Fasting is combined with prayer, that is, abstinence from modest food - meat, dairy products, butter, eggs, and in general moderation in food: you need to eat and drink less than usual.

Mood and behavior

Anyone preparing for Holy Communion must be imbued with a deep awareness of his sinfulness, his insignificance before God and lewdness; must make peace with everyone and protect himself from feelings of anger and irritation, refrain from condemnation and all kinds of obscene thoughts and conversations, refuse to visit places of entertainment and houses that could give rise to falling into sin. I must meditate on the greatness of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, spending as much time as possible in solitude, reading the word of God and books of spiritual content.

Confession

Those who wish to receive communion should, best of all, confess before, before or after the evening service - bring sincere repentance of their sins to the priest, sincerely opening their soul and not hiding a single sin they have committed. Before confession, it is necessary to reconcile with the offenders and the offended, humbly asking everyone for forgiveness. Forgiveness is usually carried out in the following form: “Forgive me, a sinner, for sinning before you,” to which it is customary to respond: “God will forgive you, forgive me, a sinner.” During confession, it is better not to wait for the priest’s questions, but to express everything that weighs on your soul, without justifying yourself in anything and without shifting the blame onto others. To get rid of false modesty in confessing your sins, you can write them on a piece of paper and give them to the priest during confession.

It is more correct to confess the evening before, so that the morning can be devoted to prayerful preparation for Holy Communion. As a last resort, you can go to confession in the morning, but coming to confession when the Divine Liturgy has already begun is extreme disrespect for the great sacrament. Those who have not confessed are not allowed to receive Holy Communion, except in cases of mortal danger.

Having confessed, you must make a firm decision not to repeat your sins again. There is a good custom: after confession and before Holy Communion, do not eat or drink. This is definitely prohibited after midnight. Children should also be taught to abstain from food and drink before Holy Communion from a very early age.

Before and during Holy Communion

You must come to the church in advance, before the reading of the Hours begins. During the Divine Liturgy, before the opening of the royal doors and the removal of the Holy Gifts, shortly after singing “Our Father,” you need to approach the steps of the altar and wait for the removal of the Holy Gifts with the exclamation: “Come with the fear of God and faith.” The first to receive communion (and also to approach the cross and be anointed) are the brethren of the monastery, then the children, after the man and finally the woman. When approaching the Chalice, you need to bow to the ground in advance, from afar, and on Sundays and the Lord's holidays - bow from the waist, touching the floor with your hand, and fold your arms crosswise on your chest - right over left. In front of the Holy Chalice, do not cross yourself under any circumstances, so as not to accidentally push the Holy Chalice, clearly pronounce your full Christian name, open your mouth wide and reverently, with full awareness of the holiness of the great Sacrament, accept the Body and Blood of Christ and immediately swallow it.

After Holy Communion

Having accepted the Holy Mystery, without crossing yourself, kiss the edge of the Chalice and immediately approach the table with warmth to wash it down and taste a particle of the antidoron.

Do not leave the church until the end of the service, but be sure to listen to the prayers of thanks. On this day, the day of Holy Communion, do not eat too much, do not get drunk on alcoholic beverages, and generally behave reverently and decorously, in order to “honestly keep Christ received within you.”

All of the above is mandatory for children, starting from the age of seven, when children come to confession for the first time.

Who should not receive communion

You cannot approach Holy Communion: those who have enmity against their neighbor, those who have not been baptized, those who do not constantly pectoral cross who were not present at the evening service the day before and did not go to confession, who ate in the morning, were late for the Divine Liturgy, who did not fast and did not read the Rules for Holy Communion, women who have a state of health and appearance inappropriate for the church, namely: during the period of monthly cleansing, with his head uncovered, in trousers, with makeup on his face and especially painted lips. Also non-Orthodox who visit parishes of non-canonical, schismatic church associations (Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate, etc.) and sects. Such people must repent for the fact that they consciously or unconsciously remained in schism and thereby neglected the divine teaching about the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, while violating the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils.

An example of a short confession to a confessor

I confess, many sinners, to the Lord God Almighty, in Holy Trinity to the glorified and worshiped Father and Son and Holy Spirit, all my sins, voluntary and involuntary, in word, or deed, or thought. I sinned: by not keeping my vows, given by me at Baptism, but I lied about everything and proceeded, and made myself obscene before the face of God. Lack of faith, unbelief, doubt, hesitation in faith, everything from the enemy against God and the Holy Church, conceit, superstition, fortune-telling, arrogance, negligence, despair in one’s salvation, hope in oneself and in people more than in God . Forgetfulness of God’s justice and lack of sufficient devotion to the will of God, disobedience to the actions of God’s Providence, a persistent desire for everything to be my way, man-pleasing, partial love for creatures and things. Lack of diligence in knowledge of God, His will, faith in Him, reverence for Him, fear of Him, hope in Him, and zeal for His glory. Ingratitude to the Lord God for all His great blessings, poured out in abundance on me and in general on the entire human race and failure to remember them, murmuring against God, cowardice, despondency, hardness of one’s heart, lack of love or fear for Him and failure to fulfill the holy will His. Enslavement of oneself to passions: greed, pride, self-love, vanity, ambition, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, secret eating, gluttony, drunkenness, addiction to games, shows and amusements (visiting theaters, cinemas, discos, etc.). God-bashing, failure to fulfill vows, forcing others to worship and swear, disrespect for sacred things, blasphemy against God, against saints, against every holy thing, blasphemy, sacrilege (theft of church things), calling on the name of God in vain, in evil deeds and desires. Disrespect for the feasts of God, failure to go to the temple of God out of laziness and negligence, irreverent standing in the temple of God, talking and laughing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, wandering of thoughts, walking around the temple during Divine services, premature exits from the temple, in uncleanness came to the temple and touched its shrines. Negligence in prayer, abandonment of morning and evening prayers, failure to pay attention during prayer, abandonment of reading the Holy Gospel, Psalms and other Divine books. By concealing sins during confession, by self-justification in them, by repentance without heartfelt contrition, and by not diligently making proper preparations 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. Violation of fasts and fast days: Wednesdays and Fridays, intemperance in food and drink, careless and irreverent depiction of the sign of the cross. Disobedience, self-righteousness, self-justification, laziness towards work and failure to perform assigned work and duties. Disrespect for one's parents and one's elders, insolence, disobedience. Lack of love for one's neighbor, impatience, resentment, irritability, anger, causing harm to one's neighbor, intransigence, enmity, retribution of evil for evil, unforgiveness of insults, rancor, jealousy, envy, ill-will, vindictiveness, slander, condemnation, extortion, lack of compassion for the unfortunate, unmercifulness towards the poor, stinginess, extravagance, greed, insincerity in dealing with them, suspicion, double-mindedness, witticisms, lies, hypocritical treatment of others and flattery. Oblivion 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. Intemperance of one's tongue, idle talk, idle talk, ridicule, disclosure of the sins and weaknesses of one's neighbor, seductive behavior, liberty. Incontinence of one's mental and physical feelings, voluptuousness, immodest views of persons of the other sex, free treatment of them, fornication and adultery, excessive panache, the desire to please and seduce others. Lack of straightforwardness, sincerity, simplicity, fidelity, truthfulness, respect, sedateness, caution in words, prudent silence, guarding and defending the honor of others, lack of abstinence, chastity, modesty in words and deeds, purity of heart, non-covetousness, mercy and humility. Dejection, sadness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, lust, uncleanness and all my feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds (here it is necessary to name the sins that were not listed and burden the soul), and in my other sins, which I don't remember.

Having named the sins, you need to listen carefully to the answer of the priest, who at the end will read a prayer of permission.

I confess to the Lord God Almighty, glorified and worshiped in the Holy Trinity, Father and Son, and Holy Spirit, for all my sins, the evil I have committed in thought, word, deed, and with all my feelings.

I sinned before my Lord and Savior by self-love, carnality, lust, gluttony, gluttony, laziness, self-pity, pride, conceit, humiliation of others, envy, hostility, hatred, malice, lust, fornication, uncleanness, waywardness, disobedience, insubordination, rudeness, insolence , severity, obstinacy of character, unbelief, lack of faith, ingratitude, greed, cruelty, stinginess, greed, greed, sneaking, deceit, deceit, slander, perjury, theology, perjury, hypocrisy, pickiness, oppression, kidnapping, appropriation of someone else's property, abuse, indulgence sins, indulgence, vain spending of time, idle talk, idle talk, foul language, vanity, luxury, ill will, malice, malevolence, rancor, coldness, negligence, negligence in prayer and good deeds.

Disrespect for old age, lack of respect for parents, infidelity, inconsistency in virtue, frivolity, vanity, timidity, murmuring, despondency, cowardice, despair, anger, passion for reading empty books, negligence in reading the Holy Gospel and other spiritual books, inventing excuses for oneself sins and self-justification instead of condemnation and self-accusation, dishonest performance of official duties, ill will, negligence, incitement to evil, cursing one's neighbor, swearing, superstition, fortune telling.

I have sinned in all these iniquities and with them I have offended my All-Holy Lord and Benefactor immensely, for which I admit myself guilty, repent and regret.

I bitterly regret my sins and in the future, with God’s help, I will avoid them.

GENERAL, CONFESSION ON BEHALF OF THE PENENTENT

Innumerable, Merciful God, are my sins, voluntary and involuntary, obvious and secret, great and small, committed in word, deed, mind and thought, day and night, and in all the hours and minutes of my life until this day and hour.

I sinned before the Lord God by ingratitude for His great and countless benefits and His good providence.

I sinned, Lord, before You by not keeping the vows of Baptism. I sinned with lies and self-will.

I sinned by violating the Lord's Commandments and the traditions of the Holy Fathers.

He sinned with rudeness, insolence, disobedience, conceit, severity, fearfulness, arrogance, humiliation of others, carnality, obstinacy of character, disorderly shouting, irritability, beating, quarrels, swearing.

I sinned by slander, negligence, haste, malice, enmity, hatred, incitement, jealousy beyond reason.

I sinned through vengeance, resentment, voluptuousness, hostility, impurity, daydreaming, self-will, self-indulgence, intemperance, drunkenness, whim, gluttony.

