To help the penitent

The beginning, foundation and peak of spiritual life in Orthodoxy is deep repentance. This is the same difficult and narrow path that the Savior commanded us to follow. On this path we encounter many obstacles, stumbling blocks, and perplexities. And so - the famous Russian saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), a deep and subtle expert on the human soul, who himself has gone through the sorrowful path of repentance and now prays to God for us sinners, teaches us invaluable lessons. Eight major passions with their divisions and industries 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 maintain fidelity to God, the Church, virtue and people. Prodigal kindling, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, there is no plaster to apply, 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” (Gen. 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! (Gen. 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 confession, sincere and frequent, can free one from sinful habits, make repentance fruitful, 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 a rebuke to myself, as an admonition, a reminder, an instruction. And you, who read these lines with faith and love about Christ 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, which has often seen drowning and destruction before itself, and has found rest in one refuge: in the confession of its falls. On the virtues opposite to the eight main sinful passions Refrain from excessive consumption of food and drink, especially from drinking excess wine. Keeping strict fasts established by the Church, curbing the flesh with moderate and constantly equal consumption of food, from which all passions in general begin to weaken, and especially self-love, which consists of a wordless love of the flesh, its life and peace. Avoidance of all kinds of fornication. Avoidance of voluptuous conversations and reading, from the pronunciation of voluptuous, nasty and ambiguous words. Storing the senses, especially sight and hearing, and even more so the sense of touch. Modesty. Rejection of the thoughts and dreams of prodigals. Silence. Silence. Ministry to the sick and disabled. Memories of death and hell. The beginning of chastity is a mind that does not waver from lustful thoughts and dreams; the perfection of chastity is purity that sees God. Satisfying yourself with one thing necessary. Hatred of luxury and bliss. Mercy for the poor. Loving the poverty of the gospel. Trust in God's providence. Following Christ's commandments. Calmness and freedom of spirit and carelessness. Softness of heart. Avoidance of angry thoughts and indignation of the heart with rage. Patience. Following Christ, who calls His disciple to the cross. Peace of the heart. Silence of the mind. Christian firmness and courage. Not feeling insulted. Kindness. A feeling of decline, common to all people, and of one’s own spiritual poverty. Lamentation about them. Cry of the mind. Painful contrition of the heart. The lightness of conscience, grace-filled consolation and joy that vegetates from them. Hope in God's mercy. Thanks be to God in sorrows, humbly enduring them from the sight of your many sins. Willingness to endure. Cleansing the mind. Relief from passions. Mortification of the world. The desire for prayer, solitude, obedience, humility, confession of one’s sins. Zeal for every good deed. Non-slothful correction of church and cell rules. Attention when praying. Careful observation of all your deeds, words, thoughts and feelings. Extreme self-distrust. Continuous stay in prayer and the Word of God. Awe. Constant vigilance over oneself. Keeping yourself from a lot of sleep and effeminacy, idle talk, jokes and sharp words. Love of night vigils, bows and other feats that bring cheerfulness to the soul. Rare, if possible, departure from cells. Remembrance of eternal blessings, desire and expectation of them. Fear of God. Feeling it during prayer. Fear that is born during especially pure prayer, when the presence and greatness of God is especially strongly felt, so as not to disappear and turn into nothing. Deep knowledge of one's insignificance. A change in view of neighbors, and they, without any coercion, seem to the humbled person to be superior to him in all respects. The manifestation of simplicity from living faith. Hatred of human praise. Constant blaming and beating yourself up. Rightness and directness. Impartiality. Deadness to everything. Tenderness. Knowledge of the mystery hidden in the Cross of Christ. The desire to crucify oneself to the world and passions, the desire for this crucifixion. Rejection and oblivion of flattering customs and words, modest due to compulsion or intent, or the skill of pretending. Perception of the riot of the gospel. Rejection of earthly wisdom as obscene before God (Luke 16:15). Leaving word justification. Silence before those who offend, studied in the Gospel. Putting aside all your own speculations and accepting the mind of the Gospel. The casting down of every thought placed upon the mind of Christ. Humility or spiritual reasoning. Conscious obedience to the Church in everything. Changing during prayer the fear of God into the love of God. Loyalty to the Lord, proven by the constant rejection of every sinful thought and feeling. The indescribable, sweet attraction of the whole person with love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the worshiped Holy Trinity. Seeing the image of God and Christ in others; resulting from this spiritual vision, the preference for oneself over all neighbors, their reverent veneration for the Lord. Love for neighbors is brotherly, pure, equal to everyone, joyful, impartial, flaming equally towards friends and enemies. Admiration for prayer and love of the mind, heart and whole body. Indescribable pleasure of the body with spiritual joy. Spiritual intoxication. Relaxation of bodily members with spiritual