a lot from excitement. Does this mean that my confession is invalid, and I forgiven? When I prepare for confession, I always write down sins on paper. And all the same, from excitement, I will forget something. After the last confession, there was no feeling of lightness, there was a feeling of annoyance. Julia

Dear Julia! Forgotten sins are not scary, they are forgiven. Try to write down sins further, and those sins that you forgot to say will be said at confession next time.
God help you, priest Alexander Ilyashenko

How often does a person need to confess to a priest? Svetlana.
Hello Svetlana! It is better for you to discuss the regularity of confession and communion with your confessor. In my opinion, the best option is once every two or three weeks, plus big church holidays. Priest Alexander Ilyashenko

About the sin of youth in confession she said: "I have sinned with fornication." Is this confession enough, or is it still necessary to say something more concretely? Irina.

Dear Irina! Yes, indeed, there is no need to describe sins in detail at confession, so you confessed correctly, I don’t see your mistake. But fornication is one of the grave sins, so one confession is not enough. It is necessary to constantly and fervently repent before the Lord about the sin once committed and pray for his forgiveness, to monitor the state of your soul. Confess regularly about your sins, even everyday ones. Hope in the mercy of God, help you Lord.
Priest Alexander Ilyashenko

I want to confess and I don't know if this is considered a sin? When I was 8-9 years old, and my brother was 7-8 years old, we watched a bad movie and, out of our stupidity, began to repeat what we saw. My conscience bothers me a lot. N.

Dear N.!
Temporary shame in this transient life means nothing in comparison with the glory that awaits those who have resorted to Holy Repentance! Confess it as simply as you asked now - no names are needed here: just tell everything to the priest sincerely, praying to the Lord for forgiveness, and God's mercy will be with you! Remember: there is no sin that cannot be cleansed by repentance! Remember the joy that happens in Heaven for repentant sinners - repent and this joy will touch your heart too!
Strength to you and fidelity to the Lord! Priest Alexy Kolosov

Do I need to again confess the sin of fornication more honestly? I confessed it several times, but without details, pitying the ears of the priest. Elena

Dear Elena!
A sin once confessed does not need to be confessed again if you have not committed it again. When confessing fornication sins, it is usually not recommended to describe in detail what was done, therefore, if you did not name any details, then this is not “understatement” and even more so “withholding”. I advise you not to confess your confessed sins a second or third time, and if thoughts confuse you, then you need to pray and repent before the Lord and ask His forgiveness. From you - sincerity and constancy, and the result - from the Lord.

I have problems with confession and with my spiritual life... Once upon a time I went to church regularly. I read that you need to hate this world, but I don't want to hate it. My husband is very jealous of me. I can imagine what a scandal would be if I went to church and lingered on confession, even if we went together, I would get on another issue “what did I confess for so long? Victoria.

Dear Victoria. It is necessary to hate the evil in the world, and not the world itself, and in this you are absolutely right. Judgment is a sin, a violation of God's commandment: "Judge not, lest you be judged." This sin is a manifestation of pride. The Apostle John the Theologian says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” It seems to me that the lack of your husband, about which you speak, can be overcome with love. The more you will be gentle, affectionate, friendly and delicate towards him, the sooner this shortcoming will pass. Try to be sincere and open with your husband. You need to go to confession, but warn your husband that you will be late so that he does not worry.
God help, priest Alexander Ilyashenko

I am tormented by doubts that I did not fully confess at the general confession! I did not name individual episodes, and now I cannot remember what is confessed and what is not. Olga
Dear Olga!
For the Lord, it is not a scrupulous enumeration of sins that is important, but the depth and sincerity of a repentant feeling. The Lord is a knower of hearts, not an accountant. But if some sin torments your conscience, you can name it at the next confession.
Sincerely, Priest Alexander Ilyashenko

I made my first confession to the priest in a state of intoxication, but it was for courage. Does this count as confession? Yuri.
Dear Yuri!
The Sacraments should be approached with dignity and purity - of course, the sacrament has been performed, but one should still repent for being drunk during confession. And remember: drunken "bravery" is of little use! And the priest, most likely, noticed, but, feeling your condition, and showing anxiety, he showed tact and understanding.
Sincerely, Priest Alexy Kolosov

Batiushka dozed off for a few moments during my confession. Is my confession considered perfect or not? Larisa

Yes, Larisa, your confession is considered perfect, because at confession you do not repent to the priest, but to the Lord, the priest is only a witness to your repentance. Help you Lord! Priest Alexander Ilyashenko

Can I repent of sin, realizing that I am not yet able to get rid of it? Thinking about this sin causes me suffering. Katerina.
Hello Katherine!
Isn't it hypocrisy that I constantly repent for my pride, envy, temper...? I think you understand that such sins are not eradicated immediately and irrevocably at once. So why not repent?
See how often we wash our body, even if we don't get very dirty. And we know, we realize that we need to wash constantly and all our lives. Maybe don't wash?
So, Katerina, go to confession and repent of what weighs on your conscience. Remember, as St. John Chrysostom said, that the Lord not only accepts fruits, but also kisses intentions. Pray with warmth of heart: Lord, You see how this sin oppresses me, how I suffer from it! Help, give strength to get rid of it! And so on, as advised by the confessor. Ask him for prayers and advice on how to be in your position.
Help you Lord! Priest Pavel Ilyinsky.

Is there any point in the next confession, if you have not got rid of the sin, because of which you were not admitted to communion? Rita
Rita, hello!
There is always a meaning in confession, except for those cases when we do not want to get rid of the sin in which we confess. And if you still want to part with this sin, but have not yet succeeded, then you need to confess.
Sincerely, Priest Mikhail Nemnonov

I want to confess, I am embarrassed by the fact that a priest can take a negative attitude towards such sins as: blasphemy against the Church and clergy, doubting the power and ridicule of God, listening to songs of satanic content. Eugene

Hello Eugene!
Do not be afraid that the priest will treat you negatively. It is he, like no one else, who is well aware of how weak a person is, how often he is able to err. Realizing both his shortcomings and the fact that there are no sinless people, any priest always welcomes with great joy if a person has found faith and embarked on the path of salvation.
Therefore, one should not be afraid of either condemnation, or contempt, or, especially, anger. Tell him in confession simply and unsophisticated, everything that is in your soul and that now you have the intention to live according to the Commandments, and for this, ask for his prayers and instructions.
Father will give you advice for spiritual life and bless you in the name of Christ.
Help you Lord! Priest Pavel Ilyinsky

I recently confessed my sin of fornication. I entered into an extramarital relationship with a guy I love and with whom in the future we are going to legalize relations. I didn’t understand before what was sinful in an extramarital affair, and therefore I didn’t go to confession, I just didn’t want to repent of what I don’t understand, only because the Church said so. After all, after confession, one must also not return to sin. It's hard when you don't understand the meaning. I was waiting, I thought. Then the understanding of everything came, and it was as if an abyss opened up before my feet. Although I repented at confession, my soul is heavy, gloomy. Everything hurts inside.

