List of confession of sins before communion. How to prepare for Confession and Holy Communion
IN modern world The Gospel call to always be awake and constantly pray is very difficult to put into practice. Constant worries, very high pace of life, especially in major cities, practically deprive Christians of the opportunity to retire and come before God in prayer. But the concept of prayer is still extremely relevant, and turning to it is certainly necessary. Regular prayer always leads to the thought of repentance, which occurs at confession. Prayer is an example of how you can accurately and objectively assess your state of mind.
Sin concept
Sin should not be viewed as some kind of legal violation of God-given law. This is not a “going beyond the boundaries” accepted in the mind, but a violation of the laws natural to human nature. Each person is endowed by God with absolute freedom; accordingly, any falls are committed consciously. In essence, by committing sin, a person neglects the commandments and values given from above. There is a free choice in favor of negative actions, thoughts and other actions. Such a spiritual crime harms the personality itself, damaging the very vulnerable inner strings of human nature. Sin is based on passions, inherited or acquired, as well as original susceptibility, which made a person mortal and weaker to various diseases and vices.
This greatly contributes to the soul deviating towards evil and immorality. Sin can be different, its severity, of course, depends on many factors in which it is committed. There is a conditional division of sins: against God, against one’s neighbor and against oneself. By considering your own actions through such a gradation, you can understand how to write a confession. An example will be discussed below.
Awareness of sin and confession
It is extremely important to understand that in order to eliminate dark spiritual spots, you should constantly turn your inner gaze to yourself, analyze your actions, thoughts and words, and objectively evaluate the moral scale of your own values. Having found disturbing and haunting traits, you need to carefully deal with them, because if you close your eyes to sin, very soon you will become accustomed to it, which will distort the soul and lead to spiritual illness. The main way out of such a situation is repentance and repentance.
It is repentance, growing from the depths of the heart and mind, that can change a person’s personality. better side, bring the light of kindness and mercy. But the path of repentance is a lifelong path. He is prone to sin and will commit it every day. Even great ascetics who secluded themselves in deserted places sinned in their thoughts and could bring repentance daily. Therefore, close attention to one’s soul should not weaken, and with age, the criteria for personal assessment should be subjected to more stringent requirements. The next step after repentance is confession.
An example of correct confession - true repentance
In Orthodoxy, confession is recommended for all people over seven years of age. By the age of seven or eight, a child raised in a Christian family already acquires an understanding of the sacrament. It is often prepared in advance, explaining in detail all aspects of this complex issue. Some parents show an example of a confession written on paper that was invented in advance. A child left alone with such information has the opportunity to reflect and see something in himself. But in the case of children, priests and parents rely primarily on psychological condition the child and his worldview, the ability to analyze and understand the criteria of good and evil. With excessive haste in the forcible involvement of children, one can sometimes observe disastrous results and examples.
Confessions in church often turn into a formal “roll call” of sins, while performing only the “external” part of the sacrament is unacceptable. You cannot try to justify yourself, to hide something that is embarrassing and shameful. You need to listen to yourself and understand whether repentance is really present, or whether there is just an ordinary ritual ahead that will not bring any benefit to the soul, but can cause significant harm.
Confession is a voluntary and repentant listing of sins. This sacrament includes two main parts:
1) Confession of sins to the priest by the person who came to the sacrament.
2) Prayerful forgiveness and resolution of sins, which is pronounced by the shepherd.
Preparing for Confession
A question that torments not only new Christians, but sometimes even those who have been churched for a long time - what to say in confession? An example of how to repent can be found in various sources. This could be a prayer book or a separate book dedicated to this particular sacrament.
When preparing for confession, you can rely on the commandments, ordeals, and take the example of the confession of holy ascetics who left notes and sayings on this topic.
If you construct a repentant monologue based on the division of sins into three types given above, then you can determine an incomplete, approximate list of deviations.
Sins against God
This category includes lack of faith, superstition, lack of hope in God's mercy, formality and lack of faith in the dogmas of Christianity, grumbling and ingratitude of God, and oaths. This group includes an irreverent attitude towards objects of veneration - icons, the Gospel, the Cross, and so on. Mention should be made of skipping services for unexcused reasons and abandoning mandatory rules, prayers, and also if prayers were read hastily, without attention and the necessary concentration.
Adherence to various sectarian teachings, thoughts of suicide, turning to sorcerers and sorcerers, wearing mystical talismans is considered apostasy, and such things must be brought to confession. An example of this category of sins is, of course, approximate, and each person can add or shorten this list.
Sins directed against one's neighbor
This group examines attitudes towards people: family, friends, colleagues and just casual acquaintances and strangers. The first thing that most often clearly reveals itself in the heart is the lack of love. Often, instead of love, there is a consumer attitude. Inability and unwillingness to forgive, hatred, gloating, malice and revenge, stinginess, condemnation, gossip, lies, indifference to the misfortune of others, unmercifulness and cruelty - all these ugly thorns in the human soul must be confessed. Separately, actions in which open self-harm occurred or material damage was caused are indicated. This could be fights, extortion, robbery.
The gravest sin is abortion, which certainly entails church punishment after it is brought to confession. An example of what the punishment could be is obtained from the parish priest. Typically, penance will be imposed, but it will be more disciplinary than expiatory.
Sins directed against oneself
This group is reserved for personal sins. Dejection, terrible despair and thoughts of one’s own hopelessness or excessive pride, contempt, vanity - such passions can poison a person’s life and even lead him to suicide.
Thus, listing all the commandments one after another, the pastor calls for a detailed consideration of the state of mind and checking whether it corresponds to the essence of the message.
