Remember all sins. Sins at confession in your own words: briefly, a list of possible sins and their description. Sins committed against God

The first confession in church is a great test for a person. When going to confession, people feel shame, fear, anxiety. This is a moral test for a person, leading to relief, purification of the soul, deliverance from sins.

What you need to know about confession:

clergyman, when he hears of your sins, he will not condemn. He will be glad that you are frank, your spiritual strength was enough for repentance before the Lord.
Lets go sins are not father, but the Lord.
Father, the one who accepts confession is a guide: through him you can ask God for forgiveness for each of your wrong deeds, thoughts or words.
Confess everyone can. The exception is children under 7 years of age and women in the period of purification - during menstruation.
getting ready to the procedure, you can write down the sins on a piece of paper.
calling their misdeeds, you can not shift the blame on another person, make excuses and keep back.
It is forbidden knowingly hide sins.
Remember all offenses, regardless of the degree of guilt and the reasons that prompted them to be committed.

Important! People confess on any day, but before taking Holy Communion it is obligatory.

If you are going to confession before communion, you should observe a fast for at least 3 days before that: give up animal products.

On the days before communion, people read the canons in addition to the night and evening prayers. The procedure is carried out on an empty stomach: you can not eat, drink water, starting from 12 o'clock at night on the day of communion.

Confessing for the first time, most do not know what to say, how to behave. Cleansing from sins occurs through the acceptance of guilt.

You need to sincerely repent of your deeds, all the bad deeds in which the sinner repents will be forgiven.

Not knowing how to confess correctly, what to say, honestly tell about this priest, he, on duty, faces this every day.

The priest will help: he will ask the right questions, tell you at what point you should cross yourself and kiss the cross. Remember, the priest will never judge you, he will never betray your secret.

When you give your secrets to him, you trust them to the Lord. Priests are intermediaries helping parishioners.

Example and pattern of confession in the church

The procedure of confession in the church is simple, it does not require special knowledge.

It is enough to be a believer, realize your sins and sincerely repent of them:

Confessing their crowd of parishioners comes out, stands up to them and asks for forgiveness. People respond with the phrase: "God will forgive, and we forgive."
After, a man goes forward to the father.
Need cross and bow.
bowing head, a Christian tells about all his sins, hiding nothing.
About those misconduct, in which the parishioner repented earlier, it is not necessary to speak. These sins have already been forgiven by the Lord, even if a person still remembers them and feels guilty.
After, the priest says the words of the prayer.
Believer must cross himself, bow at the waist, kiss the holy book and the cross.
Final stage of the procedure: the believer must again cross himself, bow. The priest blesses the repentant parishioner, he returns to his place.

This is the procedure for repentance before the Lord through a minister of the church. Standing with their heads bowed, most people feel the weight of their sins.

A lot of people cry, which is completely normal. Leaving the church, it is easy for a person, the procedure affects his mental, emotional and physical state.

These aspects are closely related. It becomes light in the soul, depression, an oppressed state pass. People are becoming kinder, more merciful. Their soul was cleansed, from this moment it is easier for them to live on.

Important! At confession, all sins of a person are forgiven: voluntary and involuntary. There are things that people do without even considering it to be a sin.

Some things people just don't remember. The Lord forgives even such transgressions, if the believer sincerely repents, tries not to miss anything.

During confession, you should speak in simple, understandable words. It is not necessary to be precise in the wording, describe the details or your feelings at the time of the bad deed. It needs to be told, in fact.

What sins to name: list

It is worth dwelling in more detail on what the Orthodox religion considers sin.

Remember the most terrible sins: murder, lies, voluptuousness, theft. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" is the commandment. Gluttony, drunkenness, and idleness are all sins.

Saying a loud voice: "Oh, Lord," you commit a sin because you do not turn to God at this moment.

Try to remember all the bad deeds. Spoken hurtful words are bad deeds. Offended by a word - repent.

It is a sin for a Christian to think about suicide, this is a great sin. Previously, suicides could not be buried in the same cemetery with the Orthodox - these are the rules.

Thoughts of debauchery, wishing death or illness to other people who hurt your feelings are sins.

List of sins to remember when confessing in church:

The Lord is merciful, he forgives a person for any of his bad deeds. You just need to sincerely repent, accept your guilt. Before confession, it is worth taking time to think in solitude.

It is necessary to remember all your sins, everything bad. Everyone needs to be felt. A person should want to be cleansed of the bad deeds that lie on his conscience.

The Lord forgives everyone because everyone sins. He is merciful and loves us.

Useful video

All that we have sinned must be confessed

This means that confession must be not only sincere, but also detailed.

And for this you need to try to think everything over and remember in advance. You can take a good book to help - for example, "To help the penitent", "On the eve of the confession" of the father or "The experience of building a confession" of the father. This is necessary, of course, not in order to look into a book during confession or write off sins word for word. The book only helps to realize and see sins forgotten and unnoticed, without replacing our own efforts.

It helps well to recall the sins and the story of the ordeals of blessed Theodora from the life Saint Basil New († around 944). Let me remind you that Theodora served St. Basil diligently for many years. She was very pious, had been a widow for a long time, and her life was spent in fervent prayer and chastity. The life says that Theodora received everyone who came to the saint with great love, consoled everyone, was merciful, God-loving and full of spiritual wisdom. Not angry at her enemies, she patiently endured insults, always grieved for other people's troubles and tried to help everyone. Sometimes she wept for her sins all night long, and finally, just before her death, she took the monastic rank.

Later, forty days after his death, through the prayers of St. Basil Theodora appeared to the elder's disciple, Gregory, telling him in detail with what great difficulty she went through the ordeals.

First, she had to give an answer for the sins of the tongue - every word is idle, abusive, disorderly, filthy; for all the frivolous words spoken by her from her youth - everything that she said was unreasonable and nasty, especially blasphemous and ridiculous speeches, as well as worldly shameless songs that she once sang. All this was presented to her in detail, indicating the time, place and persons before whom she sinned, recalling the sins committed in the distant past, which she forgot to think about.

Then it was necessary to answer for every false word, and here Theodora was convicted of two things: that she “sometimes in some small things allowed herself to lie, not imputing it as a sin, and also that many times, ashamed of sins brought their own spiritual father his incomplete confession." Here, too, the sins of perjury, the transgression of oaths, and the invocation of the name of God in vain were tested, which, by the grace of God, Theodora did not commit.

