What is repentance. What is repentance and why is confession necessary? Why does a person need a confession? What does she give

The Greek word “repentance” is inseparably part of the concept of Christianity. Repentance is a sighing for sins and an indispensable desire not to commit them again, such a definite state of mind, to which is added sincere prayer, contrition and subsequent joy. But without realizing the sinfulness of human nature, it is impossible to bring the true leads to the need to understand what sin is.

Christian perception of sin

Many holy ascetics have repeatedly described the essence of sin, trying to explain its nature and give a specific definition. It is obvious that sin is a departure from the commandments given by God. Of course, sin is a voluntary choice, regardless of the circumstances in which it is committed, because being completely free in action from birth, a person can refrain from evil and vice, or, conversely, succumb to his heart, creating a spiritual illness. It will grow and embrace the whole soul, subduing through a certain passion, bad habit or inclination of the whole person, thereby alienating from God.

There is an erroneous approach to the spiritual side of life, in which the formal observance of certain commandments is carried out, which are considered only as strict rules. And if the external manifestation of such a life may seem pious and based on serious moral piles, then a deep analysis shows the presence of great pride, narcissism, vanity, lack of faith and other "hidden" vices.

In other words, a person may not lie, not be rude, not steal, be always deliberately kind and sympathetic, regularly attend services and observe fasting, but in his soul he may have contempt, hatred and, most importantly, there may not be a place for love in him.

Conventionally, sins can be divided into several types: against God, against your neighbor and against yourself.

Sins Against God

There is often an opinion that any sin is an opposition to God, but for all the irrefutability of this statement, one should distinguish between special deviations that directly affect the Divine essence.

These are lack of faith, superstition and lack of faith. Sometimes there is a formal visit to the temple, without fear or as a kind of ritual, which is also unacceptable in Christianity. murmurs, broken vows, oaths uttered in the heat of the moment, desecrated icons, relics, books of Holy Scripture, crosses and prosphora - all such actions can occur completely by accident, but should lead to the thought of repentance.

This is also important for those parishioners of churches who conduct small talk during divine services, make jokes and burst into loud laughter, are late for the service and leave before the end of the service without good reason. It is inadmissible to deliberately conceal sins by performing the sacrament of repentance, because in this case, the sin remains not only unrepentant, but also multiplies additional ones. Direct apostasy can be considered an appeal to various psychics and similar people, passion for witchcraft, magic and adherence to sectarian beliefs.

Sins Against Neighbor

One of the main commandments is love for one's neighbor. Not only relatives and close friends are meant under the call “to love”, the Lord means any person, even an enemy, for whom a true Christian must find the strength to say a prayer. In the modern world, it is extremely difficult for people to forgive, not gloat and not condemn. Each person experiences tremendous pressure from the streams of incessant negative information, shaken moral guidelines, among which there is a place for sometimes the most obscene and disgusting things. A person is constantly in tension and in stressful situations, at work, at home, on the road.

It is not easy to resist realities, the majority hardens, allowing their hearts to cool. We have become a habit of ridicule, insults, assault, indifference to other people's sorrows and troubles, greed and complete unwillingness to share with those in need, such sins are committed daily by many Christians and are so deeply rooted that they are often no longer noticed. Increasingly, people put on a mask of hypocrisy and flattery, resort to self-interest, lies and slander, deceive and envy, such negative qualities are encouraged today and are considered indispensable inclinations of a leader. It is also possible to note a very painful sin, it is the voluntary termination of pregnancy - abortion.

Sins against yourself

By cultivating unreasonable love for oneself, a person encourages a very insidious sin - pride. Pride itself is a combination of other vices, vanity, despair, despondency, arrogance. The soul, drawn into such vices and qualities, is destroyed from within.

Pushing aside the real ones, overwhelmed by endless pleasures and hobbies, she quickly gets fed up and tries to find something more. Quite often, in search of additional pleasures, a person finds addiction to drugs or alcohol. Constant idleness, laziness and anxiety only about bodily comfort completely weaken moral principles, unnecessarily liberate and create a feeling of the supremacy of the body over the soul.

Repentance preached to many enables their followers to bring true repentance. The souls of people, burdened by evil deeds and vices, need such spiritual, intangible help. The ordinance of this sacrament begins with the taking out of the Cross and the Gospel and putting them on the lectern.

The priest says prayers and troparia, which set people preparing to confess in a certain, very subtle way. Then the confessor approaches the priest, a personal confession takes place, which is an absolute secret, its disclosure is unacceptable.

The priest can ask questions or say words of parting words, then he covers the confessor's head with the epitrachilis and, having read the prayer of permission, overshadows. Then the parishioner kisses the Cross and the Gospel. It should be noted that repentance is an important step towards Communion, which is allowed without confession only in strictly defined cases. In each specific situation, the decision is made by the priest and takes full responsibility.

The archimandrite compared an unrepentant person with one who does not wash material dirt from the body for a long time. Repentance is the basis of spiritual life, a kind of instrument, with the help of which the soul is purified and calmed. Without it, it is impossible to feel the closeness of God and to eradicate sinful traits and inclinations. Healing is a long and difficult journey. There is never too much repentance, because a person always has something to repent of, having carefully looked into himself, without self-justification and other inherent "tricks", he is able to discern the impartial corners of his soul and bring them to confession.

But, unfortunately, it is not at all uncommon for a formal enumeration of sins in the absence of repentance and repentance.

Such an attitude cannot bring relief to a person. Without experiencing shame and pain, measuring the depth of the fall, the forgiveness of sin, and even more so its forgiveness, is impossible. It is very important to firmly decide for yourself to fight, one by one eradicating vices and moral "holes". Repentance must bring about a change, it is called upon to change the outlook and worldview.

The connection between fasting and repentance

The most appropriate time to deal with your own sins and mental shortcomings is fasting. Repentance of sins and fasting pose the same task for a Christian - the cleansing of the soul and its change for the better. Both of these concepts should be considered as a kind of weapon that can be used to confront their own passions. Fasting calls for bodily and mental abstinence, this is the time for sincere prayer, deep analysis of your spiritual canvas, reading instructive books and scriptures. The time of fasting can be imagined as a small feat, every believer goes through it on a very individual path, with completely different emotional and psychological background and mental mood.

It is extremely important to be judicious and understand that the main thing is not refusal from a certain type of food, going to the cinema and other worldly amusements, but spiritual meekness, looking only at the inner self, refusal of condemnation, cruelty, rudeness. When a person plunges into relative “silence” for several weeks, withdrawing as much as possible from the “world,” he gets time to approach the realization of sin and use this understanding for true repentance.

Repentance in Orthodoxy

An Orthodox Christian repents exclusively of his own free will. His personality realizes the sinfulness of nature, his conscience denounces bad deeds and thoughts, but there is hope for the mercy of God in him, he brings repentance not as a criminal fearing only punishment, but sincerely like a son of his father. The Orthodox Church and Orthodox repentance teach this exactly how the Father should be perceived, although very often the attitude and feeling of God stop at the vision of a strict and harsh punishing judge in Him. And in view of such a wrong approach, repentance occurs only because of the fear of terrible retribution, while repentance should come from love for God and the desire to approach him with a more righteous way of life.

Conclusion

Repentance is undoubtedly a religious concept. But many interpret given view internal cleansing and spiritual self-development as a kind of ability to bring the secrets of a purely personal for review, suppress and humiliate oneself. It should be understood that repentance itself is in full accordance with human nature, because nature has been damaged and now needs regular healing.

Ushakov's Dictionary

Repentance

repentance, repentance, wed

1. Voluntary confession of a committed misconduct, of a mistake ( books.).

2. Confession, confession by believers of their sins before the priest ( church.).

3. The punishment imposed by the pre-revolutionary court for some crimes, which consisted of forced and controlled prayer ( pre-rev.). Sentence to church repentance.

Let the soul go to repentance ( colloquial joke.) - leave someone alone, stop pestering someone, stop pestering someone.

Catholic Encyclopedia

Repentance

In the sacrament of Repentance (or Reconciliation), a Christian who sincerely repents of his sins through the Church receives forgiveness of sins from God, thereby reconciling himself with God and with the Mystical Body of Christ - the Church, from which every serious sin excommunicates the believer.