It used to happen after confession that you leave the church, and the world around you seems to become brighter and happier, and everything inside sings. And now she was leaving the temple as if she were an operating room - with the same heavy feeling of pain and loss. Depression has not let me go since then, I can not cope with it on my own. What should I do, it seems to me that God does not love me as before - because I am not so pure anymore. How does repentance for fornication occur, because it is considered a mortal sin? I know many holy years have been tormented for such a sin. Is this how it should be? How much do I need to suffer in order to regain my former spiritual state, which was before my fall?

Kate

Dear Catherine, firstly, it is very good that the Lord gave you the courage to repent of a grave mortal sin before the cross and the Gospel in the sacrament of confession, to recognize it as a sin, and not just as a norm of everyday behavior, which is characteristic of so many people today. You ask why there is no relief in the soul, why it did not immediately become light and clear. But Katya, sin and sin strife, it happens that a person stumbles, does some kind of dirty trick, repents of it - and that's it, as if he had washed himself with water, this is no more. And it happens, as with a serious illness: a person will have an operation, they will cut out his appendicitis, or some malignant tumors - oh, how long the whole body still hurts. So it is with sins. When we decide to cut out something malignant, painful, which greatly distorts us, then after the operation we will come to our senses for a long time. The same patient - he is sick and does not want to live, and for the first week it seems that he will die now, but still there is no oncology, that which poisoned and made it impossible to live in the future is no more. So with such a sin - at first it will be hard, and then further, by correcting your life and not returning to this sin, you will testify to God that your repentance was valid, and in this effort of life the Lord will gradually give you peace, and joy and further directness of your path to salvation.

priest Maxim Kozlov

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Hello. I have some sins in my soul that gnaw at my conscience! I did them in childhood (those that are worse), but I continue to do some now (a little easier), but when I come to confession, out of shame for myself, the tongue does not spin to confess these "serious crimes." I'm afraid of what the priest will think of me (and the thought that he might tell someone makes me shudder). What should I do? I REALLY need advice. Thank you in advance. With all respect, Andrew.

Archpriest Mikhail Samokhin answers:

Hello Andrei!

Any normal priest rejoices in the repentance of a person, especially when it comes to grave or shameful sins, because from his own experience he probably knows how difficult it is to repent of such sins and how much these sins affect our future eternal life. Therefore, do not be afraid - the priest will not think anything bad about you. If you cannot overcome your shame, try writing the text of the confession on paper and ask the priest to read it. Another way to alleviate shame can be a confession to an unfamiliar priest in a new temple for you. At the same time, I want to remind you that shame is a saving bitter medicine that protects us from repeating confessed sins.

Sincerely, Archpriest Mikhail Samokhin.

I adhere to the worldview of Buddhism.
In order to open your soul with repentance, you need to penetrate your soul with consciousness, to know the selfish pernicious motivation of the soul, to rethink and change the way of thinking, change the way of life. . For this deep immersion, years of life, years or decades of spiritual practice go away. And you want a person without any preparation in 5 minutes to enter into a deep consciousness and repent. This is impossible.

There are two paths - the first path is gradual - from simple to complex, step by step a person purifies his actions, words and thoughts, thus approaching holiness.
There is another way, when a person got into a force majeure situation, when he reached the Peak of suffering, then he repents on Super-effort and immediately changes his way of life at once. . But even in this case, it takes time - months at least.

Not all people, even those baptized in the church, go to confession regularly. Most often, this is hindered by a feeling of awkwardness, embarrassment, someone is stopped by pride. Many, not accustomed to confessing from an early age, at a more mature age keep putting off the moment when they need to tell about their sins for the first time. Every year it becomes more and more difficult to decide on confession. In order to remove the burden from the soul, start talking with God and sincerely repent of the sins committed, you should learn how to confess correctly. Going to confession will definitely help you: you yourself will feel how your soul brightens.

Confession is one of the most significant rites in the Christian church. The ability to recognize one's sins and tell God about them, to repent of one's deeds, is very important for a believer.

What is confession for us?
First of all, it is important to understand the essence of confession, its role in our life.

Conversation with God. You can confess at home, in front of the icon, immersed in prayer.

At any stage of life, a person encounters many obstacles. The path to the Kingdom of Heaven is thorny and requires great effort. And if you do not show strength of spirit and firmness of will, then there will always be enough reasons not to go to church, not to pray, not to fast. We must not forget that we came into this world naked and before the Lord we always remain so. Our attire is only God's grace. If we do not put it on and do not accept Christ in our hearts, we can easily become a victim of the eternal enemy of man - the devil prowling everywhere. We must remember that in this difficult life, we Christians are like lambs among wolves. The Gospel says that whoever endures to the end will be saved. However, patience is different. A Christian must be patient, but at the same time an active opponent of all injustice and evil.

Christianity is, first of all, a way of life and thinking. If we strive for excellence, we must not look back.

Repentance

Repentance is the awareness of one's sin, sorrow for it and the determination not to repeat it in the future, this is the correction of one's sins by deed and thought.

1. What is repentance
2. Repentance has a beginning, but has no end, it lasts a lifetime
3. Repentance can be expressed in many ways
4. Those who knowingly commit sin by delaying correction and repentance sin against the Holy Spirit and may die without repentance
5. There is no repentance after death
6. The devil can no longer repent and change for good

In order to serve the mercy of God, one must have mercy on others in every possible way.
JUDGMENT WITHOUT MERCY - WHO HAD NOT MADE MERCY!

Such is the harsh law of retribution on earth, which the Lord established. Everything returns to us in this life. Therefore, it is not in vain that they say: “What a man sows, that he will reap!”

You - did not regret and did not spare, you too - WILL NOT Pity and will not spare!
You - told a FALSE about a person, and gossip will go about you too!
You - did not help, you - WILL NOT HELP!
You - offended, humiliated a person, you too - will be offended and humiliated!
You - took and appropriated someone else's, from you - STEAL and appropriate what is yours!
You - did dirty tricks to people - and you will DO - EVIL!
You have deceived and betrayed a person, and you will also be DECEPTED and betrayed!

He does good deeds - he reaps good deeds, he does evil deeds - he reaps evil!