This was followed by a trial of condemnation and slander, where Theodora "saw how grave it is to slander someone, to dishonor, blaspheme, and also to mock at other people's vices, forgetting about her own." “If sometimes,” said the blessed one, “I had to hear someone condemning another, I paid little attention to the condemning one, and if I added anything from myself in this conversation, then only such that could not serve my neighbor in the greatest offense, and then she immediately stopped, despising herself for this little. However, even such offenses were made a sin to me by the torturers.

The next was the ordeal of gluttony. “Evil spirits, having bypassed us like dogs, immediately exposed all my past sins of gluttony, when I indulged in excess in food and drink and ate through force and without any need, when, like a pig, I started eating in the morning without prayer and sign of the cross, or when she sat down at the table with fasting earlier than the rules of the church charter allowed. They also presented the cups and vessels from which I got drunk, indulging in drunkenness, and even indicated the number of cups drunk, saying: “So many cups she drank at such and such a feast and with such and such people; at another time and in another place, she drank herself unconscious with so many cups; moreover, she feasted so many times, indulging in dance and song, and after such feasts she was brought home with difficulty; so she was exhausted from immeasurable drunkenness.

At the fifth ordeal, the sins of laziness were tested - days and hours spent in idleness. Here those who, idle, lived at the expense of others, were tortured, those who did not properly perform the work for which they received payment, as well as those who were lazy to pray and go to the liturgy and other services of God. “It is tested there,” as it is said in the life, “also despondency and neglect of one’s soul, and every manifestation of both is strictly punished, so that very many people of the worldly and spiritual rank fall from this ordeal into the abyss.”

Theodora barely passed this ordeal; there were fifteen more ordeals ahead. There, the sins of theft, avarice and avarice, unlawful profits, untruth in court and in the scales, withholding payment, taking bribes, enmity, hatred, envy and pride were tested. Evil spirits experienced sins of conceit and vanity (among which the holy fathers also include love for beautiful things and clothes, a desire to show off their mind, knowledge or piety, piety and a desire to rule and teach others), disrespect for parents and for everyone who received power from God, the sins of malice, anger and rage, witchcraft and murder. Theodora passed all of them almost without hindrance, since almost nothing of these sins was found in her.

Further, the path lay through the ordeal of fornication sins, where “every fornication, every fornication thought and dreaming, as well as passionate touches and lustful touches were tortured; the sins of those living in marriage and not observing marital fidelity; unnatural sins of men and women, sodomy and bestiality, incest and other secret sins, which are ashamed to even remember ... ”Despite the piety in which she spent many years, Theodora was cruelly tortured in the prodigal deeds of her youth, because, ashamed, she did not quite sincerely repented before her spiritual father of the sins committed earlier. She was told when, where and with whom she had sinned in her former life. In addition, Theodora was guilty of adultery. The angels laid down there every last good deed of Theodora, and having barely saved her from a terrible misfortune, they continued on their way.

After the sins of fornication, the sins of heresy were tested - doubts in the faith and its distortions, blasphemy against the shrine and others like these. Finally, the last was the ordeal, “called the ordeal of hardness of heart. And if someone, although he accomplishes many feats, constantly observes fasts and prays fervently, and also preserves his undefiled purity, but at the same time turns out to be unmerciful and closes his heart to his neighbor, he is thrown down from there into hell and lies in the abyss and so thus he himself remains devoid of mercy. In all this, Theodora was innocent and, after all the trials, she finally entered the Kingdom of Heaven.

It would seem that an ordinary person, not endowed with extraordinary spiritual and moral strength, is generally impossible to go through these ordeals. And yet, we will not be asked for all the sins committed before, but only for unrepentant sins. This is evident from the proposed narrative. “My lords,” Theodora asked the angels who led her, “do all Christians go through these ordeals, and is it impossible for a person to go through them without any torture and terrible torment?” The holy angels answered her: “There is no other way leading to heaven. Everyone follows this path, but not everyone is subjected to such tortures as you were subjected to, but only sinners like you, who made an imperfect confession of their sins before their spiritual father, being ashamed of their lawless deeds and concealing many of them. But if someone sincerely and in truth, without concealing anything, confesses all his deeds and repents with contrition of heart for all the sins he has committed, then the sins of such a person, by the mercy of God, are invisibly blotted out, and when his soul goes through ordeals, air torturers, having unfolded their books, they do not find in them any manuscripts of her sins and cannot do her any harm, so that that soul ascends unhindered and in joy to the throne of grace. And you, if you had made a perfect confession and repented of all your sins, you would not have endured such tortures ... "

Feelings without words are not repentance

Feeling and word help each other in confession, although the first does not replace the second. Himself as a Good and Gentle Lord, this is Your servant be resolved in a word favor,- says one of the prayers before confession . We are resolved from sins with words, not with tears and feelings. During her lifetime, Theodora wept bitterly about all the sins she committed, but for those of them that remained unconfessed, she was severely tortured.

Weeping for sins is commanded to us by the Lord. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted(). But they will not be comforted because tears alone are enough for repentance. True weeping for sins will certainly teach resolve with a word. But if we cry, but we can’t really say anything about sins, this is not a confession. Then you need to return home, think it over well and come again, firmly remembering the sins or writing them down.

Sometimes we cry more because we feel sorry for ourselves. This crying does not lead to bliss; on the contrary, it only prevents us from repenting. The stronger our love for God, the more stronger desire part with sins. On the contrary, the more we love ourselves, the less we care about repentance, and sadness about our own experiences easily takes its place.

In this case, it is important not to give yourself the will to pour out your feelings instead of sins. If we are so carried away by them that we hardly remember the sins themselves, then first we will take the trouble to remember the sins, and only after that we will go to confession.

You can remember sins even with a bad memory

It is not uncommon to hear a serious confession from those who have a rather mediocre memory. Others, on the contrary, do not remember sins and have a much better memory. They remember all their lives, but they do not remember sins. We hear from them: “I have sinned in deed, word and thought, I don’t know what else to say…” But only those who really repented during confession can receive communion. “In deed, word and thought” is not repentance for specific sins. The priest is forced to explain to these people that they do not take communion with such a confession. What's next? Others leave offended, saying that they have no sins, but there are very few of them. More often than not, we immediately hear… a normal confession. What happened? Suddenly improved memory? No, there was a desire. They wanted to - and immediately remembered a lot of sins.