I sinned by absent-mindedness, jokes, witticisms, laughter, ridicule, crazy fun, covetousness, sleeping too much, doing nothing, abandoning prayer, service, fasting and good deeds.

I sinned through bewilderment, coldness, stinginess, greed, and contempt for the beggar and the needy.

I sinned through greed, snitching, negligence, idleness, self-pity, deceit, deceit, carelessness, disrespect for old age, disobedience to superiors, spiritual father and older brothers.

Sinned by unbelief, blasphemy, doubt, inconstancy, frivolity, indifference, insensibility, unbelief, indifference to the Holy Orthodox faith and the Holy Sacraments, infidelity, inattention to prayer and worship, fasting and good deeds.

I sinned with immeasurable sorrow, sadness, despondency, conceit, despair, all sorts of nasty, evil and evil thoughts.

I sinned by calling on the name of God falsely and in vain.

I sinned through lack of faith, cowardice, hopelessness, abuse, hypocrisy, bribery, partiality, pickiness, oppression, theft, extortion, appropriation of someone else's property.

I sinned by abusing the gifts of God, indulgence in sins, idle talk, extravagance, coldness towards God and neighbors, incitement to evil, secret eating, secret drinking.

I sinned by spending my time in a vain way, spreading my false and blasphemous opinions, and deliberately and thoughtlessly pronouncing various kinds of curses on people, livestock, animals and birds.

I have sinned by consenting to every thought that is unrighteous, unclean, nasty and ungodly.

I sinned by daydreaming, ambition, charm, pretense, deceit, the creeping of my tongue in words contrary to God, spending time in inappropriate things, mockery, temptation, dancing, playing cards, laughing.

I sinned by omitting prayer before going to bed and upon rising from sleep. I sinned by forgetting to make the sign of the cross before eating food. He sinned by eating food after sunset, by using foul language and idle talk without a twinge of conscience.

I sinned with jealousy, wrong advice, affection, lust, voluptuousness and pickiness in food.

I sinned by reading romance novels and watching seductive films.

I sinned by negligence in reading the Gospel, the Psalter and other books of spiritual and religious content.

I sinned by inventing excuses for my sins and self-justification instead of self-condemnation and self-accusation.

I sinned by unscrupulously fulfilling the assignments and obediences assigned to me, and by bearing false witness against my neighbor.

I sinned with pride, vanity, arrogance, conceit, increased interest in clothing and fashion, desire for honor, petrification of the heart, evil thoughts and people-pleasing.

I sinned with various impurities, through the action of the enemy, in a sleepy dream. I sinned through lustful and prodigal deeds by nature and through nature.

I often sinned by omitting services in God's temple and being late for church services. I sinned by visiting churches of other faiths. I sinned by leaving God’s temple before the church’s dismissal. I sinned by omitting and not fulfilling the prayer rule, by impure confession and by always unworthyly accepting the Body and Blood of the Lord.

I sinned by giving alms with a cold, crafty heart, with bitterness towards the poor. I sinned by not fulfilling the Lord’s commandments about visiting the sick and those in prison.

He sinned by not doing the works commanded by the Lord: he did not satisfy the hungry, he did not give drink to the thirsty, he did not clothe the naked, he did not bury the dead.

I sinned by not giving due honor to holidays and Sundays.

I sinned by not praying as I should on the Lord’s and Theotokos’ feasts.

I sinned by forgetting the memory of the holy saints of God and by drunkenly celebrating holidays in general.

I sinned by slandering and condemning those superior in position and age, by slandering friends and benefactors, by failing to maintain fidelity and love.

I sinned by going to God’s church without a humble disposition of heart; I sinned by standing irreverently in the temple: walking, sitting, reclining and leaving untimely, idle conversations during the service.

I took the name of the Lord my God in vain, it even happened that I swore by His holy, terrible name; often lied and boldly and shamelessly reproached my neighbor. I often hesitated to come out of my state of anger and insulted and irritated my neighbor. He was proud of his good deeds, which he did not have at all. He often resorted to cunning and flattery and was two-faced and crafty in his relationships with people.

Every day I sinned with impatience and cowardice, many times I mocked the sin of my neighbor, saddening him secretly and openly, I gloated over his actions and misfortune, many times I carried enmity, malice, hatred and envy in my heart.

I sinned with crazy laughter, witticisms, obscene jokes, disorderly noisy conversation; often spoke thoughtlessly.

He committed fornication in a dream vision, was wounded by beauty human body, fed the imagination and heart with voluptuous feelings. I sinned by passionately looking at beautiful faces.

I sinned with my tongue, uttering outrages, blasphemy, vulgarities about objects of voluptuousness, fornicating myself, being inflamed by passionate kisses and doing inappropriate things.

He sinned with voluptuousness and gluttony, enjoyed delicacies, desired variety in food, enjoyed drinks and wines. Hastily gave in to his desires and fulfilled his whims.

Often he spared no expense in order to satisfy the demands and decency of the world, and for the poor he spared pennies.

He often mercilessly condemned and condemned others, despised poverty and abhorred it. Sinned by being hostile to a person because of his face, appearance. He was selfish and covetous. He often went to God's temple in uncleanness and in this form kissed holy objects, took holy prosphora and drank holy water, stood irreverently in the temple, thereby tempting others.

In home prayer he was cold, absent-minded, often prayed briefly and hastily, without diligence and reverence, did not overcome his laziness, indulged in bliss and inaction, spent time in idle pursuits and pleasures, cheerful conversations, games. I wasted precious time on chatter, gossip, gossip, and blaming my neighbor. I sinned through despondency, despair in my salvation and God’s mercy.

He uttered blasphemous words, sang shameless, riotous songs, resorted to witchcraft and fortune telling, without realizing the gravity of this sin. I sinned through ignorance and petrification of the heart. He often sinned willingly, in full understanding and consciousness, of his own free will, and inclined others to sin intentionally, trampling on all the covenants and Commandments of God.

I sinned with all my feelings, voluntarily and involuntarily, knowledge and ignorance, myself and through others I was tempted in all these and other iniquities.

I consider myself guilty before the face of God more than all other people, therefore I humbly pray to you, honest father, on the Day of Judgment be my witness. I truly regret these falls and have the will in the future, as much as possible, hoping for God’s mercy and help, to guard myself from all defilement of the flesh and spirit.

Forgive me, honest father, forgive me from all my sins and iniquities and pray for me, a sinful and unworthy servant (you can ask for penance).

GENERAL CONFESSION,

COMPILED FROM THE WORKS OF EP. JUSTINA

I confess to the Lord God Almighty, glorified and worshiped in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... in all my sins.

I confess that I have sinned against all the commandments of God.

I sinned: by lack of faith and unbelief, by doubt in faith; superstition and arrogance, negligence in one’s salvation, forgetfulness of God’s justice and lack of devotion to the will of God; a persistent desire for everything to be my way; impatience and murmuring.

I sinned: through selfishness, pride, servility to the spirit of the times and worldly customs; sinned against conscience, hypocrisy.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I have sinned: blasphemy and blasphemy, false oaths and violation of oaths, defiance, contempt and ridicule of pious people, modesty in appearing pious and generally a Christian among worldly people.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I sinned: by not honoring church holidays, by standing irreverently in church, by laziness in prayer, in reading the Word of God and other spiritual books; a careless depiction of the sign of the cross; non-observance of fasts according to the charter of the Church; laziness towards work and dishonest performance of work and duties related to the position of service; idleness and wasting a lot of time in indecent amusements and feasts. I sinned, Lord, by hiding my sins in confession.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I sinned: disrespect for parents and coldness towards relatives, disrespect for superiors and disrespect for elders, ingratitude towards benefactors; obstinate treatment of subordinates and cruel acts towards them.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I sinned: by killing (moral or physical) myself or another; oppression of a neighbor and deprivation of his means of life, insulting a neighbor with anger, obstinacy in treatment, slander, hatred, causing harm to a neighbor, enmity, rancor, temptation to sin, stubborn resistance to the truth, bitterness.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I sinned with carnal sins: fornication, adultery, voluptuousness in all its forms: passionate kisses, unclean touch, looking at beautiful faces with lust, foul language, shameless body movements, pimping, arbitrary lustful incitement, immoderation in carnal pleasures, intemperance during Lent, on Sundays and holidays, satiety in food and drink, reading books that corrupt the soul and looking at seductive paintings.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I have sinned: theft, appropriation of other people's property, deception, false testimony, selling bad goods instead of good ones, measuring, shortchanging, concealing a found thing, hiding a thief and theft, arson, parasitism, extortion, sacrilege, unmercifulness to the poor, failure to give mercy or help to those in need , stinginess, luxury, drunkenness, greed, infidelity, injustice, hardness of heart.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I have sinned: false denunciation, false testimony, slander, denigrating the good name and honor of a neighbor, disclosing the sins and weaknesses of a neighbor, suspicion, doubting the honor of a neighbor, interpreting his words and actions for the worse, condemnation, gossip, double-mindedness, gossip, ridicule, obscene jokes, lies, deceit, deceit, hypocrisy, hypocritical treatment of others, laziness, talkativeness, idle talk.

Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me!

I have sinned: with bad desires and thoughts, envy, lust for power and pride, self-interest and carnality. I have sinned, Lord, in sight and hearing; With unclean desires and criminal deeds I remove myself from Your presence. But I recognize myself guilty before You, Lord, and confess all my sins, which I have committed voluntarily and involuntarily, knowledge and ignorance, words, deeds and thoughts. I am guilty and irresponsible before the Lord my God; I repent of all my spiritual and physical sins, with which I angered my God and Creator, untruthed my neighbor and denigrated myself. I sincerely repent of everything and will make efforts to ensure that I don’t sin like that again. But as I am weak and powerless in myself for deeds pleasing and holy, with tears I pray to You, the Lord God, my Savior: help me to be confirmed in my intention to live the rest of my life pleasing to God and holy, and forgive my past sins by Your mercy and forgive me from all of my sins, for he is Good and Lover of Mankind!

CONFESSION COMPLETED IN THE OPTIA DESERT

I confess to the Lord God Almighty, glorified and worshiped in the Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, about all my sins:

I confess that I was conceived in sins, born in sins, raised in sins, and from baptism to this day living in sins.