One of the important requirements of repentance is confession, confession of one's sins. Therefore, confession is an essential element of church repentance - confession of sins by the repentant before God in the presence of the priest: the believer confesses to God, and the priest is only a witness of his confession (this action of the priest is said to "accept confession", "confess"). A priest who accepts confession is called a confessor (a priest with whom a believer constantly confesses is called a confessor; he can also be called a spiritual father, or a spiritual mentor - especially in cases where he actually exercises mentoring; a spiritual father, or spiritual mentor is also called permanent confessor in a monastery or seminary). A believer who begins the sacrament of Repentance (performs repentance in the Church) is called a repentant, or confessing. None other than God Himself forgives the repentant sins, but the priest, by the authority given to him by Christ through the apostles, gives the repentant permission [from] sins, or forgiveness of sins. At the same time, he pronounces a prayer of permission over the penitent, which is the secret formula of the sacrament of Repentance: “God, the Father of mercy, by the death and resurrection of His Son, reconciled the world to Himself and sent down the Holy Spirit for the remission of sins, let His Church grant you forgiveness and peace. And I forgive you your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. "

Another important element of the sacrament of Repentance is penance - the actions of "satisfaction" offered by the priest to the penitent in the form of prayers, deeds of piety or mercy (the priest prescribes penance, and the penitent must perform the penance).

Recently, special penitential services have been organized for believers, which are also called liturgies of penance. In emergency situations, especially in cases of threat to the lives of many people, the communal performance of the sacrament of Reconciliation is permitted, with a common confession (when the repentant do not confess their sins to the priest, but only repent of them in their souls) and general absolution.

Pedagogical terminological dictionary

Repentance

confession of wrongdoing, confession of sins and disgust from them. Among the ancient Greeks, the concept of "P." meant remorse for individual actions. In the Holy Scripture, it acquires a purely religious and moral meaning. The call to P. begins the preaching work of Christ. P. presupposes not just the acquisition of new goals and motives by man, but the entry into such a relationship with God that is no longer in conflict with his will; thus, P. becomes the basis for the moral and religious revival of man. P. implies not only abstaining from evil, but also doing good, love as faith in God, hope for forgiveness. Unlike repentance, which also means confession of one's sins, P. contains an important moment of their practical overcoming. P. and faith are two sides of the inseparable act of a person's conversion to Christ. If, in the state of the Fall, a person puts himself at the center of being, then in repentant faith he, on the contrary, strives to serve only God - this is the essence of the religious meaning of P. - one of the seven Christian sacraments. P. finds natural expression in confession. The result of P. is the free overcoming of sin and turning to virtue - this is the moral self-determination of man.

(Bim-Bad B.M. Pedagogical encyclopedic Dictionary... - M., 2002.S. 203-204)

Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor

Repentance

(Mark 1: 4,5, 2 Cor. 7:10) - there is a sacrament in which the believer, when he verbally confesses his sins before the priest, receives through him the invisible permission of sins from Jesus Christ himself. Repentance was partly in the Old Testament Church. Those who sacrificed their sins according to the law of Moses repented of them before God and received their cleansing. Likewise, those who came to John the Baptist for baptism first confessed their sins to him. But, as the sacrament of the New Testament Church, repentance was established by Jesus Christ himself. First, He promised the apostles to grant the authority to permit sins: “whatever you bind on earth, it will be bound in heaven; and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven ”(Matthew 18:18). After His Resurrection, He actually gave them this power when He said: “Receive the Holy Spirit: to whom you forgive sins, to him will be forgiven; on whom you leave, on that one they will remain ”(John 20: 22-23). It is required of the repentant: sincere contrition for sins and their oral confession, a firm intention to correct his life, faith in Christ and confidence in His mercy. In addition, as a preparatory means for repentance, fasting and prayer are necessary, which can dispose the repentant to contrition for sins and to confidence in the mercy of God. Those who truly repent can receive the remission of all their sins, because there is no sin that exceeds the mercy of God. If sins against the Holy Spirit (stubborn denial of obvious manifestations of Divine power, extreme hardening of the heart and despair) are recognized as unforgivable, it is not because of a lack of God's mercy, but because people who fall into them, by their hardening and stubbornness, are not able to turn to God with repentance for them.

Orthodoxy. Dictionary-reference

Dictionary of Forgotten and Difficult Words of the 18th-19th Centuries

Repentance

, i , wed

Voluntary confession of a committed misconduct, of a mistake; confession to a priest.

* [Katerina:] Die me without repentance... // Ostrovsky. Storm // *

◘ RELEASE THE SOUL TO REPENTANCE.

Encyclopedia of Judaism

Repentance

(Viduy)

Interceding for Israel before the Lord, the prophet Shmuel said to Him: "Almighty, you do not condemn a person until he says to You:" I am sinless [if I do not confess my sin]. " And it is said (Jer. 11:35): "Behold, I condemn you for what you said: I am sinless." The Midrash * interprets the verse "Death and life in the power of language" as follows: the language of a person leads him to life in the next world. Why was David rewarded with life in the next world? - For saying: "I am a sinner."

The Torah obliges the sinner to leave the path of sin and repent of sins before the Lord, and it says: "A man or woman who has committed any of the sins of men [...] let them repent of their sin ..." (Num. V,. -7).

There is no "canonical" text in the Torah. Everyone finds suitable words for himself. However, in the midrash of the halakha * we already find the formulas P. The short formula: "I have sinned, I have violated, I have transgressed" is obviously the most ancient. She served as the beginning of the P. High Priest in the Temple on Yom Kippur *. And so the high priest said: "Have mercy, O Lord, I have sinned, I have violated, I have transgressed before You, I and my house; have mercy, O Lord, forgive the sins, transgressions and transgressions committed before You by me and my house." There is also a later version of the text of P. Amoraim * introduced new formulas of repentance, some of which have become part of our traditions. P. Rava * has been completely preserved, beginning with the words: "You know the secrets of the world" and "But we have sinned." There is a special text P., which is pronounced by the patient at death.

Bible Dictionary to the Russian Canonical Bible

Repentance

repentance is the awareness of one's sinfulness, an experience associated with such awareness. This is not only regret about misdeeds, about everything untrue in one's life, in oneself, but something more - condemnation of all this and a departure from it (2 Cor. 7:10). Repentance cannot be without conversion (Acts 26:20), trust in God and striving to bear good fruit (Mat.3: 8). The righteous have no need to repent (Luke 15: 7) (but are there righteous ones on earth?). Repentance is a gift from God (Acts 5:31; Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25). ( cm. )

Orthodox encyclopedic dictionary

Repentance

one of the seven Christian sacraments, established by Jesus Christ Himself. In it, the one who confesses to the Lord (with the testimony of the priest and when the priest reads the appropriate prayers) receives from Jesus Christ Himself the forgiveness of the confessed sins. For the sacrament to be effective, sincere heartfelt repentance and a firm intention to reform, faith in the Lord and hope in His mercy are necessary (See also).

Culture of verbal communication: Ethics. Pragmatics. Psychology

Repentance

voluntary confession of a committed misconduct. A positive phenomenon. Repentance should be sincere, come from internal spiritual and moral considerations, and not forced by practical considerations, in the latter case, people evaluate it negatively.

* Wed Raskolnikov's repentance in the novel "Crime and Punishment" by F. Dostoevsky. *

The Bible: Thematic Dictionary

Repentance

♦ sorrow from perfect sin and turning to God

AND. Topics in the Bible

REPENTANCE as a theme:

♦ Joel:

♦ Zechariah:

B. The commandment to repent

♦ God calls all people to repent:

Jer 18:11 Eze 18: 30-32 Acts 17:30; 2 Pet 3: 9

♦ Christ calls people to repent:

Mk 1: 14.15; Luke 13: 1-5 Rev 2: 5.16; Rev 3: 3

♦ John the Baptist called on the people to repent:

♦ the apostles called on the people to repent:

Mk 6:12; Acts 2:38 Acts 3: 19.20; Acts 26:20

♦ the call must continue today:

IN. Essential Aspects of Repentance

♦ confessing that we died in sin:

♦ sorrow from sin:

Luke 5:32 Acts 2: 37.38; Acts 8:22 2 Cor. 7: 9,10

♦ return to the Father:

♦ faith in Jesus Christ:

Mk 1:15; Acts 20:21 Revelation 3: 19.20

♦ good deeds:

Jer 18: 11,12; Mt 3: 8; Acts 26:20; Rev 2: 4.5

G. The results of repentance

♦ disaster prevention:

♦ forgiveness:

1Ki 8: 46-50 Acts 2:38

♦ the rescue:

♦ new heart and new spirit:

♦ knowledge of the truth:

♦ immortal life:

♦ regret without repentance brings death:

Mt 27: 3-5; 2 Cor. 7:10

Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms

Repentance

/ Remorse

♦ (ENG repentance)

(old Hebrew Shub, greek metanoia, lat. poenitentia)

an act expressing sincere remorse for sin... The linguistic roots of this term indicate its theological meaning: a change in the direction of mind and life as an initial step in the expression of Christian faith (Acts 26:20).