He who has sins in his soul with a painful feeling will remember them without compulsion. Father Alexander Elchaninov said it well: “Sometimes in confession they refer to a weak memory, which supposedly does not give the opportunity to remember all the sins. Indeed, it often happens that we easily forget our falls, but is this only due to a weak memory? After all, for example, cases that especially painfully hurt our pride, or, conversely, flattered our vanity, we remember our successes, praises addressed to us for many years. Everything that impresses us, we remember long and distinctly, and if we forget our sins, does this mean that we simply do not attach serious importance to them?

The fewer gross sins, the deeper confession becomes.

If the gravest sins have already been confessed and have not been repeated, this is only one step of repentance. Total weight the so-called "petty" sins are many times greater than those of mortal sins. One large stone is easier to throw down a mountain than a bag filled with small stones. However, even “unbearable in its nature,” says St. , - can become easy if we take it with pleasure. Kingdom Heavenly power is taken, and those who use force admire it(). And if we do not make any effort to see subtle sins, they will respond with despondency, callousness and then lead us to new falls.

That we do not commit sins that others allow themselves - the essence of the matter does not change from this: everyone will answer for himself. To whom more is given, more will be required; who does more, he sees better what he did not do or did wrong. “No virtue is higher than repentance,” writes St. because the work of repentance can never be perfect. Repentance is always appropriate for all - sinners and the righteous - who wish to improve salvation. And there is no limit to improvement, because the perfection of the perfect themselves is truly imperfect. That is why repentance until death is not determined either by time or deeds ... "

The best preparation is to remember a little each day

“Who forbids you yourself,” says the father, “to think carefully about your life in advance, preparing for Confession during several days of fasting, so that there is something to repent of ... At home, before the Face of the Lord, you need to think over your life and precisely your private violations of the will God's. Check yourself: does all my behavior correspond to what the Lord requires of me as a Christian. If you accustom yourself to such a test, then such an abyss of sins in your soul will be revealed to you ... "

The saint writes in more detail about this: “Let us enter into ourselves, and let us begin to sort out what is in us. Intervention in this matter by any third party is inappropriate and completely impossible. No one can enter into you and sort out the affairs of your conscience, except for yourself, and if you please do this ... in a certain place under certain circumstances; on the dispositions of the heart ... hidden under deeds, and on the general spirit of life.

Is it possible to do all this within two or three hours, or even a day or two before confession?

Perhaps, but only if we have already accustomed ourselves to check our conscience every day. If not, no efforts expended before confession itself will help us remember everything that we have forgotten.

Each of us, if desired, can remember or write down the sins committed by him during the day - whether in deed, word or thought. Well, if we write down several of them, in extreme cases - at least one. The point, of course, is not to write down exactly thirty sins for confession in a month. Our task is wider and deeper - to remember all than we have sinned. And if in a month or more we can remember only one or two sins, this means that we are not yet ready for confession.

Irregular confession cannot be complete

The most meaningful confession usually happens to those who approach this Sacrament, on average, at least once a month. The longer we do not confess, the worse we remember sins. Of course, one can repent wholeheartedly even after long breaks, and the very first confession is quite meaningful for many. But only hardly anyone will be able to maintain this good mood if a lot of time passes again before the next confession.

But doesn't this mean that we should go to confession the more often, the better, as often as possible? Indeed, in ancient times, in monasteries, monks repented before confessors twice a day? Well, if we, in our inner dispensation, were as ready to repent twice a day as those monks, we could imitate them. In practice, those who come to confession both in the morning and in the evening, and whenever they can (“go to confession or something…”), fall into relaxation and prepare worse. As a result, this seemingly frequent confession carries less than if we were not too lazy to give ourselves the trouble to think it over and remember everything well, even if this requires an additional few days.

First, about the hardest things to talk about

If you hide anything from me, imashi is a sin, - it is said in the following of the Sacrament of confession. "Sugub" means "doubly"; concealed sin after confession becomes even heavier.

Everyone knows this, and yet one often hears: “I have been confessing for so many years, but I did not dare to repent of this sin.” The reasons are clear. And it's a shame - it is important for us how we will look in front of the priest, and it's a pity to part with the "favorite" sin. The consequences are also clear. By the fact that we were not ashamed to sin, but we are ashamed to confess the sin we have committed, we plunge ourselves into melancholy, despondency and various external sorrows. And the desire not to part with sins is punished by its fulfillment - they really remain with us.

Someone will ask - how detailed a confession should be? So much so that the priest understands the essence of the matter. One of our young parishioners diligently hid the most shameful sins among others, while calling them "in general." At the end of his confession, however, he repented of this too. The result - soon this young man ceased to live at all church life and go to confession, and then a couple of years later he had to start all over again. On the other hand, of the people who have recently come to the temple, as a rule, it is precisely those who, at confession, immediately began with the main thing.

In order not to lose this important thing, speak directly and as clearly as possible. If we confess in terms that no one but us can understand (for example, speaking of prodigal sins something like “I have sinned by intemperance”), this is self-deception, not confession.

Sometimes details are needed. For example, to say “I sinned by stealing” without saying what exactly happened is to say nothing. For some, “theft” is an eraser or a ruler stolen in childhood from a neighbor on the desk, for others it is millions acquired at the expense of others. And if we have omitted something important, without which it is not clear what our fault is, we must again say more precisely about this.

Finally, hints - even understandable (“I looked ... not what you need") are inappropriate for confession. Then you yourself will doubt whether you confessed your sin or not.

In a word, if we knew how to sin and do not want to be condemned for it, we must name sins at confession in the same specific way as we would have been called at the Judgment. As one experienced spiritual father used to say, one is glorified by God who, at confession, completely dishonored himself before the priest.

We repent before God of sins, not types of sin

We offend God with sins, not what they are called. Some names of sins and passions (“I have sinned with condemnation, negligence, lies”) are the most primitive confession; how short and convenient it is, how far from reality it is. Calling sins only by name, we cannot say what we repent of. "Condemnation, negligence, lies" - the words are too general and obscure. For example, three people condemned the fourth. One of them will later say in confession: “I have sinned with condemnation,” condemning him in thoughts. Another spent the whole day discussing the person who did not please him with all his acquaintances, and he would also say: "I sinned with condemnation." The third meanwhile, in a deep hysteria, quarreled with those who did not want to support him ... Is there much in common with one common word? We ask God for forgiveness at confession for deeds, words and bad thoughts. It is for them that He forgives us, but only when we confess them. I forgive and forgive you from all your sins, says the permissive prayer. From all of us confessed by them sins if, of course, they were told.