I confess that I have sinned against all the commandments of God through lack of faith and unbelief, doubt and free opinion, superstition, fortune-telling, arrogance, negligence, despair in my salvation, relying on myself and on people more than on God.

Forgetfulness of God's justice and lack of sufficient devotion to the will of God.

Disobedience to the orders of God's Providence.

A persistent desire for everything to be “my way.”

Human-pleasing and partial love for creatures.

Failure to try to reveal in oneself the full knowledge of God and His will, faith in Him, reverence for Him, fear of Him, hope for Him, love for Him and zeal for His glory.

Sinned: by enslaving oneself to the passions: lust, greed, pride, self-love, vanity, servility to the spirit of the times, worldly customs against conscience, in violation of the commandments of God, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, gluttony, drunkenness.

Sinned: by deity, false oath, violation of an oath, failure to fulfill vows, forcing others to deify, oath, disrespect for sacred things and piety, blasphemy against God, against saints, against every sacred thing, blasphemy, blasphemy, calling the name of God in vain, in evil deeds, desires, jokes and fun.

Sinned by: disrespect for holidays and activities that demean the honor of holidays, irreverent standing in church, talking and laughing, laziness in prayer and reading Holy Scripture, abandonment of morning and evening prayers, concealment of sins in confession, failure to properly prepare for the communion of the Holy Mysteries, disrespect for sacred objects and careless depiction of the sign of the cross. Failure to observe fasts according to the rules of the Church, laziness towards work and unscrupulous performance of assigned work and affairs according to duty, wasting a lot of time in vain in idleness and absent-mindedness.

I sinned: by not honoring parents and superiors, by disrespecting elders, spiritual shepherds and teachers.

Sinned: by vain anger, insulting one's neighbors, hatred, causing harm to one's neighbor, enmity, rancor, temptation, advice to sin, arson, failure to save a person from death, poisoning, murder (of children in the womb) - advice to this.

Sinned: carnal sins - fornication, adultery, voluptuousness, passionate kisses, unclean touch, looking at beautiful faces with lust.

Sinned: by foul language, delight in unclean dreams, arbitrary lustful irritation, intemperance during fasting, Sundays and holidays, incest in spiritual and carnal relationships, excessive panache with the desire to please and seduce others.

Sinned: theft, appropriation of someone else's property, deception, concealment of a found item, acceptance of someone else's item, failure to pay a debt for false reasons, obstruction of the benefits of others, parasitism, covetousness, sacrilege, lack of compassion for the unfortunate, unmercifulness towards the poor, stinginess, extravagance, luxury, gambling in cards, in general a disorderly life, greed, infidelity, injustice, hard-heartedness.

Sinned: by false denunciation and testimony in court, by slandering and denigrating the good name of a neighbor and his honor, by disclosing their sins and weaknesses. Suspicion, doubt in the honor of one's neighbor, condemnation, double-mindedness, gossip, ridicule, witticisms, lies, guile, deceit, hypocritical treatment of others, flattery, groveling before those superior in position and those having advantages and power; talkativeness and idle talk.

I do not have: straightforwardness, sincerity, simplicity, fidelity, truthfulness, respect, sedateness, caution in words, prudent silence, guarding and defending the honor of others.

I sinned: with evil desires and thoughts, envy, internal adultery, selfish and proud thoughts and desires, selfishness and carnality.

I do not have: love, abstinence, chastity, modesty in words and deeds, purity of heart, selflessness, non-covetousness, generosity, mercy, humility; in general, I do not diligently care about eradicating sinful dispositions in myself and establishing myself in virtues.

I sinned: by despondency, sadness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, unclean lust and all my feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds and in my other sins, which I did not mention due to my unconsciousness.

I repent that I have angered the Lord my God, I sincerely regret it and wish to repent and not sin in the future and refrain from sins in every possible way.

With tears, I pray to You, the Lord my God, help me to be confirmed in my intention to live as a Christian, and forgive my confessed sins, as you are Good and Lover of Mankind.

I also ask you, honorable father, in whose presence I confessed all this, that you will be my witness on the day of judgment against the devil, the enemy and hater of the human race, and that you will pray for me, a sinner, to the Lord my God.

I ask you, honest father, as you who have from Christ God the power to give permission to those who confess and forgive their sins, forgive me, give me permission and pray for me, a sinner.

SINS AGAINST THE LORD GOD

Proud; did not fulfill the holy will of God, violated the Commandments; sinned through unbelief and lack of faith, doubt in faith; had no hope for God’s mercy, despaired; continuing to sin, he relied excessively on the mercy of the Lord; hypocritically worshiped God; did not have the love and fear of God; I did not thank the Lord for all His blessings, for sorrows, illnesses; turned to psychics, astrologers, fortune tellers, fortune tellers; practiced black and white magic, witchcraft, fortune telling, spiritualism; sinned with superstition: he believed in dreams, omens, wore talismans; blasphemed and murmured against the Lord in his soul and in words; did not fulfill his vows to God; called on the name of God in vain (without reverence, in inappropriate conversations), falsely swore by the name of the Lord; ate animal blood;

Treated icons, relics, candles, saints, Holy Scriptures, etc. without due reverence (blasphemously); read heretical books and kept them at home, watched heretical TV shows; was ashamed to be baptized and profess the Orthodox faith; did not wear a cross; carelessly crossed himself;

Did not fulfill or poorly fulfilled the prayer rule: morning and evening prayers, other prayers, bows, etc., did not read the Holy Scriptures, spiritual literature;

Missed Sunday and holiday services without good reason; I went to church without zeal and diligence; was lazy to pray, prayed absent-mindedly and coldly; talked, dozed, laughed, walked around the temple during church services; inattentively, absent-mindedly listened to readings and chants, was late for services and left the temple before dismissal;

I went to church in uncleanness, touched icons and candles in uncleanness;

He rarely confessed his sins and deliberately concealed them; :

He received communion without contrition and fear of God, without proper preparation (3 days of fasting, reading canons and akathists, prayers for Holy Communion), without reconciling with his neighbors;

Did not abstain from marital cohabitation before communion; received communion without repentance after fornication;

He did not obey his spiritual father, he condemned the clergy and monastics, he grumbled and was offended by them, he was jealous;

He did not honor God’s holidays, he worked on holidays;

He broke fasts and did not observe fast days - Wednesday and Friday;

I listened to Western preachers, sectarians, and became interested in Eastern religions; received heretical baptism;

Thought about suicide and tried to kill himself

SINS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

He had no love for his neighbors, did not love his enemies, hated them, wished them harm;

He did not know how to forgive, he repaid evil for evil;

Not respectful to elders and superiors (superiors), to parents; upset and offended parents;

Didn't fulfill what he promised;

Didn't pay debts; openly or secretly appropriated someone else's property;

Beat, attempted on someone else's life;

She poisoned, killed babies in the womb (abortions, pills, IUDs...), advised her neighbors to do them;

Robbed, extorted, set fires;

He refused to stand up for the weak and innocent, to help those who were drowning, freezing, burning, or in trouble;

I sinned by laziness in my work;

Didn't respect other people's work;

He raised his children poorly: outside the Christian faith, he cursed the children; sinned with unmercifulness: he despised and condemned the poor; I sinned through stinginess and did not give alms;

Did not visit patients in hospitals or at home; sinned with hardness of heart; was cruel to animals, birds, in vain he killed livestock, birds, destroying trees; contradicted, did not yield to his neighbors, argued; slandered, condemned, slandered, gossiped, retold the sins of others; offended, insulted, was at enmity with neighbors; made a scandal, threw hysterics, cursed, was insolent, behaved brazenly and freely towards his neighbor;

He was a hypocrite, he said barbs; was angry; irritated, suspected his neighbors of unseemly actions; deceived, bore false witness;

He behaved seductively, wanting to seduce; was jealous;

Celebrated; told obscene jokes;

I didn’t pray for mentors, relatives, or enemies;

He corrupted his neighbors (adults and minors) with his actions; sinned with selfish friendship and betrayal.

SINS AGAINST YOURSELF

He was proud, vain, considered himself better than everyone else; proud;

He wished harm to his neighbor, was vindictive; sinned by lack of humility and obedience, arrogance; lied; envied;

He celebrated, he cursed; was irritated, indignant, remembered evil; obstinate; was offended, upset; was depressed, sad, sad; did good deeds for show; stingy; lazy;

He spent his time in idleness, slept and ate a lot (gluttony, secret eating, delicacy); forgot about Christian humility, virtues, death and hell, lived carelessly and carelessly, did not improve; loved earthly, material things more than heavenly, spiritual things; addicted to money, things, luxury, pleasures; overly attentive to the flesh; strived for earthly honors and glory;

Smoked, used drugs, alcohol (got drunk); played cards, gambling;

He adorned himself to deceive; engaged in pimping and prostitution; sang obscene songs, told jokes, cursed, laughed, danced; watched pornographic films, read pornographic books, magazines; accepted lustful thoughts, became defiled in a dream; sinned by fornication (outside of church marriage) (name, quantity); sinned by adultery (cheated during marriage); took liberties to the crown and perversion in marriage; sinned by masturbation, avoided conception by ejaculation of semen (Onan’s sin), allowed fornication in marriage; sodomy (fornication between a man and a man), lesbianism (fornication between a woman and a woman), bestiality (fornication with cattle);

Dejection, sadness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, lust, uncleanness and all my feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds (one must name the sins that were not listed and burden the soul), and other sins.

MANUAL FOR GENERAL CONFESSION

(compiled according to the instructions of Archpriest A. Vetelev)

Our repentance must be sincere and sincere; must come from the depths of the soul, fully aware of its guilt before God.

Examples: David and the prophet Nathan (50th Psalm of David). Ap. Peter and Judas.

Brothers and sisters! Confession is God's judgment on us. This judgment is the more merciful for us, the more deeply and sincerely we repent..., experience...

The Lord says to each of us: “I, I myself, blot out your crimes for my own sake... Remember... you speak in order to be justified” (Isaiah 43, 25-26).

You may ask, how can one speak, name sins, when we now have not a private, but a general confession? Yes, we have a common confession. But it is also necessary to turn general confession into a private one. To do this, each confessor, listening to the listed common sins, must recognize his own among them and, naming them, repent of each of them. For example, a confessor talks about the sin of judging others. The confessor, imbued with the consciousness of his personal sin, says: “and I condemned... - forgive me, Lord!” In addition, after a general confession, approaching the prayer of permission, the confessor can name those special, personal sins that torment his conscience.