consolation 1. Inactivity of the bodily senses during prayer. Resolution from the muteness of the heart's tongue. Stopping prayer from spiritual sweetness. Silence of the mind. Enlightening the mind and heart. Prayer power that overcomes sin. Peace of Christ. Retreat of all passions. The absorption of all understandings into the superior mind of Christ. Theology. Knowledge of incorporeal beings. The weakness of sinful thoughts that cannot be imagined in the mind. Sweetness and abundant consolation in times of sorrow. Vision of human structures. The depth of humility and the most humiliating opinion of oneself... The end is endless! Add-ons from various sources Sins against the Lord God Belief in dreams, fortune telling, meetings and other signs. Doubts about faith. Laziness towards prayer and absent-mindedness during it. Not going to Church, long absence from confession and Holy Communion. Hypocrisy in Divine Worship. Blasphemy or just murmuring against God in the soul and in words. The intention to raise your hands. In vain. An unfulfilled promise to God. Blasphemy of the sacred. Anger with mention of evil spirits (trait). Eating or drinking on Sundays and holidays before the end of the Liturgy. Violation of fasts or inaccurate observance of them is a work issue on holidays. Lack of diligence in one's position or one's work in the dormitory. Disrespect for superiors or elders. Failure to fulfill a promise to a person. Non-payment of debts. Taking by force or secret appropriation of someone else's property. Stinginess in alms. Personal insult to one's neighbor. Gossip. Slander. Cursing others. Unnecessary suspicions. Failure to protect an innocent person or a just cause with loss for them. Murder. Disrespect for parents. Failure to look after children with Christian care. Anger is hostility in family or home life. Idle or bad thoughts in the soul. Wishing evil to one's neighbor. Falsity of words, speech. Irritability. Obstinacy or pride. Envy. Hard-heartedness. Sensitivity to upsets or insults. Vengeance. Love of money. Passion for pleasure. Foul language. The songs are seductive. Drunkenness and heavy eating. Fornication. Adultery. Unnatural fornication. Not fixing your life. Of all these sins against the Ten Commandments of God, some, reaching the highest stage of development in a person, passing into vicious states and hardening his heart with unrepentance, are recognized as especially serious and contrary to God. Mortal sins, that is, those that make a person guilty of eternal death or destruction: 1. Pride, despising everyone, demanding servility from others, ready to ascend to heaven and become like the Most High: in a word - pride to the point of self-adoration. 2. An insatiable soul, or Judas’s greed for money, combined for the most part with unrighteous acquisitions, not allowing a person even a minute to think about spiritual things. 3. Fornication, or the dissolute life of the prodigal son, who squandered all his father’s estate on such a life. 4. Envy, leading to every possible crime against one’s neighbor. 5. Gluttony or carnal knowledge, not knowing any fasting, combined with a passionate attachment to various amusements, following the example of the Evangelical rich man, who had fun all day long. 6. Uncompromising anger and resolving to terrible destruction, following the example of Herod, who in his anger beat the Bethlehem babies. 7. Laziness, or complete carelessness about the soul, carelessness about repentance until the last days of life, such as in the days of Noah. Sins of Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit Excessive trust in God or continuation of a gravely sinful life in the sole hope of God’s mercy. Despair or the feeling opposite to excessive trust in God in relation to God’s mercy, which denies the fatherly goodness in God and leads to thoughts of suicide. Stubborn unbelief, not convinced by any evidence of truth, even obvious miracles, rejecting the most established truth. Sins crying out to heaven for vengeance In general, intentional homicide (abortion), and especially parricide (fratricide and regicide). Unnecessary oppression of a poor, defenseless person, a defenseless widow and young orphans. Withholding from a wretched worker the wages he deserves. Taking away from a person in his extreme situation the last piece of bread or the last mite, which he obtained with sweat and blood, as well as the violent or secret appropriation of alms, food, warmth or clothing from prisoners in prison, which are determined by him, and generally oppressing them. Sadness and insults to parents to the point of daring beatings. I confess, in the name of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to you, honorable father, all my sins and all my evil deeds, which I have done in all the days of my life, which I have thought even to this day. Sinned: I did not keep the vows of Holy Baptism, I did not keep my monastic promise, but I lied about everything and created indecent things for myself before the Face of God. Forgive us, Merciful Lord for the people. Forgive me, honest father for the lonely. I sinned: before the Lord by lack of faith and slowness in thoughts, all from the enemy against faith and the Holy. Churches; ingratitude for all His great and unceasing benefits, calling on the name of God without need - in vain. Forgive me, honest father. Sinned: lack of love for the Lord, lower than fear, failure to fulfill the holy. His will and St. commandments, careless depiction of the sign of the cross, irreverent veneration of St. icons; did not wear a cross, was ashamed to be baptized and confess the Lord. He sinned: he did not preserve love for his neighbor, did not feed the hungry and thirsty, did not clothe the naked, did not visit the sick and prisoners in prison; the law of God and St. I did not learn the traditions of my fathers out of laziness and negligence. Sinned: by not fulfilling church and