Don't justify yourself

Self-justification is the first enemy of confession. It is worse than the fear that the priest will think badly of you. There is more guile in it than in hiding sins from shame. We will not long hide the sins that we are well aware of. Someday a sensible thought will come: after all, if we are talking about life and death, what difference does it make how we look? He will appear and lead us to confession together with the sins hidden before.

It is worse if sin is hidden by us even before confession from ourselves. “I didn’t confess it,” they say, “because I didn’t recognize it as a sin.” Most often this is a lie; it would be more honest to say: "I did not confess, because I deliberately persuaded myself not to consider it a sin." You can do it in different ways: “And who is not sinful with this?” "What's wrong with that?" “Where in the Gospel does it directly say that you can’t do that?” “What else could you have done under such circumstances?” It happens that a person is pointed out to the sins of his neighbors, but we learn this from neighbors, and not from the person himself. It happens that in front of the same neighbors, he himself reluctantly admits those sins for which he still does not repent at confession ... Moreover, this also happens with those who have some experience and books, and whose regular confession is either longer , or longer than many others.

And no wonder. “The mystery of true repentance is not limited to knowledge of the relevant literature and a dry enumeration of one's sins. She, this secret, takes place deep in the heart of the penitent…” What happens in the heart of a proud person who is ready to wriggle before the Cross and the Gospel, like a snake, in order to remain pretty in his own eyes? What led him to confession - the desire to cleanse himself of sins or get rid of the unpleasant feeling that remained after sins?

We will escape God's judgment when we judge ourselves. What does it mean to condemn yourself? This means to lament about the sins themselves, and not about their unpleasant consequences for us. This means not looking at the sins of others from the height of their imaginary virtues. This means realizing guilt before God to such an extent clearly and completely that it seems ridiculous to us ourselves when others overestimate us.

I cannot forget the words of one elderly priest, which he said before confession. It was a long time ago, many years ago, on one of those days when everyone takes communion - on Maundy Thursday or Christmas Eve. I was just starting to go to church then, and this simple and short story I remember well. After the evening service in the temple, before everyone began to confess, he said: “Once two people came to me for confession. One of them began to repent, but I just could not understand what had happened. At first he said he stole something. Then it began to turn out for him that he either stole, or did not steal. And I felt somehow uncomfortable. He was always trying to find something that would justify him.

Then another came up and directly said: "I stole." And it became easy and joyful for me that a person got rid of this sin and wanted to get rid of it completely ... "

I did not think then that I myself would have to experience such feelings. When you hear something like “it’s my fault, but it happened because ...”, and the truth becomes uncomfortable. All responsibility for our actions lies only with us, and if we try to shift it onto someone else, we thereby deprive ourselves of the fruits of confession. But when you blame only yourself for everything - no matter what you have done, no matter how serious your sins are, - not only you yourself will leave them with joy: the priest will also rejoice for you. But this is not the main thing: I tell you says the Lord, that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous who have no need of repentance().

12. Without real effort, everything will be ineffective.

So far we have been talking about confession itself. And yet an honest, collected and detailed confession is only a part of repentance. The other part is the desire to fix the issue itself.

If things are already incorrigible, in any case, the inner dispensation that led to them must be eliminated. It cannot be corrected without a confession, but it cannot be corrected with a confession alone: repentance— change- whether it be the mind, soul or heart, it should also affect the affairs of a person - it should become a change in life.

This call is contained in the words: repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand(). The first to pronounce them was St. John the Baptist, sent to prepare the way for the Lord(). His preaching led to Jerusalem and all Judea ... went out to him and were baptized ... confessing their sins(). What's next? The Forerunner pointed out to them that this alone was not enough: bear fruit worthy of repentance(). The people understood this and asked: Teacher! What should we do? () And he explained to everyone what was needed do, to live according to the Truth and not to sin further.

The Savior Himself taught in the words: Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand() by adding: repent and believe in the gospel(). The gospel says what should we do- how to arrange both life and your inner world. A little later Christ reproached cities, in which His might was most manifested, because they did not repent(). He warned them that Sodom, Gomorrah and other cities severely punished for iniquity would have an easier time on the day of judgment than they would, those who heard Christ but did not repent. How did he not repent - did not confess? Rather, he was not going to change his affairs.

Apostle Paul all the earth... preached that they should repent and turn to God, doing deeds worthy of repentance (). He convinces Timothy with meekness to instruct opponents, will not God give them repentance to the knowledge of the truth, so that they are freed from the network of the devil, who caught them in his will(). Could they be freed from the devil's snares by confession alone, even if sincere?

Without worthy of repentance there can be no knowledge of the Truth. Truth is what follows believe, but also what we must do. Her knowledge loses its meaning without efforts to correct everything that we now repent of.

Faith without works is dead(); Will repentance live without works? Let us destroy, throw out of our lives everything that we repent of, and our faith will come to life, and we will come to life. Then the words will apply to us: Every believer will not be ashamed().

There are no such states of the soul when it is impossible to repent. It is true that sometimes we we do not want repent, but we do not want and can not are two different phenomena. Disbelief in God is always voluntary, as is unwillingness to turn to Him. Haven't we been taught? But is it only this? Or was everything that we know, are able to and love was specially instilled in someone from outside? Unwillingness to remember and see sins, unwillingness to live in harmony with the Truth - all this, of course, prevents us from repenting. Only here it's not impossibility but in our deep, strong and tender narcissism - and it is voluntary.

And yet, as long as we are alive, the way to God remains open. Whole New Testament permeated with hope - the hope of the One who created us all, that someone from the created ones will choose the best. We confine ourselves to just one example. Among all the New Testament Scriptures, the impenitence of the world is most clearly seen in the Apocalypse, but even there this hope is revealed to us from the very first pages.

All interpreters agree that the epistle to the seven Asian Churches in the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse is addressed to the entirety of the Church, to the totality of all Orthodox Churches, both in space and in time, from the apostles to the end of the world. Thus, each of the seven Churches, in the features that were inherent in it, also serves as a symbol of Christian communities similar to it in the life of different places and times.

