Общая исповедь

BEFORE introducing the people to St. Tain o. John went to the pulpit in front of the altar and here he made the famous “general confession.” This is how pilgrims who visited Kronstadt describe it. Before us was a sea of ​​heads, up to five thousand people. Here one could see an important gentleman, who had abandoned and forgotten his prim arrogance, and next to him huddled a sick old woman, whispering a prayer and completely imbued with faith in the gracious power of Fr. John. There, standing sadly, thoughtfully, pressed against the wall, was a pale, thin woman in a torn coat... It is impossible to describe all the personalities of this large crowd, but for the most part it consisted of people who were physically ill or suffering mentally, who had flown here with a spiritual thirst for the source of goodness, goodness and mercy, which, by the will of the Lord, flows brightly among the dark wilds of our many-sinful and many-passionate world. Soon Fr. came out to the pulpit. John with a book in his hands and, turning to a crowd of thousands of people, in a sonorous, firm voice, invited the upcoming sinners and sinners to heartfelt, sincere and unfeigned repentance. The crowd rallied even closer, moved even closer to the pulpit, like a flock of lost sheep, aware of their sinfulness before God, their spiritual uncleanness, and now, daring to pray to the Lord for mercy and forgiveness, they sought intercession and protection from their good shepherd. The clear, soul-penetrating voice of Fr. John sounded again over the sea of ​​human heads. His speech began, fragmentary, sonorous, full of amazing power, penetrating deep into your soul, scorching your sinful body. “Sinners and sinners like me! You came to this church to bring repentance for your sins to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, and then proceed to the Holy Spirit. Mysteries... Are you prepared to receive such a great Sacrament? Do you know that I bear a great answer before the throne of the Most High if you approach without preparing. Know that you are not repenting to me, but to the Lord Himself, Who is invisibly present here, whose Body and Blood are currently on the altar.”... Having said a few more heartfelt words, Fr. John continued: - Listen... I will read prayers of repentance. And he immediately began to read them, turning his face to the people. “God our Savior,” Fr. reads enthusiastically, loudly and touchingly. John, forgive these Your servants.” He reads the words “Yours these” in a drawn-out manner, breaking them down into syllables. At the same time, with his open right hand he passes over the heads of those standing and praying below, as if separately pointing each one to the merciful Judge. Then everyone’s heart involuntarily trembled. Everyone felt that it was he, and not anyone else, who now had to give an account to God for the time he had lived, for all his deeds. Now he cannot hide behind others from this Judge. The prayer continues. The shepherd's voice rises and rises. Sometimes, during reading, he even more expressively, like a prophet of a formidable and righteous Judge, points his finger to the crowd, to one side or another of the church... All these and similar gestures are very touching, extremely clarify the meaning of what is being read and make a strong impression on the masses. After reading the first prayer of repentance, Fr. John declares that it needs to be “interpreted” and continues his teaching. He speaks, of course, without a notebook. He speaks simply, without any oratorical techniques. His word was distinguished by inner strength and authority (1 Cor. 2:4, 4:20). He spoke with deep faith in every word, ready to even suffer for every word, because he spoke everything from the heart, he said what he himself knew well from his personal experience. In this prayer to God the Father, the First Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the All-Good, All-Holy, Omnipresent, All-Wise, All-Creator, Almighty, All-Ruling, Terrible of every creature, St. The church prays to the Lord that He would grant mercy to sinners and sinners, forgive them their sins, all iniquities committed either frivolously or thoughtlessly, voluntarily or involuntarily, forgive and have mercy, as He once had mercy on the prophet and King David, who sinned gravely before God. Walking one day on the terrace of his palace, he saw a very beautiful woman, a young Jewish woman, bathing, was captivated by her beauty and wished to make her his wife. But this Jewish woman was married. To fulfill his sinful desire, David sent her husband to war and ordered him to be placed in a dangerous place, where he was struck down by the enemy’s arrows. Thus, David achieved his criminal goal and, intoxicated with sinful passion, did not want to think about what a grave sin he had committed before God. But the Lord God had mercy on the sinner and sent the prophet Nathan to him for admonition and instruction. The prophet denounced the king for his lawlessness and urged him to repent. Then the king realized his grave sin and was horrified by it. Having sprinkled ashes on his head as a sign of humility, he began to cry bitterly and sincerely, fervently repent before the Lord. And the Lord heard his sorrowful prayer and forgave his sin. The Holy Spirit, who left him after his sin, again entered into him after his repentance and did not leave him until the end of his days. King David expressed his sincere and heartfelt contrition for his sins in psalms in which he thanked and glorified God. He left behind him the book of Psalms, most commonly used in the Orthodox Church. His 50th Psalm: “Have mercy on me, O God,” is a wonderful and irreplaceable example of heartfelt repentance. Brethren, King David was a pious man, meek, kind, wise, who had the gift of prophecy, he was a good