As we begin confession, let us pray: “Lord! Open my soul to repentance and accept my confession.” - “Lord, I have sinned in heaven and before You!...

- (see Prayers before confession in church).

We, many sinners (state your names), confess to the Lord God Almighty, glorified and worshiped in the Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, all our sins, voluntary and involuntary, in word, or deed, or thought.

We sinned: by not keeping the vows we made at baptism, but in everything we lied and transgressed and made ourselves obscene before the face of God.

We sinned: by lack of faith, unbelief, doubt, hesitation in faith, everything from the enemy against God and the Holy Church, conceit and free opinion, superstition, fortune telling, arrogance, negligence, despair in one’s salvation, relying on oneself and on people more than on God.

We sinned: by forgetting about the justice of God, by lacking sufficient devotion to the will of God; disobedience to the actions of God's providence, a persistent desire for everything to be my way, people-pleasing and partial love for creatures and things; lack of effort to reveal in oneself full knowledge of His will, faith in Him, goodwill towards Him, fear of Him, hope for Him and zeal for His glory.

We sinned: by ingratitude to the Lord God for all His great and unceasing blessings, poured out in abundance on each of us and in general on the entire human race, and failure to remember them, murmuring against God, cowardice, despondency, hardness of our hearts, lack of love for Him , below fear and failure to fulfill His holy will.

We sinned: by enslaving ourselves to passions: voluptuousness, greed, pride, self-love, vanity, ambition, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, secret eating, gluttony, drunkenness, addiction to games, shows and amusements.

We have 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, in evil deeds and desires.

We sinned: by not honoring the feasts of God, not going to the temple of God out of laziness and negligence, standing irreverently in the temple of God, talking, laughing, not paying attention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, wandering of thoughts, walking around the temple during worship, leaving the temple prematurely, they came to the temple in uncleanness and touched its shrines.

We sinned: by neglect of prayer, abandonment of morning and evening prayers, failure to pay attention during prayer, abandonment of reading the Holy Gospel, Psalms and other Divine books.

They sinned: by concealing their sins during confession, by self-justifying them and belittling their severity, by repenting without heartfelt contrition and not diligently making proper preparations for communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, without being reconciled with their neighbors, they came to confession and in such a sinful state they dared to begin communion.

We sinned: by breaking fasts and not observing fast days - Wednesday and Friday, by intemperance in food and drink, by carelessly and irreverently depicting the sign of the cross.

We sinned: disobedience, arrogance, complacency, self-indulgence, self-justification, laziness to work and dishonest performance of assigned work and duties.

They sinned: by disrespecting their parents and their elders, by impudence, self-righteousness and disobedience.

Sinned: lack of love for one's neighbor, impatience, resentment, irritability, anger, causing harm to one's neighbor, intransigence, enmity, retribution of evil for evil, unforgiveness of insults, resentment, jealousy, envy, malice, vindictiveness, condemnation, slander, extortion, lack of compassion for the unfortunate , unmercifulness towards the poor, stinginess, wastefulness, greed, infidelity, injustice, hardness of heart.

We sinned: by deceit against our neighbors, deceiving them, insincerity in dealing with them, suspicion, double-mindedness, gossip, ridicule, witticisms, lies, hypocritical treatment of others and flattery.

We sinned: by forgetting about the future eternal life, by not remembering our death and the Last Judgment, and by an unreasonable partial attachment to earthly life and its pleasures.

They sinned: by intemperance of their tongue, idle talk, idle talk, ridicule, disclosure of the sins and weaknesses of their neighbor, seductive behavior, freedom, insolence.

We sinned: incontinence of our mental and physical feelings, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of persons of the other sex, free treatment of them, fornication and adultery and excessive panache with the desire to please and seduce others.

We sinned: lack of straightforwardness, sincerity, simplicity, fidelity, truthfulness, respect, sedateness, caution in words, prudent silence, guarding and defending the honor of others, lack of love, abstinence, chastity, modesty in words and deeds, purity of heart, non-covetousness, mercy and humility.

We sinned: despondency, sadness, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, lust, uncleanness and all our feelings, thoughts, words, desires, deeds and our other sins, which due to our unconsciousness we did not remember.

We repent that we have angered the Lord our God with all our sins, we sincerely regret this and wish in every possible way to abstain from our sins.

Lord our God, with tears we pray to You, our Savior, help us to be confirmed in the holy intention to live like a Christian, and forgive us the sins we have confessed, for you are Good and Lover of Mankind.

Serious sins not listed here must be confessed to the confessor separately.

The first commandment of God's law commands:

We sinned: by lack of faith, unbelief, doubt, despair in our salvation, by relying on ourselves and on people more than on God (excessive hope in God’s mercy), forgetting about God’s justice, i.e. unrepentance.

Disobedience to the will of God, disobedience to the orders of God's Providence. A persistent desire for everything to be “my way.”

Impatience and grumbling when something is not done according to my wishes.

People-pleasing and partial love for people, creatures, things, activities.

Unwillingness and negligence to reveal in oneself the memory of God and His will, faith and reverence for Him and fear of Him, hope in Him and devotion to His will, and obedience to Him, love for Him, striving for Him with all one’s being and zeal for glory His. Apostasy. Not having love for God.

2. “DO NOT MAKE YOURSELF AN IDOLM”, i.e. fictional god - idol.

We sinned: Pride, vanity, self-love, voluptuousness, greed, hypocrisy, gluttony, gluttony, voluptuousness, servility to the spirit of the time and worldly customs, against conscience with violation of God's commandments, drunkenness, secret eating.

3. “YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.”

They sinned: blasphemy, blasphemy, blasphemy, swearing, breaking an oath, cursed themselves and others. Violation of vows, disrespect for goodness and pious people. Contempt, ridicule of them. Shyness to appear to be a devout Christian, idle talk, were used to pronounce the name of God in proverbs. “The Lord will not leave without punishment the one who takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7).

We sinned: By not honoring holidays, by not going to church out of laziness. Laziness towards prayer and reading the Word of God and holy books.

By standing irreverently in church and not paying attention to reading and singing, by wandering thoughts, by talking and laughing in church.

Leaving morning, evening and other prayers.

Concealing sins during confession and neglecting proper preparation for communion of the Holy Mysteries.

Disrespect for sacred places, careless depiction of the sign of the cross.

Failure to observe fasts according to the church charter.

Laziness towards work and dishonest performance of assigned work and duties. Losing a lot of time in vain in idleness, absent-mindedness, amusements, feasts.

Visiting parties, theatre, and cinema during the great holidays.

5. “HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER, SO THAT YOUR DAYS ON EARTH MAY BE LEGENDED.”

Sinned: By disrespecting parents and relatives. Disrespect for elders. Ingratitude to benefactors.

Carelessness about raising children, indulgence or obstinate treatment of them, negligence about their welfare and cruel acts towards them.

6. “Thou shalt not kill.”

Sinned: By morally or physically killing yourself or another.

Oppression and deprivation of the means of living of one's neighbor.

Non-giving of help to save the life of a neighbor from premature death.

Anger, insult, slander, hatred, sabotage, enmity, rancor. Temptation to sin. Inactivity, satiety, stubborn resistance to the truth. Bitterness in sins.

They took revenge for evil. Completely unrepentant. Animals were tortured and killed.

By not training yourself not only not to offend anyone, but also to treat everyone meekly, politely, friendly, edifyingly, to reconcile with those who are angry, to endure insults and forgive. Do good to everyone, even your enemies.

7. “DO NOT commit adultery”

Sinned: By foul language, reading immoral books, looking at pictures and actions, lust, pandering, coquetry, fornication, adultery (this type of sin is told to confessors specifically and only in private).

8. “DO NOT STEAL”

Sinned: Theft, deception, parasitism, extortion, unmercifulness towards the poor, stinginess, drunkenness, wastefulness, playing cards and other gambling, luxury, dishonesty, injustice, hard-heartedness, greed, love of money.

9. “THOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR.”

Sinned by: False testimony, slander, disclosure of the sins of others, suspicion, condemnation and praise, gossip, doubting the honor of neighbors, double-mindedness, gossip, ridicule, obscene jokes, lies, deceit, flattery, indirectness, insincerity.

10. “YOU SHOULD NOT COVE YOUR NEIGHBOR’S WIFE...NOTHING THAT YOUR NEIGHBOR HAS”

Sinned: With bad desires, thoughts, envy.

Let's check our life according to the Beatitudes.

They did not have poverty of spirit and humility.

They had no consciousness of their sinfulness, no contrition and crying about their sins.

They did not live according to the truth of God and did not seek it.

They were not merciful.

They were not pure in heart.

BRIEF CONFESSION

What is required of the repentant is: awareness of his sins. Condemning yourself in them. Contrition and tears. Self-accusation before the confessor. Repentance not only in word, but also in deed, i.e. correction - new life. Belief in the forgiveness of sins. Hatred of past sins.

I confess that I am a great sinner (name) to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honorable father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, which I have done all the days of my life and which I have thought even to this day.

He sinned: He did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, he did not keep his monastic (or his) promise, but he lied about everything and created indecent things for himself before the Face of God.

Forgive us, Merciful Lord (for general confession). Forgive me, honest father (for private confession).

I sinned: before the Lord by lack of faith and sluggishness in thoughts, all from the enemy against the faith and the Holy Church; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing benefits, calling on the name of God without need - in vain.

Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: lack of love for the Lord, lower than fear; failure to fulfill His holy will and holy commandments, careless depiction of the sign of the cross, irreverent veneration of St. icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to be baptized and confess the Lord.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: I did not preserve love for my neighbor, did not feed the hungry and thirsty, did not clothe the naked, did not visit the sick and prisoners in prison; I did not study the law of God and the traditions of the holy fathers out of laziness and negligence.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by not fulfilling church and cell rules, by going to the temple of God without diligence, with laziness and negligence; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; During the service, I sinned by idle talk, laughter, dozing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, leaving the temple during the service and not going to the temple of God due to laziness and negligence.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by daring in impurity (spiritual and physical) to enter the temple of God and touch holy things.

Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: by not honoring the feasts of God; violation of St. fasting and non-keeping of fast days - Wednesday and Friday; intemperance in food and drink, polyeating, secret eating, disordered eating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism (tune - for nothing, illegally; poison - eating; parasitism - eating bread for nothing); one’s own will and reason through fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and self-justification; not properly honoring parents, not raising children in the Orthodox faith, cursing their children and their neighbors.

Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned by: unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false worship, dancing, smoking, playing cards, fortune telling, witchcraft, sorcery, gossip, remembering the living for their repose, eating the blood of animals (VI Ecumenical Council, canon 67. Acts Holy Apostles, ch. 15.).

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: with pride, conceit, arrogance, pride, ambition, envy, conceit, suspicion, irritability.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by condemning all people - living and dead, by slander and anger, by malicious malice, by hatred, by retribution of evil for evil, slander, reproach, deceit, laziness, deception, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to give in and serve one's neighbor; I sinned with gloating, ill-wishing, malice, insult, ridicule, reproach and man-pleasing.

Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: incontinence of mental and physical feelings; spiritual and physical impurity, pleasure and procrastination in unclean thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of wives and young men; in a dream, prodigal night defilement, intemperance in married life.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by impatience with illnesses and sorrows, by loving the comforts of this life, by captivity of the mind and hardening of the heart, by not forcing myself to do any good deed.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by inattention to the promptings of my conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the Word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. I sinned through covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, embezzlement, theft, stinginess, attachment to various kinds of things and people.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by condemning and disobeying my spiritual fathers, by murmuring and resenting them and by not confessing my sins to them through oblivion, negligence and false shame.

Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: by unmercifulness, contempt and condemnation of the poor; going to the temple of God without fear and reverence, deviating into heresy and sectarian teaching.

Forgive me, honest father.

Sinned: by laziness, relaxation, love of bodily rest, excessive sleeping, voluptuous dreams, biased views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, masturbation, unmarried marriages, those who performed abortions on themselves or others, or persuaded someone, gravely sinned. something to this great sin - infanticide. He spent his time in empty and idle pursuits, in empty conversations, jokes, laughter and other shameful sins.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: despondency, cowardice, impatience, murmuring, despair of salvation, lack of hope in God’s mercy, insensibility, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: slandering my neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, intransigence, enmity and hatred, discord,
spying on other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: by coldness and insensitivity in confession, by belittling sins, by blaming others rather than by condemning myself.

Forgive me, honest father..

Sinned: against the Life-giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching them without proper preparation, without contrition and fear of God.

Forgive me, honest father.

I sinned: in word, in thought and with all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, voluntarily or involuntarily, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and foolishness, and it is not possible to list all my sins according to their multitude. But in all of these, as well as in those unspeakable through oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to take care.

You, honest father, forgive me and release me from all of this and pray for me, a sinner, and on that day of judgment testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen.

Confession is considered a Christian rite in which the person confessing repents and repents of his sins in the hope of forgiveness by God Christ. The Savior himself established this sacrament and told the disciples the words that are written in the Gospel of Matthew, ch. 18, verse 18. This is also spoken of in the Gospel of John, ch. 20, verses 22 – 23.

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Sacrament of Confession

According to the holy fathers, repentance is also considered a second baptism. Man during baptism cleansed from sin the firstborn, who was passed on to everyone from the first ancestors Adam and Eve. And after the rite of baptism, during repentance, personal thoughts are washed away. When a person performs the sacrament of repentance, he must be honest and aware of his sins, sincerely repenting of them, and not repeat the sin, believing in the hope of salvation by Jesus Christ and His mercy. The priest reads a prayer and cleansing from sins occurs.

Many who do not want to repent of their sins often say that they have no sins: “I didn’t kill, I didn’t steal, I didn’t commit adultery, so I have nothing to repent of?” This is stated in the first Epistle of John in the first chapter, verse 17 - “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This means that sinful events happen every day if you understand the essence of God's commandments. There are three categories of sin: sin against the Lord God, sin against loved ones and sin against oneself.

List of sins against Jesus Christ

List of sins against loved ones

List of sins against yourself

All listed sins are divided into three categories, in the final analysis, all this is against the Lord God. After all, a violation of the commandments He created is carried out, therefore, a direct insult to God occurs. All these sins do not produce positive fruits, but on the contrary, the soul will not be saved from this.

Proper preparation for confession

It is necessary to prepare for the sacrament of confession with all seriousness; for this purpose, one should engage in early preparation. Enough remember and write down on a piece of paper all the sins committed, and also read detailed information about the sacrament of confession. You should take a piece of paper for the ceremony and read everything again before the process. The same sheet can be given to the confessor, but grave sins must be spoken out loud. It is enough to talk about the sin itself, and not list long stories, for example, if there is enmity in the family, and with neighbors, one should repent of the main sin - condemnation of neighbors and loved ones.

In this ritual, the confessor and God are not interested in numerous sins, the meaning itself is important - sincere repentance for sins committed, a sincere feeling of a person, a contrite heart. Confession is not just awareness of one’s sinful past deeds, but also the desire to wash them off. Justifying oneself for sins is not cleansing, it is unacceptable. Elder Silouan of Athos said that if a person hates sin, then God also asks for these sins.

It will be great if a person draws conclusions from each passing day, and each time truly repents of his sins, writing them down on paper, and for serious sins it is necessary to confess to a confessor in the church. You should immediately ask for forgiveness from people who have been offended by word or deed. There is a rule in the Orthodox prayer book - the Penitential Canon, which must be read intensively in the evenings before the sacrament of confession itself.

It is important to find out the church schedule and what day you can go to confession. There are many churches in which daily services are held, and the daily sacrament of confession also takes place there. And in the rest you should find out about the schedule of church services.

How to Confess to Children

Children under seven years of age are considered infants and can receive communion without prior confession. But it is important to accustom them from childhood to a sense of reverence. Without necessary preparation frequent communion causes reluctance to engage in this matter. Preferably prepare children for the sacrament in a few days, an example is reading the Holy Scriptures and children's Orthodox literature. Reduce TV viewing time. Observe the morning and evening prayers. If a child has done bad things over the past few days, then you should talk to him and instill in him a feeling of shame for what he has done. But you always need to know: the child follows the example of his parents.

After the age of seven, you can begin confession on the same basis as adults, but without the preliminary sacrament. The sins listed above are committed in large numbers by children, so children's communion has its own nuances.

To help children sincerely confess, it is necessary to give a list of sins:

This is a superficial list of possible sins. There are many personal sins for each child based on their thoughts and actions. An important goal of parents is to prepare the child for repentance. Need a child he wrote down all his sins without the participation of his parents- you shouldn’t write him down. He must understand that it is necessary to sincerely admit and repent of bad deeds.

How to confess in church

Confession falls on morning and evening time days. It is considered unacceptable to be late for such an event. A group of repentants begins the process by reading the rites. When the priest begins to ask the names of the participants who came to confession, you need to answer neither loudly nor quietly. Latecomers are not accepted for confession. At the end of confession, the priest reads the rite again, receiving the sacrament. Women during natural monthly cleansing are not allowed to participate in such an event.

You need to behave with dignity in church and not disturb other confessors and the priest. It is not allowed to embarrass the people who came to this event. There is no need to confess one category of sins and leave another later. Those sins that were named last time are not re-read. It is advisable to perform the sacrament from the same confessor. In the sacrament, a person repents not before his confessor, but before the Lord God.

In large churches many penitents gather and in this case it is used "general confession". The point is that the priest pronounces common sins, and those confessing repent. Next, everyone must come to the prayer of permission. When confession takes place for the first time, you should not come to such a general procedure.

First time visit private confession, if there is none, then at general confession you need to take the last place in line and listen to what they say to the priest during confession. It is advisable to explain the whole situation to the priest; he will tell you how to confess for the first time. Next comes true repentance. If during the process of repentance a person kept silent about a serious sin, then he will not be forgiven. At the end of the sacrament, a person is obliged, after reading the prayer of permission, to kiss the Gospel and the cross, which lie on the lectern.

Proper preparation for communion

On the days of fasting, which last seven days, fasting is established. The diet should not include fish, dairy, meat and egg products. On such days, sexual intercourse should not be performed. It is necessary to attend church frequently. Read the Penitential Canon and follow the prayer rules. On the eve of the sacrament, you must arrive for the service in the evening. Before going to bed, you should read the canons of the Archangel Michael, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Mother of God. If this is not possible, such prayer rules can be shifted by several days during the fast.

Children have a hard time remembering and perceiving prayer rules, so you should choose the number that is within your power, but you need to discuss this with your confessor. To prepare gradually you need increase the number of prayer rules. Most people confuse the rules of confession and communion. Here you need to prepare step by step. To do this, you should ask for advice from a priest, who will advise you on more precise preparation.

Sacrament of Communion carried out on an empty stomach, you should not consume food and water after 12 o’clock, and you should also not smoke. This does not apply to children under seven years of age. But they need to be accustomed to this a year before the adult sacrament. Must read morning prayers and for Holy Communion. During morning confession you must arrive at right time no delays.

Participle

The Lord God established the sacrament during the hours of the Last Supper, when Christ broke bread with his disciples and drank wine with them. Participle helps you enter the Kingdom of Heaven, therefore incomprehensible to the human mind. Women are not allowed to attend communion wearing makeup, and on ordinary Sundays they should wipe off anything from their lips. On menstrual days women are not allowed to participate in the Sacrament., as well as those who have recently given birth, for the latter you need to read the prayer for the fortieth day.

When the priest comes out with the Holy Gifts, participants are required to bow. Next, you need to listen carefully to the prayers, repeating to yourself. Then you should cross your arms across your chest and approach the bowl. Children should go first, then men, and then women. Near the cup one’s name is pronounced and thereby the communicant receives the Gifts of the Lord. After communion, the deacon treats his lips with a plate, then you need to kiss the edge of the cup and approach the table. Here the person takes a drink and consumes the prosphora part.

At the end, participants listen to prayers and pray until the end of the service. Then you should go to the cross and listen carefully to the prayer of thanks. At the end, everyone goes home, but in church you cannot speak empty words and disturb each other. On this day you need to behave with dignity and not defile your purity with sinful deeds.

