In the modern world, the gospel call to always stay awake and to constantly prayer is very difficult to realize. Constant worries, a very high pace of the course of life, especially in large cities, practically deprive Christians of the opportunity to retire and appear before God in prayer. But the concept of prayer is still extremely relevant, and appeal to it, of course, is necessary. Regular prayer always leads to the thought of repentance that occurs in confession. Prayer is an example of how you can accurately and objectively evaluate your state of mind.
The concept of sin
Sin should not be seen as a legal violation of God's law. This is not a “step beyond” accepted in consciousness, but a violation of laws that are natural to human nature. Each person is endowed by God with absolute freedom, respectively, any fall occurs consciously. In fact, by committing sin, man neglects the commandments and values ​​bestowed from above. There is a free choice in favor of negative actions, thoughts and other actions. Such a spiritual crime harms the personality itself, damaging the very vulnerable inner strings of human nature. Passion inherited or acquired, as well as original exposure, which made a person mortal and weaker to various diseases and vices, form the basis of sin.
This greatly contributes to the soul evading evil and immorality. Sin can be different, its severity, of course, depends on many factors in which it is committed. There is a conditional division of sins: against God, against the neighbor and against himself. Looking at your own deeds through such a gradation, you can understand how to write a confession. An example will be discussed below.
Confession of Sin and Confession
It is extremely important to understand that in order to eliminate dark spiritual stains, you should constantly look at yourself, analyze your actions, thoughts and words, objectively evaluate the moral scale of your own values. Having found disturbing and restless traits, you need to carefully deal with them, because if you close your eyes to sin, you will get used to it very soon, which will distort the soul and lead to spiritual illness. The main way out of this situation is repentance and repentance.
It is repentance that grows from the depths of the heart and mind that can change a person for the better, bring the light of kindness and mercy. But the path of repentance is a lifelong path. By
nature, man is prone to sin and will commit it every day. Even the great ascetics who secluded themselves in deserted places sinned with thoughts and could bring repentance daily. Therefore, close attention to your soul should not weaken, and with age, the criteria for personal assessment should be subject to more stringent requirements. The next step after repentance is confession.
An Example of True Confession - True Repentance
In Orthodoxy, confession is recommended for all people over seven years of age. A child brought up in a Christian family, by the age of seven or eight years already acquires an idea of ​​the sacrament. Often it is prepared in advance, explaining in detail all aspects of this difficult question. Some parents show an example of a confession written on paper that was invented in advance. A child left alone with such information has the opportunity to reflect and see something in himself. But in the case of children, priests and parents rely primarily on the psychological state of the child and his worldview, the ability to analyze and recognize the criteria for good and evil. With excessive haste of forcibly involving children, one can sometimes observe deplorable results and examples.
Confessions in the church often turn into a formal “roll call” of sins, while the fulfillment of only the “external” part of the sacrament is unacceptable. You can’t try to justify yourself, to hide something embarrassing and causing shame. One needs to listen to oneself and understand whether there is really repentance, or if there is simply an ordinary ritual ahead that will not bring any benefit to the soul, but can cause significant harm.
Confession is a voluntary and repentant listing of sins. This sacrament includes two main parts:
1) Confession to the priest of sins by a person who has come to the sacrament.
2) Prayer forgiveness and resolution of sins, which the shepherd pronounces.
Confession Preparation
The question that torments not only the primitive Christians, but sometimes even the long-churches - what to say in confession? An example of how to repent can be found in various sources. This may be a prayer book or a separate book dedicated to this particular sacrament.
Preparing for the confession, you can rely on the commandments, ordeals, take the example of the confession of the holy ascetics who left notes and sayings on this topic.
If we build a penitential monologue on the basis of the division of sins into the three types given above, then we can determine an incomplete, approximate list of deviations.
Sins against God
Incredulity, superstition, lack of hope for God's mercy, formality and lack of faith in the dogmas of Christianity, murmuring and ungratefulness of God, oaths fall into this category. This group includes an unhealthy attitude towards objects of veneration - icons, the Gospel, the Cross, and so on. Mention should be made of missing services for disrespectful reasons and leaving the obligatory rules, prayers, as well as if the prayers were read hastily, without attention and the necessary concentration.
Adherence to various sectarian teachings, thoughts of suicide, appeal to sorcerers and witches, wearing mystical talismans is considered apostasy, such a thing is necessarily submitted to confession. An example of this category of sins is, of course, approximate, and each person can add or shorten this list.
Sins against the neighbor
This group examines the attitude towards people: family, friends, colleagues and just casual acquaintances and strangers. The first thing that most often clearly opens in the heart is the lack of love. Often, instead of love, there is a consumer attitude. Inability and unwillingness to forgive, hatred, gloating, wickedness and revenge, stinginess, condemnation, gossip, lies, indifference to others' misfortunes, mercy and cruelty - all these ugly splinters of the human soul must be confessed. Separately indicate acts in which there was open self-mutilation or material harm. It can be fights, extortion, robbery.