Ozhegov Dictionary

WHILE INIE, I, wed

1. Voluntary confession of a committed misconduct, of a mistake (book.). Bring p.

2. The same as (in 1 value). Church n. P. in sins.

Letting the soul go to repentance (spoken joking) leave the kogon. alone, stop pestering me.

Efremova's Dictionary

Repentance

1. wed
   1. :
      1. Voluntary confession of committed misconduct.
      2. Admitting guilt for smth. errors.
   2. Confession of your sins before the priest; confession.
   3. colloquial Repentance for smth.

Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

Repentance

One of the seven Christian sacraments, established by I. Christ himself (John XX, 21-23: Mt. XVI, 19; XVlII, 17-18). In it, according to Orthodox teaching, the one who verbally confesses his sins before the priest, with a visible expression of forgiveness from him, is invisibly resolved from all sins by I. Christ himself, so that he again becomes innocent and sanctified, as after baptism. For the effectiveness of the sacrament, a sincere heartfelt repentance and a firm intention to correct one's life, faith in I. Christ and hope for his mercy, an oral presentation of sins before the priest and the permission of the priest, also oral, according to the well-known formula (the "Order" of confession is published in the "Trebnik" and also separately). IN Old Testament P. first consisted of external cleansing rituals, fasting, etc .; later the prophets raised the concept of P. and demanded, in addition to external cleansing and sacrifices, a contrite and humble heart to God (Psalm LI, 19) and a change in life for the better (Isaiah I, 16-17; Ezekiel XXXIII, 14-15). The Gospel understands P. not just as repentance, but also as rebirth, a complete change (μετανοία) of the being. In the times of the Apostles, two types of P. are designated: secret, before the priest, and open, public, before the entire church community (Acts XIX, 58; James V, 16). In the II and III centuries. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Cyprian speak of the existence of public P. In the III century. The item was regulated in detail for the so-called fallen (lapsi), that is, those who denied Christ during the persecution, but after returning to the church again. For them, four degrees of P. were determined (according to some scientists - three or five): crying (προσκλαίωντες), listening (άκροώμενοι), falling (προσπιπτοντες, ύποπίπτοντενο The "crying", kneeling in the outer vestibule of the church, asked those entering the temple to pray for them and to intercede for early admission to the church; the "listeners" stood in the inner porch of the temple, in front of the catechumens, and with them departed from the temple; the "leaning ones" stood in the church itself, at the entrance, in front of the widows and elders; after the "listeners" went out, they "fell down" on their faces, confessed their sin and then left the temple; The “ones ahead” took a place on the left in front of the church and differed from the faithful only in that they could neither make offerings to the church, nor receive Holy Communion. mystery. Not only lapsi were exposed to public P. in the ancient church, but also those who fell into heresy and especially grave sins. The term of public P. was sometimes very long: P. of the fallen lasted 4 years according to the rules of Peter of Alexandria, 6 years according to the rules of the Ankyra Council, and 20 years according to the rules of the First Ecumenical Council. At the request and insistence of the civil authorities, the term of public P. was sometimes reduced; sometimes this reduction was made at the discretion of the church itself. There were cases of voluntary public P., as a special type of asceticism of the pious, out of humility, and not out of actual guilt. The sins from which the public P. were purified by the court of the church were: sacrilege, murder, fornication, incest, insult to the majesty and making a counterfeit coin. Since confession in front of everyone presented some inconvenience, then from the middle of the 3rd century. in the churches a special order of the priest-confessor (πρεσβιτερος επί της μετανοίας, poenitentiarius) was established, which he listened to in private. confession of a person subject to public repentance; but this institution was soon abolished, and after that public P. also ceased to exist in the East (about 400). In the West, it stopped no earlier than the 7th century. Its place is taken by intensified prayers, special deeds of charity and other feats of piety, performed under the supervision and guidance of a presbyter, and in extreme cases - excommunication from communion for one period or another (see "Confession of Faith of the Eastern Church" by Mitrofan Kritopolis and "Answer of Patriarch Jeremiah to the Lutherans "on the Augsburg Confession). The IV Lateran Council determined that once a year all those who came "at a reasonable age" would certainly approach the sacrament of P. once a year, under the threat of excommunication and deprivation of Christian burial. This definition was confirmed by the Council of Trent, which prescribed the same to the priests. In the XII century. in the West, oral confession with a list of sins was not considered necessary by all to receive forgiveness; some found it sufficient to have one inner repentance. Richard of St. Victor taught that a priest can exempt from the penalty of sin, but not from guilt; Thomas Aquinas - that a priest cannot free from sins, but can free from guilt and punishment. The Kafars and Waldens rejected oral confession. Since the XII century. the former permission formula: "misereatur tui omnipotens Deus et dimitiat tibi omnia peccata tua, et perducet te in vitam aeternam" is replaced by the priest's words: "ego absolvo te". Luther first kept P. among the sacraments, preserving both oral confession (although he did not consider it necessary to have a complete list of sins for those who confess) and the pastor's permission for those preparing for communion (Augsburg Confessions II, 12, 25), but then he recognized the pastor's permission not necessary, seeing the essence of P. in true repentance and sorrow for sin. With the passage of time, the oral confession of sins fell out of Lutheran custom; later efforts to restore it were unsuccessful. Currently, in Orthodox Lutheranism, there is only a general public P. and a general permission taught by the pastor. In the church, the Reformed oral confession does not exist at all; according to her teaching, one needs to confess to God alone, no matter whether it is a common confession or alone, in church. It is also allowed to confess to someone close to you or a pastor in order to hear from them guidance or consolation (Confessio Helvet. , 1.14); nowadays, however, such a confession is not practiced. In the Orthodox Church, there is a rule according to which every Orthodox must begin the sacrament of P. at least once a year (usually during Great Lent, as well as during the other three Lent, Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky and Petrov). The priest is obliged to keep confession in secret - for the publicity of the sins confessed to him, he is subject to spiritual defrocking. If, however, someone in confession declared his evil intent against the sovereign and public order and at the same time did not express remorse and determination to abandon his intention, or secretly, but deliberately produced a temptation among the people that could have harmful consequences for the church and society (for example, a fictional miracle) and, confessing, did not intend to destroy the temptation by public repentance for the deception, the priest must immediately report everything to the bishop; the details of the confessed, however, he does not report earlier, as at the formal court. A priest has no right to confess several people at once, even minors. The priest is prohibited from using confession as a means for any extortion and personal requests. Paying a priest for confession is prohibited by both state and church decrees. Of the monastics, only those who have the dignity of no lower than a hieromonk can confess, and only with the permission of the bishop. Wed Confession books (paintings). See V. I. Dolitsky, "On Confession" ("Christian Reading", 1842); "Repentance" (ibid., 1825); Church Prohibition and Permission (Orthodox Interlocutor, 1860); A. Shostin, "The superiority of Orthodox confession over Catholic" ("Faith and Reason", 1887, 1); Almazov, "Secret Confession" (1894).

repentance

repentance, cf.

Voluntary confession of a committed misconduct, of one's own mistake (book).

Confession, confession by believers of their sins before the priest (church).

The punishment imposed by the pre-revolutionary court for certain crimes, which consisted of forced and controlled prayer (pre-revolutionary). Sentence to church repentance. To let the soul go to repentance (colloquial joke) - to leave someone n. alone, stop harassing someone. stop pestering someone.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

repentance

Voluntary confession of a committed misconduct, of a mistake (book). Bring p.

