“Those who hope in the Lord, mercy shall compass them about”

“I acknowledged my sin, and hid not mine iniquity: I said, I will confess mine iniquity to the Lord against myself; and thou forgavest the ungodliness of my heart” (Ps. 31:5).

Sin does not exist of itself. It was not created by the Lord. Sin came in as the fruit of disobedience to the Lord. Holy Scripture calls sin “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Sin arises in the human soul as a result of a person's being tempted by the evil spirit. St John the Theologian says: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning” (1 John 3:8).

St John Chrysostom instructs us: “Nothing is so heavy and unbearable as sin and disobedience. Sin is the greatest evil and a leprosy of the soul, an act contrary to the will of God, and the drunkenness of the soul.”

St Cyril of Jerusalem says: “Sin is a terrible evil, but it can be healed. Sin is terrible when a person hides it, and curable for one who repents. Imagine a man holding a red-hot coal in his hand. As long as he holds it, the coal burns him. But if he throws it away, the burning stops at once.”

St John Chrysostom advises: “Have you sinned? Go to church and say before the Lord: ‘I have sinned.’ I ask nothing else of you but this one thing: expose the sin, so that it may be taken from you.”

St Basil the Great says: “The confession of sins is subject to the same laws as the disclosing of bodily infirmities. People go to renowned physicians to have their illnesses cured, so as to receive healing from them. In the same way we must disclose our spiritual infirmities to those who are able to heal them.”

The right attitude of the confessor towards the penitent is very important. St Gregory the Theologian says that “for a confessor who does not know what to say or how to act, it is better first to learn than, being ignorant himself, to teach others.” The foundation of spiritual discernment is laid in the confessor's soul by constant reading of Holy Scripture. Reading Holy Scripture and the fathers of the Church must be a daily and necessary ascetic labour for the confessor.

Tertullian, in his treatise “On Repentance,” points to a certain “outward labour” necessary for penitents at confession: a contrite and humbled heart, fasting and prayer, bending the knee and falling prostrate before the confessor. These may be regarded as a kind of penance that penitents carried out.

The church writer and historian Sozomen (5th century) writes of the mystery of confession thus: “The Lord commanded that repentant sinners be forgiven. But to receive forgiveness one must repent of one's sins. For this, from ancient times people chose a confessor distinguished for a holy life, firmness and wisdom… According to the gravity of the sins, the confessor determined how the penitents should atone for their offences, and took into account what punishment the penitents themselves asked for — and then granted forgiveness.”

In the 5th and 6th centuries a general order for performing the mystery of confession was introduced. At the end of the 6th century there appeared the order of private confession compiled by the bishop of Constantinople John the Faster (†596). The same author issued rules of penance under the title “The Great Nomocanon.” Thus through the labours of John the Faster the order for performing the mystery of confession was systematised.

From the oldest manuscripts of the typikon of St John the Faster we learn that confession was built on questions and answers, taking into account the sex, age and social position of the penitent. Asking questions was customary more often with illiterate and newly converted people. Each question was accompanied by a list of corresponding penances, by which the confessor could be guided.

On the basis of this order the monasteries worked out typika for confession. Especially noteworthy is the typikon created in the 8th century by the abbot of the Studite monastery in Constantinople, St Theodore the Studite (†826).

All these typika without fail provided for preparation for confession, that is, “a certain ascetic labour, which means fasting, prayer, vigil, going deep into oneself, and standing before the Lord — solitude” (St John Climacus, Step 7, 3). This labour brings a person to an awareness of “poverty of spirit” (Matt. 5:3–4) and to grace-filled tears of repentance. And one who has this grace is reconciled with the Lord: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Ps. 125:5).