About brevity
Priests often ask for brief confessions. This does not mean that there is no need to name some sin. We must try to talk specifically about the sin, but not about the circumstances in which it was committed, without involving third parties who may be somehow involved in the situation, and without describing the details in detail. If repentance occurs in church for the first time, you can sketch out an example of confession on paper, then while convicting yourself of sins it will be easier to gather yourself, convey to the priest and, most importantly, to God absolutely everything you noticed, without forgetting anything.
It is recommended to pronounce the name of the sin itself: lack of faith, anger, insult or condemnation. This will be enough to convey what worries and weighs heavily on the heart. “Extracting” the exact sins from oneself is not an easy task, but this is how one creates short confession. An example could be the following: “I sinned: with pride, despondency, foul language, fear of little faith, excessive idleness, bitterness, lies, ambition, abandonment of services and rules, irritability, temptation, bad and unclean thoughts, excess in food, laziness. I also repent of those sins that I forgot and did not say now.”
Confession is, of course, a difficult task that requires effort and self-denial. But when a person gets used to the purity of heart and tidiness of the soul, he will no longer be able to live without repentance and the sacrament of communion. A Christian will not want to lose the newly acquired connection with the Almighty and will only strive to strengthen it. It is very important to approach spiritual life not “in spurts,” but gradually, carefully, regularly, to be “faithful in small things,” not forgetting about gratitude to God in absolutely all life situations.
Once in our lives we receive Baptism and are anointed with Chrism. Ideally, we get married once. The Sacrament of the Priesthood is not all-encompassing; it is performed only on those whom the Lord has destined to be accepted into the clergy. In the Sacrament of Unction our participation is very small. But the Sacraments of Confession and Communion lead us through our entire lives to eternity, without them the existence of a Christian is unthinkable. We get to them time after time. So sooner or later we still have the opportunity to think: are we preparing for them correctly? And understand: no, most likely not entirely. Therefore, talking about these Sacraments seems very important to us. In this issue, in a conversation with the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Abbot Nektariy (Morozov), we decided to touch upon confession (because covering everything is an impossible task, too “boundless” a topic), and next time we will talk about Communion of the Holy Mysteries.
“I guess, or rather, I guess: nine out of ten who come to confession don’t know how to confess...
- Indeed, it is so. Even people who regularly go to church do not know how to do many things in it, but the worst thing is with confession. Very rarely does a parishioner confess correctly. You have to learn to confess. Of course, it would be better if an experienced confessor, a man of high spiritual life, spoke about the Sacrament of Confession and repentance. If I decide to talk about this here, it’s simply as a person who confesses, on the one hand, and on the other, as a priest who quite often has to accept confession. I will try to summarize my observations of my own soul and how others participate in the Sacrament of Repentance. But by no means do I consider my observations sufficient.
— Let's talk about the most common misconceptions, misconceptions and mistakes. A person goes to confession for the first time; he heard that before receiving communion, one must confess. And that in confession you need to tell your sins. He immediately has a question: for what period should he “report”? Over your entire life, starting from childhood? But can you retell all this? Or do you not need to retell everything, but just say: “In childhood and youth I showed selfishness many times” or “In my youth I was very proud and vain, and even now, in fact, I remain the same”?
— If a person comes to confession for the first time, it is quite obvious that he needs to confess for his entire past life. Starting from the age when he could already distinguish good from evil - and until the moment he finally decided to confess.
How can you tell your whole life in a short time? In confession, we do not tell our whole life, but what is sin. Sins are specific events. However, there is no need to recount all the times when you sinned with anger, for example, or with lies. You must say that you committed this sin, and cite some of the brightest, most terrible manifestations of this sin - those that truly hurt your soul. There is one more pointer: what do you least want to tell about yourself? This is exactly what needs to be said first. If you are going to confession for the first time, it is best for you to set yourself the task of confessing your heaviest, most painful sins. Then the confession will become more complete, deeper. The first confession cannot be like this - for several reasons: this is a psychological barrier (coming for the first time in front of a priest, that is, in front of a witness, telling God about your sins is not easy) and other obstacles. A person does not always understand what sin is. Unfortunately, not even all people living church life know and understand the Gospel well. And except in the Gospel, the answer to the question of what is sin and what is virtue, perhaps, will not be found anywhere. In the life around us, many sins have become commonplace... But even when reading the Gospel to a person, his sins are not immediately revealed, they are gradually revealed by the grace of God. St. Peter of Damascus says that the beginning of the health of the soul is seeing one’s sins as countless as the sand of the sea. If the Lord had immediately revealed to a person his sinfulness in all its horror, not a single person could have endured it. That is why the Lord reveals his sins to a person gradually. This can be compared to peeling an onion - first they removed one skin, then the second - and finally they got to the onion itself. That is why it very often happens: a person goes to church, regularly confesses, takes communion - and finally realizes the need for the so-called general confession. It very rarely happens that a person is ready for it right away.
- What it is? How does general confession differ from ordinary confession?
— General confession, as a rule, is called confession for the entire life lived, and in a certain sense this is true. But a confession that is not so comprehensive can also be called general. We repent of our sins from week to week, from month to month, this is a simple confession. But from time to time you need to give yourself a general confession - a review of your entire life. Not the one that was lived, but the one that is now. We see that we repeat the same sins, and we cannot get rid of them - that’s why we need to understand ourselves. Review your entire life as it is now.
— How to treat the so-called questionnaires for general confession? They can be seen in church shops.