man, but he sinned, did not take care of himself, and stole his only wife! King, Prophet, St. husband - and fell so deeply! Oh, how easy it is for a man to sin. You need to be vigilant towards your soul, you need to always look after yourself, curb your feelings. We need to watch ourselves every day and hour, every minute and anticipate our sinful desires in advance and protect ourselves from temptations, for the devil, like a roaring lion, runs after us and looks for someone to devour. To do this, you need to think about and weigh your every step and every action. Another king, Manasseh, fell away from God and fell into idolatry, practiced sorcery, summoning spirits, was a spiritualist according to the present day, and taught his children the same. Ungrateful, proud, he despised the people who loved God, and caressed and brought closer those who were selfish and similar to themselves. With his iniquities he angered God; The Lord's patience is exhausted. During the war between the Jews and the Assyrians, Manasseh was taken captive, his hands and feet were chained in stocks, and a ring was put through his nose. In such a shameful form, like a beast, he was led through Babylon and thrown into a stinking dungeon, where he was kept for three months. Brothers, a person cannot live without punishments, these true visits of God, for which we should always thank God. Sometimes only punishment can sober a person, enlighten his spiritual eye, show him his real, and not his own imagined, position. And Manasseh, only while in grave captivity, came to his senses, recognized his sins before the Lord and realized his insignificance and powerlessness. Now he realized that he was a worm, that he had nothing to be proud of, because everyone is equal before the Lord. God created everyone equally, created from one dust and will turn everyone into dust. And Manasseh began to pray earnestly, repent, and cry day and night over his errors. The Lord heard his prayers and forgave him. King Manasseh composed a prayer of repentance, which is now read during Great Lent at Compline. In the person of these two kings, David and Manasseh, who sinned grievously, St. The church presents to us, brothers, examples of sincere and deep-hearted repentance. The Lord God is the terrible Judge of the whole earth. He will not look at anyone's face: man or woman, boy or girl, king or commoner, gentleman or peasant, general or soldier, rich or poor. Everyone is equal before Him: He looks at hearts, looks at what a person’s hope is, what his faith is, what his deeds are. The Lord will demand more from high-ranking, educated people than from common people when they sin, get drunk or commit adultery. Brothers, oh how powerful sin is! Sins are thieves, robbers who constantly rob us. They usually dress themselves in noble, tempting clothes and make us poor before God and even His enemies. Who are we without sins? Who isn't proud? Who isn't ambitious? Who hasn't offended each other? Who has not lied to his neighbor? Some special mood, invisibly descending from somewhere into the souls of the listeners, began to take possession of the crowd. At first only light sighs were heard here and there; here and there one could observe a tear slowly rolling down the face of the touched listener. But the further time passed, the more deep sighs could be heard and tears could be seen. And o. John, seeing them, reminded them most of all in his teaching. And I began to feel something unusual in myself. From somewhere, from some unknown depth of my soul, something began to rise within me, enveloping my entire being. Behind me and opposite me, on the right choir, stood hitherto apparently indifferent, more curious faces. But here they are kneeling and shedding tears. And my callous, hardened heart melted. A tear rolled down from my eyes, a pure, repentant tear, a holy tear, a gracious tear, a life-giving tear, a saving tear. And what was going on among the people at that time! They shouted from all sides: - Father, forgive me, father, have mercy; we are all sinners; pray, pray for us. The sea was raging. It became so noisy that nothing more could be heard from Fr. John. “Hush, hush, listen,” dear Father Fr. shouted loudly. John, imperiously calling everyone to silence with his hand. For a few moments this great noise fell silent, but then it sounded again with renewed vigor, starting first somewhere in one place, and then gradually covering all those praying. Just as strong thunder rolls across the vast sky, so people’s cries for prayer, forgiveness and pardon rolled from one end to another across the huge church. With considerable difficulty it was necessary to establish silence in the church. Father John begins to read further the second prayer before repentance. He also reads it with deep feeling and expressiveness. After reading the prayer, he again began to “interpret” it. In this prayer that I just said, St. The Church prays to the Chief Shepherd that He, the Most Merciful, will forgive our untruths, our sins, have mercy, deliver us from eternal torment, forgive our lawless intentions, our thoughts and lawless actions. The Holy Church prays to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world and washed away the impurity of our souls with His most pure Blood, to have mercy on us, like two gospel debtors who themselves could not pay a large debt to the creditors, like the harlot who washed the feet of Christ with her tears and wiped them with her hair. The Lord God saw her true repentance, her desire to atone for her sins and, having granted her forgiveness, released her in peace. In the same way, all those who sincerely repent of their sins today will receive forgiveness and deliverance from eternal torment. We are given a lot of time in life to come to our senses, so that we can grieve, grieve, and