Confession is not a conversation about one’s shortcomings, doubts, it is not simply informing one’s confessor about oneself. Confession is a sacrament, and not just a pious custom. Confession is an ardent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification that comes from the feeling of holiness, this is the second Baptism, and, therefore, in repentance we die to sin and are resurrected to holiness. Repentance is the first degree of holiness, and insensibility is being outside of holiness, outside of God.

Answers to frequently asked questions about confession

Often, instead of confessing one’s sins, there is self-praise, denunciation of loved ones and complaints about the difficulties of life.

How to prepare for your first confession?

Some confessors strive to go through confession painlessly for themselves - they say general phrases: “I am a sinner in everything” or talk about little things, keeping silent about what should really weigh on the conscience. The reason for this is false shame in front of the confessor, and indecision, but especially the cowardly fear of seriously starting to understand one’s life, which is full of small, habitual weaknesses and sins.

Sin is a violation of the Christian moral law. Therefore, the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian gives the following definition of sin: “Everyone who commits sin also commits lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).

There are sins against God and His Church. This group includes numerous spiritual states connected in a continuous network, which include, along with simple and obvious, big number hidden, seemingly innocent, but in fact the most dangerous phenomena for the soul. Generally speaking, these sins can be reduced to the following: 1) lack of faith, 2) superstition, 3) blasphemy and idolatry, 4) lack of prayer and neglect of church services, 5) delusion.

Lack of faith. This sin is perhaps the most common, and literally every Christian has to struggle with it continuously. Lack of faith often imperceptibly turns into complete unbelief, and the person suffering from it often continues to attend divine services and resort to confession. He does not consciously deny the existence of God, however, he doubts His omnipotence, mercy or Providence. With his actions, affections, and his entire way of life, he contradicts the faith he professes in words. Such a person never delved into even the simplest dogmatic issues, fearing to lose those naive ideas about Christianity, often incorrect and primitive, that he once acquired. By turning Orthodoxy into a national, home tradition, a set of external rituals, gestures, or reducing it to the enjoyment of beautiful choral singing, the flickering of candles, that is, to external splendor, people of little faith lose the most important thing in the Church - our Lord Jesus Christ. For a person of little faith, religiosity is closely connected with aesthetic, passionate, and sentimental emotions; she easily gets along with egoism, vanity, and sensuality. People of this type seek praise and a good opinion of their confessor. They come to the lectern to complain about others, they are full of themselves and strive to demonstrate their “righteousness” in every possible way. The superficiality of their religious enthusiasm is best demonstrated by their easy transition from cloyingly ostentatious “piety” to irritability and anger at their neighbors.

Such a person does not admit any sins, does not even bother trying to understand his life and sincerely believes that he does not see anything sinful in it.

In fact, such “righteous people” often show callousness towards others, are selfish and hypocritical; They live only for themselves, considering abstinence from sins sufficient for salvation. It is useful to remind yourself of the contents of chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew (the parables of the ten virgins, the talents and, especially, the description of the Last Judgment). In general, religious complacency and complacency are the main signs of alienation from God and the Church, and this is most clearly shown in another gospel parable - about the publican and the Pharisee.

Superstition. Often all kinds of superstitions, belief in omens, divination, fortune telling on cards, and various heretical ideas about sacraments and rituals penetrate and spread among believers.

Such superstitions are contrary to doctrine Orthodox Church and serve the corruption of souls and the extinction of faith.

Particular attention should be paid to such a fairly widespread and destructive doctrine for the soul as occultism, magic, etc. On the faces of people who have been involved in the so-called occult sciences for a long time, initiated into the “secret spiritual teaching", a heavy imprint remains - a sign of unconfessed sin, and in the souls - a painfully distorted opinion of Satanic rationalistic pride about Christianity as one of the lower stages of knowledge of the truth. Suppressing the childishly sincere faith in the paternal love of God, the hope for the Resurrection and Eternal Life, occultists preach the doctrine of “karma”, the transmigration of souls, extra-church and, therefore, graceless asceticism. Such unfortunates, if they have found the strength to repent, should be explained that, in addition to direct harm to mental health, activities in the occult are caused by a curious desire to look beyond closed door. We must humbly acknowledge the existence of the Mystery without trying to penetrate into it through non-church ways. We have been given the supreme law of life, we have been shown the path that directly leads us to God - love. And we must follow this path, bearing our cross, without turning to detours. Occultism is never able to reveal the secrets of existence, as their adherents claim.

Blasphemy and desecration. These sins often coexist with churchliness and sincere faith. This primarily includes blasphemous grumbling against God for His supposedly unmerciful attitude towards man, for suffering that seems excessive and undeserved to him. Sometimes it even comes to blasphemy against God, church shrines, and sacraments. This often manifests itself in the telling of irreverent or directly offensive stories from the lives of clergy and monks, in mocking, ironic quoting of individual expressions from the Holy Scriptures or from prayer books.

The custom of deification and commemoration in vain of the Name of God or Holy Mother of God. It is very difficult to get rid of the habit of using these sacred names in everyday conversations as interjections, which are used to give the phrase greater emotional expressiveness: “God be with him!”, “Oh, Lord!” etc. It is even worse to pronounce the Name of God in jokes, and an absolutely terrible sin is committed by the one who uses sacred words in anger, during a quarrel, that is, along with curses and insults. The one who threatens his enemies with the wrath of the Lord or even in “prayer” asks God to punish another person also blasphemes. A great sin is committed by parents who curse their children in their hearts and threaten them with heavenly punishment. Invoking evil spirits (cursing) in anger or in a simple conversation is also sinful. The use of any swear words is also blasphemy and a grave sin.

Neglect of church services. This sin most often manifests itself in the lack of desire to participate in the sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, long-term deprivation of oneself from the Communion of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the absence of any circumstances preventing this; in addition, this is a general lack of church discipline, a dislike for worship. The excuses usually given are being busy with official and everyday affairs, the distance of the church from home, the length of the service, and the incomprehensibility of the liturgical Church Slavonic language. Some attend divine services quite carefully, but at the same time they only attend the liturgy, do not receive communion and do not even pray during the service. Sometimes you have to deal with such sad facts as ignorance of the basic prayers and the Creed, misunderstanding of the meaning of the sacraments performed, and most importantly, a lack of interest in this.

Prayerlessness, as a special case of unchurchism, is a common sin. Fervent prayer distinguishes sincere believers from “lukewarm” believers. We must strive not to scold the prayer rule, not to defend the divine services, we must acquire the gift of prayer from the Lord, fall in love with prayer, and look forward to the hour of prayer. Gradually entering into the element of prayer under the guidance of a confessor, a person learns to love and understand the music of Church Slavonic chants, their incomparable beauty and depth; the colorfulness and mystical imagery of liturgical symbols - all that is called church splendor.

The gift of prayer is the ability to control oneself, one’s attention, to repeat the words of prayer not only with lips and tongue, but also to participate in prayer with all one’s heart and all one’s thoughts. An excellent means for this is the “Jesus Prayer,” which consists of uniform, repeated, leisurely repetition of the words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” There is extensive ascetic literature about this prayer exercise, collected mainly in the Philokalia and other paternal works.

The “Jesus Prayer” is especially good because it does not require the creation of a special external environment; it can be read while walking down the street, while working, in the kitchen, on the train, etc. In these cases, it especially helps to divert our attention from everything seductive, vain, vulgar, empty and concentrate the mind and heart on the sweetest Name of God. True, one should not begin “spiritual work” without the blessing and guidance of an experienced confessor, since such self-inflicted work can lead to a false mystical state of delusion.

Spiritual delusion is significantly different from all the listed sins against God and the Church. Unlike them, this sin is not rooted in a lack of faith, religiosity, or churchliness, but, on the contrary, in a false sense of excess of personal spiritual gifts. A person in a state of seduction imagines himself as having achieved special fruits of spiritual perfection, which is confirmed by all sorts of “signs” for him: dreams, voices, waking visions. Such a person may be very gifted mystically, but in the absence of church culture and theological education, and most importantly, due to the absence of a good, strict confessor and the presence of an environment inclined to gullibly perceive his tales as revelations, such a person often acquires many supporters, as a result of which Most sectarian anti-church movements arose.

This usually begins with a story about a mysterious dream, unusually chaotic and with a claim to a mystical revelation or prophecy. In the next stage, someone in a similar state, according to him, already hears voices in reality or sees shining visions in which he recognizes an angel or some saint, or even the Mother of God and the Savior Himself. They tell him the most incredible revelations, often completely meaningless. This happens to people who are both poorly educated and those who are very well-read in the Holy Scriptures, patristic works, as well as those who devote themselves to “smart work” without pastoral guidance.

Gluttony- one of a number of sins against neighbors, family and society. It manifests itself in the habit of immoderate, excessive consumption of food, that is, overeating or in an addiction to refined taste sensations, enjoying oneself with food. Of course, different people require different amounts of food to maintain their physical strength- it depends on age, physique, state of health, as well as the severity of the work the person performs. There is no sin in the food itself, for it is a gift from God. The sin lies in treating it as a desired goal, in worshiping it, in the voluptuous experience of taste sensations, in conversations on this topic, in the desire to spend as much money as possible on new, even more refined products. Every piece of food eaten beyond satisfying hunger, every sip of moisture after quenching thirst, simply for pleasure, is already gluttony. Sitting at the table, a Christian must not allow himself to be carried away by this passion. “The more firewood, the stronger flame; the more dishes, the more violent the lust” (Abba Leontius). “Gluttony is the mother of fornication,” says one ancient patericon. And St. John Climacus directly warns: “Control your womb before it dominates you.”

St. Augustine compares the body to a furious horse that carries away the soul, the unbridledness of which should be tamed by reducing food; It is primarily for this purpose that the Church established fasts. But “beware of measuring fasting by simple abstinence from food,” says St. Basil the Great. “Those who abstain from food and behave badly are like the devil, who, although he does not eat anything, nevertheless does not stop sinning.” During fasting, it is necessary—and this is the main thing—to curb your thoughts, feelings, and impulses. The meaning of spiritual fasting is best described in one Lenten stichera: “Let us fast with a pleasant fast, pleasing to the Lord: true fasting is alienation of the evil, abstinence of the tongue, putting aside rage, excommunication from lusts, speaking, lying and perjury: these are impoverished, true fasting is also favorable.” . No matter how difficult fasting may be in the conditions of our life, we must strive for it, we must maintain it in everyday life, especially internal, spiritual fasting, which the fathers call chastity. The sister and friend of fasting is prayer, without which it turns into an end in itself, a means of special, refined care for one’s body.