The Church of Smyrna is not told about repentance, since she already abides in it. Its members, together with the apostle Paul, can say about themselves: I am nothing(), and at the same time they do everything to save their soul. I know your business says the Lord to each of them, and sorrow, and poverty,—however, you are rich ... Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life(). What, poor in spirit not without reason blessed- The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them not only there, but also here ().

Next comes the Church of Thyatira: I know your deeds, and love, and service, and faith, and your patience, and that your last deeds are greater than the first ... However, this is not without temptations: You allow the wife of Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and deceive My servants, to commit adultery and eat things sacrificed to idols. Heresy, depravity and paganism in the Church... I gave her time to repent of fornication... Behold, I plunge those who commit adultery with her into great sorrow, if they do not repent of their deeds. And I will strike her children with death, and all the Churches will understand that I am the one who searches hearts and inwards; and I will give to each of you according to your deeds(). What if they repent? Then it will be different: Whoever overcomes and keeps My works to the end, to him I will give power over the Gentiles ... and I will give him the morning star() - it will be given to him to enlighten with the light of faith people as far from God as he himself was.

There was little good in the Church of Sardis: I know your deeds: you bear a name, as if you are alive, but you are dead ... I do not find that your deeds were perfect before God ... Remember what you received and heard, and keep and repent. But if you do not watch, then I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. However, you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes and will walk with Me in white clothes, for they are worthy (). Was it easy for them? For the mere fact that they have preserved a living faith in spite of the general deadness, they are given the same thing as Christians of other Orthodox Churches and eras.

Philadelphia Church, as well as Smyrna, the Lord does not call to repentance. This Church, unlike the five others, already abides in him. I know your business; you have not much strength, and you have kept my word, and have not denied my name(). The same consciousness of one's weakness and hope in God, the same unshakable determination to be faithful to Him to the end. But the Lord, seeing this determination and fidelity in humility, does not require special deeds from this Church: And just as you have kept my word of patience, I will also keep you from the time of temptations coming to the whole universe, to test those who live on earth. Behold, I am coming soon; hold on to what you have, lest anyone take your crown().

The last Church - Laodicean - makes the most miserable impression: I know your business; you are neither cold nor hot; oh if you were cold or hot! But since you are lukewarm and not hot or cold, I will spew you out of my mouth. But the Lord addresses the most touching exhortation to this same Church: Those whom I love, I rebuke and punish. So, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me().

Is it possible not cold and not hot yet become zealous and repent? Se , I stand at the door and knock... If so, then it is probably possible. Will we respond to these words, will we open up to Him, realizing, rejecting and confessing our sins - all that separates us from Him? Then the promise will come true for us: If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him. And further: Behold, I am with you all the days, to the end of time. Amen (Cyril of Alexandria on the Exodus of the Soul. “When our soul is separated from the body, it is said here, on the one hand, the armies and powers of heaven will appear before us, on the other hand, the powers of darkness, the accusers of our deeds. Seeing them, the soul will tremble, tremble, and in confusion and horror will seek protection from the angels of God... At each of these ordeals, an account of special sins will be required... Every passion, every sin will have its publicans and torturers... And if for the pious and God-pleasing If she turns out to be worthy of her life (a reward), then the angels will perceive her, and then she will already fearlessly flow to the Kingdom ... On the contrary, if it turns out that she spent her life in carelessness and intemperance, she will hear this terrible voice: let the wicked take it up, but see no glory Lord's (); then the angels of God will leave her and take terrible demons, and the soul, bound by inextricable bonds, will be thrown into hellish dungeons. Thus, ordeals are nothing but a private judgment, which the Lord Himself invisibly executes on human souls - a judgment at which the soul is remembered and all its deeds are impartially evaluated, and after which its fate is determined. This judgment is called private, in contrast to the universal one, which will be performed on all people at the end of the world, when the Son of Man will again come to earth in His Glory ... It must be remembered, however, that ordeals should be presented not in the sense of rough, sensual it is possible for us, spiritually, and not to become attached to particulars, which in different writers and in different legends of the Church itself, with the unity of the main idea about the ordeals, seem different. See: Lives of the Saints in Russian, set forth according to the guidance of the Saint's Menaia

We dedicate the 25th anniversary of the death of this great Romanian confessor and confessor of the faith of Christ. The word itself was spoken on February 25, 1942.

Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And now and forever and forever and ever. Amen.

Very often I see how you, having come a long way, exhausted from fatigue, with a poor loaf of bread in a knapsack, come to the monastery and stay here for several days to hear the word.

If someone looked at you through the pages, they would say the same thing as the Jews who stopped going to church and did not want to restore Jerusalem Temple. These words apply to you too. For the same reason, what I said happens to you, that you bother yourself by coming from distant countries with poor food in a knapsack.

Where could you learn to do the work of God, so that the blessing of God descends on you and on your house, if you were not in the church?

This is happening to you because for a long time you did not go to church, to your rural church, where the same word could have been proclaimed to you in your youth. The word was proclaimed, but you were lazy and sat at home when the word was proclaimed. After all, where could you learn to do the work of God, so that the blessing of God descends on you and on your house, if you were not in the church?

But not only were you not in church and did not care about the house of God, you did not care about the temple of God that we have inside, for it is said that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And you let it collapse.

These are the words of Haggai, which are so well suited to us. After all, as the words Holy Scripture not suitable for everyone? The words of God are for everyone. And here is the rebuke of God through one of the prophets, done to the Jews because they did not go to church. This is how he enlightens and exhorts them to rebuild their temple:

“You expect a lot, but little comes out; and whatever you bring home, I will scatter. - For what? For My house, which is in desolation, while you each run to your own house! That is why the sky is closed and does not give you dew, and the earth does not give its products. And I called drought on the earth, on the mountains, on bread, on grape juice, on oil, and on everything that the earth produces, and on man, and on livestock, and on all manual labor ”(cf.: Hagg. 1: 9 -eleven).

The Lord speaks these words to them through the prophet Haggai because they did not go to church and did not rebuild their Jerusalem temple. And today, when you come from distant lands with great difficulty and with poor bread in a knapsack, these words are suitable because everything has returned to normal. After all, while there was a church in the village, you were doing other things. Who can say that he did not know the word of God even in his youth? And now you have to get here and do this work.

And if the monastery were in a place where you would have to get with even greater difficulty and great effort, then know that you would go there too - so great is the pain when God dries up people's lives. This is the state of affairs on one side. Let's see what the state of affairs is on the side where they can still be corrected. And we will begin with the words of one prophet-king.