cry for our souls. But people are lazy, they don’t want to take care of their souls, they don’t want to fight the sins that, like thieves and robbers, break into their souls, they don’t want to fight them, drive them away. The Lord God does everything for those who love Him, but those who boldly push away the right hand of God do not wish good for themselves and go to their own destruction. And without God we cannot exist for even one second: we owe everything to Christ for our life, our breath, the air we breathe, the light of the sun, our food, our drink. We owe Him endlessly; we are His unpaid debtors. We are called to be a “holy nation,” a “people of renewal,” a “royal priesthood.” After all, we are told: “Be holy, as I am holy.” At this, the same uproar arose among the people again. “Father, father,” they shouted from everywhere, “forgive me, pray.” And again it was impossible to make out anything. “Hush, hush, listen, hush,” said Fr. John. Little by little, silence reigns in the church again, interrupted from time to time only by deep sighs and a tear silently rolling down the face of the listener. “The Lord God, terrible and righteous Judge,” continues Fr. John his interrupted speech. He did not have mercy on the fallen angels who were proud against God Himself, but condemned them to eternal torment. We are sinners, we sin every minute, and with our sins we anger the Lord. Why do we need such leniency? God the Father sent His beloved Son into the world, Who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, suffered for the sins of people, and lifted from people the curse that had weighed on them since the fall of the first people. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His suffering on the cross, delivered us from eternal torment. Only the Son of God could do this, not man. God the Father gave all the power of judgment over people to Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ gave power to the apostles, and they to the bishops and priests, including me, the sinful priest John, to allow those who repent, to forgive or not forgive their sins, judging by how people repent. If a person sincerely repents, with contrition of heart, then the priest absolves him of his sins. On the contrary, if a person does not repent sincerely, then the priest does not absolve him of his sins so that he comes to his senses. So, in order to receive forgiveness of sins, you must repent sincerely, ardently, and heartily. What kind of repentance do we have? We are all just plucking the tips and stems of sins. No, the roots, the roots of sins need to be torn out... What is repentance? Repentance is a gift of God, bestowed by God for the merits of His beloved Son, who fulfilled all the righteousness of God. Repentance is a gift given for self-condemnation, self-accusation, self-reproach. Repentance is a firm and unwavering intention to leave one’s former sinful life, to correct oneself, to be renewed, to love the Lord with all one’s soul, to be reconciled with God, with one’s conscience. Repentance is firm hope, hope that the merciful Lord will forgive all our sins. He who does not repent becomes an enemy of the church. Just as rotten twigs or branches fall away from a tree, so unrepentant sinners fall away from the Head of the Church of Christ. Christ Himself is the Vine, and we are branches feeding on life, the juices of this vine. Whoever does not feed on the juices of this wondrous vine will certainly die. The schismatics perish in error, the Pashkovites too, and the Tolstoyans also perish. They are all unrepentant sinners. They themselves perish and drag others to destruction. Brothers and sisters, do you repent? Do you want to improve your life? Are you aware of your sins? Are you too lazy to pray to God? Did you drink, commit adultery, deceive, break oaths, blaspheme, envy, cheat, be malicious, slander, steal? Yes, we have many, many sins, brothers and sisters, it’s impossible to count them all... The word is over. Addressing the people, Fr. John now speaks authoritatively and loudly: - Repent, repent of what you have sinned! What happened in those minutes is impossible to convey. The tension reached the highest degree and equally captured the entire mass. These were no longer quiet and calm people, but a raging sea. The flames of fire that engulfed the inside of the building make themselves felt first with insignificant tongues of fire escaping from inside here and there, and with thick clouds of smoke. Then, having made its way out, it rises up with terrible force and almost instantly spreads throughout the entire building, quickly flying to neighboring houses. At these moments, a person can only silently almost look at what is happening in front of him. The crowd looked something similar at the moment. There was a terrible, unimaginable noise. Some cried, some sobbed loudly, some fell to the floor, some stood in silent stupor. Many confessed their sins out loud in front of everyone, not at all embarrassed by the fact that everyone heard them: “We are not praying, we are swearing, we are angry, angry, angry, etc. could be heard from all parts of the church. It was touching to look at Fr. John. He stood there, deeply moved and shocked by everything. His lips whispered a prayer, his gaze was turned to the sky. He stood silently, with his arms crossed on his chest, standing as a mediator between the heavenly Judge and repentant sinners, as an earthly judge of human consciences. Large tears rolled down his face. He covered his face with his hands, but even from under them large tears dripped onto the cold church floor. What was he crying about? Who can depict his state of mind at these moments? Father John wept, uniting his tears with the tears of the people, like a true shepherd of the flock of Christ, he grieved and rejoiced in his soul