— If by general confession we mean precisely confession for the entire life lived, then here there really is a need for some kind of external assistance. The best guide for confessors is the book by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) “The Experience of Constructing a Confession”, it is about the spirit, the correct attitude of a repentant person, about what exactly needs to be repented of. There is a book “Sin and Repentance of the Last Times. About the secret ailments of the soul" by Archimandrite Lazar (Abashidze). Useful excerpts from St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) - “To help the penitent.” As for the questionnaires - yes, there are confessors, there are priests who do not approve of these questionnaires. They say that you can read in them such sins that the reader has never even heard of, but if he reads it, he will be harmed... But, unfortunately, there are almost no such sins left that modern man I wouldn't know. Yes, there are questions there that are stupid, rude, there are questions that are clearly sinning with excessive physiology... But if you treat the questionnaire as a working tool, like a plow with which you need to plow yourself all over once, then, I think, you can use it. In the old days, such questionnaires were called “renewal,” which is so wonderful to modern ears. Indeed, with their help, man renewed himself as the image of God, just as an old, dilapidated and grimy icon is renewed. There is no need to think about whether these questionnaires are in good or bad literary form. The serious shortcomings of some questionnaires include this: the compilers include in them something that, in essence, is not a sin. Didn’t you wash your hands with scented soap, for example, or didn’t you do your laundry on Sunday... If you did the laundry during Sunday service, that’s a sin, but if you did the laundry after the service because there was no other time, I personally don’t see it as a sin.
“Unfortunately, you can sometimes buy this in our church shops...
- This is why it is necessary to consult a priest before using the questionnaire. I can recommend the book by Priest Alexy Moroz “I Confess Sin, Father” - it is a reasonable and very detailed questionnaire.
— Here it is necessary to clarify: what do we mean by the word “sin”? Most of those who confess, when they pronounce this word, mean a sinful act. That is, in essence, a manifestation of sin. For example: “Yesterday I was harsh and cruel to my mother.” But this is not a separate, not some random episode, this is a manifestation of the sin of dislike, intolerance, unforgiveness, selfishness. This means that you shouldn’t say that, not “yesterday I was cruel,” but simply “I’m cruel, there’s little love in me.” Or how should I say it?
— Sin is a manifestation of passion in action. We must repent of specific sins. Not in passions as such, because passions are always the same, you can write one confession to yourself for the rest of your life, but in those sins that were committed from confession to confession. Confession is the Sacrament that gives us the opportunity to start a new life. We repented of our sins, and from that moment our life began anew. This is the miracle that takes place in the Sacrament of Confession. That is why you always need to repent - in the past tense. You shouldn’t say: “I offend my neighbors,” I should say: “I offended my neighbors.” Because I have the intention, having said this, not to offend people in the future.Each sin in confession should be named so that it is clear what exactly it is. If we repent of idle talk, we do not need to retell all the episodes of our idle talk and repeat all our idle words. But if in some case there was so much idle talk that we tired someone with it or said something completely unnecessary, we probably need to talk about this in confession in a little more detail, more definitely. There are such words from the Gospel: For every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). You need to look at your confession in advance from this point of view - whether there will be idle talk in it.
- And yet about passions. If I feel irritated by my neighbor’s request, but I don’t show this irritation in any way and provide him with the necessary help, should I repent of the irritation I experienced as a sin?
- If you, feeling this irritation within yourself, consciously fought against it - this is one situation. If you accepted this irritation of yours, developed it in yourself, reveled in it - this is a different situation. Everything depends on the direction of a person's will. If a person, experiencing a sinful passion, turns to God and says: “Lord, I don’t want this and I don’t want it, help me get rid of it,” there is practically no sin on the person. There is sin - to the extent that our heart participated in these tempting desires. And how much we allowed him to participate in this.
— Apparently, we need to dwell on the “disease of telling,” which stems from a certain cowardice during confession. For example, instead of saying “I behaved selfishly,” I begin to tell: “At work... my colleague says... and in response I say...”, etc. I eventually report my sin, but - just like that, within the frame of the story. This is not even a frame, these stories play, if you look at it, the role of clothing - we dress in words, in the plot, so as not to feel naked in confession.
- Indeed, it’s easier this way. But you don’t need to make it easy for yourself to confess. Confession should not contain unnecessary details. There shouldn't be any other people with their actions. Because when we talk about other people, we most often justify ourselves at the expense of these people. We also make excuses due to some of our circumstances. On the other hand, sometimes the extent of the sin depends on the circumstances of the sin. Beating a person out of drunken anger is one thing, stopping a criminal while protecting the victim is quite another. To refuse to help one's neighbor because of laziness and selfishness is one thing, to refuse because the temperature that day was forty is another. If a person who knows how to confess confesses in detail, it is easier for the priest to see what is happening to this person and why. Thus, the circumstances of the sin need to be reported only if the sin you committed is not clear without these circumstances. This is also learned through experience.
Excessive telling during confession may also have another reason: a person’s need for participation, spiritual help and warmth. Here, perhaps, a conversation with a priest is appropriate, but it should be at a different time, certainly not at the time of confession. Confession is a Sacrament, not a conversation.
— Priest Alexander Elchaninov in one of his entries thanks God for helping him every time experience confession as a catastrophe. What should we do to ensure that our confession, at least, is not dry, cold, formal?
