Every Christian is supposed to go to confession periodically. By performing this sacrament, commanded to his followers by the Savior, a believer frees the soul from the sins that burden it and becomes much closer to God. In Orthodoxy there is a special concept known as general confession. Next we will talk about what such a ritual is, when it is performed and who needs it more than others.
The difference between general confession and ordinary confession
Every churched person participates in the Sacraments and confesses every 1-3 weeks. These are usually short lists, since they cover a short period from one confession to the next.
Every churchgoer goes to confession once every 1-3 weeks.
The general confession is complete, since it recalls and names all the sins of one’s entire life, more precisely, those committed starting from the age of 7. Often a person simply forgets his sins and offenses, and sometimes he does not even know that he has violated a commandment by his word or deed.
Ignorance of the law does not exempt you from liability in the future. When a person goes through the airy ordeals of demonic charters, he will see all the smallest details of his sins, even those forgotten or committed out of ignorance. Therefore, it is imperative to undergo general confession. This rite will help cleanse all corners of the soul from sinful filth.
Important Features and Meaning
The Orthodox faith teaches: it will never be possible to become free within and gain spiritual wings without the Creator. This can be done by freeing yourself from thoughts and actions that are displeasing to God and sincerely repenting of them.
General confession is a great sacrament. Religion claims that during the air ordeals that await the soul after leaving the corruptible body and moving to another world, the smallest details of the sins committed during life will appear before it. Among them will be all misdeeds or crimes - both forgotten and committed unintentionally, out of ignorance of the laws of Christianity. A full confession helps a person to cleanse even the most hidden corners of the soul and avoid a painful fate after completing his earthly journey.
In Orthodoxy, general confession is considered a special rite that can lead to real miracles. There are cases when after it people were healed from protracted illnesses that were not amenable to traditional treatment.
The role and example of general confession
Saint John Chrysostom said: “Repentance opens heaven to a person, leads him into paradise, and defeats the devil.” Reviewing his entire life allows a person to analyze and understand where he stumbled, where he deviated, what influenced his actions, and most importantly, to realize all his mistakes and repent. General confession allows you to cleanse yourself as much as possible, to remove the burden of sins that were committed even many years ago and have already been forgotten. The more detailed a person confesses, the more he remembers, the easier it will be for him to go through the aerial ordeals.
You need to prepare for the Sacrament of Repentance by considering your personal actions, but it is useful to have a sample text, a sample of a general confession, in order to see what you need to pay attention to and how to build your story. There are different lists of sins, for example, the “Pochaev sheets” compiled in the Lavra, in the Pochaev monastery.
The sample lists are generally the same for men and women, but there are some differences covering family life. In particular, women must obey their husbands, and men must love and take care of their wives without giving power over them. Gender differences also affect the list of sins associated with a person’s appearance.
Merciful Lord, I want to tell You about all the sins that I have committed voluntarily and involuntarily in words, actions and thoughts, of my own free will and under compulsion. I am sinful in non-observance of God's commandments and vows given at baptism, in superficial reading of prayers and disdainful attitude towards the Church. I am sinful in that I lied, was insolent, was rude, got irritated, quarreled, swore and humiliated. I am sinful in that I have slandered, been jealous, hated, offended, despised and incited. I am sinful in that I took revenge, indulged in voluptuousness, had crazy fun, was intemperate, unclean, spent too much time on my clothes and appearance, and judged others. I have been guilty of being greedy, greedy, envious, careless, ambitious, vain and disrespectful. I am sinful in that I despised and hated the poor, lepers and unlucky people, in that I refused to help those in need, did not visit the sick, and did not pay due attention to my family and loved ones. I am sinful in that I indulged in despondency and sorrow, blasphemed, did not honor Sunday and church holidays, did not fast, did not take communion and did not confess. I am sinful in that I remembered God in vain, spent my time in vanity and idleness, indulged in sins, incited people to commit bad deeds, spread false information, cursed, and skipped morning and evening prayers. I am guilty of adultery, excessive drinking and gambling. Before the Lord, I admit myself guilty of all my sins and sincerely repent for all the actions I have committed and failed to commit. I pray to You, our Heavenly Father, for forgiveness. I hope for Your mercy and help.
Features of preparation
It is difficult to independently prepare for the full rite of repentance, without the help of a spiritual father or at least appropriate literature. There are a number of books compiled to help penitents. They include explanations of what a commandment and sin are, what the danger of sin is and what further responsibility is, as well as sermons of the holy fathers on repentance. Some publications include a detailed analysis of the commandments or sins tortured in ordeals, with their listing.
It is useful to read the instructions of the elders, which nourish the soul and incite them to repentance. It is important to pray, sincerely repent, and lament what you have done. Orthodox prayer books contain canons of repentance to the Lord and the Most Holy Theotokos, as well as prayers that are read before and after confession.
When repenting, it is important not to allow despondency, but to fully hope in God’s mercy, glorify the Lord, give thanks for everyone’s blessings, for the time available for repentance and correction of one’s life.
Daily Prayer
Reading the instructions of the elders
Conversation with a clergyman
Will allow you to get freedom from sins
General confession helps to understand the causes of sins, reveals the deep motives of actions, forces you to forgive those who once hurt or betrayed you and cleanse your soul with repentance.
General confession will make it possible to clearly feel that God does not abandon the repentant sinner; it does not allow self-justification, penetrating deeply into the soul of a person, cleansing it of the debris of passions and sins and granting him real freedom - freedom from sin. A priest from Moscow, Igor Fomin (Kazan Cathedral), in his interviews warns a person against making quick conclusions after a general confession and draws attention to the fact that confession is generally a long process. You must not only realize all your sins, but also get rid of them, and this does not happen right away: First you need to “dig up the field” of the human soul, then plant seeds of goodness on it, and then be able to ensure that these seeds provide inputs, and then and the fruits - in the form of good deeds and prayers.
About the Ten Commandments and Sins Against Them
To make it easier to systematize everything that has been done over many years and not miss anything, there is a practice of constructing a confession according to the Ten Commandments. In addition, you can make a confession for twenty ordeals.
First commandment
Man is called to honor and know the Lord. You need to have faith in Him and Him, hope in Him, love for Him and reverence. It is important to remember that God sees all the deeds and thoughts of a person, and also to confess Him before people without fear or fear.
Some sins against this commandment:
- godlessness;
- polytheism;
- disbelief;
- heresy;
- split;
- apostasy;
- despair;
- witchcraft, fortune telling, superstition;
- love and hope for man more than for God.
Second Commandment
This commandment prohibits all forms of idolatry. People can worship idols, or they can worship money, human glory, delicious food. Some sins against the second commandment:
- covetousness;
- gluttony;
- pride, vanity.
Third Commandment
It is forbidden to pronounce the Name of the Lord in vain, as a joke, in idle conversations, or to use it for an oath. Sins against the commandment:
- god;
- blasphemy;
- perjury;
- breaking a vow made to God;
- oath in the name of God.
Fourth Commandment
This commandment calls on everyone to devote one day a week, in New Testament times - Sunday (Little Easter), to God. This means spending Sundays in prayer, attending worship services, reading spiritual books and Holy Scripture. In addition to Sunday, you need to honor all holidays and observe the multi-day and one-day fasts established by the Church.
Fifth Commandment
This commandment commands us to honor our parents. For its fulfillment, prosperity and longevity are promised. Parents need to be loved, respected, obeyed, obeyed, not upset, and taken care of. In addition to blood parents, this applies to spiritual parents, educators, and guardians. One must also obey civil authority, unless this goes against the Law of God.
The fifth commandment is to honor your parents
Sixth Commandment
Murder and suicide are forbidden to a person. In the modern world, this sin is widespread in the form of abortion - the taking of the life of an unborn, defenseless child by its own parents.
In addition to physical murder, a sin against this commandment is allowing someone to die by inaction, killing a person with a word, leading to suicide, spiritual murder - seducing a person onto a sinful, disastrous path in life.
Seventh Commandment
Here we are talking about maintaining chastity, maintaining marital fidelity, the marital bed, abstinence, avoiding fornication and other sins against one’s body. A person must keep not only his soul, but also his body pure, because human bodies are “...members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit.” Also, one should not defile oneself by watching pornography and avoid everything that incites lust and stains the mind and heart.
Eighth Commandment
This commandment prohibits any form of theft, appropriation of someone else's property. In addition to theft, robbery, this includes sacrilege - appropriation of property belonging to the Church, bribery, as well as:
- parasitism;
- extortion;
- deception.
Ninth Commandment
It is prohibited to tell any lies, slander, give false testimony in court, or make false denunciations. For an Orthodox person, any lie is unacceptable, even if it does not cause harm to another person. You cannot condemn or reproach anyone. It is important to fight your own language, reject gossip, ridicule, and reproaches.
The Ninth Commandment prohibits telling lies.
Tenth Commandment
It is prohibited not only to do bad things to your neighbors, but even to entertain evil thoughts about other people. The sin against the commandment is envy. Wishing evil to your neighbor in your soul, without having joy about his achievements, you can gradually reach the point of evil deeds and sabotage.
Some points and explanations
It is not necessary to confess at the Liturgy. You can start confession at any convenient time. It is important to realize your sinfulness and the impossibility of correcting yourself without God’s help, to sincerely repent, not to make excuses and not to blame anyone for your own sins.
General confession implies a complete analysis of life, and this takes time. This rite of repentance can last more than an hour, so it is better to arrange it with the priest in advance.
Author's advice
General confession involves a complete analysis of life
General confession differs from ordinary confession in that it covers a person’s entire life from the age of 7. There is a lot of spiritual literature to help penitents and examples of confession with a list of sins.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl+Enter.
The time must be chosen in advance
Some priests recommend holding a general confession every time a believer changes his confessor, for example, by moving to another city.
However, experienced priests recommend coming to general confession only to a priest whom the believer already trusts, who himself leads a righteous and ascetic life, is considerate with his parishioners and will not ask awkward questions and delve into dirty laundry, which can be found in almost every adult. .
General confession must be agreed upon in advance so that the time of conversation with the priest is not limited and no one can interfere with the sacrament.
Very often, confession is not limited to the believer’s life “after baptism,” but they also remember those sins and passions that happened before. After all, after baptism, a person’s habits remain the same, sins and passions follow him from his “past” life, aggravating his conscience.
Sometimes it happens that at weekly confession a person repents of various minor sins, trying to avoid the truly terrible things that he has committed. General confession helps to understand one’s life and one’s spiritual state, and if a person still cannot do this on his own, an experienced confessor will help him do this. The main sign by which one can understand that one should go to general confession is the feeling of being abandoned by God every now and then.