for his flock. And these lost, sinful sheep, seeing tears on the face of their beloved shepherd and understanding the state of his soul in these moments, were ashamed even more of themselves and burst into even greater sobs, cries, groans, and a pure river of tears of repentance flowed even more abundantly to the throne of God, washing polluted souls in their streams. The huge cathedral was filled with groans, screams and sobs; it seemed that the whole church was shaking from the amazing screams of the people. “Repent, repent,” Fr. repeated from time to time. John. Sometimes he turned his gaze to any one part of the church, and everyone there felt his gaze on them. Immediately, voices began to be heard louder in this place, standing out noticeably in the general chorus of voices and infecting the crowd even more. Then again one tone reigned everywhere, only to intensify again where Fr. John. How powerfully he controlled this entire mass of people! Tell about. John to the people, so that he would follow him in these moments, and he would follow his shepherd everywhere... The penitents were in this state for at least five minutes. Наконец, о. John wiped away his tears with a handkerchief and crossed himself as a sign of gratitude for the people’s tears of repentance. “Hush, hush, brothers,” his voice is heard. It will not be long before the desired silence reigns in the church. But little by little everything becomes silent. Only sighs can be heard, and tears stream down the cheeks of those praying here and there. “Listen,” Fr. says drawlingly. John. God gave me, like all priests, the power to bind and absolve a person’s sins... Listen, I’ll read the prayer of permission. Bow your heads: I will cover you with the stole, bless you, and you will receive forgiveness of sins from the Lord. Thousands of heads humbly bow and a prayer of permission is read. Takes o. John carries the end of his stole through the air in all four directions and blesses the people. What a solemn and mysterious moment! Heaven and earth are reconciled; sinners with the Sinless One. After the prayer of permission, everyone felt especially at ease. It was as if a huge burden had been lifted from everyone’s chest. Joyful, freed from the heavy burden of sin, the people breathed freely and with tears of gratitude looked at the meek, shining with spiritual triumph face of their good “father” shepherd, who so beneficently led his sheep from the dark wilds of sin onto the bright path of virtue, to the radiant house of the Heavenly Father. People who deserve all attention and trust told us something very interesting regarding the general confession of Fr. John. At a time when the people bring sincere and deep repentance for their sins, some of the pilgrims see the Savior on the salt, blessing the people and absolving them from all sins. This was recently reported even in the press. This is the religious upsurge of the spirit of the people at these moments, this is the extent of their faith. This was followed by the removal of the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ. After everyone loudly read the prayer: “I believe, Lord, and I confess,” the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ began, graciously accepted by purified and reconciled souls with God. What was going on around you at this time? The people rushed in a wave to St. Bowl. How much awe, delight, and quiet joy could be seen and read on everyone’s faces. This is what I saw and heard. - Lord, grant me the honor to receive Holy Communion. Tain. - Dear, golden priest, sacraments. - Father, darling, sacraments. - Father, communion. I'm sick. Kidneys hurt. I'm dying. - Father, I’m not well either, take communion. - Father, sacraments; I didn’t take communion for two weeks. Here is an old woman kneeling to the side, not far from Fr. John, and asks in an unusually plaintive old woman’s voice, barely uttering the words with her toothless mouth: She seemed to freeze, frozen in this position. And it seems that no one will hear her in this almost universal confusion and noise. But now she is heard. “Oh my God, the sacraments,” I suddenly hear not far from me. “I’m not God, but a simple person,” Fr. answers calmly, without any excitement or embarrassment, but firmly and decisively. John. The entire surrounding atmosphere was filled with affectionate words addressed to Fr. John. It was as if she was entirely woven from these words alone. They bring the children to receive communion. There is suddenly a noise somewhere in the distance. It is the townspeople who want to get through all sorts of bars and through the ranks of the police in order to receive communion. Some, more daring and brave, having pushed aside the simple, timid village peasants, have already managed to make their way to the very feet of Fr. John. But, alas, the priest not only did not give them communion, but also threatened that in case of new noise on their part, he would excommunicate them even from St. communion for three months. “Kiss the Cup, thank God,” Fr. said to many. John giving them communion. Thank God! And how often, indeed, do we forget to do this... How many tears I saw standing next to Fr. John. For some, tears flowed instantly when they approached St. Bowl. As if, what source was immediately revealed to them. Peaceful, everyone left the Chalice. The communion lasted at least two hours. After the prayer of thanks, Fr. John came out to the pulpit from St. cross and joyfully congratulated all the communicants on their acceptance of St. Tain. And it was necessary to see how enthusiastically this crowd of people, beaming with spiritual joy, thanked the “dear father”, who, before confession and acceptance of St. The Mysteries were like wandering sheep, and now they have returned to the shepherd and guardian of our souls. (1 Peter 2:35).