Here is what God says through the mouth of the prophet David: “Day and night Your hand weighed heavily on me; my freshness has vanished, as in a summer drought. But I have revealed my sin to Thee, and have not hidden my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You took away from me the guilt of my sin. For this shall every righteous man pray to Thee at the right time, and then the overflow of many waters shall not reach him” (Ps. 31:4–6).

It happened to David, as it happens to everyone who sins. He feels the dryness of life, his poverty and all his deeds. Feels the sword of God hanging over him because of his sins. What to do?

Only through sorrows does God bring people out of their stupor, out of the dryness of life.

These are sorrows that weigh on everyone and bring you to the monastery. Because of your afflictions you are wearying yourself. After all, only through sorrows does God bring people out of their stupor, out of the dryness of life. And sorrows will burn you more and more until you begin to seek healing. This is what God has to do with us. Not with us, because we are His children, but with our wickedness. Above our malice, sins, iniquities, the sword of God hangs.

These sorrows burn you, and because of them comes the dryness of your life. If afflictions are the reason you come here, then the reason God sends them to you is your iniquities.

How can we get rid of the sword of God hanging over us, or from unconfessed sins, because it is them that the sword of God pursues? says: “I confess to the Lord my transgressions, and you immediately took away—removed—the guilt of my sin” (cf. Ps. 31:5). What do we need to do? Confess all our sins without any concealment, and immediately God will remove the condemnation, and immediately the sword will cease to touch your life.

So, God touches your life with sorrows because you did not confess. If you say that everything in your house and life is going badly, then this means that you have sins from which God wants to tear you away. Therefore, desire also what God desires, that is to renounce evil: after all, God does not want to hold His sword over you forever.

I will tell you now about how you feel the sword of God over you in different ways.

Here is someone hurting you. You are honest in all respects, and some neighbor, husband, wife or one of the children takes up arms against you and utters offensive words against you: “fornicator”, “harlot” - heavy words that pierce your heart like a sword . And you do not understand what it could be, but at the same time you are angry and also cut him in response with a sword, and so it comes to enmity and to evil deeds. And you come here to find out why you suffer from such things. And you learn here that these sorrows, this injustice are still not injustice, but a rod, with the help of which God reminds you of the sins that you have not confessed.

And sin is that word spoken by a neighbor or your own child, a word that pierced your heart like an arrow. Because you forgot to confess to the priest one of the sins of your youth. And God reminds you of him. Maybe you forgot that you started your marriage on the left foot and only then got married. Or she spewed out a child - and this is lawlessness before God, these are deeds of fornication, even if you are married according to the law.

Or she forgot that she condemned or thought the same word about someone and forgot to say about him in confession. God, however, has not forgotten your transgression or your words. Therefore, he wants to wash you, cleanse you from all your evils.

This is how God works: he allows your husband, neighbor, child to say insulting words to you, so that you remember your sin and correct yourself

What is He doing to you? It only reminds you of the evil you have done. Therefore, do not consider all the evil that will be thrown into your face or that will pierce your heart as sorrows, but stop and think: “Do I also have such a sin as this?” Because, I tell you, this is how God works: he allows your husband, neighbor, child to say insulting words to you, so that you remember your sin and correct yourself.

And if you forgot it or you were ashamed to confess it to the priest - and you shouldn't have been ashamed of him, you should have been ashamed of committing your sin - that's why God allowed you to hear about him from the lips of another. And although you swear that you are innocent of such a thing, now you are innocent, but you had this sin in your youth, and you did not confess it.

This is the cause of enmity - unconfessed sins. And if you understand the true meaning of enmity, that it is sent from God, then admit your sin and name it under the stole so that God’s punishment no longer hangs over you: “I confess my sin, and He will immediately remove the punishment for my sin.” For it is said in another place: “Many are the wounds of the sinner, but he who trusts in the Lord will have mercy” (Ps. 31:10).

Yes, this is the mercy of God to us, people. How afraid you would be of the snake that you have in your pocket, and would do everything you can to get rid of it: throw off yourself and clothes with it, just to get rid of it, because it can gnaw a hole in your pocket and bite you, do the same with sins. Therefore, I tell you to bring a pure confession, which you have not yet brought in your life.

And if you remember the sins that your spouse, neighbor, your own child reminded you of, then pray for those weak lips that drew your attention to them, because through them God's action was accomplished. Do you believe in it? Then remember it. Pray for the one who dishonors you as a benefactor, turn to him with kindness, and then God will turn His bright face towards you. Defeat evil with good, because God is on the side of good, but isn't God stronger than evil?

Cleave your heart to the cause of God, for the Lord says: “Call me in the day of your affliction, and I will crush you” (Ps. 49:15). Do not call on the devil anymore, do not call on the one whom the Cross will strike, because if you keep calling on him, then he will help you and he will bring you destruction and death.

So cling to God. And even if He sends you sorrows, He sends them properly. And as soon as you confess your sin to the Lord, he will immediately take away the punishment for your sin. And even if sorrows still come upon you, then you will no longer consider them sorrows, but the grace of God over you, and thus you will emerge victorious over them. So pray for those who curse you. After all, it's written! For they are doing a good deed, but you do not see it.

As I told you above, everyone who wants the shadow of God to cover your life, who wants to acquire God's protection over your house and over the labors of your hands, cleanse your souls with prayers, pure confession and fasting. And you will see how the mercy of God and the patronage of God will descend on you and on every work of your hands. Amen.

The sacrament of confession is a test for the soul. It consists of the desire to repent, verbal confession, repentance for sins. When a person goes against the laws of God, he gradually destroys his spiritual and physical shell. Repentance helps to cleanse. It reconciles man with God. The soul is healed and gains strength to fight sin.

Confession allows you to talk about your misdeeds and receive forgiveness. In excitement and fear, one can forget what one wanted to repent of. The list of sins for confession serves as a reminder, a hint. It can be read in full or used as an outline. The main thing is that the confession should be sincere and truthful.

Sacrament

Confession is the main component of repentance. This is an opportunity to ask for forgiveness for your sins, to be cleansed of them. Confession gives spiritual strength to resist evil. Sin is a discrepancy in thoughts, words, deeds with God's permission.

Confession is a sincere awareness of wicked deeds, a desire to get rid of them. No matter how difficult and unpleasant it is to remember them, you should tell the clergyman about your sins in detail.