Obstacles to prayer come from weak, incorrect, insufficient faith, from over-concern, vanity, preoccupation with worldly affairs, from sinful, unclean, evil feelings and thoughts. Fasting helps overcome these obstacles.

Love of money manifests itself in the form of extravagance or its opposite, stinginess. Secondary at first glance, this is a sin of extreme importance - it involves the simultaneous rejection of faith in God, love for people and addiction to lower feelings. It gives rise to anger, petrification, over-concern, and envy. Overcoming the love of money is a partial overcoming of these sins. From the words of the Savior Himself, we know that it is difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Christ teaches: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). St. Apostle Paul says: “We brought nothing into the world; It’s obvious that we can’t take anything out of it. Having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts that plunge people into disaster and destruction. For the root of all evil is the love of money, to which some have abandoned the faith and subjected themselves to many sorrows. You, man of God, run away from this...Admonish the rich in this age not to think highly of themselves and to trust not in unfaithful wealth, but in the Living God, who gives us everything abundantly for our enjoyment; so that they do good, be rich in good deeds, be generous and sociable, laying up for themselves treasure, a good foundation for the future, in order to achieve eternal life” (1 Tim. 6, 7-11; 17-19).

“The wrath of man does not bring about the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Anger, irritability - many penitents tend to justify the manifestation of this passion by physiological reasons, the so-called “nervousness” due to the suffering and adversity that befell them, the tension of modern life, the difficult character of relatives and friends. Although these reasons are partly true, they cannot justify this, as a rule, deep-rooted habit of taking out one’s irritation, anger, and bad mood on loved ones. Irritability, temper, and rudeness primarily destroy family life, leading to quarrels over trifles, causing retaliatory hatred, desire for revenge, rancor, harden the hearts of generally kind and loving people. And how destructively the manifestation of anger affects young souls, destroying in them the God-given tenderness and love for their parents! “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, lest they become discouraged” (Col. 3:21).

The ascetic works of the Church Fathers contain a lot of advice for combating the passion of anger. One of the most effective is “righteous anger,” in other words, turning our capacity for irritation and anger to the very passion of anger. “It is not only permissible, but truly salutary to be angry at one’s own sins and shortcomings” (St. Demetrius of Rostov). St. Nilus of Sinai advises to be “meek with people,” but lovingly loving our enemies, since this is the natural use of anger to hostilely confront the ancient serpent” (“Philokalia,” vol. II). The same ascetic writer says: “Whoever bears a grudge against demons does not hold a grudge against people.”

You should show meekness and patience towards your neighbors. “Be wise, and stop the lips of those who speak evil about you with silence, and not with anger and abuse” (St. Anthony the Great). “When they slander you, see if you have done anything worthy of slander. If you haven’t done it, then consider slander as flying away smoke” (St. Nilus of Sinai). “When you feel a strong influx of anger within yourself, try to remain silent. And so that silence itself will bring you more benefit, turn mentally to God and read mentally to yourself at this time some short prayers, for example, the “Jesus Prayer,” advises St. Philaret of Moscow. It is even necessary to argue without bitterness and without anger, since irritation is immediately transferred to another, infecting him, but in no case convincing him that he is right.

Very often the cause of anger is arrogance, pride, the desire to show one’s power over others, to expose one’s vices, forgetting about one’s own sins. “Eliminate two thoughts in yourself: do not recognize yourself as worthy of anything great and do not think that another person is much lower in dignity than you. In this case, the insults inflicted on us will never lead us to irritation” (St. Basil the Great).

In confession, we must tell whether we harbor anger towards our neighbor and whether we have reconciled with the one with whom we quarreled, and if we cannot see someone in person, have we reconciled with him in our hearts? On Athos, confessors not only do not allow monks who have anger towards their neighbors to serve in church and partake of the Holy Mysteries, but when reading the prayer rule, they must omit the words in the Lord’s Prayer: “and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” so as not to be liars before God. With this prohibition, the monk is temporarily excommunicated from prayerful and Eucharistic communion with the Church, until reconciliation with his brother.

The one who prays for those who often lead him into the temptation of anger receives significant help. Thanks to such prayer, a feeling of meekness and love for people who were recently hated is instilled in the heart. But in the first place there should be a prayer for the granting of meekness and driving away the spirit of anger, revenge, resentment, and rancor.

One of the most common sins is, undoubtedly, judging one’s neighbor. Many do not even realize that they have sinned countless times, and if they do, they believe that this phenomenon is so widespread and ordinary that it does not even deserve mention in confession. In fact, this sin is the beginning and root of many other sinful habits.

First of all, this sin is in close connection with the passion of pride. Condemning other people's shortcomings (real or apparent), a person imagines himself better, purer, more pious, more honest or smarter than another. TO people like this The words of Abba Isaiah are addressed: “Whoever has a pure heart considers all people pure, but whoever has a heart defiled by passions does not consider anyone pure, but thinks that everyone is like him” (“Spiritual Flower Garden”).

Those who condemn forget that the Savior Himself commanded: “Judge not, lest ye be judged, for with the judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?” (Matt. 7:1-3). “Let us no longer judge each other, but rather judge how not to give your brother any chance of stumbling or temptation” (Rom. 14:13), teaches St. Apostle Paul. There is no sin committed by one person that anyone else could not commit. And if you see someone else’s uncleanness, then it means that it has already penetrated into you, for innocent babies do not notice the depravity of adults and thereby maintain their chastity. Therefore, the condemner, even if he is right, must honestly admit to himself: has he not committed the same sin?

Our judgment is never impartial, because most often it is based on a random impression or is carried out under the influence of personal resentment, irritation, anger, or a random “mood.”

If a Christian has heard about the unseemly act of his loved one, then, before being indignant and condemning him, he must act according to the words of Jesus son of Sirach: “He who bridles the tongue will live peacefully, and he who hates talkativeness will reduce evil. Never repeat a word, and you will lose nothing... Ask your friend, maybe he didn’t do that; and if he did, then let him not do it forward. Ask your friend, maybe he didn’t say that; and if he said it, let him not repeat it. Ask a friend, for slander often occurs. Don't believe every word. Someone sins in word, but not from the heart; and who has not sinned with his tongue? Question your neighbor before threatening him, and give place to the law of the Most High” (Sir. 19, 6-8; 13-19).

The sin of despondency most often occurs from excessive preoccupation with oneself, one’s experiences, failures and, as a result, the fading of love for others, indifference to other people’s suffering, inability to rejoice in other people’s joys, envy. The basis and root of our spiritual life and strength is love for Christ, and we need to grow and cultivate it in ourselves. To peer into His image, to clarify and deepen it within oneself, to live in thought of Him, and not about one’s small, vain blows and failures, to give one’s heart to Him—this is the life of a Christian. And then the silence and peace that St. speaks about will reign in our hearts. Isaac the Syrian: “Make peace with yourself, and heaven and earth will make peace with you.”

There is, perhaps, no sin more common than lying. This category of vices should also include failure to fulfill promises, gossip and idle talk. This sin has entered so deeply into the consciousness modern man, is so deeply rooted in their souls that people don’t even think about the fact that any form of untruth, insincerity, hypocrisy, exaggeration, or boasting is a manifestation of grave sin, serving Satan, the father of lies. According to the Apostle John, “no one devoted to abomination and lies will enter the Heavenly Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:27). Our Lord said about Himself: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and therefore you can come to Him only by walking along the path of righteousness. Only truth makes people free.

A lie can manifest itself completely shamelessly, openly, in all its satanic abomination, becoming in such cases a person’s second nature, a permanent mask attached to his face. He gets so used to lying that he cannot express his thoughts otherwise than by putting them into words that obviously do not correspond to them, thereby not clarifying, but darkening the truth. Lies imperceptibly creep into a person’s soul from childhood: often, not wanting to see anyone, we ask our loved ones to tell the person who comes that we are not at home; Instead of directly refusing to participate in any activity that is unpleasant for us, we pretend to be sick and busy with something else. Such “everyday” lies, seemingly innocent exaggerations, jokes based on deception, gradually corrupt a person, allowing him subsequently to make deals with his conscience for his own benefit.

Just as nothing can come from the devil except evil and destruction for the soul, so nothing can come from lies - his brainchild - except the corrupting, satanic, anti-Christian spirit of evil. There is no “saving lie” or “justified”; these phrases themselves are blasphemous, for only the Truth, our Lord, saves and justifies us.

No less common than lies is the sin of idle talk, that is, the empty, unspiritual use of the Divine gift of speech. This also includes gossip and retelling of rumors.

Often people spend time in empty, useless conversations, the content of which is immediately forgotten, instead of talking about faith with someone who suffers without it, seeking God, visiting the sick, helping the lonely, praying, comforting the offended, talking with children or grandchildren , instruct them with words and personal example on the spiritual path.

In the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian says: “...Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk.” During Lent and fasting, one must be especially focused on the spiritual, give up entertainment (cinema, theater, television), be careful in words, truthful. It is appropriate to once again recall the words of the Lord: “For every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment: for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12: 36-37).

We must carefully and chastely handle the priceless gifts of speech and reason, for they unite us with the Divine Logos Himself, the Incarnate Word - with our Lord Jesus Christ.

The most terrible sin at all times was considered to be the violation of the sixth commandment - murder- deprivation of another greatest gift of the Lord - life. The same terrible sins are suicide and murder in the womb - abortion.

Those who, in anger at their neighbor, commit assault, inflicting beatings, wounds, and mutilations, are very close to committing murder. Parents who cruelly treat their children, beating them for the slightest offense, or even without any reason, are guilty of this sin. Those who, through gossip, slander, and slander, aroused anger in a person against someone else and, even more so, incited him to physically deal with him, are also guilty of this sin. This is often the sin of mothers-in-law towards their daughters-in-law, and neighbors who make false accusations against a woman who is temporarily separated from her husband, deliberately causing scenes of jealousy that end in beatings.