Same as confession (in 1 digit). Church p. P. in sins. * To release the soul to repentance (open joke) - to leave someone n. alone, stop pestering me with something.

New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language, T.F. Efremova.

repentance

1. Voluntary confession of committed misconduct.

   Admitting guilt for smth. errors.

Confession of your sins before the priest; confession.

colloquial Repentance for smth.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

Repentance

church, confession, Christian sacrament (magic and cult rite). See in Art. Sacraments.

Wikipedia

Repentance

Repentance:

• Repentance
• Repentance is the recognition of your sins before God.
• Confession is the sacrament of repentance in historical churches.
• Metanoia
• Repentance
• Repentance is an album of the "Bekkhan" group.

Repentance (film)

"Repentance" - Soviet feature film, filmed in the genre of drama in 1984 by director Tengiz Abuladze. Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987.

This film, shot even before the beginning of Perestroika in the USSR, was released in January 1987 and almost immediately became a landmark for Russian cinema. In 1988, the film was awarded the Nika Prize in six nominations, including Best movie.

The third film in the director's trilogy ("Plea" - " Tree of desire» - « Repentance»).

Examples of the use of the word repentance in literature.

And in Adventist meetinghouses, there is emptiness, and nothing prompts repentance and humility.

In reality, the Albigensians were ordinary people to whom their faith gave refuge from the strictness of Orthodox Catholicism and liberation from the burdensome church tithe. penances, taxes on baptism, burial, etc.

Springel scolds him as a fool who climbs under the whip himself when he could get off with a church repentance- Ananias is not afraid of punishment, firmly believing in its redemptive power.

Fedoska the heresiarch and others like him began to fight the whole church, to destroy the posts, repentance and the mortification of the flesh into a kind of fable to impute, the lawlessness and self-willed squalor into laughter to turn other obstinate and narrow paths of cruel Christian living into smooth and extensive paths to change.

You will see that I made extensive use of the permission of the Benedictine and changed everything that too flattered the Roman Church, which I hate, if only because of the fast and penances.

Mentors of the Epiphany Brotherhood later repentance atoned for their indiscretion, which was expressed in the fact that their students, including older ones, were placed on the left wing of the cathedral, in the female half, near the kliros.

A deputation went to the Buddha, she brought a complete repentanceand the Perfect One, having forgiven the disciples, returned to the community.

But the Right Reverend Vakula praised even more when he learned that he had endured the church repentance And for nothing he painted the whole left wing with green paint and red flowers.

Descendant of Jewish ancestors, grandson of a woman burned for apostasy, husband of a person who was sentenced to public repentance By the Saragossian Inquisition, himself reconciled with the Church and conditionally forgiven, Alfonso married a second marriage to Doña Isabella de Aro, from whom he had two sons and two daughters, who married persons from the noble families of the Kingdom of Aragon.

This recognition was introduced by the Reformed Churches instead of the present repentancewhen they separated from the Roman Catholics, on the basis of their teaching that faith is imputed, and one, without mercy, and therefore without repentance also, realizes the forgiveness of sins and regenerates a person.

From excessive intemperance, their body constantly weakens, and they, according to the number of their years should have lived a long time, die without repentanceleaving the family in shame, sorrow and poverty.

The successful denouement of the demonological legend was supposed to testify to the strength of the Christian church, overcoming the wiles of the devil, to the possibility of forgiving the sinner through repentance, about the salvific role of the intercession of the saints and especially the Mother of God.

He wanted to give him a place of honor at the court, but Gakebolius refused, considering himself unworthy of such honor and intending to prepare his soul for the Hellenic virtues by a long trial and repentance, cleanse the heart from the wickedness of Galilee by serving one of the ancient gods.

The Essenes met annually for a general repentance and confirmation of faithfulness to the renewed Covenant.

Finally, few have hit repentance, in atonement for sins, in order to earn forgiveness with repentance, at least somehow compensate for the evil caused, to fraternize with the surviving victims in the conviction - as desperate and noble as it is erroneous - that someone is generally free to give absolution, as if any was a person, an organization or a government able to mediate between the Germans and their crime.

Living his life, a person makes a lot of effort to take care of his body. By washing away bodily dirt, he cleanses the body, which is actually perishable. This is our temporary home. But if we keep our body clean, then isn't it worth more than taking care of our soul, washing away spiritual filth from it? Spiritual filth is the sins that our soul grows over during its life. Diseases and impurities of the soul are healed through the sacrament of Repentance.

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 forgiveness. The priest acts as an intermediary between God and man in the sacrament of repentance. Through him, a repentant person receives the remission of his sins from Jesus Christ Himself. This sacrament contains two main actions:

1. Confessing all your sins before a priest.
2. The remission of sins 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 realizing your sins there will be no forgiveness.

The most important thing is to understand that confession is not interrogation and not "pulling" sins out of the soul by force. She does not pass judgment on the sinner. Repentance is also not talking about your shortcomings, not informing the priest about your sins, and not just a good tradition. Confession is a sincere repentance of one's sins, it is an urgent need for the cleansing 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. A priest is also a man, and accordingly, he is also not sinless. In this sacrament, he is only a mediator between the penitent and the Lord. The real secretary is only God Himself, and no one else. The Pastor of the Church acts as an intercessor before Him and makes sure that the sacrament is performed properly.

There is another important aspect to confession to a priest. When we confess 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. While repenting of his sins before a servant of the Church, a person also overcomes such a sin as pride. He overcomes shame, confesses his sinfulness, telling those things that people usually try to keep silent about. This mental suffering makes confession even deeper and more significant for the purification of the soul.

Are all people sinners?

Some believe that they have nothing to repent of. They do not commit murder, theft, or other serious crimes. However, this is fundamentally wrong. The constant companions of human life are such feelings as laziness, envy, revenge, anger, vanity, irritability and other states of the soul that are displeasing to God. In addition, some women commit the sin of infanticide (abortion), the fault for which lies with both the woman and the man who supported her or even persuaded her to make this decision. And what about adultery, appeals to fortune-tellers and other acts? 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 realizes his sins, even if he has even more of them than the unrepentant person.

How to eliminate sin in yourself

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

Sin has the following phases of involvement:

• An adverb is the arising of a sinful desire, thought.
• Combination - fixing attention on a sinful thought, accepting it in your thoughts.
• Captivity is an obsession with a given desire, agreement with this thought.
• Falling into sin is the embodiment of what was present in sinful desire.

Repentance is the beginning of the struggle with sin. To overcome sin, you need to realize it and repent. You need to have a firm intention to fight it in order to finally 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 should be spent in obedience to the Lord, the Church, and also to your spiritual mentor.

Is it possible to live without repentance?

People often live without thinking about what they are doing. It seems to them that there is still enough time to change for the better, to 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 extinguished. We will begin to move towards spiritual death.

Figuratively speaking, the soul without repentance becomes open to sinful thoughts, passions and evil deeds. In turn, this can lead to a difficult period in a person's earthly life. And even if during his lifetime a person does not experience the full weight of his sinfulness, then after death, when it will be too late to correct anything, the consequence of the 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, performed in order to pay tribute to fashion, to look better in someone's eyes, or if a person repent to ease his conscience, without a firm intention to correct his sins. Cold, dry, and mechanical repentance is not considered valid. It will not do any good to the repentant sinner. In order for repentance to really serve for the good of a person, it must come from the very heart, conscious and ardent. Moreover, awareness and repentance alone is also not enough. Man must be determined to fight his sin. He must call the Lord to be his helpers, because human flesh is weak, and it is almost impossible to fight his sinful nature himself. But it is God who helps us in this difficult task. 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. By 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 recognizing each sin separately, repenting of it and confessing it before the priest. For convenience, before confession, you can write down all your sins on paper so as not to forget anything. There are special brochures that contain a list of sins. It happens that a person does not even suspect that he is sinful in certain matters, and is very surprised when among this list there are many acts that are contrary to God that he performed in his life. A person who decides to confess should:

• firmly believe and hope in the Lord;
• regret having angered the Lord;
• to forgive the offenders for all insults and not hold any grudge against anyone;
• declare all your sins before the priest without concealment;
• firmly intend to continue 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 in detail the whole process, not one nuance of this sacred rite is missed.