“We must remember that the confession that we say in church is the tip of the iceberg. If this confession is everything, and everything is limited to it, we can say that we have nothing. There was no actual confession. There is only the grace of God, which, despite our foolishness and recklessness, still acts. We have the intention to repent, but it is formal, it is dry and lifeless. It’s like that fig tree, which if it bears any fruit, it will be with great difficulty.Our confession is performed at another time and prepared at another time. When we, knowing that tomorrow we will go to church, confess, sit down and sort out our lives. When I think: why have I judged people so many times during this time? But because, judging them, I myself look better in my own eyes. Instead of dealing with my own sins, I condemn others and justify myself. Or I find some kind of pleasure in condemnation. When I understand that as long as I judge others, I will not have the grace of God. And when I say: “Lord, help me, otherwise, how long will I kill my soul with this?” After this, I will come to confession and say: “I condemned people countless times, I exalted myself over them, I found sweetness in this for myself.” My repentance lies not only in the fact that I said it, but in the fact that I decided not to do it again. When a person repents in this way, he receives very great grace-filled consolation from confession and confesses in a completely different way. Repentance is a change in a person. If no change occurred, confession remained to a certain extent a formality. “Fulfillment of Christian duty,” as for some reason it was customary to express it before the revolution.
There are examples of saints who brought repentance to God in their hearts, changed their lives, and the Lord accepted this repentance, although there was no stole over them, and the prayer for the remission of sins was not read. But there was repentance! But with us it’s different - the prayer is read, and the person receives communion, but repentance as such has not occurred, there is no break in the chain of sinful life.
There are people who come to confession and, having already stood in front of the lectern with the cross and the Gospel, begin to remember what they sinned. This is always a real torment - both for the priest, and for those who are waiting for their turn, and for the man himself, of course. How to prepare for confession? First of all, be attentive. sober life. Secondly - there is good rule, in place of which you can’t think of anything: every day in the evening, devote five to ten minutes not even to thinking about what happened during the day, but to repentance before God for what a person considers himself to have sinned. Sit down and mentally go through the day - from the morning hours to the evening hours. And realize every sin for yourself. Big sin or small - you need to understand it, feel it and, as Anthony the Great says, put it between yourself and God. See it as an obstacle between yourself and the Creator. Feel this terrible metaphysical essence of sin. And for every sin ask God for forgiveness. And put in your heart the desire to leave these sins in the past. It is advisable to write down these sins in some kind of notebook. This helps to put a limit on sin. We did not write down this sin, we did not do such a purely mechanical action, and it “passed on” to the next day. And then it will be easier to prepare for confession. There is no need to “suddenly” remember everything.
— Some parishioners prefer confession in this form: “I sinned against such and such a commandment.” This is convenient: “I sinned against the seventh” - and there is no need to say anything more.
“I believe this is completely unacceptable.” Any formalization of spiritual life kills this life. Sin is the pain of the human soul. If there is no pain, then there is no repentance. St. John Climacus says that the forgiveness of our sins is evidenced by the pain that we feel when we repent of them. If we do not experience pain, we have every reason to doubt that our sins have been forgiven. A Venerable Barsanuphius The Great, answering questions from various people, repeatedly said that a sign of forgiveness is a loss of sympathy for previously committed sins. This is the change that must happen to a person, an internal turn.
- Another common opinion: why would I repent if I know that I won’t change anyway - it will be hypocrisy and hypocrisy on my part.
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But here is a situation known to me personally: a girl regularly came to one of the Moscow churches and confessed that she earned her living by what is, as they say, the most ancient profession. No one allowed her to receive Communion, of course, but she continued to walk, prayed, and tried to somehow participate in the life of the parish. I don’t know if she managed to leave this craft, but I know for sure that the Lord protects her and does not leave her, waiting for the necessary change.
It is very important to believe in the forgiveness of sins, in the power of the Sacrament. Those who do not believe complain that after confession there is no relief, that they leave the church with a heavy soul. This comes from a lack of faith, even from a lack of faith in forgiveness. Faith should give a person joy, and if there is no faith, there is no need to hope for any spiritual experiences and emotions.
- Sometimes it happens that some long-standing (usually) action of ours evokes in us a reaction that is more humorous than repentant, and it seems to us that talking about this action in confession is excessive zeal, bordering on hypocrisy or coquetry. Example: I suddenly remember that once in my youth I stole a book from the library of a holiday home. I think that we need to say this in confession: no matter how you look at it, the eighth commandment has been broken. And then it becomes funny...
“I wouldn’t take it so lightly.” There are actions that cannot even be formally committed, because they destroy us - not even as people of faith, but simply as people of conscience. There are certain barriers that we must set for ourselves. These saints could have spiritual freedom, which allows them to do things that are formally condemned, but they did them only when these actions were for the good.
— Is it true that you do not need to repent of sins committed before Baptism if you were baptized in adulthood?
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— We have talked quite a lot here about how to prepare for confession, but what should we read or, as they say, proofread at home the day before, what prayers? The prayer book contains the Follow-up to Holy Communion. Do I need to proofread it in its entirety and is that enough? In addition, Communion may not follow confession. What to read before confession?
— It is very good if a person reads the Canon of Repentance to the Savior before confession. There is also a very good Penitential Canon of the Mother of God. This could be simply a prayer with the repentant feeling “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And it is very important, remembering every sin committed, bringing to the heart the awareness of its disastrousness for us, from the heart, in your own words, ask God for forgiveness for it, simply standing in front of icons or making bows. Come to the conclusion that Rev. Nicodemus Svyatogorets calls the feeling of being “guilty.” That is, to feel: I am dying, and I am aware of it, and I am not justifying myself. I recognize myself as worthy of this death. But with this I go to God, surrender myself before His love and hope for His mercy, believing in it.
Abbot Nikon (Vorobyov) has a wonderful letter to a certain woman, no longer young, who, due to age and illness, had to prepare for the transition to Eternity. He writes to her: “Remember all your sins and repent of each one - even the one you confessed - before God until you feel that the Lord forgives you. It’s not a charm to feel that the Lord forgives; this is what the holy fathers called joyful crying—repentance that brings joy.” This is the most necessary thing - to feel peace with God.