Whether people believe in God or not, this law of Retribution has always worked and punishes all people who do evil.

Confession. How to repent properly.

How to repent

You need to repent - in the past tense. Nine out of ten people who come to confession do not know how to confess… Indeed, this is so. Even people who regularly go to church do not know how to do many things in it, but the worst thing is with confession. It is very rare for a parishioner to confess correctly. Confession must be learned. Let's talk about the most common misconceptions, misconceptions and mistakes. A person goes to confession for the first time; he heard that before taking communion, one must go to confession. And that in confession one must speak one's sins. The question immediately arises for him: for what period should he “report”? For a lifetime, from childhood? But can you retell it all? Or do you not need to retell everything, but just say: “In childhood and in my youth I showed selfishness many times” or “In my youth I was very proud and vain, and now, in fact, I remain the same”?

Necessary. not deceit. He did not come to the healthy, but to the sick, the Lord said, Sin is a disease, one of the manifestations of which is a petrified state of the soul. But only those that you see for yourself, and not in a blind guess, are even unsure to the end that it is a sin ... Otherwise, they read books with all sorts of classifications and then get lost when God reveals sin - this does not cause despondency or embarrassment, it is even a joyful state, when you finally understood what you couldn’t understand, eureka, it’s just that a person quietly understands that what he does harms him

Although this may not even be a sin, but so that the devil does not torment him with doubts and embarrassment, it is better to confess, and then you will figure it out, time will show whether it is yours or someone else's ...

Then God does not require us to get rid of him right away, he simply requires that you do something against him, it is sometimes impossible to immediately pull out the sin. don't even think about him too much. you just lead a spiritual life, pray, fast 2 times a week, and fasting, it will enlighten you.

Sometimes a young confessor finds it difficult to list sins; he simply cannot remember the major and more frequently committed sins. Unfortunately, often holding liturgical books before our eyes, our theologians and our clergy rarely deign to pay attention to what is printed there in red or even black type, except for the very prayers, of which also a good half is never read.

So, a fairly complete enumeration of all kinds of sins can be collected according to the following rites of the breviary and canon: 1) according to the order of confession, 2) according to the evening prayer to the Holy Spirit, 3) according to the final evening prayer: I confess to you the one God, glorified in the Trinity, etc., which placed in the Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev rulers, 4) according to the fourth prayer for Holy Communion: “As if on Your terrible and impartial Judgment Seat”; unfortunately, over the past 30 years, this prayer has ceased to be placed in the regulars, but it is placed in the Followed Psalter, 5).

How to repent of having an abortion Humanly speaking, this sin is impossible to forgive. And only the Lord, Whom we have nailed to the Cross with our sins, numerous and terrible, only the One Lord, being not only a man, but also the Almighty God, is able to wash away this terrible, perhaps the most terrible, human sin with His own life-giving blood. Any woman who has begun to repent of what she has done because of her youth, because of her weakness, because of ignorance, because of the violence of her relatives, because of the darkening of her soul, should know exactly how to repent of this sin, so that God forgives him and blots out, so that the terrible a lacerated wound in the soul, so that we would issue mercy for the children we killed. Moreover, it is proper to condemn oneself, and not circumstances, not the verdict of doctors, not the combined efforts of relatives who pushed us to murder.

First of all, like Baptism, Wedding, Communion is a MYSTERY. This is reconciliation with God. All of us have a not clear conscience, the soul is oppressed by sins and it gives its call - a person feels the need to confess, so that the soul, the conscience becomes calmer, cleaner. There is such a figurative comparison: the demons painstakingly write down all our sins in their books, and according to them they will accuse a person posthumously, showing that he is theirs, that his place is in hell, and the sins absolved at confession are erased from them forever.

It is very important to understand that those sins are forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession, in which a person sincerely repents and does not want to repeat them, wants to get rid of this sin. If he understands that it will be difficult for him not to sin again, he asks God not only to ask him, but also to help in the fight against this passion. To come to repent, say, of adultery with the firm conviction that you have "thrown off" your sins - "reset the counter" and you can sin again - this is a wild profanation of the Sacrament of Penance.

Dear father, good afternoon. Thank you very much for your kind replies. Again I ask for your help.
I cannot repent of one sin. This is one of my bad habits. Intellectually, I understand that this is a sin, but I cannot hate it in myself, on the contrary, it seems to me that if I refuse this, I will not be able to be myself, I will lose self-confidence, I will not be able to communicate with people, I will not know how to escape from tedious work and heavy thoughts, etc. Sometimes it seems that this is the only joy in my life. In general, I feel better with this habit, but without it, I seem to be nothing. And I'm very, very sorry to lose her.
I understand that I need to ask the Lord to help me hate this sin and love myself without it, but I still return to it some time after the prayer.

For every Christian, the issues of relationship with God and the Church are very important in life. In fact, for a true believer, they are the most important! But not everyone knows how, when and why it is necessary for an Orthodox Christian to perform. There are many such aspects. One of the most controversial, especially among the younger generation, is the need for communion and confession. The correspondent of "LG" Vita Lemekh met with the archpriest of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the city of Lyubertsy Gennady Khanykin and asked him many questions that were of concern. Today is the first part of the conversation, which turned out to be very informative.

– Father, is a person’s spiritual life possible without confession?

– A person cannot lead a spiritual life without the church, without the sacraments of the church, and confession is one of the sacraments of the church. Anyone who thinks that he is leading a spiritual life without going to church, or by lighting a candle on holidays, is deceiving himself.

Often from many people who have to talk about the salvation of the soul, you hear the following answer: “Oh, I still have time to repent of my sins and be reconciled with God ... I'm not going to die!” But in the Bible there is only one case of turning to God in the last hour of life: this is the repentance of the thief on the cross.
Dear reader, if you are not reconciled to God, do not count on the last hour. Everyone's life can end suddenly. A disease can take away a person's consciousness, and suffering can be such that they won't even allow them to think about the soul. If you are now indifferent to your salvation, can you be sure that at that moment you will have the desire to seek salvation in Christ? Do not forget that it is "now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation." Don't wait for another opportunity. You don't know what the next hour has in store for you. Satan, the enemy of human souls, makes people put off until later this important decision, on which your future on earth will depend.

A person becomes ill during worship - why is this?