For this sacrament, a complete interconnection of feelings and words is necessary, because the everyday enumeration of one's sins will not bring true purification. Feelings without words are just as ineffective as words without feelings.

There is a list of sins to confess. This is a large list of all indecent actions or words. It is based on the 7 deadly sins and 10 commandments. Human life is too diverse to be absolutely righteous. Therefore, confession is an opportunity to repent of sins and try to prevent them in the future.

How to prepare for confession?

Preparations for confession should take place in a few days. The list of sins can be written on a piece of paper. Special literature on the sacraments of confession and communion should be read.

One should not look for excuses for sins, one should be aware of their wickedness. It is best to analyze each day, sorting out what was good and what was bad. Such a daily habit will help to be more attentive to thoughts and actions.

Before confession, you should make peace with everyone who was offended. Forgive those who offended. Prior to confession, it is necessary to strengthen the prayer rule. Add to the evening reading the Penitential Canon, the canons of the Mother of God.

One should separate personal repentance (when a person mentally repents of his actions) and the sacrament of confession (when a person talks about his sins in a desire to be cleansed of them).

The presence of a third party requires a moral effort to realize the depth of the offense, it will force, through overcoming shame, to take a deeper look at wrong actions. Therefore, a list of sins is so necessary for confession in Orthodoxy. It will help to identify what was forgotten or wanted to be hidden.

If you have any difficulties in compiling a list of sinful actions, you can purchase the book "Full Confession". It is in every church shop. It is detailed there full list sins for confession, especially the sacrament. Samples of confession and materials for preparing for it have been published.

Rules

Is there a heaviness in your soul, do you want to speak out, ask for forgiveness? After confession, it becomes much easier. This is an open, sincere confession and repentance for committed misconduct. You can go to confession up to 3 times a week. The desire to be cleansed of sins will help overcome the feeling of constraint and awkwardness.

The rarer the confession, the more difficult it is to remember all the events, thoughts. The best option for the sacrament is once a month. Help in confession - a list of sins - will prompt the necessary words. The main thing is for the priest to understand the essence of the offense. Then the punishment for sin will be justified.

After confession, the priest imposes penance in difficult cases. This is punishment, excommunication from the holy sacraments and God's grace. Its duration is determined by the priest. In most cases, the penitent will face moral and corrective work. For example, fasting, reading prayers, canons, akathists.

Sometimes the list of sins for confession is read out by the priest. You can write your own list of what has been done. It is better to come to confession after the evening service or in the morning, before the liturgy.

How is the sacrament

In some situations, you should invite the priest for confession to the house. This is done if the person is seriously ill or near death.

Upon entering the temple, it is necessary to take a queue for confession. During the entire time of the sacrament, the cross and the Gospel lie on the lectern. This symbolizes the invisible presence of the Savior.

Prior to confession, the priest may begin to ask questions. For example, about how often prayers are said, whether church rules are observed.

Then the mystery begins. It is best to prepare your list of sins for confession. A sample of it can always be purchased at the church. If the sins forgiven at the previous confession were repeated, then they should be mentioned again - this is considered a more serious offense. You should not hide anything from the priest or speak in hints. Should in simple words clearly explain the sins of which you repent.

If the priest tore up the list of sins for confession, then the sacrament is over and absolution has been given. The priest puts an epitrachelion on the penitent's head. It means return God's grace. After that, they kiss the cross, the Gospel, which symbolizes the readiness to live according to the commandments.

Getting Ready for Confession: A List of Sins

Confession is intended to comprehend one's sin, the desire to correct oneself. It is difficult for a person who is far from the church to understand what actions should be considered ungodly. That's why there are 10 commandments. They clearly spell out what not to do. It is better to prepare a list of sins for confession according to the commandments in advance. On the day of the sacrament, you can get excited and forget everything. Therefore, you should calmly re-read the commandments a few days before confession and write down your sins.

If confession is the first, then it is not easy to sort out the seven deadly sins and the ten commandments on your own. Therefore, you should approach the priest in advance, in a personal conversation, tell about your difficulties.

A list of sins for confession with an explanation of sins can be purchased at the church or found on the website of your temple. The decoding details all alleged sins. From this general list, one should single out what was done personally. Then write down your list of wrongdoings.

Sins committed against God

Unbelief in God, doubts, ingratitude.
The absence of a pectoral cross, unwillingness to defend the faith in front of detractors.
Oaths in the name of God, pronouncing the name of the Lord in vain (not during prayer or conversations about God).
Visiting sects, divination, treatment with all kinds of magic, reading and spreading false teachings.
Gambling, suicidal thoughts, foul language.
Not attending the temple, the absence of a daily prayer rule.
Non-observance of fasts, unwillingness to read Orthodox literature.
Condemnation of the clergy, thoughts about worldly things during worship.
Waste of time for entertainment, watching TV, inactivity at the computer.
Despair in difficult situations, excessive hope in oneself or someone else's help without faith in God's providence.
Concealment of sins at confession.

Sins committed against neighbors

Hot temper, anger, arrogance, pride, vanity.
Lies, non-intervention, ridicule, stinginess, extravagance.
Raising children outside of faith.
Failure to return debts, non-payment for labor, refusal to help those who ask and those in need.
Unwillingness to help parents, disrespect for them.
Theft, condemnation, envy.
Quarrels, drinking alcohol at the wake.
Murder with a word (slander, bringing to suicide or illness).
Killing a child in the womb, persuading others to have an abortion.

Sins committed against yourself

Foul language, pride, idle talk, gossip.
The desire for profit, enrichment.
Showing off good deeds.
Envy, lies, drunkenness, gluttony, drug use.
Fornication, adultery, incest, masturbation.

List of sins for a woman's confession

This is a very delicate list, and many women refuse confession after reading it. Do not trust any information you read. Even if a pamphlet with a list of sins for a woman was purchased in a church shop, be sure to pay attention to the neck. There should be an inscription "recommended by the publishing council of the Russian Orthodox Church."

Priests do not disclose the secret of confession. Therefore, it is best to go through the sacrament with a permanent confessor. The Church does not intrude into the sphere of intimate marital relations. Questions of contraception, which is sometimes equated with abortion, are best discussed with a priest. There are drugs that do not have an abortion effect, but only prevent the birth of life. In any case, all controversial issues should be discussed with the spouse, doctor, confessor.