Interviewed by Marina Biryukova
Brief instructions before confession (based on materials from Orthodox publications)
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! Preparing to begin the great sacrament of holy confession, looking at the mercy of God, let us ask ourselves whether we have shown mercy to our neighbors, whether we have been reconciled with everyone, whether we have enmity in our hearts against anyone, remembering the cherished words of the Holy Gospel: “if you forgive by man Your heavenly Father will also forgive you their sins" (Matthew 6:14). This is the condition that we must understand and observe in the saving work of holy repentance. However, in order to repent and receive remission of sins, you need to see your sin. And it's not that simple. Self-love, self-pity, self-justification interfere with this. We tend to consider a bad act of which our conscience accuses us of being an “accident” and blame circumstances or our neighbors for it. Meanwhile, every sin in deed, word or thought is a consequence of passion living in us - a kind of spiritual illness.
If it is difficult for us to recognize our sin, then it is even more difficult to see the passion that has taken root in us. So, we can live without suspecting the passion of pride in ourselves until someone hurts us. Then passion will be revealed through sin: wishing harm to the offender, a harsh offensive word, and even revenge. The fight against passions is the main task for every Christian.
Usually people who are inexperienced in spiritual life do not see the multitude of their sins, do not feel their severity, or disgust for them. They say: “I didn’t do anything special,” “I only have minor sins, like everyone else,” “I didn’t steal, I didn’t kill,” - this is how many often begin confession. But our holy fathers and teachers, who left us prayers of repentance, considered themselves the first of sinners, and with sincere conviction they cried out to Christ: “No one has sinned on earth from time immemorial, as I, the accursed and the prodigal, have sinned!” The brighter the light of Christ illuminates the heart, the more clearly all shortcomings, ulcers and spiritual wounds are recognized. And vice versa: people immersed in the darkness of sin do not see anything in their hearts, and if they do, they are not horrified, since they have nothing to compare with, for Christ is closed for them by the veil of sins. Therefore, in order to overcome our spiritual laziness and insensitivity, the Holy Church has established preparatory days for the sacrament of repentance, and then for Communion - fasting. The period of fasting can last from three days to a week, unless there is special advice or instructions from the confessor. At this time, one should observe fasting, keep oneself from sinful deeds, thoughts and feelings, and generally lead a life of abstinence, repentance, dissolved in deeds of love and Christian charity. During the period of fasting, you need to attend church services as often as possible, pray at home more than usual, devote time to reading the works of the holy fathers, the lives of saints, self-deepening and self-examination.
Understanding the moral state of your soul, you must try to distinguish basic sins from their derivatives, roots from leaves and fruits. One should also beware of falling into petty suspicion of every movement of the heart, losing the sense of what is important and unimportant, and getting confused in trifles. The penitent must bring to confession not only a list of sins, but, most importantly, a feeling of repentance; not a detailed account of his life, but a broken heart.
Knowing your sins does not mean repenting of them. But what should we do if our heart, dried up from the sinful flame, is not watered by the life-giving waters of tears? What if spiritual weakness and “infirmity of the flesh” are so great that we are not capable of sincere repentance? But this cannot be a reason for postponing confession in anticipation of a feeling of repentance. The Lord accepts confession - sincere and conscientious - even if it is not accompanied by a strong feeling of repentance. You just need to confess this sin - stony insensibility - courageously and frankly, without hypocrisy. God can touch the heart during confession itself - soften it, refine spiritual vision, awaken a feeling of repentance.
The condition that we must certainly meet in order for our repentance to be accepted by the Lord effectively is forgiveness of the sins of our neighbors and reconciliation with everyone. Repentance cannot be complete without verbal confession of sins. Sins can only be resolved in the church sacrament of repentance, performed by a priest.
Confession is a feat, self-compulsion. During confession, you do not need to wait for questions from the priest, but make an effort yourself. Sins must be named accurately, without obscuring the ugliness of sin with general expressions. It is very difficult, when confessing, to avoid the temptation of self-justification, to refuse attempts to explain to the confessor “mitigating circumstances”, and from references to third parties who allegedly led us into sin. All these are signs of pride, lack of deep repentance, and continued stumbling into sin.
Confession is not a conversation about one’s shortcomings, doubts, it is not a simple informing the confessor about oneself, although spiritual conversation is also very important and should take place in the life of a Christian, but confession is different, it is a sacrament, and not just a pious custom. Confession is an ardent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification, this is the second baptism. In repentance we die to sin and are raised to righteousness, holiness.
Having repented, we must strengthen ourselves internally in the determination not to return to the confessed sin. A sign of perfect repentance is hatred and disgust for sin, a feeling of lightness, purity, inexplicable joy, when sin seems as difficult and impossible as this joy was just far away.
Human life is so diverse, the depths of our soul are so mysterious, that it is difficult to even list all the sins that we commit. Therefore, when approaching the sacrament of holy confession, it is useful to remind ourselves of the main violations of the moral law of the Holy Gospel. Let us carefully examine our conscience and repent of our sins before the Lord God. The sacrament of holy repentance has the main goal - to awaken our spiritual consciousness, to open our eyes to ourselves, to come to our senses, to deeply understand in what destructive state our soul is, how it is necessary to seek salvation from God, to ask tearfully and contritely for forgiveness of our countless sins before Him. The Lord Jesus Christ expects from us a sincere awareness of our deviations from His holy will and a humble appeal to Him, as His unworthy servants, who have sinned greatly and offended His Divine love for us.