Usually, everyone who has not yet fully repented, who has not made a general confession, feels bad in the temple. The grace of God acts, but the soul is dirty, does not contain it, so the person becomes ill. This is especially true during weddings. The temple is free, bright, the air is clean; the wedding begins; the woman is ill, she loses consciousness, falls... But the one who sincerely repents of all sins, begins to pray, the grace of God helps to grow spiritually; such a person in the temple is good. Hearing church singing and reading, he plunges into the ocean of Love. And Divine Love is such that a person drowns in it, forgetting where he is - in Heaven or on earth. And a long service (and on Athos it lasts 14-15 hours) flies by for him in an instant, imperceptibly. He just entered the temple, woke up from prayer - and the service was over! But this is only for those who are constantly in prayer, who set themselves up for prayer in the morning. He comes to the temple, and his inner prayer is picked up by a weak...

How detailed should you be about your sins at confession?

When you and I sin, sins can enter into us through our thoughts, tongue, eyes, ears, and body. We can sin before God, before our neighbors, against ourselves and against nature. Let's say thoughts go. If we go out into the street and the wind is blowing, then we will not stop that wind with a raincoat. Similarly, thoughts: they go, but you need to be able to control your thoughts. When our soul is all distorted by sin, then we have sinful thoughts swarming in our head. We think evil about our neighbor, we even blaspheme God, the saints. If we resist these thoughts, fight them - remember, sin does not fall on the soul! They forcibly climb to us, but we do not want to! We will be rewarded for this struggle. And if we are bogged down in thoughts, like a swamp, enjoy this mud, then we must already repent of this. This is the evil of our soul. And how to repent? Simply: "Father, I have blasphemous thoughts against God." Everything is clear and said enough. "Father, I have poor thoughts" - and that's enough. From prodigal thoughts, passions can also disturb - tell me about this too ...

A man comes and says "Behold, I have sinned - I have committed fornication." There is no need to tell the priest the details of how he enjoyed this passion, but it must be said, if there was a perversion, with how many people it was. Suppose a person swore obscenities - he should say: "Swearing obscenities", "drunk drunk", "playing cards", "fought". There are many sins, and if we talk about them in detail, then the priest will only have time to listen to you alone.

I am an elderly person, my memory is weak, I cannot remember all the sins. How can I repent?

Then one woman came, she was already over 80 years old. She has never confessed, does not feel sins, does not see, i.e. dead soul. I told her with love, for edification: "Why don't you honor sins? Because your body is a coffin, and your soul is a dead man in a coffin. You are a walking corpse!" And she did not know what to answer. And she had so many sins! I began to help her confess, I say:

Can't you yourself?

I can not.

Ask?

All your life you didn't go to church, didn't pray to God...

Didn't pray...

You didn't follow the posts.

Didn't comply...

She lived unmarried, met with others.

It was wrong.

Abortions? Didn't repent?

Well, and a host of other sins.

I don't remember anymore.

Well, since this is an old man, I ask:

Didn't she break temples? Didn't it close?

It was like that. In Ivanovo, they went from house to house with lists: "Do we need a church or not?" I wrote: "We don't need a temple." And she told everyone: "Write like this." And now I'm old, I need to repent. I didn’t want to bother the priest, to call home, I think - I’ll go myself, repent.

Your whole life has been spent in the service of Satan.

How can I be saved now?

While you still have time, you breathe and your heart beats. But the time will come, and there will be his final blow. Personally, you need to be in the temple every morning and evening.

The Lord does not reject such people. Though at the eleventh hour, He accepts them.

Do I need to repent in confession of a sin if I know that it will happen again?

You have to repent. When a person comes to confession and repents before the Lord, then at that time the Lord gives grace-filled strength to fight sin, and after confession this sin may not be repeated. I know a man, he was drunk for 15 years. His wife did not remember him sober, it was very rare with him. He drank constantly. And he somehow repented, then again ... Ten times he repented, at confession he said: "Here, father, I drink it - and that's it. I drink - and that's it." But his wife prayed fervently for him; in monasteries, in temples everywhere she served ... But his faith is still weak ... He comes: "Father, I have sinned again. I drank." And suddenly, at the same time, he stopped. The second year he doesn’t take a single gram - a complete disgust for wine. And you don't have to code! The grace of God helped him. The Lord keeps him. I ask: “And what do those with whom they drank say ?! -“ And they are perplexed why they quit so abruptly, always drank with them, and then stopped drinking. They invite me, and I tell them that my entire limit is over. I've drunk everything in 15 years."

Why sometimes after confession I do not feel light?

Little prepared. Before confession, one must feel one's sins and condemn oneself.

Is it possible to receive communion after a general confession? There is no private confession in our church, the Lord sees our intention to repent in detail, but there is no such possibility.

It is necessary to find such a confessor so that one can confess to him thoroughly, for the whole life. There is no general confession in the Orthodox Church; there never was and never will be. And the fact that now in some churches there is no real confession is due to the decline of the human spirit. Many "Orthodox" are so accustomed to general confession, so saturated with sin to the last cell, that they don't even know what to repent of. They go, for example, to communion, and before that they can quarrel at home, throw an iron at their husband, and they don’t feel sin behind themselves, they don’t confess it. Everything seems to be in order. We have become so accustomed to a sinful life that it has become a habit, the soul has become dead, insensible. The same soul, which is constantly cleansed by confession, immediately feels even a small sin... I think not a single priest will refuse to listen to you separately. We must wait for the last person, when he leaves the priest, come up and say: "Father, I have a sin ... I condemned a person, scandalized, argued, idle talk, was offended, grumbled, was proud, boasted; ate a lot, drank, slept; prayed bad, I didn't always go to church..." To put it briefly, concisely, the priest will always listen.

The dying old woman was 89 years old, she was paralyzed. A week before her death, she began to baptize herself and the walls lying down. She couldn't speak. It was strange to see.

When death comes to a person, he feels how the soul begins to separate. I have met many of them. One of my relatives lay and said: "This is a miracle! Now I was in the Moscow region, I was at the house, I saw all the relatives." And he lay and died in Siberia. That is, the Lord finally showed him such mercy - he let him say goodbye to those places, to see everyone. The next day he died.

In the end, unclean spirits appear behind the sinful soul. They know that the soul must depart, they guard it. Maybe that's why the grandmother baptized herself and the walls - so that the evil spirits would depart.

There was such an archimandrite Fr. Tikhon (Agrikov). It was a real intelligent shepherd. He taught pastoral teaching. Great benefit was received by those students who listened to his lectures. Once he was called in Sergiev Posad to a dying woman. He arrived, enters the apartment and sees a lot of people. The chairman of the city executive committee was dying, being a party member. At this time, when people gathered around her, and Fr. Tikhon. He went to her, she confessed and repented. And then he says, taking his hand. "I won't let you go!" - "What's the matter?" - "Here, a lot of black men have gathered now, scary and they say:" You are ours! We'll take you!" They've been tormenting me for the whole day. And when you came in, they all fled. Now, with you, I'm not afraid. They're all gone. Don't leave me." The priest entered - the demons all disappeared ...