What you need to know a person preparing for confession

Confession can be made at any time, whenever possible, in the church. This should be done as often as possible. Confession before the sacrament is especially necessary. In confession, you need to remember that this is not a conversation with a priest. If you have any questions for him, they need to be discussed at another time. In confession, it is necessary to list your sins, while not trying to justify yourself or accuse someone. In no case should you proceed to confession, and then to communion, if you are not reconciled with everyone and hold an evil or resentment against someone. This will be a great sin. If the priest does not have time to listen to all the sins in detail, this is not scary, you can tell them briefly. However, the most oppressive can be told in more detail, and ask the priest to listen to them. In any case, the Lord knows your true intentions. Let your candle of repentance be lit. And the Lord will certainly hear you.

Is it possible to confess not all sins

The Lord can accept repentance only if it is sincere. And what could be the reason to hide some kind of sin? After all, a person striving 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 behind. The desire to cleanse himself from a sincerely repentant sinner is so great that he, without the slightest shame and pride, will hasten to tell everything in confession to the priest. 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 admit to the priest of any offense, then perhaps subconsciously he does not want to part with him. Such a confession will not be beneficial. Moreover, there can be even more harm from it, since the additional sins 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, at the same time, repentance should come from the soul, that is, quality should not turn into quantity. Listen to your heart - it will tell you when the urgent need to be cleansed from the burden of sin comes.

Does God forgive all sins

You can rest assured 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 was not for nothing that the first person who got into the Kingdom of God was a robber.

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

K. Lebedev. Confession of the Penitent

Confession (repentance) is one of the seven Christian Sacraments, in which the repentant, confessing his sins to the priest, with the visible forgiveness of sins (reading the prayer of permission), is invisibly resolved from them by Jesus Christ Himself.

This sacrament was established by the Savior, who told His disciples: “ Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth, it will be bound in heaven; and what you allow (untie) on earth will be allowed in heaven". And elsewhere: " Receive the Holy Spirit: to whom you forgive sins will be forgiven; on whom you leave, on who will remain". The apostles, on the other hand, transferred the power to "knit and allow" to their successors - the bishops, who, in turn, when performing the sacrament of ordination (priesthood), transfer this power to the priests.

The Holy Fathers call repentance the second baptism: if during baptism a person is cleansed from the power of the original sin transmitted to him at birth from our first parents Adam and Eve, then repentance washes him from the filth of his own sins, committed by him after the Sacrament of Baptism.

… Repentance has three properties, or parts: purification of thoughts, patience of those who find sorrow, and prayer, ie. invocation of God's help against the evil admonitions of the enemy. These three things, one without the other, cannot be accomplished. If one part is interrupted where, then the other two parts are not solid there.
Venerable Ambrose of Optina

In order for the Sacrament of Penance to be performed, on the part of the penitent, it is necessary: \u200b\u200ban awareness of his sinfulness, a sincere heartfelt repentance of his sins, a desire to leave sin and not repeat it, faith in Jesus Christ and hope for, faith that the Sacrament of Confession has the power to cleanse and wash away the honestly confessed sins through the prayer of the priest.

Repentance should be sincere and completely free, and not in any way forced by time and custom or by a person who confesses. Otherwise it will not be repentance. Repent, it is said, for the Kingdom of Heaven has approached (Matthew 3: 2), it has approached, that is, it has come by itself, you do not need to look for it for a long time, it is looking for you, your free disposition, that is, repent yourself with heartfelt contrition.

The Apostle John says: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." At the same time, many people say: “I don’t kill, I don’t steal, I don’t commit adultery, so why should I repent?” But if we carefully study God's commandments, we will find that we sin against many of them. Conventionally, all sins committed by a person can be divided into three groups: sins against God, sins against neighbors and sins against oneself.

About the beginning of the Christian life through repentance or about repentance and the conversion of a sinner to God