The most serious sin is an abortion, which certainly entails church punishment after it is confessed. An example of what the punishment may be is found in the parish priest. Penance is generally imposed, but it will be more disciplinary than redeeming.
Sins against oneself
This group is reserved for personal transgressions. Despondency, terrible despair and thoughts of one's own hopelessness or exorbitant pride, contempt, vanity - such passions can poison a person's life and even lead him to suicide.
Vices, like drunkenness, drug addiction, addiction to gambling, also greatly affect the personality and literally in a few years destroy it. Excessive idleness, motivation, lust, voluptuous thoughts and defiant behavior, as well as addiction to obscenities in the mental and physical plane can be included in this category.
The example of confession reflects only a few sins. Every Christian who decides to repent in the temple himself considers his state of mind and notes sins.
The role of the priest
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of a shepherd who has the obligation to accept the repentance of a Christian. Confession is an example of the unity of the Church, the connectedness of all its children. How is this possible? The priest assumes the responsibility of witnessing the totality of the Church that a person has brought repentance. His quiet presence is nothing but a testimony before the Lord himself about a saved and repentant Christian who thinks about his soul. A person actually brings himself to the Church, because God knows the sins committed by him. Repentance should be performed by a child of the church without false shame, concealment, self-justification. And the priest, being the image of the Christian community and the Church as a whole, accepts the tears of repentance. Confession itself is directed directly to the Lord, and the shepherd symbolizes the divine-human nature of the Church. Often a priest helps to open up, to cope with embarrassment and fear. There is enough of a question or a few soulful words so that a person can figure out how to properly build a confession.
An example of such effective help can be found at the priest Pavel Gumilyov. This shepherd reveals in his creation important aspects on which everyone who wants to repent in the temple can lean.
Example of confession before the sacrament
Archimandrite John the Peasant contributed to the creation of the book “The Experience of Confession Building”. This print is a great example of confession before the sacrament. Father John considered sins based on the commandments given to Christians by the Lord Himself. Before proceeding to the sacrament, the priest urged to forgive his offenders.
The first commandment declares the presence of only one Lord, and no one else should be worshiped as God. Father John advised parishioners to turn to their conscience and see if this commandment was broken. Does the heart have enough love for God, is there faith in Him, hope for His mercy. Do not thoughts associated with apostasy and apostasy come.
The second commandment warns the faithful against creating an idol or idol. Often this message is perceived as related only to material pagan idols. But John the Peasant points to intangible aspects, recalling that all people are slaves of their pleasures and passions, and, in fact, the majority serves the body and its whims. Especially many harbor pride from which vanity and condemnation grow.
The third commandment prohibits the pronunciation of the name of the Lord for no particular reason, that is, in vain. It should be remembered whether there were oaths and exclamations involving the name of God, because even an absent-minded prayer can be attributed to the empty commemoration of the Almighty. Father John also complained of insufficient preparation for the sacrament of confession. Even many church people carry an example of a confession written on paper, which they met and rewrote in prayer, not having the desire to plunge into meditation for at least a few hours about the state of their inner world.
Thus, listing all the commandments one after another, the shepherd calls to examine in detail the state of mind and check whether it corresponds to the essence of the message.
About brevity
Priests often ask to confess briefly. This does not mean that no sin should be called. We must try to talk specifically about sin, but not about the circumstances in which it was committed, without involving third parties who may be somehow involved in the situation, and without describing the details in detail. If repentance occurs in the temple for the first time, you can sketch out an example of confession on paper, then during the conviction of sins it will be easier to gather, convey to the priest and, most importantly, to God absolutely everything noticed, without forgetting anything.
It is recommended that the name of sin itself be pronounced: lack of faith, anger, insult, or condemnation. This will be enough to convey what worries and weighs heavily on the heart. “Extracting” exact sins from oneself is not an easy task, but this is how a brief confession is created. An example could be the following: “Sinned (a): with pride, despondency, profanity, unbelievable fear, excessive idleness, bitterness, lies, ambition, abandonment of services and rules, irritability, temptation, evil and unclean thoughts, excess in food, laziness. I also repent of those sins that I forgot about and didn’t pronounce now. ”
Confession is certainly a difficult task that requires effort and self-denial. But when a person gets used to the heart's purity and neatness of the soul, he can no longer live without repentance and the sacrament of communion. The Christian will not want to lose his new connection with the Almighty and will strive only to strengthen it. It is very important to approach spiritual life not “jerkily”, but gradually, carefully, regularly, to be “faithful in little things”, not forgetting gratitude to God in absolutely all life situations.