How to lead a person on his last journey?

Imagine: a person was invited to a wedding feast, where people close to him will gather. Before going there, a person must prepare himself: wash the body, put on the best clothes, stock up on gifts, and most importantly, come to the meeting in a good mood, with a joyful face. And since we live here temporarily, our whole earthly life is only a preparation for eternity, we must prepare ourselves in such a way that it would not be shameful to appear in the assembly of saints. Some devout Christians prepare themselves from a young age, hourly, because we don't know when the Lord will call us. Today we will not talk about a sudden death, we will talk about the expected death, about those people who are already gray with gray hair, who are lying in a hospital bed. How to help them? What good can their loved ones do for them?

Funeral service, burial is not the most important thing. The main thing is with what soul a person will depart into eternity, therefore an elderly, sick person must definitely make a general confession. As far as memory allows - to tell all the sins from youth. Then it is necessary to take unction (not only the dying are gathered, but also the sick, for healing, because in the Sacrament of unction a person is forgiven all the sins he has forgotten). After confession and unction, it is necessary to take communion - to receive the Body and Blood of Christ into oneself. When the hour of death comes for your loved one, you need to invite a priest to read the canon on the separation of the soul from the body; if there is no priest, believing relatives must read it themselves (it is in the prayer book). It is necessary that the dying person has time to reconcile with all his relatives, try to help him in this. It is very useful for every Christian before his death for 2-3 years to get sick, suffer and dry. If a person in illness does not grumble, his soul will be cleansed and it will be easier for her to go out into that world. When a person dies, if he was an Orthodox Christian, i.e. he praised God correctly (he constantly went to church, confessed, took communion), he should be brought to the church in the evening, on the eve of the burial, agreed in advance with the priest, and on the very day of the burial, he should be buried. A huge help for the deceased is the prayer of the Church for his repose, magpie, i.e. forty-day commemoration at the Divine Liturgy. It is good to order magpie in several temples and monasteries. Panikhida, almsgiving, reading the psalter for the deceased will also bring invaluable benefit to his soul. The deceased can no longer pray for themselves, they are looking forward to the prayers of their relatives and loved ones. We are talking about church people, but what if a person rarely went to church? In such people, the eye of conscience is closed, faith in the soul is darkened, the mind is darkened, and the person ceases to feel his sins, it seems to him that he is good: he did not kill anyone, did not rob ... Such a person needs help. According to the apostolic rules, everyone who has not been to church for 3 Sundays in a row. The Holy Spirit is cast out of the Church, is in darkness, in the power of the devil. Those who do not observe fasts, Wednesdays, Fridays, live unmarried, had abortions, did not pray to God ... a great many committed sins, but they do not feel them. If a black spot is planted on a black material, it will not be noticeable. So it is in the spiritual world: when the soul is completely saturated with sins, each new sin is no longer evident, and the person believes that everything is fine with him. And only when he begins to live spiritually, he discovers many sins in himself. And the Lord said: in what I find, in this I will judge (Matt. 24:42). The Lord will forgive us all our sins, only one thing will not be forgiven - if we do not repent. Therefore, if you have the strength, you need to come to the priest (the cross and the Gospel are visible signs of the invisible presence of God) and repent. And we do not repent to the priest - he is only an intermediary between God and our conscience, we repent to God himself. And if we sincerely repented of everything, did not hide a single sin, then the Lord through the priest forgives us all sins, a person is reconciled with God, gains grace-filled strength to fight sin. So it was in all times of the Church of Christ.

Rus' is now going through difficult times. It seems that the people of our long-suffering Russia should repent. It would be good for everyone to kneel together and ask God for mercy.

For this, it is necessary that the hierarchs be able to address the people on television or on the radio, so that at a certain time everyone kneels and repents.

But there is one difficulty: a huge mass of people do not know what to repent of. This is the worst.

Today I confessed to an elderly woman. I ask:

Well, tell me, what are your sins?

And I have no special sins!

How many times do you go to church?

Well, two or three times a year.

And if a student goes to school two or three times a year, ten years pass with an ABC book, he still won’t learn anything. So you do not see your sins. See if there are people in the temple?

Yes, a lot of people. He took it, buried her eyes with his hand:

Do you see them now?

No, I don't.

And you covered my eyes with your hands.

But are there people in the temple?

There is, I just don't see it.

In the same way, you do not see and do not feel your sins, because your spiritual eyes are closed.

Many have become soul dead. From what? From constant vices and passions. We don't go to church, we don't pray to God. We are mired in sins and do not feel them with our hearts.

The Holy Fathers say that a person begins to live spiritually only when his spiritual eyes are opened. He sees a lot of sins in his soul. This is the beginning of repentance.

People need to be prepared for repentance. They must know what sins to repent of. In parishes, priests must explain the meaning of confession. For example, they called on people to repent of regicide. Now there is a new generation. Newly born people did not kill the king. Father Artemy Vladimirov says that "we are not guilty of these sins, but those who killed or agreed with the murder should repent. Inwardly, they agreed with the murder, that is, as if they themselves killed." This is where they need to repent.

Every Christian, if he has not yet truly repented, needs to remember, as far as memory allows, all the sins from youth, from the day of baptism, briefly write them down as a keepsake, come to the spiritual father in church and tell about his sins there. Especially in monasteries, people can truly open their souls to a priest, because not one priest confesses, but several. And in the parish, the priest must both serve the service, and confess, and fulfill the requirements. You need to choose a priest to your liking, come up and confess. This will be of great benefit to the soul of everyone, and therefore to the whole of Russia.

What should I do: I go to confession often, but my sins accumulate to sixty. At confession, if I write down a sin in detail, a feeling of shame is born in me, and it helps me to fight sin. And if I write it down in one word, then, as it were, I obscure my sin, I hide it. And now I am in doubt: what if these sins are not forgiven by God?

If you are in doubt, you must definitely recall all the sins in your memory, write them down and open them to the priest.

In the book of St. Barsanuphius and John, it is said about confession as follows: during the day we often sin - in thoughts, deeds or words. As soon as you have sinned, you must immediately cry out to the Lord: "Lord, forgive me, we have sinned! They condemned us, we slept too much, we said out of place." And the Lord by the Holy Spirit forgives us these daily sins.