The graceful Christian life begins at Baptism. But few keep this grace, most Christians lose it. We see that some are more or less depraved, with evil principles, which are allowed to develop in them and take root. In others, perhaps, good beginnings are laid, but in the early years young men, either by their own instinct or by temptation from others, forget them, begin to get used to bad things and get used to them. All such no longer have in themselves a truly Christian life; they have to start it again. Our holy faith offers for this the Sacrament of Repentance. “And if anyone had sinned, then we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous” (1 John 2: 1). Whether you have sinned, know the sin and repent. God will forgive sin and again give you “a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezek. 36, 26). There is no other way: either do not sin, or repent. Even judging by the large number of sinners after baptism, it must be said that repentance has become for us the only source of truly Christian life.
In the Sacrament of Repentance, some only purify the gift of the grace-filled life, already received and acting in them; for others, this life is just beginning or is being given anew. We will consider it from this last point.
For the latter, there is a sharp change for the better, a break of will, a rejection of sin and turning to God or kindling a fire of concern only for pleasing God with a rejection of oneself and everything else. A painful fracture of the will is most characteristic. A person is accustomed to the bad, now he must, as it were, tear himself apart. He insulted God, now we must burn in the fire of an honest judgment. The repentant experiences the illnesses of those giving birth and in the feelings of the heart touches in some way the torments of hell. The weeping Jeremiah commanded the Lord "to destroy ... to build up and to plant" (Jer. 1:10). And the deplorable spirit of repentance was sent by the Lord to earth, so that, passing through those who accept it, “until the separation of soul and spirit, constitutions and brains” (Heb. 4:12), destroy the old man and lay the foundations for the creation of a new one. In the repentant, now fear, now light hope, now suffering, now light consolation, now almost the horrors of despair, now a breath of joy of mercy are replaced by one another and introduce or keep him in a state of perishing or parting with life, but in the hope of a new one.
It is painful, but salutary, and so inevitable that those who have not felt such a painful break have not yet begun to live through repentance. And there is no hope that a person could and began to purify himself in everything without going through this furnace. Resolute and lively resistance to sin comes only from hatred for it; hatred for him - from the feeling of evil from him; the feeling of evil from him is experienced with all its might in this painful turning point in repentance. Here only a person with all his heart feels what a great evil sin is, therefore afterwards he will flee from it, like from hellfire. Without this same painful test, although another will purify himself, he will purify only slightly, more externally than internally, more in deeds than in thoughts, and therefore his heart will remain unclean, like unmelted ore.
Divine grace brings about such a change in the human heart. She alone can inspire a person to raise his hand against himself in order to offer himself to God as a sacrifice. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). “A new heart and a new spirit are given by God Himself” (Ezek. 36, 26). The man himself feels sorry for himself. Having merged with flesh and sin, he became one with them. Only an external, higher force can separate it and arm it against itself.
Thus, the change of the sinner produces grace, but not without free will. In Baptism, grace is given to us at the moment this Sacrament is performed on us, and free will comes later and accepts what is given. In Repentance, free desire must participate in the change itself.
A change for the better, an appeal to God, as if it should be instantaneous or momentary, as it happens. But first it goes through several turns, meaning the combination of freedom with grace, where grace takes possession of freedom and freedom obeys grace - turns necessary for everyone. Some pass them quickly, while for others it lasts for years. Who can follow everything that is happening here, especially when there are very diverse ways of beneficial effects on us and the countless states of people on whom it begins to act? But with all the diversity there is here one general order of change, which no one can escape. Every repentant lives in sin - and grace transforms everyone. Therefore, on the basis of the concept of the state of the sinner in general and the relationship of freedom to grace, it is now possible to show this order and determine the rules.
1. THE CONDITION OF THE SINNER
The sinner who needs to be renewed in repentance is usually portrayed by the word of God as deeply asleep. Distinctive feature such people are not always an obvious depravity, but actually the absence of this inspired, selfless concern for pleasing God with a decisive disgust for everything sinful. For them piety is not the main goal of cares and labors; caring about many other things, they are completely indifferent to their salvation, do not feel in what danger they are, do not strive for virtue and lead a cold life towards faith, although sometimes neat and outwardly flawless.
Having turned away from God, man stops at himself and sets himself the main goal of his entire life and activity. This is at least because after God there is nothing for him higher than himself, especially because, having received all fullness from God before, and now being left without Him, he hastens to fill himself with something. The emptiness formed in him due to falling away from God constantly ignites in him an unsatisfactory thirst - indefinite, but incessant. Man has become a bottomless abyss, he intensely cares to fill this abyss, but does not see or feel the filling. Therefore, all his life he is in sweat, work and great trouble: he is busy with various things, which he hopes to quench the thirst that devours him. These deeds consume all his attention, all the time and all his activities. They are the first good in which he lives with his heart. Hence, it is clear why a person, considering himself an exclusive goal, is never in himself, and everything is outside himself, in things created or invented by vanity. From God, Who is the fullness of everything, he fell away, he himself is empty, it remains, as it were, to spill over into infinitely diverse things and live in them. Therefore, a characteristic feature of a sinful life is concern for many things while being careless about salvation.
The types and differences of this concern depend on the properties of the voids formed in the soul. The emptiness of the mind, which has forgotten about the One, Who is everything, gives rise to concern for knowledge, inquiring, trying, curiosity. The emptiness of the will, which has lost the possession of the One Who is everything, produces the desire for much or everything, so that everything is in our will, in our hands - this is possession. The emptiness of the heart, deprived of the pleasure of the One Who is everything, creates a thirst for many and varied pleasures or the search for countless things with which we hope to satisfy our feelings, internal and external. So, the sinner is always in concern about knowledge, possession, pleasure, delights, takes possession, learns. This is the cycle in which he revolves all his life. Curiosity beckons, the heart hopes to get pleasure and carries away the will. That this is so, everyone can check for himself by observing the movements of his soul for at least one day.
In this cycle the sinner would live if he was left alone: \u200b\u200bsuch is our nature when slavishly serves sin. But this cycle is a thousand times larger and more complicated because the sinner is not alone. There is a whole world of people who only do what they find out, enjoy, extract, who have put in order all the necessary methods for this, subordinated to the laws, made it necessary for everyone belonging to their power. They, uniting, inevitably coming into contact, rub each other and in this friction only raise curiosity, possession and pleasure to tenths, hundredths and thousandths, seeing in them all happiness, bliss and life. This is a vain world; his occupations, customs, rules, connections, language, entertainment, concepts - everything, from small to great, is imbued with the spirit of these three types of care and leads to the joyless spiritual death of those who love this world. Vividly connected with this whole world, every sinner is entangled in its thousand-twisted net, wrapped in it deeply, deeply, so that he himself is not visible. A heavy burden rests on the sinner - the lover of the world and on every part of it, so that he cannot move anything small, not in a worldly way, because then he needs to lift, as it were, a thousand-pound weight. Therefore, no one undertakes such an unstoppable task, and no one thinks to take it, but everyone lives, moving along the track in which they fell.
To an even greater misfortune, this world has its own prince, inimitable in cunning, malice and experience in deception. Through flesh and materiality, with which the soul was united after the Fall, he has free access to it and, approaching, in many ways kindles in her curiosity, lust for power, sensual self-satisfaction. With various seductions, he constantly keeps in these states, learns how to satisfy them, and then either helps to fulfill these plans, or interferes, pointing to others, stronger, all with one goal - to prolong and deepen the stay in them. This is the change of worldly failures and successes, not blessed by God. This prince has a whole horde of servants, subordinate spirits of malice. At every moment they quickly rush around the entire inhabited world, in order to sow one thing there, in another place another, deepen those entangled in the network of sin, renew the ropes that are weakened and torn, especially to make sure that no one tries to untie them and go free. In this latter case, they hastily gather around the headstrong, first one at a time, then in detachments and legions, and finally, with the whole horde - and this in different forms and methods, in order to block all exits, to repair threads and nets and, in another comparison, again push into the abyss that began to get out of it along the cliff.
This invisible kingdom of spirits has special places - the throne, where they make plans, receive orders, accept reports with approval or condemnation. These are the depths of Satanism, as St. John the Theologian. On earth, among the people under their control, these places are alliances of villains, libertines, especially unbelievers, blasphemers, who in deed, word and writing spread sinful darkness everywhere and obscure the light of God. They express their will and power here with the help of worldly customs, saturated with sinful elements, always stupefying and distracting from God.
This is how the power of sin works! Every sinner is all in her, but is held mainly by one thing. And this one, perhaps, sometimes looks quite tolerant and even approving. Satan has one concern that what a person is all busy with, where his consciousness, attention, heart, is not God alone and exclusively, but something outside of Him, so that, having clenched to this with his mind, will and heart, he would have it instead He only cared about God, about that he found out, that he delighted and possessed. Here, not only bodily and mental passions, but also decent things - scholarship, art, concern for everyday life - can serve as fetters with which Satan keeps blinded sinners in his power, preventing them from coming to their senses.
If you look at the sinner in his inner mood and condition, it turns out that he sometimes knows a lot, but is blind in relation to the works of God and to the work of his salvation; that although he is always in troubles and worries, he does not think and does nothing for his salvation; that although he always experiences anxiety or pleasure, he is completely insensitive to everything spiritual. In this respect, all his powers are defeated by sin, and blindness, indifference and insensibility operate in the sinner. He does not see his state, and therefore does not feel the danger of his position, does not feel his danger, and therefore does not care to get rid of it. It never occurs to him that he needs to change and be saved. He is in complete, unshakable confidence that he is in his correct state, that he has nothing to desire, that everything should remain as it is. Therefore, he considers any reminder of a different kind of life to be superfluous for himself, does not listen, even cannot understand what it is for - he avoids it and avoids it.
2. ACTION OF GOD'S GRACE
We said that a sinner is the same as a person immersed in deep sleep. Just as a deeply sleeping person, no matter what danger approaches, will not wake up and stand up unless someone else comes up and wakes him up, so he who is immersed in a sinful dream will not come to his senses and will not get up if Divine grace does not come to his aid. ... By the infinite mercy of God, she is ready for everyone, bypasses everyone and calls in such a way that everyone can hear: get up, sleeping, and rise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you (Eph. 5:14).
This comparison of sinners with sleeping people helps to comprehensively consider their conversion to God. Namely: the sleeper wakes up, gets up, is about to go to work. And the sinner, who converts and repents, awakens from a sinful sleep, comes to the determination to change (gets up) and, finally, receives strength for a new life in the Sacraments of Repentance and Communion (ready for work).
(Bishop Theophan the Hermit)

Sins Against God

Ingratitude to God.
- Disbelief. Doubt about faith. Justification of their disbelief by an atheistic upbringing.
- Apostasy, cowardly silence, when they blaspheme the faith of Christ, not wearing a cross, visiting various sects.
- Mentioning the name of God in vain (when the name of God is mentioned not in prayer and not in a pious conversation about Him).
- An oath in the name of the Lord.
- Divination, treatment by grandmothers - whispers, appeal to psychics, reading books on black magic, reading and spreading various false teachings.
- Thoughts of suicide.
- Breaking the vows given to God.
- Despair in difficult situations and disbelief in the Providence of God, fear of old age, poverty, illness.
- Condemnation of the Church and its servants.
- Continuation of a sinful life in one hope for the mercy of God, that is, excessive trust in God.

Sins against neighbors

Hot temper, anger, irritability. Obscene scream, argument. Abusive, cruel and caustic words.
- Arrogance.
- Perjury.
- Revenge.
- Mockery.
- Avarice.
- Non-repayment of debts.
- Failure to pay earned money for labor.
- Failure to provide assistance to those in need.
- Disrespect for parents, irritation with their old age.
- Disrespect for elders.
- Recklessness in their work.
- Condemnation.
- The appropriation of someone else's is theft.
- Quarrels with neighbors and neighbors.
- Killing your child in the womb (abortion), persuading others to commit murder (abortion).
- Murder by word - bringing a person with slander or condemnation to a painful state and even to death.
- Drinking alcohol at the commemoration of the dead instead of intense prayer for them.

Sins against yourself

Verbosity, gossip, idle talk.
- Unreasonable laughter.
- Foul language.
- Self-love.
- Doing good deeds for show.
- Vanity.
- The desire to get rich (love of money) - love for money, for property. Reflection on the means to get rich. Dream of wealth. Avarice, greed. Addictions or painful over-love for different subjectsdepriving the soul of freedom. Hobbies for vain cares. Love for gifts.
- Envy.
- Lying.
- Drug use, smoking.
- Gluttony (gluttony) - gluttony, drunkenness, secret eating, delicacy, in general a violation of abstinence.
- Fornication - inciting prodigal thoughts, impure desires, prodigal touching, watching erotic films and reading similar books.
- Fornication is a purely carnal attraction without any spiritual intimacy.
- is the intimacy between people who do not feel love for each other.
- Unnatural fornication - physical proximity of persons of the same sex, masturbation.
- Incest - physical intimacy with relatives or nepotism.

