Bearing the Shame of Confession..

Bearing the Shame of Confession..

Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou 

Question: In taking the steps which you have presented to us, the most difficult thing, I think, is to overcome the fear of shame. This is what I try to do in my parish. People will not come to confession although their souls are burdened and things are driving them crazy, because they cannot overcome the shame to admit their sins. How do you lead people in this direction? 

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Confession - Confessor - Confessing

By Monk Moses of the Holy Mountain

Confession is a God-given commandment, and it is one of the Mysteries of our Church. Confession is not a formal, habitual ("to be on the safe side", or, "in view of upcoming feast-days"), forced and unprepared act, springing from an isolated duty or obligation and for psychological relief only. Confession should always be combined with repentance. A Holy Mountain Elder used to say: "Many confess, but few repent!" (Elder Aemilianos of the Simonopetra Monastery, Holy Mountain).

Repentance is a freely-willed, internally cultivated process of contrition and sorrow for having distanced ourselves from God through sin. True repentance has nothing to do with intolerable pain, excessive sorrow and relentless guilty feelings.

Monk Moses of the Holy Mountain

"Many Confess, But Few Repent"

What is repentance and confession?

Confession is a God-given commandment, and it is one of the Sacraments of our Church. Confession is not a formal, habitual (”to be on the safe side”, or, ”in view of upcoming feast-days”), forced and unprepared act, springing from an isolated duty or obligation and for psychological relief only. Confession should always be combined with repentance. A Holy Mountain Elder used to say: ”Many confess, but few repent!” (Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra Monastery, Mt. Athos)

Noetic Prayer Is Incompatible with Concealment of Thoughts

Elder Joseph the Hesychast. "Monastic Wisdom".

Heart prayer is not susceptible to delusion, unless one is passionate and already deluded. With heart prayer, as soon as the nous enters the heart, immediately its darkness is cleared and straightaway it becomes peaceful and calm. It rejoices, is sweetened, rests, and is cleansed. It rejoices and becomes like a small child free from passions. Bodily members which used to tempt him become peaceful and humble, just like the hand, the nose, and the rest of the members of the body.

Rufinus the Presbyter

Angel Did not Write down the Names of Those Who Took Communion with Unconfessed Sins

. "Living of Desert Fathers."

(translated from Russian)

We cannot pass over in silence the inhabitants of the desert adjoining the Porfenian sea and bordering the area of the city Diolk. There we saw one wonderful priest, named Piammon, who was notable for the absolute humility and meek indulgence. He was given the grace of revelation. Once bringing the Bloodless Sacrifice to the Lord, he saw an Angel of the Lord near the Altar: he was holding a book in which he wrote down the names of the monks who approached to the Holy Altar. The elder carefully noticed whose names the Angel missed. After the end of the liturgy, he summoned separately each one of the missed by the Angel and asked him whether he had some secretly committed sin in the conscience. At this confession, he revealed that each of them was guilty of a mortal sin ... Then he persuaded them to bring repentance, and casting himself down before the Lord along with them, prayed with tears day and night, as if he was involved in their sins. And he was in repentance and tears until he saw the Angel again, standing before the Altar and writing down the names of those who were taking the Holy Mysteries. Having written down the names of everyone, the Angel even started to call each one by name, inviting to come to the Altar for reconciliation with God. And the elder, seeing this, understood that their repentance was accepted and happily admitted everyone to the Altar.

How the Church Creates Spiritual Ties

The Church is the Body of Christ, and we are its members. The Apostle Paul teaches that each member must fulfill his duty for the good of all. This means that if we belong to the Church and follow Her statutes, we will continually strengthen our spiritual ties in Christ. This will come about through the Church's prayers, Mysteries, services and mutual fellowship.

Chief meaning in the Church is given to the Mysteries, and for this reason we will examine their effects.