In a day, millions of thoughts fly by, but if we consider all of them a sin and do not fight them ourselves, do not win with good thoughts, but read everything to the priest, we will exhaust the priest to nothing. We must learn not to accept thoughts. After all, it is the demon that puts them in our heads, these are not our bad thoughts. Sin is born in our heart when we accept these thoughts, listen to them, violate our good feelings towards our neighbor with hostility, anger, irritation. For no apparent reason, we will sharply answer him, we will be rude. Evil enters our heart. Why? Because they did not distinguish the thought from their thought in time. This skill comes with experience, when we ourselves get tired of our sins. Then we will control ourselves constantly. There will be the same number of temptations, but many fewer sins than sixty...

You need to prepare your sins for confession in the following way: remember, summarize all similar ones (twice angry, say in confession “I was angry with my neighbor”), briefly write down. Say to the priest, for example:

Father, this week I have sinned: I have been indignant, argued, deceived, eaten too much, slept too much, prayed distractedly, accepted thoughts and violated my spiritual peace through them, defiled my soul with impure memories, stood without attention in the temple ...

This is enough for the Lord to forgive us our sins. If you live before the eyes of God, walk before God and remember Him constantly, then you know that the Lord sees your repentance, your struggle with sin, your desire for purification. And at confession, it is enough to testify that "in this and in this sin I repent." God forgives sins by the Holy Spirit. It is important not just to list sins, it is important to correct, get rid of sins. And then some at confession each time list: "I was indignant, burst out ...", but they will depart from confession, again for their own.

Wrestling with thoughts is more monastic doing. Previously, the elder had two or three novices, they would come to him and reveal their thoughts. And without the blessing of the elder, without his knowledge, the novices did nothing. Even if the thought seemed virtuous to them, they revealed it to the elder, and the elder was able to recognize the intrigues of evil spirits and the sin to which they wanted to incline the novice did not happen. Then the novices themselves quickly learned to recognize thoughts and got rid of a mass of sinful habits.

As it happens with us: at first we didn’t even seem to pay attention to this or that thought, we forgot it. And the demon, having put it in us, retreats, does not bother, hides. Later we remember the thought and, taking it for our own, we begin to think about it. And there already thoughts were distracted from prayer, and we do not pronounce the name of God, and bad feelings were born in the heart, and irritation ... Thought, like a seed, sprouted in our heart and bore its fruit - sin. We open our thoughts in confession - it's like we frighten away a snake lurking there from under a stone: they lifted a stone, and it disappeared.

I advise you to repent before God in accepting thoughts, and at confession to name those sins that were born into the world by these thoughts. If you managed to overcome the thought, did not get irritated, did not condemn, but found the right thought to justify your neighbor, then you defeated the demon. And cursing is not a sin. A reward from God awaits you for the battle. On earth this reward is the grace of God, but in the other world it is eternal life, eternal joy.

If the priest takes an interest in some specific sin, then you can explain in more detail.

How I want to repent and no longer repeat some kind of sin. Can this be learned?

Repentance depends on a sincere desire to get rid of sin. Repentance begins when a person realizes that he was lost, that he lived on earth in sin. When a person repents, he makes a promise to no longer live lawlessly. He repented - and turned his life entirely to God. It is impossible to serve two masters: it is impossible to promise God to improve and at the same time to be cunning before Him: "I'll get back a little more .., then, then I will correct myself."

At confession through a priest, the Lord visibly forgives sins and at that moment gives grace-filled strength to fight against passions. The man rises, takes wings. The main miracle is that during repentance the Lord resurrects the soul, a person is spiritually born. Therefore, repentance is like a second baptism.

Having prepared, I go to confession, but I begin to be embarrassed and in a hurry: "Oh, there are still people behind me!" What should I do?

Prepare a general confession from childhood, but do not describe sins in detail. Everything can be said briefly.

In the Pochaev Lavra, one hundred or more people had to confess a day. And then I had to develop a rule: to accept a concise, concrete confession. This is in order to forgive someone else's sins, to guide someone else on the path of salvation.

If a person does not know what sins to name, but comes to sincerely repent before God, then you help him. You name the sins, everything is clear to him, he clearly answers whether it was or not. You give a person a push, and then God Himself helps him to remember the sins committed from childhood. It seems to us that everything is already forgotten, that in childhood they did wrong. But our conscience, reviving at the first confession, prompts more and more offenses, new sins. Shame suffocates, tears roll from your eyes, but you want to be cleansed in the eyes of God... This is true repentance, real confession. After such a confession, a person physically feels that his soul has become easier, and then the person begins to write down new current sins on a piece of paper, to prepare for confession. He first controls, takes into account the committed sins, and then tries to avoid them. He would have committed this or that sin before, but now he remembers: "I'll have to say it in confession. So, maybe not do it? It's a shame - I already repented of it." And does not sin. This is already the beginning of spiritual warfare with evil spirits. This is the beginning of the path for the Lord.

Spiritual life should proceed under the guidance of an experienced confessor. In parishes where there is only one priest, but there are many people and needs, it is difficult. But if you want to improve, to become a warrior of Christ (even if you stay in the world), then find a confessor in a monastery. There are many priests there and they will give you more time.

She wrote all the sins on paper, gave it to the priest, and he, without reading it, tore it up: "God knows your sins." Has my confession been completed?

If your confession was neither read nor listened to, then those sins remained on you. Confession as a sacrament was not completed, even though that priest read a permissive prayer over you, but he did not know why he was allowing you, that he was forgiving. Maybe you wrote there that you killed a hundred people, shot at the bus, but he doesn’t even know this. Maybe they put dynamite under the bridge and committed sabotage, people were killed, and he doesn't know that. It is necessary that each time your confession be read or listened to, and only after that a permissive prayer is read over your head. Then the sins of man are forgiven by God.

Especially now, many people come to confession who were in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Dagestan. Those released from prison come, and robberies, murders, and violence are on their conscience. Professional thieves, killers, snipers come, those who committed contract killings, committed sabotage. Their conscience torments them, does not allow them to live in peace. Such a "sick" person will come to a novice "doctor", show festering wounds, and he will say: "Nothing, everything is fine." And an experienced "doctor" will open the wound, clean out the pus, bandage it, prescribe the medicine ...

Find a confessor to whom you can truly repent and purify your soul.

A person in confession constantly repents of the same sins. He hates sins, fights and repeats anyway. What else to do to defeat them?

The most important thing is that a person should hate sin. This is the very center! If we do not love sin, then we will quickly get rid of it.