Although the above sins are conventionally divided into three parts, in the final analysis they are all sins both against God (since they violate His commandments and thereby offend Him) and against neighbors (since they do not allow true Christian relationships and love to be revealed) ), and against oneself (since they hinder the saving dispensation of the soul).

How to Prepare for Confession?

The repentant asks God for grace-filled help: the ability to see his sins, the courage to openly confess them, the determination to forgive the sins of his neighbors against himself. With prayer, he begins to test his conscience. Samples of prayers, imbued with a deep penitential feeling, were left to us by the great ascetics of the Church.

Anyone who wants to bring repentance before God for their sins must prepare for the Mystery of Confession. You need to prepare for confession in advance: it is advisable to read the literature on the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, remember all your sins, you can write them down on a separate sheet so that you can view it before confession. Sometimes a leaflet with the listed sins is given to the confessor for reading, but the sins that weigh the soul especially must be told out loud. There is no need to tell the confessor long stories, it is enough to state the sin itself. For example, if you are at enmity with relatives or neighbors, you do not need to tell what caused this enmity - you need to repent of the very sin of condemning your relatives or neighbors. It is not a list of sins that is important to God and the confessor, but the penitential feeling of the confessed person, not detailed stories, but a broken heart. It must be remembered that confession is not only an awareness of one's own shortcomings, but, above all, a desire to cleanse oneself from them. In no case is self-justification inadmissible - this is no longer repentance! Elder Silouan the Athonite explains what real repentance is: "This is the sign of the forgiveness of sins: if you hate sin, then the Lord has forgiven you your sins."

It is good to develop the habit of analyzing the past day every evening and bringing daily repentance to God, writing down serious sins for future confession with a confessor. It is necessary to reconcile with neighbors and ask for forgiveness from everyone who has been offended. Preparing for confession, it is advisable to strengthen your evening prayer rule by reading the Penitential Canon, which is found in the Orthodox prayer book.

To confess, you need to find out when the Sacrament of Confession takes place in the church. In those churches where the service is performed every day, the Sacrament of Confession is performed every day. In the same churches where there is no daily service, you must first familiarize yourself with the schedule of services.

After any sin, repentance is needed. You often need to repent and revise your soul. He who does not repent and does not care about repentance, he extremely launches his heart field and allows all sinful tares to grow stronger in it, stagnates in sins, makes repentance and correction difficult for himself.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Great Wednesday

Maundy Wednesday is usually the day of confession for believers on the eve of Maundy Thursday. The fact is that on Thursday on Passionate Orthodox Christians try to receive communion - but not all parishioners can have time to confess on that day itself, so a big confession is held in churches the day before. The clergy note that Wednesday evening is a unique opportunity for parishioners to confess in more detail than on ordinary days, and they urge to use it.
Cm.

Those who wish to worthily make holy confession and then proceed to Holy Communion are taught by the rules of the Orthodox Church to observe the following:
- During the week that you have chosen to prepare for confession, it is advisable to appear every day in God's temple at the beginning of each service and pray with contrition before God with warm tears. Only in the case of special obstacles or good reason and illness can the preparation for confession be shortened by two to three days.
- At the time that you have chosen for fasting, it is necessary to intensify strict fasting, to intensify prayer and, if possible, works of mercy (charity, alms, visiting the sick, prisoners, etc.). A real Christian (if he is not seriously ill), according to the Rule, should not allow himself to eat even fish food at this time, should not eat either meat or dairy foods, as well as wine and oil, when there is no permission from the Church.
However, those who fast as a meat-eater are not entitled to strict fasting, unless of their own accord.
- During fasting, especially the Great Fast, you need to eat only vegetable food, and moreover, the simplest, not refined, in small quantities, and even then at the end of the hours with evening (or mass), according to the Charter, only once a day in the evening.
- It is best to bring confession not only on the eve of communion, as others do during Great Lent, on Fridays, when there is no opportunity for a long and detailed confession of their sins, with many other people who want to bring holy repentance on the same day, but in two days , even three before Holy Communion.
- It is enough to abstain from food and drink only on the eve of communion, from six in the evening. And even then, the weak or small, the infirm, can drink and have something to eat (like bread and water, or tea and a roll) after six in the evening, but only not later than midnight.
- When going to confession, especially to Holy Communion, you must certainly be reconciled (if not personally, then in absentia) with those with whom you were in a quarrel or trouble, and by all means ask everyone for forgiveness.
- In order to more accurately and in more detail recall and calculate your grave sins, which you have not yet repented of, or which after repentance have repeated again, you need to think them over in advance in order; for example, according to the ten commandments of the Law of God. You can write them on paper for memory, of course, secretly from everyone, and read this manuscript to the spiritual father, who, together with the forgiveness of sins, will destroy this sinful manuscript of yours.
- Those who repent bring with them an unlit (as if extinguished) candle, as a sign of the fact that they, like the negligent virgins once had, the lamp of faith was left without oil, i.e. without good deeds. However, faithful people can come without a candle, as well as without any contribution for confession, which, like a Sacrament, must be performed free of charge.
- Having come to confession, without haste and without pushing others, first of all, you should cross yourself correctly, then, having bowed down to the analogue on which the cross and the Gospel lie, become decorous, with humility, and listen carefully to everything that the confessor says and asks about ...

Usually, confession is performed in churches in the morning before the start of the Divine Liturgy. You can also confess in the evening: during or after the all-night vigil. You should come to the temple at the beginning of confession in order to participate in common prayerwhen the priest prays for all those who repent. At the end of these prayers, he utters the following parting word: Behold, child, Christ invisibly stands, accepting your confession….
In other words, this instruction reads like this: “My child! Christ invisibly stands before you, accepting your confession. Do not be ashamed or afraid, without hiding anything from me, but say everything in which you have sinned, without embarrassment, in order to accept the remission (of sins) from our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is His image before us: I am only a witness to testify before Him everything that you tell me. If you hide anything from me, you will have a double sin. You came to the hospital - do not leave here unhealed. "

How does confession take place?

Confession is performed in churches either in the evening after the evening service, or in the morning before the beginning of the liturgy. In no case should you be late for the beginning of confession, since the Sacrament begins with the reading of the rite, in which everyone who wants to confess must prayerfully participate. When reading the rite, the priest appeals to the penitents to give their names - everyone answers in an undertone. Those who are late for the beginning of confession are not allowed to the Sacrament; the priest, if there is such an opportunity, at the end of the confession reads the rite for them and accepts the confession, or appoint it for another day. You cannot start the Sacrament of Penance for women during the period of a month's purification.

Confession usually takes place in a church with a crowd of people, so you need to respect the secret of confession, do not crowd around the priest receiving confession, and not embarrass the confessing person who reveals his sins to the priest. Confession must be complete. You cannot confess some sins first, and leave others for the next time. Those sins that the repentant confessed in previous confessions and which have already been forgiven him are not named again. If possible, you need to confess with the same confessor. You should not, having a permanent confessor, look for another to confess your sins, which are hindered by a feeling of false shame to a familiar confessor.
Those who do this by their actions are trying to deceive God Himself: in confession we confess our sins not to the spiritual father, but together with him - to the Savior Himself.

In large churches, due to the large number of those who repent and the inability of the priest to accept confession from everyone, it is usually practiced “ general confession”, When the priest lists out loud the most common sins and the confessors standing in front of him repent of them, after which everyone in turn comes up to the prayer of absolution. Those who have never been to confession or have not confessed for several years should avoid general confession. Those you must definitely go through private confession - why you need to choose either a weekday, when there are not so many confessors in the church, or find a parish where only private confession is performed. If this is not possible, you need to go to the priest at a general confession for a prayer of permission among the latter, so as not to detain anyone, and, after explaining the situation, open up to him in the sins he has committed. Those who have grave sin must do the same.