We need to remember and deeply believe in the infinite mercy of God, which extends its arms to every converted sinner. There is no sin that God, in His ineffable mercy, would not forgive a person who showed sincere repentance for his sins, a firm determination to correct his life and not return to previous sins. As we begin confession, let us pray to God that He, with His almighty help, would open the doors of repentance to us, reconcile us and unite us with Himself, and grant us the Holy Spirit for a new and renewed life. Amen!
An example of a confession.
I confess, the sinful servant of God (name...), to the Lord God Almighty, in Holy Trinity to the glorified and worshiped Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and to you, honest father, all my sins, voluntary and involuntary, committed in word, or deed, or thought.
I sinned by not keeping the vows I made at baptism, but I lied and transgressed in everything, and made myself obscene before the face of God.
I sinned by lack of faith, unbelief, doubt, hesitation in faith, slowness in thoughts, from the enemy of all, against God and the Holy Church, blasphemy and mockery of the sacred, doubt in the existence of God, superstition, turning to “grandmothers”, healers, psychics, fortune telling, playing cards, arrogance, negligence, despair in one’s salvation, relying on oneself and on people more than on God, forgetfulness of God’s justice and lack of sufficient devotion to the will of God, did not thank God for everything.
I sinned by disobedience to the actions of God's providence, a persistent desire for everything to be my way, people-pleasing, partial love for things. I did not try to know the will of God, I did not have reverence for God, fear of Him, hope for Him, zeal for His glory, for He is glorified with a pure heart and good deeds.
I sinned by ingratitude to the Lord God for all His great and constant blessings, forgetting about them, murmuring against God, cowardice, despondency, hardening of my heart, lack of love for Him and failure to fulfill His holy will.
I sinned by enslaving myself to passions: voluptuousness, greed, pride, laziness, pride, vanity, ambition, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, secret eating, gluttony, drunkenness, smoking, drug addiction, addiction to games, shows and amusements.
I sinned by deity, failure to fulfill vows, forcing others to deify and swear, disrespect for sacred things, blasphemy against God, against saints, against all sacred things, blasphemy, calling the name of God in vain, bad things, desires, thoughts.
I sinned by not honoring church holidays, I did not go to the temple of God out of laziness and negligence, I stood irreverently in the temple of God; I sinned by talking and laughing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, wandering thoughts, vain memories, walking around the temple during worship unnecessarily; left the church before the end of the service.
I sinned by negligence towards the morning and evening prayers, abandoning the reading of the Holy Gospel, Psalms and other Divine books, patristic teachings.
He sinned by forgetting sins in confession, self-justifying them and belittling their severity, hiding sins, repenting without heartfelt contrition; did not make efforts to properly prepare for communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, without being reconciled with his neighbors, he came to confession and in such a sinful state dared to begin Communion.
He sinned by breaking fasts and not observing fast days - Wednesdays and Fridays, which are equated to the days of Great Lent, as days of remembrance of the sufferings of Christ. I sinned by intemperance in food and drink, by carelessly and irreverently signing myself with the sign of the cross.
I sinned by disobedience to my superiors and elders, self-will, self-justification, laziness towards work and unscrupulous execution of assigned tasks. I sinned by not honoring my parents, by not praying for them, by not raising my children in the Orthodox faith, by not honoring my elders, by impudence, waywardness and disobedience, rudeness, and stubbornness.
I sinned by lack of Christian love for my neighbor, impatience, resentment, irritability, anger, harm to my neighbor, fights and quarrels, intransigence, enmity, retribution of evil for evil, unforgiveness of insults, rancor, jealousy, envy, malice, vindictiveness, condemnation, slander, theft , preparation and sale of moonshine, “rewinding” the electric meter, appropriation of state property.
They sinned by being unmerciful towards the poor, they had no compassion for the sick and crippled; They have sinned through stinginess, greed, wastefulness, greed, infidelity, injustice, hardness of heart, thoughts and attempts at suicide.
I sinned with wickedness in relation to my neighbors, deception, insincerity in dealing with them, suspicion, double-mindedness, gossip, ridicule, witticisms, lies, hypocritical treatment of others and flattery, people-pleasing.
I sinned by forgetting about the future eternal life, failure to remember one’s death and the Last Judgment and an unreasonable, partial attachment to earthly life and its pleasures and affairs.
He sinned by intemperance of his tongue, idle talk, idle talk, foul language, ridicule, telling jokes; They sinned by disclosing the sins and weaknesses of their neighbors, seductive behavior, freedom, insolence, excessive television watching, and passion for gambling and computer games.
He sinned through incontinence of his mental and physical feelings, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of persons of the other sex, free treatment of them, fornication and adultery, incontinence in married life, various carnal sins, the desire to please and seduce others.
I sinned by not having straightforwardness, sincerity, simplicity, fidelity, truthfulness, respect, sedateness, caution in words, prudent silence, not guarding and not defending the honor of others. We sinned by lack of love, abstinence, chastity, modesty in words and deeds, purity of heart, non-covetousness, mercy and humility.
We have sinned through despondency, melancholy, sadness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, lust, impurity and all our feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds. I also repent of my other sins, which I forgot and did not remember.
I repent that I have angered the Lord my God with all my sins, I sincerely regret this and wish in every possible way to abstain from my sins and correct myself. Lord our God, with tears I pray to You, our Savior, help me to strengthen myself in the holy intention to live like a Christian, and forgive the sins I have confessed, for you are Good and Lover of Mankind. Amen.
You only need to name the sins you have committed from those listed here. Sins not listed here must be specifically mentioned to the confessor. For convenience, sins can be written down on a piece of paper and read before the priest. Sins that were confessed and resolved earlier should not be named in confession, because they have already been forgiven, but if we repeat them again, then we need to repent of them again. You also need to repent of those sins that were forgotten, but are now remembered. When talking about sins, one should not mention unnecessary details and the names of other persons who are accomplices in the sin. They must repent for themselves. Habits of sin are eradicated by prayer, fasting, abstinence, and good deeds. Confession is performed in the church after the evening service or by agreement with the priest at any time. How often should one resort to this saving sacrament? As often as possible, at least in each of the four posts.
Confession is one of the main church sacraments. But it’s not easy to get through. Shame and fear of judgment or the priest prevent you from approaching it correctly. In our article we will tell you how to correctly write sins for confession and prepare for it. We hope that our tips will help you on your path to cleansing.
How to prepare for confession
Church confession is a conscious step. It is not customary to do it without preparation and preliminary analysis of sins. Therefore, before the sacrament it is necessary:
If you plan to take communion along with confession, then the day before you need to read the following prayers: Canon of repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ, Canon of prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, Canon to the Guardian Angel and Follow-up to Holy Communion.
Before going to confession, you should arrive on time for the church service. In some churches, the priest begins confession before the main service begins. People begin the sacrament on an empty stomach; you shouldn’t even drink coffee or tea.
For convenience, divide your sins into several blocks: against God and the church, against loved ones and against yourself.
Sins against God and the church:
- belief in omens, fortune telling and dreams;
- hypocrisy in worshiping God;
- doubt about the existence of God, complaints;
- conscious commission of sinful acts in the hope of leniency;
- laziness in prayers and church attendance;
- mentioning God in everyday life, so to speak, to connect words;
- non-compliance with fasts;
- failure to keep promises made to God;
- suicide attempts;
- mention of evil spirits in speech.
Sins against loved ones:
Sins against yourself:
- careless attitude towards God's gift (talent);
- excessive consumption of food and alcohol, as well as tobacco products and drugs;
- laziness in performing household chores (you do it without effort, for show);
- careless attitude towards things;
- inattention to one’s health or, conversely, excessive search for diseases;
- fornication (promiscuity, cheating on one’s spouse, satisfying carnal desires, reading romance books, watching erotic photos and films, erotic fantasies and memories);
- love of money (lust for wealth, bribery, theft);
- envy of other people's successes (career, shopping opportunities and travel).
We have provided a list of the most common sins. How to correctly write sins for confession and whether it is worth doing is up to you to decide. When confessing, do not list them all. Speak only about those in whom you have sinned.
Judging others, giving examples from life or justifying oneself are unacceptable. Only through sincere repentance does one receive purification. They don’t confess twice in one case. Only if you repeated the offense again.
When compiling a list, briefly describe the situation so that the priest and you yourself understand what it is about. Tell us not just that you don’t respect your parents, but how this manifested itself, for example, by raising your voice to your mother in an argument.
Also, do not use church expressions if you do not understand them. Confession is a conversation with God; speak in a language that you understand. For example, if you really like sweets, say so. Don't use "gluttony."
Dividing sins into separate blocks will allow you to organize your thoughts. By moving from one group to another, you will understand the reasons for the action and will be able to avoid repeating it. Follow his points and the question “How to correctly write sins for confession?” won't bother you anymore. And you will concentrate on the main thing.
Simple rules for confession
Confession, especially if it is associated with fasting, almsgiving, and fervent prayer, returns a person to the state in which Adam was before the Fall.
You can confess in any setting, but it is generally accepted to confess in church - during a service or at a time specially appointed by the priest. The person confessing must be baptized, a member Orthodox Church, recognizing all the fundamentals of Orthodox doctrine and repenting of their sins.
When preparing for confession, the church charter does not require either a special fast or a special prayer rule— faith and repentance are needed. However, it is recommended to read prayers of repentance, and fasting is also possible.
The penitent must confess his sins. It is necessary to show a general awareness of one’s sinfulness, especially highlighting the passions and infirmities most characteristic of it (for example: lack of faith, love of money, anger, and the like); and also name those specific sins that he sees behind himself, and especially those that weigh most heavily on his conscience.
EIGHT MAIN PASSIONS
(think: don’t these sins burden you)
1 . Gluttony: Binge eating, drunkenness, non-keeping and allowing fasts, secret eating, delicacy, and generally violation of abstinence. Incorrect and excessive love of the flesh, its belly and peace, which constitutes self-love, which leads to failure to remain faithful to God, the Church, virtue and people.
2. Fornication: Prodigal kindling, prodigal sensations and attitudes of the soul and heart. Acceptance of unclean thoughts, conversation with them, delight in them, permission for them, slowness in them. Prodigal dreams and captivities. Failure to preserve feelings, especially touch, is the insolence that destroys all virtues. Foul language and reading voluptuous books. Natural prodigal sins: fornication and adultery. Prodigal sins are unnatural.
3. Love of money: The love of money, in general the love of property, movable and immovable. The desire to get rich. Reflection on the means to enrichment. Dreaming of wealth. Fear of old age, unexpected poverty, illness, exile. Stinginess. Selfishness. Disbelief in God, lack of trust in His Providence. Addictions or painful, excessive love for various perishable objects, depriving the soul of freedom. Passion for vain concerns. Loving gifts. Appropriation of someone else's. Likhva. Cruelty towards the poor brethren and all those in need. Theft. Robbery.
4. Anger: Hot temper, acceptance of angry thoughts: dreams of anger and revenge, indignation of the heart with rage, darkening of the mind by it; obscene shouting, argument, swearing, cruel and caustic words, emphasis, pushing, murder. Malice, hatred, enmity, revenge, slander, condemnation, indignation and insult to one’s neighbor.