Here is a list of sins to confess (short):

Rarely prayed, did not attend church.
I thought more about worldly things during prayer.
Allowed sexual intercourse before marriage.
Abortions, declining others to them.
She had impure thoughts and desires.
Watched movies, read pornographic books.
Gossip, lies, envy, laziness, resentment.
Excessive exposure of the body to attract attention.
Fear of old age, wrinkles, thoughts of suicide.
Addiction to sweets, alcohol, drugs.
Avoidance of helping other people.
Seeking help from fortune-tellers, soothsayers.
Superstition.

List of sins for a man

There is debate about whether to prepare a list of sins for confession. Someone believes that such a list harms the sacrament and contributes to the formal reading of offenses. The main thing in confession is to realize your sins, repent and prevent their repetition. Therefore, the list of sins may be a brief reminder or not at all.

A formal confession is not considered valid, since there is no repentance in it. Returning after the sacrament to the former life will add hypocrisy. The balance of spiritual life consists in understanding the essence of repentance, where confession is only the beginning of the realization of one's sinfulness. This is a long process, consisting of several stages of internal work. The creation of spiritual resources is a systematic adjustment of conscience, responsibility for one's relationship with God.

Here is a list of sins for confession (short) for a man:

Sacrilege, conversations in the temple.
Doubt in faith, afterlife.
Blasphemy, mockery of the poor.
Cruelty, laziness, pride, vanity, greed.
Evasion from military service.
Avoidance of unwanted work, shirking duties.
Insults, hatred, fights.
Slander, disclosure of other people's weaknesses.
Seduction to sin (fornication, drunkenness, drugs, gambling).
Refusal to help parents, other people.
Theft, aimless collecting.
Tendency to boast, argue, humiliate one's neighbor.
Insolence, rudeness, contempt, familiarity, cowardice.

Confession for a child

For a child, the sacrament of confession can begin at the age of seven. Until this age, children are allowed to take Communion without this. Parents should prepare the child for confession: explain the essence of the sacrament, tell why it is performed, remember with him possible sins.

The child must be made to understand that sincere repentance is the preparation for confession. It is better for a child to write a list of sins himself. He must realize what actions were wrong, try not to repeat them in the future.

Older children themselves decide whether to confess or not. Do not limit the free will of a child, a teenager. The personal example of parents is much more important than all conversations.

The kid must remember his sins before confession. A list of them can be compiled after the child answers the questions:

How often does he read a prayer (in the morning, in the evening, before meals), which ones does he know by heart?
Does he go to church, how does he behave in the service?
Whether wears pectoral cross, distracted or not during prayers and worship?
Have you ever deceived your parents or father during confession?
Wasn't he proud of his successes, victories, wasn't he conceited?
Does he fight or not with other children, does he offend babies or animals?
Does he tell other children to shield himself?
Did you commit theft, did you envy someone?
Did you laugh at other people's physical imperfections?
Did you play cards (smoked, drank alcohol, tried drugs, used foul language)?
Is she lazy or helps her parents around the house?
Did he pretend to be sick to avoid his duties?

A person himself determines whether to confess or not, how many times to attend the sacrament.
Prepare a list of sins for confession. It is better to take a sample in the temple where the sacrament will take place, or find it yourself in church literature.
It is optimal to go to confession to the same clergyman who will become a mentor and will contribute to spiritual growth.
Confession is free.

First you need to ask what days confessions take place in the temple. You should dress appropriately. For men, a shirt or T-shirt with sleeves, trousers or jeans (not shorts). For women - a scarf on the head, no cosmetics (at least lipstick), a skirt no higher than the knees.

Sincerity of confession

A priest, as a psychologist, can recognize how sincere a person is in his repentance. There is a confession that offends the sacrament and the Lord. If a person mechanically talks about sins, has several confessors, conceals the truth - such actions do not lead to repentance.

Behavior, tone of speech, words used in confession - all this matters. Only in this way does the priest understand how sincere the penitent is. Pangs of conscience, embarrassment, worries, shame contribute to spiritual purification.

Sometimes the personality of a priest is important for a parishioner. This is not a reason to condemn and comment on the actions of the clergy. You can go to another temple or turn to another holy father for confession.

Sometimes it's hard to voice your sins. The emotional experiences are so strong that it is more convenient to make a list of unrighteous actions. Batiushka is attentive to every parishioner. If because of shame it is impossible to tell about everything and repentance is deep, then the sins, the list of which is compiled before confession, the clergyman has the right to release without even reading them.

The meaning of confession

Having to talk about your sins in front of a stranger is embarrassing. Therefore, people refuse to go to confession, believing that God will forgive them anyway. This is the wrong approach. The priest acts only as an intermediary between man and God. His task is to determine the measure of repentance. The priest has no right to condemn anyone, he will not expel a penitent from the temple. At confession, people are very vulnerable, and the clergy try not to cause unnecessary suffering.

It is important to see your sin, to recognize and condemn it in your soul, to voice it before the priest. Have a desire not to repeat your misdeeds anymore, try to atone for the harm done by works of mercy. Confession brings the rebirth of the soul, re-education and access to a new spiritual level.

Sins (list), Orthodoxy, confession imply self-knowledge and the search for grace. All good deeds are done through force. Only by overcoming oneself, engaging in works of mercy, cultivating virtues in oneself, one can receive God's grace.

The significance of confession lies in understanding the typology of sinners, the typology of sin. At the same time, an individual approach to each penitent is akin to pastoral psychoanalysis. The sacrament of confession is the pain from the realization of sin, its recognition, the determination to voice and ask for forgiveness for it, the purification of the soul, joy and peace.

The person must feel the need for repentance. Love for God, love for oneself, love for one's neighbor cannot exist separately. The symbolism of the Christian cross - horizontal (love for God) and vertical (love for oneself and one's neighbor) - consists in the awareness of the integrity of spiritual life, its essence.

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: “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. General confession in Orthodox Church No, it 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 in 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 to Sergiev Posad to see 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, all our earthly life- this 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 grayed 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 man dies, if he was 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 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.

Russia 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 in memory, come to the confessor 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, received 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 other world - immortal 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 would be angry against the devil, against evil spirits, so that we would 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 our hair out 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, Sodom and Gomorrah, were especially famous for their vices. 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 on the Last Judgment unrepentant sins, of which we are ashamed, 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.