Saint Barsanuphius of Optina

The Tactics of the Devil – 

Either Belittling or Increasing the Severity of a Sin

Do you know the Devil's tactics? You really need to know it. When the Devil knows that some man has a sin more or less serious, he tries to prevent him from repentance. To this end, he belittles the severity of the sin in any way, suggesting the following thoughts: "It does not matter, God will forgive this to you" - and so on. And the demon even tries to make a man forget about this sin. But when this man manages to confess the sin to his spiritual father in the confession, the Devil in every way increases the severity of sin, suggesting that this sin is so great that God will never forgive it. And he tries to bring a person into depression and despair. You see how cunning the enemy is. He knows that the sins are washed away in the confession, and therefore he does not admit people to confession, and if a man confesses, the enemy embarrasses him in every way.

ON FAITH AND CONFESSION

Saint Gregory Palamas

BELIEVING IN GOD IS DIFFERENT from believing God. To believe God is to regard His promises to us as sure and true, but to believe in Him is to have a right understanding of Him. Both are necessary for us and we must speak correctly in both respects, in such a way that people with correct understanding can be confident that we are faithful before the God to Whom our faith is directed and that, being faithful, we shall be justified by Him. “Abraham believed God”, it says, “and it was counted unto Him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:3, Gen. 15:6, cf. Gal. 3:6, Jas. 2:23). Why was Abraham counted as righteous because he believed? He had received a promise from God that in his seed, that is, in Isaac, all the tribes of Israel would be blessed (Gen. 17:16; cf. 26:3-5, 24). Then he was commanded by God to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 22:1), through whom alone the promise could be fulfilled (Gen. 17:21; 21:12), while he was still a child. “Without contradicting he, the father, was hastening on his way to become his son’s murderer while at the same time regarding the promise concerning his son as infallibly sure (Gen. 22:1-18).

Confession — not a novel but a battle

Protopriest Valerian Krechetov

”How should I tell the priest about my sins? Is a feeling of repentance indispensable during confession? After confession, should one expect a feeling of spiritual relief, or lightness of soul? These beginners' questions often remain troublesome even for very experienced parishioners. Many of us are too fainthearted to ”waste a priest's time” with such ”simple and insignificant” questions. In order to fill in this gap about confession, such ”simple and insignificant” questions were given by our NS correspondent Dmitry Rebrov to the highly-respected Protopriest Valerian Krechetov, the senior father-confessor[1] in the Moscow Diocese and head priest of the Church of the Protection in the village of Akulovo, Moscow Province.

The Need for Confession and the Eucharist

By Fr. Ilarion Argatu 

Those who have lived away from the Holy Church and have not confessed and taken the Eucharist for years on end will see that once they decide to come back to it, they have trouble standing in the church, because of the evil spirits who have now come to live inside them. Thus, during the Holy Liturgy, these people don’t feel well, they feel sick, they are weak to the point of fainting, some of them tremble, others fall to the ground and flap around, some bark, meow, bellow, or moo. The bad spirits that dwell in man do so.

On Watchfulness, Prayer and Confession

A Homily by Elder Ephraim of Philotheou

My beloved children,

Today we will say a few things about the great virtue of watchfulness.

As you know, watchfulness is a patristic teaching, it is the experience of the great neptic fathers of the Church and of the desert. The word “nepsis” comes from “nepho,” which means to be sleepless, to guard, to inspect, examine, watch over, keep under surveillance. All these things the fathers sum up in one continuous attention to the nous.

SHOULD I OR SHOULD I NOT REVEAL MY THOUGHTS TO ANOTHER?

Some of us, today, often neglect the significance of the sacrament; Repentance and Confession. Often we feel that we can repent, confess and heal ourselves, without having to reveal our weaknesses and passions to another. Some say ‘I confess my sins directly to Christ’. Yet the desert fathers teach us that no one can save themselves! Salvation comes from above, however, via our fellow humans. For this reason the desert fathers in their humility, confessed not only their sins to fellow elders, but even their thoughts. The following account about a young monk and Elder Zeno reveals the importance of confession.