5. Sadness: Sadness, melancholy, cutting off hope in God, doubt in God’s promises, ingratitude to God for everything that happens, cowardice, impatience, lack of self-reproach, grief towards one’s neighbor, grumbling, renunciation of the cross, an attempt to descend from it.
6. Dejection: Laziness towards everyone good deed, especially to prayer. Abandonment of church and cell rules. Abandonment of unceasing prayer and soul-helping reading. Inattention and haste in prayer. Neglect. Irreverence. Idleness. Excessive calming by sleep, lying down and all kinds of rest. Moving from place to place. Frequent exits from the cell, walks and visits with friends. Celebration. Jokes. Blasphemers. Abandonment of bows and other physical feats. Forgetting your sins. Forgetting the commandments of Christ. Negligence. Captivity. Deprivation of the fear of God. Bitterness. Insensibility. Despair.
7. Vanity: The search for human glory. Boasting. Desire and search for earthly and vain honors. Love of beautiful clothes, carriages, servants and cell things. Attention to the beauty of your face, the pleasantness of your voice and other qualities of your body. Disposition towards the dying sciences and arts of this age, the quest to succeed in them in order to acquire temporary, earthly glory. Shame to confess your sins. Hiding them before people and the spiritual father. Craftiness. Self-justification. Disclaimer. Making up your mind. Hypocrisy. Lie. Flattery. People-pleasing. Envy. Humiliation of one's neighbor. Changeability of character. Indulgence. Unconscionability. The character and life are demonic.
8. Pride: Contempt for one's neighbor. Preferring yourself to everyone. Insolence. Darkness, dullness of the mind and heart. Nailing them to the earthly. Hula. Disbelief. False mind. Disobedience to the Law of God and the Church. Following your carnal will. Reading books that are heretical, depraved and vain. Disobedience to authorities. Caustic ridicule. Abandonment of Christ-like humility and silence. Loss of simplicity. Loss of love for God and neighbor. False philosophy. Heresy. Godlessness. Ignorance. Death of the soul.St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
A short list of sins.
- You need to repent of sins committed in deeds, words, and thoughts.
- Remember the sins for the time that has passed since the previous confession or, if you have never confessed, for the time that has passed since baptism.
- If you were baptized in infancy, try to remember from the age of six.
- "Every minute" and there is no need to remember and tell in detail. Suffice it to say that such and such a sin, one way or another, happened in life. In deed, in word, in thought.
- In confession, do not make excuses, but only repent.
- When confessing, try to speak to the point, without being distracted by extraneous topics.
- Don't hide your sins. This makes confession invalid and doubles the burden of sin on the soul.
- Don’t try to “get off quickly” by saying: “I’m a sinner in everything!”. You must definitely figure out what exactly it is in order to identify your spiritual illnesses - the causes of life's problems, and consciously begin to heal them.
- Fasting, in the sense of eating, is not required before confession.
- If you have already confessed some sin and have not committed it again, there is no need to repeat it.
- It is a sin to continue to worry about something that you have already repented of in confession. This is a manifestation of lack of faith.
- Unbelief, lack of faith, doubts about the existence of God, about the truth of the Orthodox faith.
- Failure to comply with God's Law.
- Offense against God.
- Insult to God Holy Mother of God, saints, holy Church. Mentioning the Name of God in vain, without reverence.
- Condemnation of clergy.
- Caring only about earthly life.
- Failure to comply with prayer rules, fasting and other church regulations.
- Non-attendance or rare attendance at the temple.
- Non-baptism of children. Raising children outside the Orthodox faith.
- Failure to keep promises made to God.
- Work on Sundays and major church holidays.
- Failure to provide prayer assistance to neighbors. Alive and deceased.
- Non-communion or rare participation in the sacraments of repentance, communion, and unction.
- Lack of Christian love.
- Lack of good deeds. Failure to provide all possible assistance to the Church.
- Committing criminal offenses.
- Homicide, abortion. Attempted murder or suicide.
- Pride. Condemnation. Resentment, no desire to reconcile, forgive. Grudge.
- Envy . Anger, hatred.
- Lies, deceit.
- Backbiting, gossip. Swearing, foul language. Causing harm or damage. Insult, insult.
- Failure to fulfill parental duty. Failure to fulfill a duty to parents
- Any dishonesty.
- Lack of mercy, failure to provide assistance to those in need.
Stinginess, greed, money-grubbing, bribery.
- Extravagance.
- Erroneous judgments about life, spreading one’s misconceptions.
- Temptation for any sin. Incorporation, in any form, into misconceptions and false teachings:
different philosophical systems; schisms, heresies and sects in Christianity;
other beliefs - Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and their branches;
about. sects - Satanism, Dianetics (Scientology), Marmons, Jehovah's Witnesses, yoga, meditation, etc., “health” systems, false directions in psychology and
- Superstition. Belief in omens, interpretation of dreams, observance of pagan rituals and holidays.
- Entering into direct communication with evil spirits. Fortune telling, witchcraft, spells, love spells, magic.
- Any games and actions with cards.
- Drinking, drug addiction, smoking.
- Fornication. (Satisfaction of sexual desire is illegal, that is, outside of marriage or in a perverted form.)
- Failure to save marriage. Divorce.
- Dejection, sadness. Gluttony. Laziness. Self-justification.
- Reluctance to work for one's salvation.
At the end of confession, you can say this: you have sinned in deed, in word, in thoughts, with all the feelings of soul and body. It is impossible to list all my sins, there are so many of them. But I repent of all my sins, both spoken and forgotten.
God! Be merciful to me, a sinner (sinner)