Repentance is necessary not only to believe in Christ: it is necessary to stay in faith, to succeed in Christ; it is necessary for living faith in Christ.
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

Whatever sin you have not committed, you do not need to repent of it. Just say, "God had mercy on me for this." From the side of the spiritual father, who is sometimes awaited by a hundred confessors, it is enough to ask you: Except for the common sins, to all of us, people, which are peculiar to us, do you have any special sins, for example, drunkenness, fornication, theft, etc. If you say “No” in good conscience, then that is enough for him to persuade you and allow you. And then do not grieve that he did not confess you in detail.
But it is much better if, through meditating on your sins during the days of retreat, through mourning them and contrition of your heart, through reading spiritual edifying articles and books about confession and self-examination, preparing for the Holy Sacrament of Repentance, you get the skill yourself, without detailed questions from your confessor. confess your sins, which are especially grave. Remember that the confessor cannot know what is hidden in the depths of your soul, so hurry up to reveal it to your spiritual father and expose all the sinful ulcers of your soul.

After your confession of one or another particularly grave sin, the confessor, as the shepherd of the Church, assigned to the work of his ministry by Christ Himself, will instruct you and show you the remedies for sins: listen to his words with attention and try to do whatever he says.
After confession, the confessor will give you a general instruction with the conviction to lag behind past sins and not to pester new ones, and to try in every possible way, calling on the help of God, to live holy, as befits a true Christian. Have a firm intention to follow his soul-saving advice that is in full accord with the will of God.
Then you must kneel down, bow your head, put your hands to your chest as a sign of humility and pray to the Lord diligently for forgiveness of sins and help to start a new, better life. The confessor reads a prayer over you: "Lord God, the salvation of Thy servants ...".
After the prayer, without getting up, read the following petition yourself or repeat after your confessor: "Forgive me, Holy Father, and bless: those who have sinned in soul and body, in word, deed and thought, and with all my feelings of soul and body."
After that, the confessor reads a prayer of absolution, imposing an epitrachelion on the head of the penitent: "Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, through the grace and bounty of His love for mankind, may forgive you, child, all your sins." At the end of the permissive prayer, the confessor marks the penitent with a cruciform hand.
After the confession of sins and the reading of the prayer of permission by the priest, the penitent kisses the Cross and the Gospel lying on the analogue and, if he is preparing for communion, takes the blessing from the confessor for communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

In some cases, the priest may impose penance on the penitent — spiritual exercises designed to deepen repentance and eradicate sinful habits. Penance must be regarded as the will of God, uttered through the priest, requiring mandatory fulfillment for the healing of the soul of the penitent. If it is impossible for various reasons to perform the penance, you should contact the priest who imposed it to resolve the difficulties that have arisen.
After confession it is good to venerate the holy icons of the Savior, the Mother of God and the saints of God.
To repent means to feel in the heart a lie, madness, guilt of one's sins; it means to realize that they have offended their Creator, Lord, Father and Benefactor, infinitely holy and infinitely abhorrent of sin, - that means with all my soul to desire their correction and atonement.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

St. John of Kronstadt
Christian thoughts on repentance and Holy Communion

Confession

Repentance should be sincere and completely free, and not in any way forced by time and custom or by a person who confesses. Otherwise it will not be repentance. Repent, it is said, draw near the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 4:17) draw near, that is, it has come itself, you do not need to look for it for a long time, it seeks you, your free disposition, that is: repent yourself with heartbreak. Baptized (it is said about those who were baptized by John), confessing his sins, (Mt 3: 6) that is; they themselves confessed their sins. And since our prayer is predominantly repentance and a petition for the forgiveness of sins, then it must be always sincere and completely free, and not involuntary, forced by custom and habit. Prayer should be the same when it is thanksgiving and praise. Gratitude presupposes in the soul of the blessed one the fullness of a free, living feeling that freely pours through the mouth: from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt 12:34). Glorification presupposes the delight of surprise in a person contemplating the deeds of infinite goodness, wisdom, the omnipotence of God in the moral and material world, and therefore it should also naturally be a completely free and reasonable deed. In general, prayer should be a free and fully conscious outpouring of a person's soul before God. Before the Lord I pour out my thought (Mol. Anna, mat. Samuel).
Repentance is helped by consciousness, memory, imagination, feeling, will. As we sin with all the strength of our soul, so repentance must be all-soul. Repentance only in words, without the intention of correction and without a sense of contrition, is called hypocritical. The consciousness of sins is eclipsed, it is necessary to clarify it; the feeling is muffled, it is necessary to awaken it; the will grows dull, weakens for correction, it must be forced: the kingdom of heaven is taken by force (Matt 11:12). Confession should be heartfelt, deep, complete.
The carnal man considers Christian freedom involuntarily, for example: going to worship, fasting, fasting, confession, communion, all the sacraments, but does not know that all this is a requirement of his nature, a necessity for his spirit.
Whoever gets used to giving an account of his life in confession here will not be afraid to give an answer at the terrible judgment of Christ. For this, the meek judgment seat of repentance has been established here, so that we, who have been purified and reformed through this repentance, can be given a shameful answer at the terrible judgment of Christ. This is the first impulse to sincere repentance and, moreover, by all means annual. The longer we do not repent, the worse it is for ourselves, the more tangled the sinful bonds become, the more difficult it is to give an account. The second impulse is calmness: the more calm the soul will be, the more sincere the confession. Sins are secret snakes gnawing at the heart of a person and his entire being; they do not give him rest, incessantly suck his heart; sins are thorny thorns that constantly invigorate the soul; sins are spiritual darkness. Those who repent are to bear the fruits of repentance.
What does fasting and repentance lead to? For what labor? It leads to the cleansing of sins, peace of mind, to union with God, to sonship, to boldness before the Lord. There is a reason to fast and confess from the bottom of your heart. The reward will be invaluable for conscientious work. How many of us have feelings of filial love for God? How many of us boldly, without condemnation dare to call on the heavenly God the Father and say: Our Father! ... Is it not on the contrary that such a filial voice is not heard in our hearts at all, muffled by the vanity of this world or attachment to its objects and pleasures? Is not the heavenly Father far from our hearts? Should we not imagine Him to be God as an avenger, who have retired from Him to a far country? - Yes, because of our sins we are all worthy of His righteous anger and punishment, and wonderful how He is so longsuffering to us, how He does not cut us down like barren fig trees? Let us hasten to propitiate Him with repentance and tears. Let us enter into ourselves, with all severity examine our unclean heart and see how many impurities block the access of divine grace to it, we realize that we are spiritually dead.
You will endure the difficulty and useless pungency of the operation, but you will be healthy (it says about confession). This means that at confession, without concealment, all your shameful deeds should be revealed to the confessor, although it is painful, shameful, shamefully humiliating. Otherwise, the wound remains unhealed and will ache and ache, and undermine the mental health, the leaven will remain for other mental infirmities or sinful habits and passions. A priest is a spiritual doctor; Show him your wounds, not ashamed, sincerely, with filial trust: after all, the confessor is your spiritual father, who should love you more than your relatives father and mother, for Christ's love is higher than carnal, natural love - for you he must answer God. Why has our life become so impure, filled with passions and sinful habits? Because so many hide their spiritual wounds or ulcers, that's why they hurt and get irritated and no medicine can be applied to them.
If you fall, rise up and be saved. You are a sinner, you are constantly falling, learn to rebel; take care of obtaining this wisdom. This wisdom consists in the following: Learn by heart a psalm Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy, inspired by the Holy Spirit to the King and Prophet David, and read it with sincere faith and hope, with a contrite and humble heart; after your sincere repentance, expressed in the words of King David, you will immediately receive the forgiveness of your sins from the Lord, and you will feel the peace of your spiritual strength. The main thing in life is to be jealous of mutual love and do not judge anyone. Everyone will answer for himself to God, and you look into yourself. Beware of malice.
Unbeknownst to sin (it is said about Christ) create sin for us, so that we may be the truth of God about Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). After that, will you be ashamed to confess to any sin, or to accept the accusation of sin that you have not blamed? If the Son of God Himself was guilty of sin for us, although he was sinless, then you must also accept the accusation of all sins with meekness and love, for you are truly sinful with all sins. And those who are not sinful, accept the accusation in humility of mind.
For the sake of our faith alone, mountains of the heart are moved, that is, the heights and gravity of sin. When Christians take off the burden of sins in repentance, they sometimes say: "Glory to God, a mountain has fallen off your shoulders!" (Table of contents)

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