Timely failure to provide assistance to a sick person, a dying person—in general, indifference to the suffering of others should also be considered as passive murder. This kind of attitude towards elderly sick parents on the part of children is especially terrible.

This also includes failure to provide assistance to a person in trouble: homeless, hungry, drowning before your eyes, beaten or robbed, victim of a fire or flood.

But we kill our neighbor not only with our hands or weapons, but also with cruel words, abuse, mockery, and mockery of the grief of others. The Holy Apostle John says: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Everyone has experienced how an evil, cruel, caustic word hurts and kills the soul.

No less sin is committed by those who deprive young souls of honor and innocence, corrupting them physically or morally, pushing them onto the path of depravity and sin. St. Augustine says: “Do not think that you are not a murderer if you have caused your neighbor to sin. You corrupt the soul of the seduced and steal from him what belongs to eternity.” Inviting a young man or girl to a drunken gathering, inciting to avenge grievances, seducing with depraved sights or stories, dissuading people from fasting, engaging in pimping, providing one’s home for drunkenness and depraved gatherings - all this is complicity in the moral murder of one’s neighbor.

Killing animals without the need for food, torturing them is also a violation of the sixth commandment. “The righteous man cares for the life of his livestock, but the heart of the wicked is hard” (Proverbs 12:10).

By indulging in excessive sadness, driving ourselves to despair, we sin against the same commandment. Suicide is the greatest sin, for life is a gift from God, and only He has the power to deprive us of it. Refusal of treatment, deliberate non-compliance with doctor’s orders, deliberate harm to one’s health through excessive drinking of wine or smoking tobacco is also slow suicide. Some people kill themselves by working too hard to get rich - this is also a sin.

The Holy Church, her holy fathers and teachers, condemning abortion and considering it a sin, proceed from the idea that people should not thoughtlessly neglect the sacred gift of life. This is the meaning of all church prohibitions on the issue of abortion. At the same time, the Church recalls the words of the Apostle Paul that “a woman... will be saved through childbearing if she continues in faith and love and in holiness with chastity” (1 Tim. 2:14.15).

A woman who is outside the Church is warned against this act by medical workers, explaining the danger and moral impurity of this operation. For a woman who recognizes her involvement in the Orthodox Church (and, apparently, every baptized woman who comes to church for confession should be considered such), artificial termination of pregnancy is unacceptable.

Some consider only obvious theft and robbery with violence, when large sums of money or other material assets are taken, to be a violation of the commandment “thou shalt not steal,” and therefore, without hesitation, they deny their guilt in the sin of theft. However, theft is any illegal appropriation of someone else's property, both one's own and public. Theft (theft) should be considered non-repayment of monetary debts or things given for a time. No less reprehensible is parasitism, begging unless absolutely necessary, when it is possible to earn your own food. If a person, taking advantage of the misfortune of another, takes more from him than he should, then he commits the sin of extortion. The concept of extortion also includes the resale of food and industrial products at inflated prices (speculation). Traveling without a ticket on public transport is also an act that should be considered a violation of the eighth commandment.

Sins against the seventh commandment by their very nature they are especially widespread, tenacious, and therefore the most dangerous. They are associated with one of the strongest human instincts - sexual. Sensuality has deeply penetrated the fallen nature of man and can manifest itself in the most varied and sophisticated forms. Patristic asceticism teaches us to fight against all sin from its very smallest appearance, not only with the already obvious manifestations of carnal sin, but with lustful thoughts, dreams, fantasies, for “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:28). Here is an approximate diagram of the development of this sin in us.

Prodigal thoughts, developing from memories of something previously seen, heard, or even experienced in a dream. In solitude, often at night, they overwhelm a person especially strongly. Here the best medicine is ascetic exercises: fasting in food, not lying in bed after waking up, regular reading of the morning and evening prayer rules.

Seductive conversations in society, obscene stories, jokes told with the desire to please others and be the center of their attention. Many young people, in order not to show their “backwardness” and not to be ridiculed by their comrades, fall into this sin. This also includes singing immoral songs, writing obscene words, as well as using them in conversation. All this leads to vicious self-indulgence, which is all the more dangerous because, firstly, it is associated with intense work of the imagination, and secondly, it haunts the unfortunate person so relentlessly that he gradually becomes a slave to this sin, which destroys him. physical health and paralyzes the will to overcome vice.

Fornication- unsanctified by the grace-filled power of the sacrament of Marriage, the copulation of a single man and unmarried woman(or violation of chastity between boys and girls before marriage).

Adultery- violation of marital fidelity by one of the spouses.

Incest- carnal connection between close relatives.

Unnatural sexual relations: sodomy, lesbianism, bestiality.

The heinousness of the listed sins hardly needs to be discussed in detail. Their inadmissibility is obvious to every Christian: they lead to spiritual death even before a person’s physical death.

All men and women who repent, if they are in an unregistered relationship, should be strongly encouraged to legalize their relationship, no matter what age they are. In addition, in marriage one should observe chastity, not indulge in excess in carnal pleasures, and refrain from cohabitation during fasting, on the eve of Sundays and holidays.

Our repentance will not be complete if, while repenting, we do not confirm internally in the determination not to return to the confessed sin. But they ask how this is possible, how can I promise myself and my confessor that I will not repeat my sin? Wouldn't the opposite be closer to the truth—the conviction that sin is repeated? After all, everyone knows from experience that after a while you inevitably return to the same sins; observing yourself from year to year, you do not notice any improvement.

It would be terrible if that were the case. But fortunately, this is not so. There is no case when, in the presence of sincere repentance and a good desire to improve, Holy Communion received with faith does not produce good changes in the soul. The point is that, first of all, we are not our own judges. A person cannot correctly judge himself whether he has become worse or better, since both he himself and what he judges are changing quantities. Increased severity towards oneself, increased spiritual vision can give the illusion that sins have multiplied and intensified. In fact, they remained the same, maybe even weakened, but we didn’t notice them that much before. In addition, God, in His special Providence, often closes our eyes to our successes in order to protect us from the worst sin - vanity and pride. It often happens that sin still remains, but frequent confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries have shaken and weakened its roots. Yes, the very struggle with sin, suffering about your sins - isn’t this an acquisition?! “Do not be afraid, even if you fall every day and depart from the paths of God, stand courageously, and the angel guarding you will honor your patience,” said St. John Climacus.

Nurturing the Heart

what to say in confession - sermon by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Fragment of a general confession

Conversation before confession

priest Alexander Elchaninov

I confess to the Lord my God before you, honest father, all my countless sins that I have committed up to this day and hour: in deed, in word, in thought. Every day and every hour I sin ingratitude to God for His great and countless benefits to me and all-good providence for me, a sinner.

Sinned: idle talk, condemnation, contempt, disobedience, pride, unmercifulness, envy, anger, slander, inattention, negligence, negligence, insolence, irritability, violation of the commandments of the fathers, despondency, resentment, repaying evil for evil, bitterness, disobedience, murmuring, self-justification, rebellion , self-indulgence, self-will, reproach, slander, lies, laughter, temptation, pride, ambition, gluttony, excess in food and drink: secret activities, secret drinking (drunkenness), love of things, vanity, laziness, acceptance of prodigal unclean thoughts, with pleasure and slowness in them, with voluptuous dreams and petitions.

Sinned: excessive sleeping, unclean views, omission of the Divine service due to laziness and negligence, dozing and whispering in church, being late for the start of church services, absent-mindedness in church and cell prayer, failure to strictly follow the cell monastic canon.

Sinned: deed, word, thought, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and my other feelings, mental and physical, for which I repent and ask for forgiveness.

(Here you need to say other sins, if you have something special in your soul).

I still repent and ask for forgiveness for everything that, due to foolishness and oblivion, I did not confess.

Forgive me and allow me, honest father, and bless me to partake of the Holy and Life-giving mysteries of Christ for the forgiveness of my sins and eternal life.

How to prepare for Holy Communion

Preparation for Holy Communion - fasting

You must prepare yourself for the Sacrament of Holy Communion by fasting, that is, by prayer, fasting, Christian-humble mood and behavior, and confession.

Home and church prayer

Anyone who wishes to worthily receive communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ must prayerfully prepare himself for this at least a week in advance: pray more and more diligently at home in the morning and evening and, if possible, attend church services every morning and evening during the week. If service or work prevents regular attendance at all Divine services, then one must go as far as circumstances allow, and, in any case, be sure to be at the evening Divine service on the eve of the day of communion.

Fast

Fasting is combined with prayer, that is, abstinence from modest food - meat, milk, butter, eggs - and in general moderation in food: you need to eat and drink less than usual.

Mood and behavior

Anyone preparing for Holy Communion must be imbued with a deep consciousness of his sinfulness, his insignificance before God and lewdness; must make peace with everyone and protect himself from feelings of anger and irritation, refrain from condemnation and all kinds of obscene thoughts and conversations, refuse to visit places of entertainment and houses that could give rise to falling into sin. I must meditate on the greatness of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, spending as much time as possible in solitude, reading the Word of God and books of spiritual content.

Confession

Those who wish to receive communion should, best of all, confess the day before, before and after the evening service - bring sincere repentance of their sins to the priest, sincerely opening their soul and not hiding a single sin they have committed. Before confession, you must certainly reconcile with both the offenders and the offended, humbly asking everyone for forgiveness. Forgiveness is usually asked in the following form: “Forgive me, a sinner, for sinning before you,” to which it is customary to respond: “God will forgive you, forgive me, a sinner.” During confession, it is better not to wait for the priest’s questions, but to express everything that weighs on your soul, without justifying yourself in anything and without shifting the blame onto others.

It is more correct to confess the evening before, so that the morning can be devoted to prayerful preparation for Holy Communion. As a last resort, you can confess in the morning, but certainly before the start of the Divine Liturgy, and not during it. Coming to confession when the liturgy has already begun is an extreme neglect of the great sacrament.

Having confessed, you must make a firm decision not to repeat your previous sins again.

Without confession, no one can be admitted to Holy Communion, except in cases of mortal danger.

There is a good custom - after confession and before Holy Communion, do not eat, drink or smoke. This is definitely prohibited after midnight. Children should also be taught to abstain from food and drink before Holy Communion from a very early age.