cell rules, by going to the church of God without diligence, with laziness and negligence; leaving morning, evening and other prayers; during a church service - he sinned by idle talk, laughter, dozing, inattention to reading and singing, absent-mindedness, leaving the church during the service and not going to the church of God due to laziness and negligence. I sinned: by daring to go to the church of God in uncleanness and touch all holy things. Sinned: by not honoring the feasts of God; violation of St. fasting and non-keeping of fast days - Wednesday and Friday; intemperance in food and drink, polyeating, secret eating, disordered eating, drunkenness, dissatisfaction with food and drink, clothing, parasitism (tune - for nothing, illegally; poison - eating, eating bread for nothing). One’s own will and reason through fulfillment, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and self-justification; undue reverence for parents, failure to raise children in the Orthodox faith, cursing one’s children and one’s neighbors. Sinned by: unbelief, superstition, doubt, despair, despondency, blasphemy, false deification, dancing, smoking, playing cards, fortune-telling, witchcraft, sorcery, gossip, commemorating the living for their repose, eating the blood of animals (Ecumenical Council, 67th rule. Acts of the Apostles, 15th chapter). Sinned: pride, conceit, arrogance, self-love, ambition, envy, conceit, suspicion, irritability. Sinned: by judging all people - living and dead, slander and anger, maliciousness, hatred, evil for evil, retribution, slander, reproach, deceit, laziness, deception, hypocrisy, gossip, disputes, stubbornness, unwillingness to give in and serve one's neighbor; sinned with gloating, malice, malice, insult, ridicule, reproach and man-pleasing. Sinned: incontinence of mental and physical feelings; spiritual and physical impurity, pleasure and procrastination in unclean thoughts, addiction, voluptuousness, immodest views of wives and young men; in a dream, prodigal desecration at night, intemperance in married life. I sinned: by impatience with illnesses and sorrows, by loving the comforts of this life, by captivity of the mind and hardening of the heart, by not forcing myself to do any good deed. I sinned: by inattention to the promptings of my conscience, negligence, laziness in reading the word of God and negligence in acquiring the Jesus Prayer. I sinned through covetousness, love of money, unrighteous acquisition, embezzlement, theft, stinginess, attachment to various kinds of things and people. I sinned: by condemning and disobeying the spiritual fathers, by grumbling and resenting them and by not confessing my sins to them through oblivion, negligence and false shame. Sinned: by lack of mercy, contempt and condemnation of the poor; going to the church of God without fear and reverence, deviating into heresy and sectarian teaching. Sinned: by laziness, relaxation, laziness, love of bodily rest, excessive sleeping, voluptuous dreams, biased views, shameless body movements, touching, fornication, adultery, corruption, masturbation, unmarried marriages, those who performed abortions on themselves or others, or persuaded someone to this great sin, gravely sinned - infanticide. He spent his time in empty and idle pursuits, in empty conversations, jokes, laughter and other shameful sins. Sinned by: despondency, cowardice, impatience, grumbling, despair of salvation, lack of hope in God's mercy, insensibility, ignorance, arrogance, shamelessness. Sinned by: slandering one's neighbor, anger, insult, irritation and ridicule, non-reconciliation, enmity and hatred, dissent, spying on other people's sins and eavesdropping on other people's conversations. I sinned: by coldness and insensitivity in confession, belittling sins, blaming others rather than condemning myself. Sinned: against the Life-giving and Holy Mysteries of Christ, approaching Them without proper preparation, without contrition and fear of God. I sinned: in word, in thought and with all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - willfully or involuntarily, knowledge or ignorance, in reason and foolishness, and it is not possible to list all my sins according to their multitude. But in all of these, as well as in those unspeakable through oblivion, I repent and regret, and henceforth, with the help of God, I promise to take care. You, honest father, forgive me and release me from all of this and pray for me, a sinner, and on that day of judgment testify before God about the sins I have confessed. Amen. Sins confessed and resolved earlier should not be repeated in confession, for they, as the Holy Church teaches, have already been forgiven, but if we repeated them again, then we need to repent of them again. We must repent of those sins that were forgotten, but are now remembered. Consciousness of one's sins. Condemning yourself in them. Self-accusation before the confessor. Repentance is not only in word, but also in deed. Repentance is correction - new life. Contrition and tears. Belief in the forgiveness of sins. Hate past sins. The fight against sin attracts the grace of God. Sins shorten our lives... Better is war than peace, which removes us from God About knowing God: no matter how much we study, it is still impossible to know the Lord if we do not live according to His commandments, for the Lord is known not by science, but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and scientists have come to believe that God exists, but they have not known God. And we, monks, study the law of the Lord day and night, but not everyone has come to know God, even though they believe. It is one thing to believe that God exists, and another thing to know God (Elder Silouan). About prayer: if our prayers are not immediately heard, it means that the Lord does not want what we want to happen to us, but what He wants. In this case, He desires and prepares for us something