Confession
Whoever does not listen to the Church does not listen to God, and his idea of good and evil changes. For example, in the 20th century premeditated murder (abortion) was an acceptable and ordinary thing in Georgia. We should be very careful about television programmes that advertise magicians, hypnotists and healers who work wonders by means of evil powers. A healer or a person of prayer who speaks in God's name but does not call you to repentance is in error.
Some drive away sorrow with wine, some with television, some with drugs; but if a person does not grow used to prayer — communion with God — in this world, if he does not purify his soul by the mysteries of confession and Communion, in the world to come he will no longer be able to use all these “pleasures,” because in the world to come the soul no longer has a body, and it will suffer terribly. The body is healed by medicine; the soul is purified by the mysteries of confession and Communion.
God wants everyone to be saved, regardless of nationality. If you too want to be a child of God, you must love everyone; you must hate evil, but pity the person who has submitted to evil, try to set him right and pray to God for him. Try to do good to everyone, whether or not they appreciate you or are grateful. Watch yourself: what guides your life — love for God and neighbour, or egoism? What is done without love will be counted to you as sin.
Remember that God sees you everywhere.
There is no sin greater than God's mercy. The main thing is a firm decision not to repeat one's sins, and faith in Christ; remember that despair and hopelessness are the greatest sin.
In baptism a person is cleansed of sins; both inherited and personal sins are forgiven him. The mystery of Baptism is performed only once, but we need constant cleansing; for this God has established for us the mystery of Repentance, in which the believer, by confessing before a priest, receives forgiveness from Christ Himself.
This mystery was established by Jesus Christ, who commanded the apostles: “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” (John 20:23).
Every sin we have committed is written in our heart; the holy fathers also call the heart the book of conscience. We shall be judged according to the sins and good deeds written in this book.
When you go to the doctor, you are not interested in his private life. In the same way, in dealing with your spiritual father, do not dwell on his personal failings. Remember that God's mercy towards you and the forgiveness of your sins do not depend on your confessor's holiness; God sees the heart. You must firmly decide to sin no more, and believe in God's mercy. Only with such repentance can you receive the forgiveness of sins.
Before going to confession, you should examine yourself and your inclinations well. So as not to miss anything at confession, you may even write them down.
At confession you should not be ashamed to confess your sins; you should think of God, for God sees everything and nothing is hidden before Him. We are ashamed to confess our sins before one man, and forget that if we do not repent, they will be revealed not before one or two people but before all creation — so teaches the holy father John Chrysostom. In ancient times (the 1st to 3rd centuries) the penitent confessed his sins publicly before everyone; later this order gradually changed, and today confession takes place in secret, before the spiritual father alone.
Every Christian should have a spiritual father, to whom he will repent of his sins and from whom he will hear spiritual advice and instruction.
At confession, approach your spiritual father with reverence, receive his blessing, and with head bowed and contrite heart confess your sins and repent of them.
At this time one must not talk about everyday problems, justify one's sins by various reasons, blame them on others, excuse oneself or speak indifferently. One must not say that we are righteous and have not sinned at all; nor must one say that we are sinful in everything and ask forgiveness for everything. At a first confession there is no need to describe the particular manifestations of every sin. Let us remember that “the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true” (1 John 5:19–20). We must repent not only in words but in mind too, not only of sins committed but also of our inclinations to them. If you cannot part with some sin, do not hide it from your spiritual father, for if you receive Communion unworthily you will be punished by God.
“The ABC of Orthodoxy,” Tbilisi, 2002. On the mystery of confession
The foundation of the mystery of confession is the Saviour's call: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17).
Like the cherub standing at the gate of paradise with a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24), the confessor forbids unrepentant sinners entry into the Kingdom, while for the repentant he is an intercessor with the Lord for the forgiveness of their sins.
The Lord prepared His disciples gradually for performing the mystery of confession. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He Himself says: “…I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:13), for “…the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). And to the repentant — “…Thy sins are forgiven,” He says, and forgives sins by His divine power (Luke 7:48).
Later the Son of God lays a sacred mission on the apostles, now strengthened in faith; and to the holy apostle Peter He says: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
The first Christians had two forms of confession: public and private. Christians made public confession when they had committed some grave sin, before the bishop, the priest and the whole Christian community. From the time of the apostles we know of a case of public confession by a certain sinner of Corinth, whom the apostle Paul cut off from the Christian community, because “…know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” (1 Cor. 5:6). But after a full confession the apostle Paul forgave him and wrote to the community: “Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many… lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him” (2 Cor. 2:6–8). After public confession penances were also laid on them.
As a special order, public confession took shape in the middle of the 3rd century. The historical ground for its taking shape was the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Decius (249–251). As for the private form of confession, individual confession has always existed throughout the history of the Church.
In the 4th-century liturgical document the “Apostolic Constitutions” an example of a prayer over a penitent has been preserved. The Roman Christian Hermas, at the end of the 1st century, in his book “The Shepherd,” describes the various states of penitents: pharisees, those of little faith, those who judge others, the ambitious, lovers of glory and the proud. Hermas says that the penitent must “purify the soul and endure many trials.”
For St Irenaeus of Lyons, Lazarus raised from the dead and bound in grave-clothes is an image of man bound by sin. And when the Lord says to His disciples, loose Lazarus' grave-clothes, the holy hierarch sees in this the performing of the mystery of confession by the successors of Christ's apostles, that is, by the clergy, for the raising of spiritually dead people.
From the 4th and 5th centuries the rule became established in church practice that a confessor may forgive the gravest sins even without public confession.
St Basil the Great says that “people entrust their gravest sins to the pastors of the Church, for to them has been entrusted the performing of the mysteries of God.” “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
