Every Orthodox person knows that the life of a believer who regularly attends services is simply inconceivable without regular confession and communion. However, for people who have just stepped on the path of Orthodoxy, many rules seem complicated and incomprehensible. How to prepare for a confession? How to read prayers before confession? Or maybe there are some canons?
Confession
Confession is one of the sacraments of the Orthodox Church. During confession in a supernatural and incomprehensible way to the human mind, the forgiveness of sins occurs in which a person confessed to the priest. Confession precedes Communion, another of the church sacraments, one of the most important. Children under 7 years of age can receive Communion without confessing, but adults without Communion are not allowed to Communion.
What prayers to read before confession? In fact, there is no strict rule for reading any specific prayers just before confession, unlike Communion, where it is simply necessary to read prayers that prepare and attune a person to this sacrament. Before confession, something else is important. What exactly?
Prerequisites for Confession
In order for confession to really be what is expected of it, and not some random episode in a person’s life, it should be approached consciously and seriously. Prayer before confession is necessary, as, indeed, prayer in the life of an Orthodox person. First of all, a person embarking on a confession must be aware of his sins, repent of them and have a strong desire not to repeat them again.
It seems that everything doesn’t sound so complicated, but sometimes it’s very difficult to fulfill these three rules, rather than just subtract certain canons before confession. The reason for these difficulties is that we have lost the Orthodox faith and lived for several generations before us, already without faith, which had a detrimental effect on the spiritual life of an entire nation. Spiritual life is incredibly difficult, which is why many people do not even try to start living it.
Awareness of sin
If you ask any person, they will answer you: of course, prayers are required before confession. Orthodoxy says that a believer needs prayer all the time, and not just in this case. A man whose gaze is fixed on God should correlate any step with God's will, asking Him for blessings for any undertaking.
And before confession, you must first remember your sins and realize that they really are. Many people do not consciously or unconsciously consider this or that sin to be a sin. Some simply are not familiar with Orthodox teaching and do not even know that what they commit is a sin. They think that prayer before confession is more than enough, and, not having a drop of doubt about their righteousness, they go to confession. In fact, this is not good. On the contrary, it is fatal to the human soul. Such people simply turn into legalists who think that Orthodox prayer before confession will save them. However, we all know that the Lord Jesus Christ denounced the scribes and Pharisees, and the prudent robber, hanging near the crucified Savior, was the first to enter heaven with Him, although he did not read a single special prayer. The only thing is that this robber realized his sin, and realizing, repented of it.
Repentance
Repentance is the next step necessary for the confession to be done for the salvation of man, and not in his perdition. Without repentance, the life of an Orthodox person in general cannot be called correct. The whole life of believers should be imbued with repentance. Every morning you need to wake up with repentance on your heart and fall asleep in the same way. Without repentance, our salvation is impossible, and the prudent robber gave us an example of how repentance can save a person’s soul. But the life of this robber was very far from perfect! We do not know how many atrocities he committed, but most likely a lot, otherwise he would not have been subjected to such a terrible and shameful death.
In addition to repentance, there must also be a desire not to repeat ahead of committed sins. Any believer knows how crafty his heart is, and that it is dangerous to trust your feelings and thoughts. Nevertheless, at the time of the confession, there must be a strong desire not to repeat the committed sins, even if there is no clear certainty that they will not be repeated.
Prayer before confession is necessary because it sets a person in the right way, as a musician does before performing a piece of music. In general, prayer is what the believer needs as air, and it doesn’t matter before or after confession. You need to pray the way you are used to, using the prayers that you use every day, for example, “Theotokos”, “Our Father”, “I Believe”, prayers to the Guardian Angel, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Holy Communion
When the confession is already behind, the Communion awaits the person ahead . This is one of the 7 Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, very important and necessary. During Communion, a person joins Christ, the person’s body becomes His body, and the person’s blood becomes the blood of Christ. It is advisable to partake regularly, because this sacrament helps a believer to cope with temptations that are constantly encountered on the path of spiritual life.
Before the Communion, it is necessary to read prayers and canons that are designed specifically to prepare for this holy sacrament. As a rule, these are the combined canons "To Jesus Christ" and the prayer canon "To the Guardian Angel and the Blessed Virgin Mary". In any prayer book you can easily find these prayers and prepare for the Sacrament, carefully and thoughtfully reading them, thus setting the soul in the right way. It is advisable to read them not in one shot at a time, but in a few days, so that the preparation is more meaningful. Prayers before communion and confession do not accept fuss, like the spiritual life itself, which vanity simply kills.
Conclusion
The life of an Orthodox believer is filled with prayer, with which he begins any business in his life. Prayer is needed always and everywhere, it serves as a guiding light and guides a person along the right path. This is communication with God, which is why it doesn’t matter whether the prayer is read before confession or not. The main thing is the presence of prayer itself, which is a kind of indicator indicating whether everything is normal in a person’s spiritual life. If prayer appears rarely and in extreme cases, then there is reason to think about why this happens. And again there is reason to repent!