greater and better than what we ask of Him in prayer. Therefore, every prayer must be ended with contrition: Thy will be done. On the importance of reading: The Word of God is food for the soul and body. It is the duty of a Christian every day to not go to bed unless I read: 1. One chapter of the Gospel of Matthew; 2. Two chapters of the Epistles, beginning with the Acts of the Apostles and ending with the Revelation of St. John the Evangelist; 3. And although several psalms from the Psalter. And this is how the entire New Testament will be gradually read, which is what is needed. How can you live the Gospel without reading it? When we pray, we talk with God, and when we read the Gospel, the Lord talks with us, revealing His will, how to live and be saved. So, make three bookmarks and read in a row, and when you read everything, start again, and so on for the rest of your life. Prayer before the beginning of any work: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Only Begotten, Thy Father without beginning, Thou hast declared with Thy most pure lips: that without Me you cannot do anything. My Lord, Lord, with faith in my soul and heart spoken by You, I fall down in Your goodness: help me a sinner to accomplish this work, which I have begun, in You, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, through the prayers of the Mother of God and all Your saints. Amen. At the end of the work: You are the fulfillment of all good things, my Christ, fill my soul with joy and gladness and save me, for I alone am merciful, Lord, glory to you. "It's worthy to eat." Leaving the house: Before crossing the threshold, say the words: “I deny you, Satan, your pride and service to you, and I unite with you, Christ, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen". And protect yourself with the sign of the cross. And never go out without this saying. Then not only the evil person you meet, but also the devil himself will not be able to harm you, seeing you with this weapon. Prayer for illness, sorrow: Every day you need to read one chapter of the Gospel in a row, before and after the chapter this prayer: “Save, Lord, and have mercy on Your servant (name) in the words of the Divine Gospel, which are about the salvation of Your servant. The thorns of all his sins have fallen, Lord, and may Thy grace dwell in him, scorching, cleansing the whole person in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen". When there are unclean thoughts and a desire to sin, or despondency, despair, melancholy, or another temptation, then you need to say: “Enemy, your proposal is on your head, Mother of God, help me” and read the prayer many times: “Virgin Mother of God, Hail, Gracious Mary, the Lord is with You, Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb, for You gave birth to the Savior of our souls.” The Lord will certainly give peace to the soul for the sake of the prayers of the Mother of God. The cross breaks all the networks of the enemy that surround us. You need to baptize with a cross to the East, West, South and North in the morning and evening and in all difficult circumstances of life (when you are angry, scared, argue with someone, have a bad dream, etc.) while reading this prayer: “The Cross of Christ for the whole world, sanctified by the grace and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, was given to us as a weapon against all our enemies, visible and invisible, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen". And also sprinkle holy water on all four sides and say: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, by sprinkling this sacred water, may all evil, demonic action be put to flight. Amen". In the morning, drink holy water on an empty stomach, and also for every need, even if you have eaten (when you suddenly get sick, angry, scared, have a bad dream, etc.) Prayers of thanksgiving: Enlighten my eyes, O Christ my God, who showed me Your beautiful light. My Lord, Lord, add one year to another for me, so that from now on, having repented of other sins, I will correct my life. Amen. This prayer was read by Vladimir Monomakh at sunrise, which never found him in bed. Glory to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, my Savior, my Hope, my Hope, my Lord, who showed me the light, glory to Thee. Blessed be the day and hour in the forge, my Lord Jesus Christ was born for me, endured crucifixion and suffered death. Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, at the hour of my death, accept the spirit of Your servant on your journey, through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and all Your saints. Amen. This prayer was read by Saint Joasaph of Belgorod for every hour. Master, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Creator of heaven and earth, Savior of the world, Hope of all the ends of the earth and those who are in the sea far away, accept the present prayer of my indecent servant, and fulfill all my good desires in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Three times. Prayer spoken before St. Communion: I believe, Lord, and confess that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. I also believe that this very thing is Your Most Pure Body, and this very thing is Your Precious Blood. I pray to You: have mercy on me, and forgive me my sins, voluntary and involuntary, in word, in deed, in knowledge and ignorance; and make me worthy to partake without condemnation of Your Most Pure Mysteries, for the remission of sins and into Eternal Life. Thy Mystical Supper this day, O Son of God, accept me as a partaker; I will not tell your enemies the secret, nor give you a kiss like Judas, but like a thief I will confess to you: remember me, O Lord, in your kingdom. May the communion of Your Holy Mysteries be not for judgment or condemnation for me, Lord, but for the healing of soul and body. Amen. St. Isaac of Syria. Word 44 You might be interested in: