General confession of sins, pronounced by the penitent before the priest

When you come to church for confession, do not be afraid. The Lord is generous and accepts all sinners. Forgives those who repent. You should not be afraid of the priest, he is the eyes and ears of the Lord, no one will know about your secret sins. He listens to so much throughout the day that by lunchtime he doesn’t remember who came to him or what they said.

Father is the only person who will not wish you harm or envy you. He will only rejoice that another soul has been saved, and thank God that he, the all-seeing and all-good, has directed you to the true path!

Preparing for confession of sins, how to repent

Before going to the priest for confession, you need to prepare. What does it mean to prepare? To do this, you need to read prayers and fast for at least a day before going to church. Directly on the day of confession itself, you must not eat anything and come to the very beginning of the service. If the priest notices that you were not there from the very beginning of the service, he will not confess.

Don't look for excuses in your actions. If they did this, it means they wanted it, and at that moment you were very happy with it. Before going to confession, make peace with yourself and your loved ones, ask for forgiveness if necessary.

Confession is divided into two parts:

• Soulful confession: You repent every day of what you have done;
• Confession to a priest: You tell a priest about your deeds in order to cleanse your soul.

These are completely two different sides of the same coin. When you come to church, you must be aware of what you will say and why. It is very difficult to tell a complete stranger what wrongdoing you have done and why you did it that way. It becomes embarrassing, many forget or do not want to talk about the most painful mistakes they have made.

You can make a list of misdeeds, so you won’t forget anything, and it will be easier to talk about it later. If it is still difficult for you to make such a list, there is a mini store at the church; it certainly has a booklet on how to conduct confession and what sins exist.

After confession, a person usually experiences a feeling of relief, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. You can confess several times a week. Frequent trips to church help you feel relaxed and more confident.

Preparing for the ritual

For those preparing for any type of confession, including general confession, Orthodox priests recommend:

• start preparing a few days before the sacrament;
• carefully analyze your sins before God, people and yourself;
• compare the actions taken with the Christian commandments, identify everything that was violated;
• ask for forgiveness from those who were offended by word and deed (if this is not possible, you should turn to such people mentally);
• sincerely forgive your own offenders, get rid of internal negativity towards them;
• do not skip reading the daily prayers, add to them the penitential canons for Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel.

Useful to consider! When preparing for repentance, you should turn to your family and friends. They will help you determine the list of sins, since a person’s behavior can be seen much better from the outside.

A special fast before confession is not required. The exception is when this ritual is performed on the eve of communion.

Sins in confession list for women

Compiling and reading such a ready-made list leaves many ladies in a stupor. Not everyone can understand that your life is a complete sinful nightmare. There is no need to despair. Consult with the priest, he will briefly explain everything and tell you what and why. No one will invade your personal life, because only God knows why this is so and what you did to deserve it. Having gone through the secret of confession, you will be able to figure it out and draw the right conclusions, improve your position in life and take the right path to correcting life’s mistakes. You can discuss birth control with your priest, because abortions are a mortal sin, and it is better to avoid this in time than to repent later for the rest of your life.

List of possible sins:

• She was not happy with her position in society, her environment, her life;
• She was angry with her children, screamed, doubted them;
• She did not trust doctors, doubted their competence;
• Misled herself;
• She set a bad example for her children;
• I was jealous;
• Was the cause of scandals;
• The most terrible and deadly sin is PRIDE. It is very difficult to fight with him, almost no one notices him, but they yak very often. If you learn to catch yourself in the I, switch to WE, then you are on the right path.
• She did not pray and rarely read prayer, did not come to the temple of God;
• During the service, I thought about worldly problems;
• She had abortions herself, and pushed others to this idea;
• I thought badly about people, discussed them;
• Read obscenities or watched obscene films;
• She used foul language, lied, was jealous;
• She was offended for no reason, showing her Self to others;
• She wore indecent clothes, too short and provocative, thereby provoking excessive male attention and female envy;
• I was afraid for my appearance and figure;
• Thought about death;
• She ate too much, drank alcohol, took drugs;
• Refused help;
• I visited fortune tellers and fortune tellers.
• She believed in all sorts of superstitions;

How to prepare for general confession

For general confession, which is held once in a lifetime, a person prepares for a long time, writing down all his experiences on paper.

Attention! If you have never prayed, Psalm 50 will come to the rescue. With this psalm you can cry out to the Creator every time you repent of an unrighteous life.

“Have mercy on me, Lord Almighty, according to Your great wisdom and mercy, have mercy on me, a sinner and unworthy, according to the multitude of Your mercies and bounties. Forgive my sins. I repeatedly ask you to cleanse my soul from sins, for I am aware of the iniquities I have committed and sincerely repent of them. Lord, grant your great forgiveness. Fill my heart with purity and renew the spirit within me. Do not turn your face away from me, having heard my bold request. Grant me hope for the salvation of my soul and strengthen me with your sovereign spirit. Teach me to follow the righteous path and deliver me from torment, so that in my prayers I can glorify Your Holy Name forever and ever. For I know that it is not the sacrifice that you desire, which I am humbly ready to give, but that you favor me. Bless me Thy servant, O Lord. Amen".

Example of a general confession

The Church, understanding the weakness of the prayer life of the confessor, prepared an example of general repentance for Christians.

Countless are my voluntary and involuntary, hidden and open, big and small sins that were committed in word, deed, in thoughts, by my own will and compulsion, at different time periods of my life, Merciful God, from birth to this moment. I sinned with an ungrateful attitude towards the Lord and His great blessings:

He was also sinful in that he did not keep the vows given at Baptism. I am sinful because I lied and showed self-will.

Sinful because he did not keep the Commandments, did not listen to the traditions of the Holy Fathers.

He was also sinful in that: he was rude; dared; he was disobedient, stern, fearful; humiliated; was obstinate; shouted uncontrollably; got irritated; raised his hand; quarreled and swore. Sinful in that: he slandered; was careless; was in a hurry; was sarcastic; was hostile, hated; was jealous and instigated.

Sinful because: he was obsessed with revenge; voluptuous; disliked; unclean; dreamed; he was wayward and intemperate, drunk.

He was also a sinner because he was absent-minded, joked, joked, laughed, mocked, had crazy fun, was idle, abandoned prayer, service, fasting and good deeds.

He was also sinful in that: he was stingy; perplexed; was cold and greedy; despised the poor and the poor. I was sinful because I was greedy, idle, snitched, lied, dissembled, was careless and disrespectful.

Sinful because he did not believe, blasphemed, doubted, was frivolous and fickle, indifferent and insensitive, inattentive. Sinful because he grieved immensely, despaired, hatched crafty and evil plans, was excessively sad, fell into despondency and despair. I was also sinful in that I remembered God in vain, was cowardly, hopeless, hypocritical, borrowed, found fault, oppressed, stole, extorted, and appropriated the property of others.

I am sinful because I abused the gift of God, indulged in sins, talked idle talk, wasted money, was cold towards my neighbor and towards God, and incited people to commit evil deeds.

He was sinful because he spent his time vainly, spread his false opinions, uttered curses without thinking, was ambitious, pretended, did indecent things, mocked, laughed, and participated in a card game.

I am sinful because I allowed myself to skip prayer in the mornings and evenings, forgot to cross myself before eating, cursed, and ate after sunset.

He was also guilty of giving wrong advice, being lusty, voluptuous, picky about food, and reading romance novels and films. He was sinful in that he was not caring about the Gospel and the Psalter, and came up with excuses for sins.

Sinful due to increased interest in clothes. Sinful because he was proud, vain, performed his duties dishonestly, and bore false witness.

Sinned by many impurities, with the participation of the enemy, in a state of sleepy reverie. He committed sins through fornication by nature and through nature.

He was also guilty of missing services, being late, and visiting churches of other religions. I was sinful because I did not follow the prayer rules.

He was sinful because he gave alms with evil thoughts and did not visit the sick. Sinful due to the fact that he did not perform actions according to the command of the Lord: burying the dead, feeding the hungry, quenching the thirst of the thirsty. I am sinful because I did not properly honor Sundays and holidays and did not pray.

He was also sinful in that he forgot the Saints and spent holidays drunkenly, slandered and condemned, he was unfaithful. I was sinful in that I came to the temple of God without humbling my heart, was not reverent during divine services, exalted myself, was angry, flattered and was two-faced. Sinful because I was impatient, cowardly and malicious. Sinful because he used foul language, wanted excess food, gave in to his whims, and begrudged alms to the poor.

He is also sinful in condemnation, contempt and hostility, greed and impurity. I also sinned in that I prayed coldly and absent-mindedly, I was not diligent, I was just lazy and idle. Sinful with chatter and gossip, games and idle pursuits. He often committed sins voluntarily, willingly, and seduced others.

I consider myself guilty before the face of God more than all other people, therefore I humbly pray to you, honest father, on the Day of Judgment be my witness.

I truly regret these falls and have the will in the future, as much as possible, hoping for God’s mercy and help, to guard myself from all defilement of the flesh and spirit. Forgive me, Our Father, pray for me, a sinful and unworthy servant.

When remembering some sins, you should call everything by its proper name. Abortion is murder, and weighing yourself on a scale is theft.

The Lord took care of His children in advance and gave them a guide, the Law.

Complete confession of sins for women

You need to trust the priest and tell everything:

• If you have not confessed before, then you need to tell about all the offenses you have committed since the age of seven. Hidden sin doubles, it is more difficult to atone for it;
• If they confessed, then from the last confession;
• Talk about your sinful thoughts and desires;
• Abortion plays an important role. If they did, and more than one, it is worth mentioning all of them;
• If you were married more than once, cohabited in a civil marriage, or had several men, also;
• If you have children from more than one husband, also;

The priest must understand what you need to do, read, how many days to fast, and exactly how to fast. That is why he is the right hand of the Lord.

Confession: how to write a note with sins

The sheet must be divided into parts:

• Sins against parents and relatives;
• Sins against oneself;
• Sins against God.

Many people think that by writing down their misdeeds on a piece of paper, they are doing wrong, but when they come to confession, they forget half of their sins and get confused. Such a presentation of your thoughts will streamline the confession itself, and will not allow you to forget or hide something.

There is an opinion that writing sins on a piece of paper is no longer a secret, but a banal reading.

In confession, it is important to repent, to understand what was perfect and not to allow such acts to happen again. That is why it is worth considering transferring sins onto paper as a reminder or hint.

The difference between general confession and ordinary confession

Churched Christians come to Confession and Communion, some once a week, and some once a month. They leave their sins at the cross of Christ, which they no longer remember. Their sins were washed by the Blood of the Savior and taken to the Cross.

Confession in the Orthodox Church

Confessed sin is abandoned, but we are living people. We do not live in paradise, we can be angry, get angry, sin with our minds and eyes, so we should hasten to the grace given by God - repentance and confession of sins.

The more often Christians come to the Sacrament of Communion, the stronger their faith and the stronger God’s protection. By putting God first, believers can live with confidence that everything else in their lives will fall into place.

The concept of “general confession” appeared quite recently. In Orthodoxy, this Sacrament was introduced for people who:

• Haven't been to church for a long time;
• having been baptized in childhood, they never visited the temple;
• never confessed;
• confessed without true repentance;
• are sick and may pass away into another world;
• are preparing to accept Orthodox baptism as adults.

General recognition of one's sins will bring freedom, first of all, to the Christian himself, who has lived all his life in captivity of lusts and impurity. You cannot be free without the Creator. Only when freed from sin does a person acquire wings. Those who consider faith in God to be a limitation of freedom are deeply mistaken. The Almighty loves everyone, but His grace is poured out on those who have abandoned sin.

What is human freedom? Drink, smoke, live in a civil marriage, be angry and hypocritical? This is what Christians call “living in sin.” No one can correct their past, but the Lord gives everyone the opportunity to start the future from scratch, with a clean page called “general confession.”

About sins:

• Eight deadly sins and the fight against them
• Sin of slander
• Sin of Wrath

General house cleaning means clearing every corner of the house of clutter and dirt. At this time, everything that is outdated, broken, or broken is thrown away. In a house where thorough cleaning is constantly done, cleanliness and order are respected, there is no need for general cleaning.

If a person has never cleansed his spiritual temple, he needs to carefully prepare for the great Sacrament, looking into the darkest corners of the soul, starting from childhood. During ordinary confession, Christians do not delve into the description of their experiences when committing an offense; this must be done at home during repentance.

Important! During the general confession, which can last several hours, a person internally experiences everything that happens to him, expressing his experiences and emotions.

List of sins in confession for men

It is harder for men to admit their misdeeds, words, sins. They may even believe that they are not to blame for anything. In their opinion, only women are guilty. Therefore, repent and confess only to him. But this is far from true. Men are no less sinful. In some ways, they discuss and gossip more than we do. But hot temper and narcissism are generally a separate topic for conversation.

Possible sins:

• Conversations in church and during services;
• Allowing doubts in faith;
• Manifestation of cruelty, pride, laziness;
• Greed or extravagance;
• Avoiding helping his wife and children, misleading them;
• Disclosure of other people's secrets;
• Inclination to sin;
• Drinking alcohol, smoking drugs;
• Passion for card games, slot machines, inducing others to this debauchery;
• Participation in thefts, fights;
• Narcissism;
• Insolent behavior, the ability to humiliate loved ones;
• Manifestations of negligence and cowardice;
• Fornication, seduction, adultery.

This is not a complete list of male sins. Humanity treats most of the above as a matter of course and does not consider it a sin at all.

General confession of sins, pronounced by the penitent before the priest

I confess to the Lord God Almighty, glorified and worshiped in the Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Most Blessed Ever-Virgin Mother of God Mary and all the saints, and to you, honorable father, in all my sins that I have committed in thought, word, deed and all my feelings, for I was conceived in sins, born in sins, raised in sins and lived in sins from Baptism and even to this hour.

I also confess that I have sinned extremely with pride, vanity, exaltation both in my eyes and in my clothes and in all my deeds, envy, hatred, desire for both honor and love of money, anger, sadness, laziness, gluttony, lust of Sodom, sacrilege, unrighteous oath , adultery, theft, robbery, every kind of fornication, the most disgusting uncleanness, drunkenness, gluttony, idle ranting, carnal lust, unclean kissing and touching, my childbearing organs, the mental desire to kill, the ever-present unworthy perception of the Body and Blood of the Lord, crafty admonitions and caresses, ignorance, negligence, desire for covetousness, commission of excess, poor performance of church affairs, insufficient giving of alms, cruelty to the poor, poor reception and treatment of the poor, oppression of the household entrusted to me, failure to visit the sick according to the commandment of the Gospel and those in prison, failure to bury the dead, failure to dress the poor , not satisfying the hungry and not giving water to the thirsty.

I confess that I did not give due honor, celebration and worship to the holidays - both of the Lord and His saints, and did not spend them soberly and cleanly, did something unpleasant to the ruler and did not help him, did not console the petitioners and even harmed them. I have sinned gravely by blaspheming and slandering elders and leaders, by failing to remain faithful to my friends and benefactors, by failing to perform due obedience, by looking with a guilty conscience at brutal and bestial copulation, by proudly entering the Church of God, by standing, sitting, reclining and departing from it inappropriately, by being idle conversations in it, lawless deeds, bad conversation with others. I confess that with an unclean heart and dirty hands I approached the holy service and touched the sacred vessels, and carelessly performed prayers, psalmody and invocations of God in the church.

I have sinned gravely with the most despicable thoughts, with depraved thoughts and teachings, with a false opinion, with reckless condemnation, with evil consent and unrighteous advice, with lust and nasty pleasure, in idle, unnecessary, unclean and annoying words, in lies, in deception, in various oaths, in incessant slander, scattering quarrels and discord and mocking others, in idle mockery, in debate, in flattery, in deceit, in whispering, in vain and vain joy and in all evil.

I have sinned by murmuring, blasphemy, buffoonery, ridicule, sleepiness, slander, reproach, foul language, abuse, hypocrisy, vigilance contrary to God, bodily lust, lustful thoughts, unclean pleasures, agreement with the devil, transgression of God’s commandments, negligence in the love of God and neighbor, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, lustful and unclean.

I perished in all my thoughts, words, wills and deeds. Since in these and all other iniquities, with which only human weakness can sin against God and its Creator in thought, word, deed, or pleasure, or lust, I have sinned in all of this, I consider myself guilty before the Face of God more than all people, I confess as this , so are all my other countless sins, which I committed voluntarily or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly, by myself or through others, or by seducing my brother, and which, due to their multitude, I can neither know nor remember, but what I remembered, I said , - because for everything that was said and not said, for my unconsciousness and many sins, I repent, regret and consider myself guilty before the Lord my God; Therefore, I humbly pray to the Most Holy and Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Heavenly Powers, and all the holy saints of God, and you, honest father priest, in whose presence I confessed all this, that on the Day of Judgment everyone will be witnesses against the devil, the enemy and enemy of the human race, that I confessed all this, and that they pray for me, a sinner, to the Lord my God. And I ask you, honest father, as one who has such power given to you by Christ God, to release me from all these sins of mine that I told you, cleanse me, forgive me and give me penance for all my sins, for I sincerely regret my sins, I voluntarily repent and have a strong desire and intention to avoid them with God’s help as far as possible.

Forgive me, Father, allow me and pray for me, a sinner. Amen.

After this, you can read a prayer to Christ, for our sake crucified, to remember His saving suffering, raised for the sake of our sins. Reading it, a person receives considerable tenderness and, as if by a bridle, is kept from sins and is directed towards correction and success in a life pleasing to God.

Examples of sins for confession

People sin each in their own way. One considers his action to be the norm, for another it is a mortal sin.

Here is an approximate possible list:

• Not faith in the Lord God;
• Doubts;
• Ingratitude to the Savior;
• No desire to wear a cross;
• Not the desire to defend your opinion about God in front of non-believers;
• They swore by the Lord to justify themselves;
• They called on God, asked for help in vanity and unbelief;
• They called the Lord;
• They stayed and attended non-Christian churches;
• Hostility;
• They resorted to the help of sorcerers and fortune tellers;
• Read or preached false teachings about God;
• They played all kinds of games: cards, slot machines;
• They refused to fast;
• They didn’t read the prayer book;
• Wanted to commit suicide;
• They used foul language;
• Don't go to church;
• You think badly of priests;
• Watch TV or sit at the computer instead of helping loved ones or doing something around the house;
• You despair and do not ask God for help;
• Relying too much on others;
• You deceive the priest during confession, or do not trust him;
• Has a quick temper;
• Treat people arrogantly;
• Show others your pride and vanity;
• You lie to your loved ones and acquaintances;
• You mock the poor, the incompetent;
• Show your stinginess, or excessive wastefulness;
• Your children are not being raised in the faith and fear of the Lord;
• You don’t help the needy, the disadvantaged;
• Do not come to the aid of your parents;
• You resort to theft;
• Do not behave decently at a wake, allow alcohol to get the better of you;
• You can kill your interlocutor with a word;
• Slander;
• Bring a person to sinful thoughts about death;
• Abortion, inducing others to do so;
• Imposing your thoughts;
• Cult of money;
• Showing yourself to people as a benefactor;
• Excessive overeating, drunkenness;
• Adultery, fornication, incest.

Confession of prodigal sins

Fornication is considered a very serious sin. Previously, such offenses resulted in excommunication from communion for up to 7 years. It is located inside the person himself, in his subconscious. It eats a person from the inside. Being in such a sophisticated state makes you feel euphoric. You no longer want to read the prayer. God does not like such sinners; he is disgusted by the mere thought of them. But at the same time, having repented, they will be forgiven faster than anyone else.

As the holy fathers say, three days of intense prayer, fasting, and repentance are enough to earn the Lord’s forgiveness.

It’s a terrible shame, of course, but it’s better to tell and repent than to carry this abomination inside yourself. And if your family is also expecting a child, even more so. Why torment the unborn soul of a baby. After all, we shift our sins onto our children. And then we wonder why they are sick or have many problems in life!

In this case, you should not write a note to the priest. Like, read it, while I go to the store or smoke! This is a kindergarten! When we sinned, we were not ashamed before God, but before our priest, yes!

The most important! They repented. Have mastered the material covered. Correct your mistake! Don't repeat it! By repeating, you automatically become a hypocrite!

May the Lord protect you from temptation.

What is general confession

The confessional rite, which is accompanied by a frank dialogue between the believer and the priest and the repentance of the layman, is called private or individual. In contrast, general confession implies the simultaneous presence in the temple of several people who want to repent of their sins. Such a ritual is carried out according to a pre-prepared schedule.

During the ceremony, a church minister, holding the rank of priest, helps parishioners grow spiritually, realize their wrong actions, and direct all efforts to accomplish good deeds. This sacred action also allows you to recognize negative thoughts in time, fight them and avoid their occurrence in the future.

The principle of conducting general confession for the laity is as follows:

• the priest reads a special text, lists out loud the most common sins;
• believers who come to confession sincerely repent of them;
• At the end of the ritual, a prayer of permission is said.

The number of Christians taking part in this ritual can be unlimited. In the Orthodox Church, general confession is most often held during Lent. It mainly takes place on holidays and Sundays, when a large number of people are present in the temple.

It is important to know! General confession is recommended for experienced Christians, as well as for those who have not committed any serious sins. If a person is just beginning to join the Orthodox faith or has a heavy stone in his soul, it is best to talk with a priest about his existing sins one on one.

Confession of the sin of masturbation

The concept is ambiguous, and the sin is very serious. In the Christian faith it is called masturbation, or masturbation. Loving yourself with your own hands is the same sin as cheating on your wife or having too many girls. It is very difficult to get rid of such a cunning passion. Father needs to be told everything in detail, he will ask many questions. It is necessary to get to the bottom of this sin, since this is the tip of the iceberg, the root of the problem is much worse and hides deep in the subconscious, hiding behind other obvious sins.

To confess means to undergo a small judgment of God. Only you will blush and be ashamed. And there, in that world, at God’s judgment, all your deceased relatives will be ashamed, you can’t hide anything there. Therefore, if you have sinned, repent, here and now.

In the old days, this sin was punished by strict fasting, by sitting on bread and water for 40 days. During the service they bowed tirelessly.

The Holy Scripture says: “If anyone has sinned, forgive him, and all his sins will be forgiven. And if you don’t forgive someone, that’s where they’ll stay.”

Doing something like this means wasting your energy and life resources in vain. This behavior suggests that the Orthodox is weak-willed, weak-willed, and does not have the fortitude to control his desires. The Church does not take this for granted. Since for natural permissible fornication there must be two, husband and wife. This is the only way they get approval. Everything else is sin and immoral.

Priests say about masturbation that it is unclean. It was precisely this sin that struck down the son of Patriarch Judah Onan. To receive pleasure, you need God's blessing for a church marriage. And it’s easier to join it than to be under constant sinful addiction.

Maybe even the female gender will succumb to sin. The church condemns him no less than men. It follows from this that they also need to repent.

Masturbation also occurs among teenagers, girls and boys. At this age, this is more of an unconscious act, which leads to a bad hyena, too tight clothes. Parents are obliged to look after their children and control their behavior. It is more difficult to correct this problem; children, as a rule, do not understand the full depth of the problem, and do not realize what they are to blame for.

You should spend as much time as possible with them, change clothes if this is the reason. Register your child for swimming. Find the cause of the problem. Read spiritual literature to your child and subtly explain that this is a sin.

The priest will help you choose the necessary prayers that will help you get rid of this addiction.

You need to repent - in the past tense

Once in our lives we receive Baptism and are anointed with Chrism. Ideally, we get married once. The Sacrament of the Priesthood is not all-encompassing; it is performed only on those whom the Lord has destined to be accepted into the clergy. In the Sacrament of Unction our participation is very small. But the Sacraments of Confession and Communion lead us through our entire lives to eternity, without them the existence of a Christian is unthinkable. We get to them time after time. So sooner or later we still have the opportunity to think: are we preparing for them correctly? And understand: no, most likely not entirely. Therefore, talking about these Sacraments seems very important to us. In this issue, in a conversation with the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Abbot Nektariy (Morozov), we decided to touch upon confession (because covering everything is an impossible task, too “boundless” a topic), and next time we will talk about Communion of the Holy Mysteries.

- I guess, more precisely, I guess: nine out of ten who come to confession do not know how to confess...
- Indeed, this is so. Even people who regularly go to church do not know how to do many things in it, but the worst thing is with confession. Very rarely does a parishioner confess correctly. You have to learn to confess. Of course, it would be better if an experienced confessor, a man of high spiritual life, spoke about the Sacrament of Confession and repentance. If I decide to talk about this here, it’s simply as a person who confesses, on the one hand, and on the other, as a priest who quite often has to accept confession. I will try to summarize my observations of my own soul and how others participate in the Sacrament of Repentance. But by no means do I consider my observations sufficient.

— Let's talk about the most common misconceptions, misconceptions and mistakes. A person goes to confession for the first time; he heard that before receiving communion, one must confess. And that in confession you need to tell your sins. He immediately has a question: for what period should he “report”? Over your entire life, starting from childhood? But can you retell all this? Or do you not need to retell everything, but just say: “In childhood and youth I showed selfishness many times” or “In my youth I was very proud and vain, and even now, in fact, I remain the same”?

— If a person comes to confession for the first time, it is quite obvious that he needs to confess for his entire past life. Starting from the age when he could already distinguish good from evil - and until the moment he finally decided to confess.

How can you tell your whole life in a short time? In confession, we do not tell our whole life, but what is sin. Sins are specific events. However, there is no need to recount all the times when you sinned with anger, for example, or with lies. You must say that you committed this sin, and cite some of the brightest, most terrible manifestations of this sin - those that truly hurt your soul. There is one more pointer: what do you least want to tell about yourself? This is exactly what needs to be said first. If you are going to confession for the first time, it is best for you to set yourself the task of confessing your heaviest, most painful sins. Then the confession will become more complete, deeper. The first confession cannot be like this - for several reasons: this is a psychological barrier (coming for the first time in front of a priest, that is, in front of a witness, telling God about your sins is not easy) and other obstacles. A person does not always understand what sin is. Unfortunately, not even all people living church life know and understand the Gospel well. And except in the Gospel, the answer to the question of what is sin and what is virtue, perhaps, will not be found anywhere. In the life around us, many sins have become commonplace... But even when reading the Gospel to a person, his sins are not immediately revealed, they are gradually revealed by the grace of God. St. Peter of Damascus says that the beginning of the health of the soul is seeing one’s sins as countless as the sand of the sea. If the Lord had immediately revealed to a person his sinfulness in all its horror, not a single person could have endured it. That is why the Lord reveals his sins to a person gradually. This can be compared to peeling an onion - first they removed one skin, then the second - and finally they got to the onion itself. That is why it very often happens: a person goes to church, regularly confesses, takes communion - and finally realizes the need for the so-called general confession. It very rarely happens that a person is ready for it right away.

- What it is? How does general confession differ from ordinary confession?

— General confession, as a rule, is called confession for the entire life lived, and in a certain sense this is true. But a confession that is not so comprehensive can also be called general. We repent of our sins from week to week, from month to month, this is a simple confession. But from time to time you need to give yourself a general confession - a review of your entire life. Not the one that was lived, but the one that is now. We see that we repeat the same sins, and we cannot get rid of them - that’s why we need to understand ourselves. Review your entire life as it is now.

— How to treat the so-called questionnaires for general confession? They can be seen in church shops.

— If by general confession we mean precisely confession for the entire life lived, then here there really is a need for some kind of external assistance. The best guide for confessors is the book by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) “The Experience of Constructing a Confession”, it is about the spirit, the correct attitude of a repentant person, about what exactly needs to be repented of. There is a book “Sin and Repentance of the Last Times. About the secret ailments of the soul" by Archimandrite Lazar (Abashidze). Useful excerpts from St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) - “To help the penitent.” As for the questionnaires - yes, there are confessors, there are priests who do not approve of these questionnaires. They say that you can read in them such sins that the reader has never even heard of, but if he reads them, he will be harmed... But, unfortunately, there are almost no sins left that modern man would not know about. Yes, there are questions there that are stupid, rude, there are questions that are clearly sinning with excessive physiology... But if you treat the questionnaire as a working tool, like a plow with which you need to plow yourself all over once, then, I think, you can use it. In the old days, such questionnaires were called “renewal,” which is so wonderful to modern ears. Indeed, with their help, man renewed himself as the image of God, just as an old, dilapidated and grimy icon is renewed. There is no need to think about whether these questionnaires are in good or bad literary form. The serious shortcomings of some questionnaires include this: the compilers include in them something that, in essence, is not a sin. Didn’t you wash your hands with scented soap, for example, or didn’t you do your laundry on Sunday... If you did the laundry during Sunday service, that’s a sin, but if you did the laundry after the service because there was no other time, I personally don’t see it as a sin.

“Unfortunately, you can sometimes buy this in our church shops...

- This is why it is necessary to consult a priest before using the questionnaire. I can recommend the book by Priest Alexy Moroz “I Confess Sin, Father” - it is a reasonable and very detailed questionnaire.

— Here it is necessary to clarify: what do we mean by the word “sin”? Most of those who confess, when they pronounce this word, mean a sinful act. That is, in essence, a manifestation of sin. For example: “Yesterday I was harsh and cruel to my mother.” But this is not a separate, not some random episode, this is a manifestation of the sin of dislike, intolerance, unforgiveness, selfishness. This means that you shouldn’t say that, not “yesterday I was cruel,” but simply “I’m cruel, there’s little love in me.” Or how should I say it?

— Sin is a manifestation of passion in action.
We must repent of specific sins. Not in passions as such, because passions are always the same, you can write one confession to yourself for the rest of your life, but in those sins that were committed from confession to confession. Confession is the Sacrament that gives us the opportunity to start a new life. We repented of our sins, and from that moment our life began anew. This is the miracle that takes place in the Sacrament of Confession. That is why you always need to repent - in the past tense. You shouldn’t say: “I offend my neighbors,” I should say: “I offended my neighbors.” Because I have the intention, having said this, not to offend people in the future. Each sin in confession should be named so that it is clear what exactly it is. If we repent of idle talk, we do not need to retell all the episodes of our idle talk and repeat all our idle words. But if in some case there was so much idle talk that we tired someone with it or said something completely unnecessary, we probably need to talk about this in confession in a little more detail, more definitely. There are such words from the Gospel: For every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). You need to look at your confession in advance from this point of view - whether there will be idle talk in it.

- And yet about passions. If I feel irritated by my neighbor’s request, but I don’t show this irritation in any way and provide him with the necessary help, should I repent of the irritation I experienced as a sin?

- If you, feeling this irritation within yourself, consciously fought against it - this is one situation. If you accepted this irritation of yours, developed it in yourself, reveled in it - this is a different situation. Everything depends on the direction of a person's will. If a person, experiencing a sinful passion, turns to God and says: “Lord, I don’t want this and I don’t want it, help me get rid of it,” there is practically no sin on the person. There is sin - to the extent that our heart participated in these tempting desires. And how much we allowed him to participate in this.

— Apparently, we need to dwell on the “disease of telling,” which stems from a certain cowardice during confession. For example, instead of saying “I behaved selfishly,” I begin to tell: “At work... my colleague says... and in response I say...”, etc. I eventually report my sin, but - just like that, within the frame of the story. This is not even a frame, these stories play, if you look at it, the role of clothing - we dress in words, in the plot, so as not to feel naked in confession.

- Indeed, it’s easier this way. But you don’t need to make it easy for yourself to confess. Confession should not contain unnecessary details. There shouldn't be any other people with their actions. Because when we talk about other people, we most often justify ourselves at the expense of these people. We also make excuses due to some of our circumstances. On the other hand, sometimes the extent of the sin depends on the circumstances of the sin. Beating a person out of drunken anger is one thing, stopping a criminal while protecting the victim is quite another. To refuse to help one's neighbor because of laziness and selfishness is one thing, to refuse because the temperature that day was forty is another. If a person who knows how to confess confesses in detail, it is easier for the priest to see what is happening to this person and why. Thus, the circumstances of the sin need to be reported only if the sin you committed is not clear without these circumstances. This is also learned through experience.

Excessive telling during confession may also have another reason: a person’s need for participation, spiritual help and warmth. Here, perhaps, a conversation with a priest is appropriate, but it should be at a different time, certainly not at the time of confession. Confession is a Sacrament, not a conversation.

— Priest Alexander Elchaninov in one of his entries thanks God for helping him every time experience confession as a catastrophe. What should we do to ensure that our confession, at least, is not dry, cold, formal?

“We must remember that the confession that we say in church is the tip of the iceberg.
If this confession is everything, and everything is limited to it, we can say that we have nothing. There was no actual confession. There is only the grace of God, which, despite our foolishness and recklessness, still acts. We have the intention to repent, but it is formal, it is dry and lifeless. It’s like that fig tree, which if it bears any fruit, it will be with great difficulty. Our confession is performed at another time and prepared at another time. When we, knowing that tomorrow we will go to church, confess, sit down and sort out our lives. When I think: why have I judged people so many times during this time? But because, judging them, I myself look better in my own eyes. Instead of dealing with my own sins, I condemn others and justify myself. Or I find some kind of pleasure in condemnation. When I understand that as long as I judge others, I will not have the grace of God. And when I say: “Lord, help me, otherwise, how long will I kill my soul with this?” After this, I will come to confession and say: “I condemned people countless times, I exalted myself over them, I found sweetness in this for myself.” My repentance lies not only in the fact that I said it, but in the fact that I decided not to do it again. When a person repents in this way, he receives very great grace-filled consolation from confession and confesses in a completely different way. Repentance is a change in a person. If no change occurred, confession remained to a certain extent a formality. “Fulfillment of Christian duty,” as for some reason it was customary to express it before the revolution.

There are examples of saints who brought repentance to God in their hearts, changed their lives, and the Lord accepted this repentance, although there was no stole over them, and the prayer for the remission of sins was not read. But there was repentance! But with us it’s different - the prayer is read, and the person receives communion, but repentance as such has not occurred, there is no break in the chain of sinful life.

There are people who come to confession and, having already stood in front of the lectern with the cross and the Gospel, begin to remember what they sinned. This is always a real torment - both for the priest, and for those who are waiting for their turn, and for the man himself, of course. How to prepare for confession? Firstly, an attentive, sober life. Secondly, there is a good rule, which you can’t think of anything to replace: every day in the evening, devote five to ten minutes not even to thinking about what happened during the day, but to repentance before God for what a person considers himself to have sinned. Sit down and mentally go through the day - from the morning hours to the evening hours. And realize every sin for yourself. A big sin or a small one - you need to understand it, feel it and, as Anthony the Great says, put it between yourself and God. See it as an obstacle between yourself and the Creator. Feel this terrible metaphysical essence of sin. And for every sin ask God for forgiveness. And put in your heart the desire to leave these sins in the past. It is advisable to write down these sins in some kind of notebook. This helps to put a limit on sin. We did not write down this sin, we did not do such a purely mechanical action, and it “passed on” to the next day. And then it will be easier to prepare for confession. There is no need to “suddenly” remember everything.

— Some parishioners prefer confession in this form: “I sinned against such and such a commandment.” This is convenient: “I sinned against the seventh” - and there is no need to say anything more.

“I believe this is completely unacceptable.” Any formalization of spiritual life kills this life. Sin is the pain of the human soul. If there is no pain, then there is no repentance. St. John Climacus says that the forgiveness of our sins is evidenced by the pain that we feel when we repent of them. If we do not experience pain, we have every reason to doubt that our sins have been forgiven. And the Monk Barsanuphius the Great, answering questions from various people, repeatedly said that a sign of forgiveness is a loss of sympathy for previously committed sins. This is the change that must happen to a person, an internal turn.

- Another common opinion: why would I repent if I know that I won’t change anyway - it will be hypocrisy and hypocrisy on my part.

“What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
What is sin, why does a person repeat it again and again, even realizing that it is bad? Because this is what prevailed over him, what entered his nature, broke it, distorted it. And a person himself cannot cope with this; he needs help - the gracious help of God. Through the Sacrament of Repentance, a person resorts to His help. The first time a person comes to confession and sometimes is not even going to leave his sins, but let him at least repent of them before God. What do we ask God for in one of the prayers of the Sacrament of Repentance? “Loosen up, leave, forgive.” First, weaken the power of sin, then leave it, and only then forgive. It happens that a person comes to confession many times and repents of the same sin, not having the strength, not having the determination to leave it, but he repents sincerely. And the Lord, for this repentance, for this constancy, sends His help to a person. There is such a wonderful example, in my opinion, from St. Amphilochius of Iconium: a certain man came to the temple and there knelt before the icon of the Savior and tearfully repented of a terrible sin, which he committed again and again. His soul was so tormented that he once said: “Lord, I’m tired of this sin, I will never commit it again, I call You Yourself as a witness at the Last Judgment: this sin will no longer be in my life.” After this, he left the temple and again fell into this sin. So what did he do? No, he didn’t hang himself or drown himself. He came to the temple again, knelt down and repented of his fall. And so, near the icon, he died. And the fate of this soul was revealed to the saint. The Lord had mercy on the repentant. And the devil asks the Lord: “How is this possible? Didn’t he promise You many times, call You as a witness, and then deceive You?” And God answers: “If you, being a misanthrope, accepted him back to yourself so many times after his appeals to Me, how can I not accept him?” But here is a situation known to me personally: a girl regularly came to one of the Moscow churches and confessed that she earned her living by what is, as they say, the most ancient profession. No one allowed her to receive Communion, of course, but she continued to walk, prayed, and tried to somehow participate in the life of the parish. I don’t know if she managed to leave this craft, but I know for sure that the Lord protects her and does not leave her, waiting for the necessary change.

It is very important to believe in the forgiveness of sins, in the power of the Sacrament. Those who do not believe complain that after confession there is no relief, that they leave the church with a heavy soul. This comes from a lack of faith, even from a lack of faith in forgiveness. Faith should give a person joy, and if there is no faith, there is no need to hope for any spiritual experiences and emotions.

- Sometimes it happens that some long-standing (usually) action of ours evokes in us a reaction that is more humorous than repentant, and it seems to us that talking about this action in confession is excessive zeal, bordering on hypocrisy or coquetry. Example: I suddenly remember that once in my youth I stole a book from the library of a holiday home. I think that we need to say this in confession: no matter how you look at it, the eighth commandment has been broken. And then it becomes funny...

“I wouldn’t take it so lightly.” There are actions that cannot even be formally committed, because they destroy us - not even as people of faith, but simply as people of conscience. There are certain barriers that we must set for ourselves. These saints could have spiritual freedom, which allows them to do things that are formally condemned, but they did them only when these actions were for the good.

— Is it true that you do not need to repent of sins committed before Baptism if you were baptized in adulthood?

- Formally correct.
But the point is this: previously, the Sacrament of Baptism was always preceded by the Sacrament of Repentance. The Baptism of John and the entry into the waters of the Jordan were preceded by the confession of sins. Now adults in our churches are baptized without confessing their sins; only some churches have the practice of pre-baptismal confession. So what's going on? Yes, in baptism a person’s sins are forgiven, but he did not realize these sins, did not experience repentance for them. That is why he, as a rule, returns to these sins. There was no break; the line of sin continues. Formally, a person is not obliged to talk about sins committed before baptism in confession, but... it is better not to delve into such calculations: “I must say this, but I don’t have to say this.” Confession is not the subject of such bargaining with God. It's not a matter of the letter, it's a matter of spirit. — We have talked quite a lot here about how to prepare for confession, but what should we read or, as they say, proofread at home the day before, what prayers? The prayer book contains the Follow-up to Holy Communion. Do I need to proofread it in its entirety and is that enough? In addition, Communion may not follow confession. What to read before confession?

— It is very good if a person reads the Canon of Repentance to the Savior before confession. There is also a very good Penitential Canon of the Mother of God. This could be simply a prayer with the repentant feeling “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And it is very important, remembering every sin committed, bringing to the heart the awareness of its destruction for us, from the heart, in your own words, ask God for forgiveness for it, simply standing in front of icons or bowing. To come to what St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountainer calls the feeling of being “guilty.” That is, to feel: I am dying, and I am aware of it, and I am not justifying myself. I recognize myself as worthy of this death. But with this I go to God, surrender myself before His love and hope for His mercy, believing in it.

Abbot Nikon (Vorobyov) has a wonderful letter to a certain woman, no longer young, who, due to age and illness, had to prepare for the transition to Eternity. He writes to her: “Remember all your sins and repent of each one - even the one you confessed - before God until you feel that the Lord forgives you. It’s not a charm to feel that the Lord forgives; this is what the holy fathers called joyful crying—repentance that brings joy.” This is the most necessary thing - to feel peace with God.

Interviewed by Marina Biryukova

List of sins for confession with explanations

• I don’t go to confession, I don’t go to church, or I come to services extremely rarely. I do unnecessary things on my days off and don’t say prayers. I don't understand what my sins are.
• I am not in the habit of thanking God. I don’t pray morning and evening. She blamed God and didn’t believe in him.
• She gave her pets human names.
• I listened to swearing and gossip. She swore, thereby swearing at the Mother of God. I listened to vulgarities.
• She received communion without preparation, fasting, or prayers.
• She broke her fast and prepared lunch from forbidden foods. She commemorated deceased relatives with alcohol.
• She wore indecent clothes, thereby seducing men and calling for fornication.
• Civil marriage, fornication.
• She had abortions, thereby killing her children, trying to avoid difficulties in life.
• She set a bad example for the children, screamed, beat, did not bring them into church, did not teach prayer, fasting, restraint.
• She was interested in occult sciences, magic, etc., conducted meditations, attended martial arts sections, which led to communication with demons.
• She took other people's things, loans, things, and did not return them, which brought suffering to people.
• She boasted, put herself on display, showed everyone her goodness, thereby humiliating them.
• She violated traffic rules, thereby creating risky situations.
• She talked about her problems, cried, thereby feeling sorry for herself and justifying herself.

To help the penitent

1. Gluttony

Binge eating, drunkenness, non-keeping and allowing fasting, secret eating, delicacy, and generally violation of abstinence. Incorrect and excessive love of the flesh, its belly and rest, which constitutes self-love, which leads to failure to remain faithful to God, the Church, virtue and people.

2. Fornication

Prodigal lust, prodigal sensations and attitudes of the soul and heart. Acceptance of unclean thoughts, conversation with them, delight in them, permission for them, slowness in them. Prodigal dreams and captivities. Failure to preserve the senses, especially the sense of touch, is the insolence that destroys all virtues. Foul language and reading voluptuous books. Natural prodigal sins: fornication and adultery. Prodigal sins are unnatural.

3. Love of money

The love of money, in general the love of property, movable and immovable. The desire to get rich. Reflection on means of enrichment. Dreaming of wealth. Fears of old age, unexpected poverty, illness, exile. Stinginess. Selfishness. Disbelief in God, lack of trust in his providence. Addictions or painful excessive love for various perishable objects, depriving the soul of freedom. Passion for vain concerns. Loving gifts. Appropriation of someone else's. Likhva. Cruelty towards the poor brethren and all those in need. Theft. Robbery.

4. Anger

Hot temper, acceptance of angry thoughts: dreams of anger and revenge, indignation of the heart with rage, darkening of the mind with it: obscene shouting, argument, swearing, cruel and caustic words, stress, pushing, murder. Malice, hatred, enmity, revenge, slander, condemnation, indignation and insult to one’s neighbor.

5. Sadness

Sadness, melancholy, cutting off hope in God, doubt in God’s promises, ingratitude to God for everything that happens, cowardice, impatience, lack of self-reproach, grief towards one’s neighbor, grumbling, renunciation of the cross, attempt to descend from it.

6.Despondency

Laziness towards any good deed, especially prayer. Abandonment of church and cell rules. Abandoning unceasing prayer and soul-helping reading. Inattention and haste in prayer. Neglect. Irreverence. Idleness. Excessive calming by sleeping, lying down and all kinds of restlessness. Moving from place to place. Frequent exits from cells, walks and visits with friends. Celebration. Jokes. Blasphemers. Abandonment of bows and other physical feats. Forgetting your sins. Forgetting the commandments of Christ. Negligence. Captivity. Deprivation of the fear of God. Bitterness. Insensibility. Despair.

7. Vanity

The search for human glory. Boasting. Desire and search for earthly and vain honors. Love of beautiful clothes, carriages, servants and cell things. Attention to the beauty of your face, the pleasantness of your voice and other qualities of your body. A disposition towards the dying sciences and arts of this age, a desire to succeed in them in order to acquire temporary, earthly glory. Shame to confess your sins. Hiding them before people and the spiritual father. Craftiness. Self-justification. Disclaimer. Making up your mind. Hypocrisy. Lie. Flattery. People-pleasing. Envy. Humiliation of one's neighbor. Changeability of character. Indulgence. Unconscionability. The character and life are demonic.

8. Pride

Contempt for one's neighbor. Preferring yourself to everyone. Insolence. Darkness, dullness of the mind and heart. Nailing them to the earthly. Hula. Disbelief. False mind. Disobedience to the Law of God and the Church. Following your carnal will. Reading books that are heretical, depraved and vain. Disobedience to authorities. Caustic ridicule. Abandonment of Christ-like humility and silence. Loss of simplicity. Loss of love for God and neighbor. False philosophy. Heresy. Godlessness. Ignorance. Death of the soul.

Such are the ailments, such are the ulcers that constitute the great ulcer, the decay of the old Adam, which was formed from his fall. The holy prophet Isaiah speaks about this great ulcer: “from the feet even to the head there is no integrity in it: neither a scab, nor an ulcer, nor a burning wound, do not apply a plaster, below the oil, below the bandage” (Is. 1, 6). This means, according to the explanation of the Fathers, that the ulcer - sin - is not private, and not on just one member, but on the entire being: it has embraced the body, embraced the soul, taken possession of all the properties, all the powers of a person. God called this great plague death when, forbidding Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said: “If you take away one day from it, you will die” (Genesis 2:17). Immediately after eating the forbidden fruit, the forefathers felt eternal death; a carnal feeling appeared in their gaze; they saw that they were naked. The knowledge of the nakedness of the body reflected the nakedness of the soul, which had lost the beauty of innocence on which the Holy Spirit rested. There is a carnal sensation in the eyes, and in the soul there is shame, in which is the accumulation of all sinful and shameful sensations: pride, impurity, sadness, despondency, and despair. The Great Plague is spiritual death; the decay that occurred after the loss of the Divine likeness is incorrigible! The Apostle calls the great plague the law of sin, the body of death (Rom. 7:23-24), because the mortified mind and heart have completely turned to the earth, slavishly serve the corruptible desires of the flesh, have become darkened, burdened, and become flesh themselves. This flesh is no longer capable of communicating with God! (Genesis 6:3). This flesh is not capable of inheriting eternal, heavenly bliss! (1 Cor. 15:50). The great plague spread over the entire human race and became the unfortunate property of every person.

Considering my great ulcer, looking at my mortification, I am filled with bitter sadness! I'm perplexed, what should I do? Will I follow the example of the old Adam, who, seeing his nakedness, hastens to hide from God? Will I, like him, justify myself by placing the blame on the guilt of sin? It is in vain to hide from the All-Seeing One! It is in vain to justify yourself before the One who always wins, and “always judges” Him (Ps. 50:6).

Instead of fig leaves, I will clothe myself with tears of repentance; Instead of justification, I will bring sincere consciousness. Clothed in repentance and tears, I will appear before the face of my God. Is it in heaven? I have been expelled from there, and the cherub standing at the entrance will not let me in! By the very burden of my flesh I am nailed to the ground, my prison!

Sinful descendant of Adam, take heart! A light has shone in your prison: God has descended into the low country of your exile to lead you to your lost highland fatherland. You wanted to know good and evil: He leaves you this knowledge. You wanted to become like God, and from this you became like the devil in your soul, like cattle and beasts in your body; God, uniting you with Himself, makes you God by grace. He forgives your sins. This is not enough! He will remove the root of evil from your soul, the very infection of sin, hell, cast into your soul by the devil, and will give you medicine for the entire path of your earthly life for healing from sin, no matter how many times you become infected with it, due to your weakness. This healing is the confession of sins. Do you want to put off the old Adam, you, who through holy baptism have already been clothed in the New Adam, but through your own iniquities managed to revive old age and death in yourself, to choke life, to make it half-dead? Do you want, enslaved to sin, drawn to it by the violence of habit, to regain your freedom and righteousness? Immerse yourself in humility! Conquer vain shame, which teaches you to hypocritically and craftily pretend to be righteous and thereby preserve and strengthen spiritual death within yourself. Cast out sin, enter into hostility with sin by sincere confession of sin. This healing must precede all others; without it, healing through prayer, tears, fasting and all other means will be insufficient, unsatisfactory, fragile. Go, proud one, to your spiritual father, at his feet find the mercy of the Heavenly Father! One, one sincere and frequent confession can free one from sinful habits, make repentance fruitful, and correction lasting and true.

In a brief moment of tenderness, in which the eyes of the mind are opened for self-knowledge, which comes so rarely, I wrote this as an accusation to myself, as an admonition, reminder, instruction. And you, who with faith and love for Christ read these lines and, perhaps, find in them something useful for yourself, bring a heartfelt sigh and prayer for the soul that has suffered much from the waves of sin, that has often seen drowning and destruction before itself, that has found rest in one refuge: in confession of one’s sins.

Sins of children in confession

Children need to be taught to church from infancy. Children do not confess until they are seven years old. It is believed that the child is still sinless. And what he says and how he acts is only our merit and the example set. It is necessary to explain to the child what confession is and why it is needed. Children must understand that they tell about their bad deeds not to their uncle in a cassock, but to God himself, that the priest is the eyes and ears of the Lord.

His attendance at church and attitude towards it depends on the child’s mood. Do not insist under any circumstances if the child is not ready, it will only harm his fragile psyche.

Parents can briefly, but correctly, explain to their child what sin is and what they are. Every parent knows the characteristics of their child. For shy children, you can offer to write a note, this way you will help him concentrate. Explain to your child that there is no need to be afraid, that you will not know about his conversation with God. He must learn to trust both you and the priest.

Children's confession list of sins

Children's sins are not as bitter as adults' sins. They are more like misdemeanors. Therefore, a child’s confession differs from an adult’s. Approximate questions that the priest may ask:

• Does your child attend church and how often? What does he do if he comes to church? Is it interesting for him to be here?
• What prayers does he know?
• Does he have a cross?
• Is he telling the truth to his parents or is he lying?
• How many friends does he have, and what kind of relationships do they have? Does he show intolerance towards them? How do you treat babies and girls?
• What does he do and what are his interests? Does he show pride in his achievements?
• Does he have any favorite pets? How does he feel about them?
• Does he love his parents?

Teenage sins for confession

Older children are more susceptible to outside influences, such as friends, the street. They defend their point of view, their opinion. Unfortunately, in the rhythm of big cities, there is not always time to control where they are, who they are friends with, what they watch and what sites they visit! Therefore, it is important to teach a teenager to trust, if not you, then at least the priest. He definitely won’t give bad advice, and will definitely take the teenager’s side and suggest the right way out of the current situation. And he probably won’t criticize, like many parents.

It is during adolescence that children manage to get themselves into different situations and try to get out of them themselves, thinking that they are already adults and have enough experience. They are afraid to confess to their parents and consult with friends.

By attending church and trusting God through the priest, a teenager can avoid many difficult situations. Don’t ruin your life, don’t take the path of sin from such a young age.

What can a priest ask:

• What does he say if someone has a better one, for example a telephone?
• Did he steal? If so, what did you do next? Was he ashamed?
• How does he behave with children from poor families? Is there envy towards the children of rich parents?
• Doesn't he laugh at disabled people and sick children?
• How does he feel about cards, alcohol, drugs?
• Does he help elders, for example, with household chores?
• Is he deceiving his parents by saying that he is sick?
• How does he study? Is he skipping school?
• Does he have an addiction to TV, computer, telephone? And how does he understand this?
• How does he treat elders? Does he respect mom and dad?
• Shouldn't he say bad words?
• What does he think of girls when they wear short skirts? Girls, why do they need clothes that are short or too tight? Do they seduce boys?
• Is he doing something that makes you feel ashamed?
• Can he tell his parents about all his actions?
• Doesn't he watch adult films and related sites?
• Did you take someone else's things, money?
• Does he correct his committed actions?
• Does he repent of what he has already done?

Are all sins forgiven in confession?

There are no sinners whom the Savior could not ask. If a person repents in confession, he can receive forgiveness. The sin that the church cannot forgive is profanity against the Lord, the Church and its laws.

The Lord forgives all sins. Because of his love for us, he suffered and was crucified. He accepts all sinners, gives them a second chance, and believes that they can reform.

The question is whether a person who has sinned can forgive himself. And if he caused pain and suffering, even more so.

If you missed something or forgot to tell the priest during the service, then when confirmation is performed, your sins will be forgiven. Such services are held in the evening, on Saturdays or on holidays.