The Lord has blessed us with many gifts, such as giving us the gift of anger. Do you hear? Gift! So that we get angry against the devil, against evil spirits, so that we stand strong in their attacks. And we have perverted this gift: we sin, we are angry against our neighbor. We have been given the gift of zeal for God. And we are not jealous of holiness, but of our neighbor. This is sin. We have been given greed as a gift of thirst for God, for everything holy, but we are greedy for earthly charms. We need to improve and, most importantly, to hate sin.

And this requires determination. In his youth, Blessed Augustine could not get rid of one sin, and only when he became a mature spiritual man did he understand why the sin did not leave him. He lacked determination, a sincere desire to be freed: “I prayed, asked to be delivered from sin, and in the depths of my soul, as it were, I said: “Deliver me, Lord, from sin, but not now, later. Now I am young, I want to live. "I did not say these words aloud, but somewhere in my mind this thought was."

Apparently, I need to confess from childhood. I feel the need for it. I go to the church and I can't get in. And if I go to confession, I can’t completely cleanse my soul.

One man told how he could not repent of one mortal sin. He came to the temple, saw a priest on the kliros, and it seemed to him that the priest was looking at him all the time. Couldn't get ready for confession. And this was a demonic suggestion to prevent the soul from being cleansed of sins. We must set ourselves up so that we go to church to God, and not to a priest, and that we repent before God.

There are more priests in the monasteries, several people go to confession at once. We must try and choose one who could listen to all our sins. Mark for memory on a piece of paper the sins that you remember from your youth, the most shameful, nasty, they are usually well remembered.

Remember: the day of the Last Judgment will come, when our unrepentant sins will be revealed to the whole world, to all angels, saints and people. That's where there will be horror, shame and disgrace! That's where the shame will be! We will fall into the abyss, we will cry bloody tears, we will tear the hair on our heads, but we will never return to earth in this life, we will not be able to repent and bring worthy fruits of repentance.

When a person goes to confession, the devil inspires fear in him, puts up all sorts of obstacles. And don't be afraid! Know that if we sincerely repent, the confessor will experience more respect and love for you. This I am saying from my experience. Sometimes I think: "Why am I standing in confession if no one says anything?" And when a person comes and sincerely repents, then he and I have joy. At least one person is alive!

Holy Scripture says this about it: "All heaven rejoices and rejoices over the one repentant sinner."

How to repent of Sodom sins?

Take the breviary for the clergyman. There are questions that the spiritual father should ask at confession: are you married? did you get married? how many men were there? what nations? Were there close relatives? what and how much?

When the human soul leaves the body, it goes through ordeals, twenty of them in total. The most terrible are the 16th - fornication, the 17th - adultery, the 18th - sodomy sins. These ordeals are successfully passed by only a few.

There were five nearby cities in Palestine in which prodigal unnatural sins flourished. Two cities were especially famous for their vices - Sodom and Gomorrah. Their inhabitants fell so low that they did not know the prohibitions and barriers to satisfy their passions. Then brimstone fire came down from heaven, and the cities were destroyed. Now they all lie at the bottom of the Dead Sea.

An interesting tree grows on the shores of this sea - the Sodom apple tree. Its fruits are beautiful, bite - sweetness on the lips. And then such bitterness! You won't spit at all. It was the Lord who left a reminder of death from "sweet" sins. The sins of Sodom give temporary sweetness, but bitterness soon comes, and in hellish torments you will not get rid of it.

It is easy to fall into these sins. The most important devil in these ordeals is Asmodeus. He is the chief of prodigal demons. There are a great many of them, and at the ordeals they show all the sins committed by people. They boast that few of those guilty of these sins repent. Few people go through these ordeals, because they are ashamed to admit to them.

And the one who repented of these sins must endure some sorrows and illnesses for them. Do not grumble when someone scolds, but thank God for everything. Only in this way can the soul be cleansed.

My conscience is silent, does not accuse of sins, passions. I go to church, repent, confess, take communion, but I feel that everything is not as it should be. What should I do?

The most important thing to do is to make a general confession. Remember everything, as far as your memory allows, so that nothing remains on your conscience.

If a person constantly controls all his words, deeds and thoughts, then he will quickly be cleansed. And the voice of conscience will loudly proclaim to him if he wants to do something not according to God. When a person is unrepentant of sins, he tramples on his conscience. You are on the right path - you live a church life: confess, repent, take communion, pray to God, go to services. The main thing is that you want improvements, corrections. The other, who has drowned out the voice of conscience in himself, behaves differently: "So what if I drink a glass of milk during fasting or eat a piece of sausage?" Starts small. The Lord says: "In little things you have been faithful, over many I will set you" (Matthew 25:20-22). And if you are not faithful to God in small things, then a small sin will give birth to a big sin.

You need to find a priest who can listen to you when you come with a general confession. There are few priests in the parishes - one, two. And there are more of them in monasteries, and they also have more time to listen to parishioners. They have confession - a special obedience. And even, perhaps, you will find a confessor for yourself to instruct you on the path of spiritual salvation. He will talk with you, help you discover hidden passions in yourself. And you just need to learn not to hide anything. Sin is not gold to be buried. It must be quickly discovered and removed from the soul. And then the voice of conscience will be heard in any temptation.

Read the lives of the saints, your soul will grieve when you compare your life with their deeds. See how holy they lived and how impure we live. In all temptations, blame yourself, and not someone else, consider yourself indebted to God. When a person thinks that he is on the right path, saves himself, prays with a pure prayer, this is bad. Until death, one must consider oneself worthless for anything, as the apostle Paul said, "unkeyed slaves." Even if we did good deeds from morning to evening, even then we cannot be sure of our salvation. The Lord alone knows this.

I am ashamed to pronounce some of my sins before the priest. I can only cry out daily: "Lord, forgive me, damned one." Will He remove from me those sins that I name before Him?

Of course, we must constantly repent before God, ask for forgiveness. But we do not know if He has forgiven us or not. The Lord left us on earth the clergy, gave the first Church - His disciples-apostles - the power to forgive and bind sins. The sacrament of confession comes from the apostles.

On the day of the Last Judgment, the Lord will forgive us all sins, except for the unrepentant ones. You need to cast aside shame and confess your sins before the priest. Our bad deeds burn with shame. We must be ashamed to sin, but not to be ashamed to repent. If you are sick and cannot go to the temple, invite the priest home. We do not know when our death hour will come, we must be ready to meet it at every minute. It is necessary to repent boldly. Here we only in the presence of a priest - one person - name our sins. And at the Last Judgment, unrepentant sins that we are ashamed of will sound before all the saints, before the Angels. The whole world knows them. Therefore, the devil inspires us to be ashamed of them, so that we do not repent. While the blood is still flowing in the body, while the heart is still beating, while the mercy of the Lord is with us, we must confess unrepentant sins.

Why are we embarrassed to name a shameful sin? Our pride and pride get in the way: "What will Father think of us?" Yes, every day the priest has a stream of people with the same sins! And he will think: "Here is another lost sheep of Christ returned to God's flock."

When a person speaks freely about his sins, does not make amends for them, laments, cries, the priest has great respect for the penitent. He appreciates the sincerity of the penitent.

Sins do not need to be piled up in the soul, as in a piggy bank. Who needs them? When repentance is real, it is easy for both the person and the priest. And "in heaven there will be more joy over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:7). If we came to the doctor's office, said minor minor illnesses, and hid the most life-threatening wound, we can die; spiritual wounds are no less dangerous for our spiritual life, our soul, and the soul is more precious than the body.

If we previously concealed shameful sins, deliberately hushed up, then all our previous confessions are considered invalid, the sacrament was not performed. All the sins, named and unnamed, remained in the soul, and even more sin was added - hiding sins at confession. This is stated in the breviary: "Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession, if you conceal any sin, you will have a special sin." You can fool a priest, but you can't fool God. And if after such "confessions" you also take communion, then communion will be in condemnation. For this, it will be especially asked at the Last Judgment.

What is idle talk?

Spring has come, soon it will be summer, it will be warm. Many people like to go to the bench in front of the entrance or go to a neighbor. They came, sat down, but there was nothing to talk about if the soul was not filled with prayer and concern for the good of one's neighbor. And idle talk begins, if only to kill time quickly. And time is so precious! We have been given a little of it to save our souls. And now the grandmothers are sitting, with their eyes they see off everyone who has passed by. Everyone knows: who has been married how many times, how many abortions he had, who is engaged in what kind of commerce. And why should this "knowledge" go to waste? Share with each other. And this is called idle talk, condemnation, slander, gossip.

Anecdotes are also idle talk, idle talk, ridiculousness, because they do not bring any benefit. Empty laughter without spiritual joy, laughter and carelessness occur when there is no fear of God in the soul.

There are flowers on apple trees, and there are empty flowers. The wind blew, and only a third of the flowers remained on the branches, the empty flowers flew to the ground. Opali.

We must set ourselves up in such a way that each of our words is good, not an empty flower, but brings spiritual fruit.

I know many fathers. When they meet, they do not idle talk, but talk about faith, about God's providence, about salvation, about how best to be saved. They should be taken as an example.

As you live your life, you put a lot of effort into taking care of your body. Washing off the bodily dirt, he cleanses the body, which is actually perishable. This is our temporary home. But if we keep our body clean, isn't it worth it to take care of our soul, washing off spiritual dirt from it? Spiritual filth is the sins with which our soul grows over the course of its life. Diseases and impurities of the soul are healed through the sacrament of Penance.

What is repentance to the Lord

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

1. Confessing all your sins to a priest.
2. The resolution of sins, which is pronounced by the pastor of the Church.

The sacrament of repentance is also called confession, although it is only one component. However, this component is really the most important, because without the realization of one's sins there will be no forgiveness.

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

Is it necessary to repent before a priest?

Confessing, a person brings repentance for sins not to the priest, but to God. The priest is also a man, respectively, he is also not sinless. In this sacrament, he is only an intermediary between the penitent and the Lord. Only God Himself is the real mystery maker, and no one else. The shepherd of the Church acts as an intercessor before Him and sees to it that the sacrament is performed properly.

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

Are all people sinners?

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

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

How to Destroy Your Sin

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

Sin has the following phases of involvement:

• Addiction is the emergence of a sinful desire, thought.
• Combination - fixing attention on a sinful thought, accepting it in one's thoughts.
• Captivity - obsession with this desire, agreement with this thought.
• Falling into sin is the embodiment in practice of what was present in the sinful desire.

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

Is it possible to live without repentance?

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

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

Can repentance be invalid?

The essence of repentance is not to formally tell the priest about your shortcomings. Repentance cannot be accepted by the Lord if it is not sincere, done in order to pay tribute to fashion, look better in someone's eyes, or if a person repents to ease his conscience, without a firm intention to correct his sins. Cold, dry and mechanical repentance is not considered valid. It will do no good to the penitent sinner. In order for repentance to really serve the good of a person, it must come from the very heart, conscious and ardent. Moreover, mere awareness and repentance is also not enough. Man must be determined to fight his sin. He must call on the Lord to be his helpers, because human flesh is weak, and it is almost impossible to fight your sinful nature on your own. But it is God who helps us in this difficult matter. The most important thing is to have a strong desire.

How to prepare for confession

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

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

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

What you need to know when preparing for confession

You can confess at any time, when possible, in the church. You need to do this as often as possible. Confession is especially necessary before communion. At confession, you need to remember that this is not a conversation with a priest. If you have any questions for him, they should be discussed at another time. At confession, you need to list your sins, while not trying to justify yourself or blame someone. In no case should you proceed to confession, and then to communion, if you have not reconciled with everyone and hold evil or resentment against someone. This will be a big sin. If the priest does not have time to listen in detail to all the sins - this is not scary, you can tell them briefly. However, especially oppressive ones can be told in more detail, and ask the priest to listen to them. Either way, the Lord knows your true intentions. Let your candle of repentance be lit. And the Lord will surely hear you.

Is it possible to confess not all sins

The Lord can accept repentance only if it is sincere. And what reason can there be to hide some sin? After all, a person seeking to get rid of the burden of sin, on the contrary, will delve into himself with special care so as not to leave the slightest sin. The sincerely repentant sinner's desire to be cleansed is so great that he, without the slightest shame and pride, will hasten to tell everything to the priest at confession. If a person hides his sins, it means that he suffers from the sin of pride, lack of faith, false shame, or does not realize the full importance of this sacrament. Unconfessed sin is not forgiven. Moreover, if a person does not confess to a priest in any misconduct, then, perhaps, subconsciously, he does not want to part with him. Such a confession will do no good. Moreover, there can be even more harm from it, since additional ones listed above will be added to all other sins.

How often should you confess

It is advisable to do this as often as possible. However, in this case, repentance must come from the soul, i.e., quality should not turn into quantity. Listen to your heart - it will tell you when the urgent need comes to be cleansed from the burden of sin.

Does God forgive all sins?

You can be sure that God will forgive all your sincerely confessed sins. If you follow all the requirements and rules described in this article, the Lord will surely hear you. It is not for nothing that the first person who entered the Kingdom of God was a robber.

Precisely because he sincerely repented of his sins and believed in the Mercy of God, he was heard and forgiven.