How to prepare for fasting, confession, and communion for children and adolescents

Contents Why we believe in God Where did sin come from Why did Jesus Christ come to people Why was the Church established What are the sacraments Why were fasts established What is the meaning of confession How to confess How to prepare for confession? About Holy Communion How to preserve the good fruits of confession and Holy Communion. The first lessons of Orthodox asceticism Look around you, look at the world around you! Is it really possible to assume that it arose by itself, by accident? Or that there is no intelligent force that would preserve it and control it? Look into the heavens in the dead of night. The entire dark blue vault of heaven is strewn with magnificent stars! All these beautiful celestial bodies are huge bodies, surpassing in size not only the earth, but often the sun itself: an immense multitude of them is scattered in the heavenly space, and they all move harmoniously and in harmony along their assigned paths around each other. Where did they come from, all these countless, immense luminaries, how are they supported in space in their harmonious, consonant movement? By yourself? By chance? Of course not! Our minds cannot allow this! Throw a few hundred printed letters on the table - will they randomly form a reasonable phrase? In the same way, without Intelligent Power, rational, harmonious, consistent movement of the heavenly bodies is impossible. Heaven itself tells us about God. All the nature around us on earth tells us about God, the wonderful beauty of fields and forests, seas and mountains, the beauty of birds, animals and insects! Only we, the blind, do not see all this and do not notice God in His creations. In the wonderful book of Metropolitan Gregory “The Day of Holy Life” the author writes: “Who gave us life? Lord! From Him we received a rational soul, capable of reasoning and knowing, from Him we received a heart capable of loving... We are surrounded by the air that we breathe and without which we cannot live. We are supplied with water everywhere, which is as necessary to us as air. We live on earth, which provides us with all the food necessary to support and preserve our life. We are illuminated by light, without which we could not obtain anything for ourselves. We have fire with which we can and do warm ourselves during cold weather and through which we prepare the food we need. And all this is a gift from God. We have father, mother, brothers, sisters, friends; how much joy, help and consolation they bring us! But we would not have any of them if the Lord did not want to give them to us. How can we not love the Lord God with all the fullness of our love?” As we grow, we become familiar with prayers. Home prayer is joined by church prayer, in which we begin to participate by visiting the holy church. And the church service, especially Lenten and Easter, leaves a deep, joyful and bright impression in our soul, often for a lifetime This is how Elder Zosima talks about his childhood religious experiences in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov: “Mother took me to the Church of the Lord, during Holy Week, on Monday for mass. The day was clear, and, remembering now, I seem to see again how incense rose from the censer and quietly ascended, and from above, in the dome, through the narrow window, God’s rays poured down on us into the church, and rising to them in waves, the incense seemed to melt. I looked with emotion, and for the first time as a child (the child was then eight years old - author) I accepted into my soul the first seed of the Word of God meaningfully. A youth came out to the middle of the church with a large book, so large that it seemed to me then that he was even carrying it with difficulty, and laid it on the lectern, opened it and began to read, and suddenly I understood something for the first time, for the first time in my life I understood that they were reading in the church of God. There was a man on the land of Uz, truthful and pious, and he had so much wealth, so many camels, so many donkeys and sheep, and his children were having fun, and he loved them very much and prayed to God for them: maybe they sinned while having fun. And so the devil ascends to God and tells the Lord that he has passed through all the earth and under the earth. “Have you seen my servant Job?” - asks God. And God boasted to the devil, pointing to His great servant. And the devil grinned at the words of God. “Deliver him to me and you will see that Your servant will complain and curse Your name.” And God betrayed his righteous man, so beloved by him, to the devil, and the devil struck his children and his cattle and scattered all his wealth, all suddenly, as if by God’s thunder; and Job tore his clothes and threw himself on the ground and cried out: “God gave, God has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord from now on and forever.” And now - all my infancy seems to rise again before me, and I breathe now, as I breathed then, with my eight-year-old child's chest and I feel, as then, surprise, confusion and joy. And camels, as then, occupied my imagination, and Satan, who speaks to God like this, and God, who gave his righteous man to destruction, and the righteous man exclaiming: “Blessed be Thy name, despite the fact that you execute me!” - and then quiet and sweet singing in the church: “May my prayer be corrected!” and again incense from the priest’s censer and kneeling prayer! Since then, even yesterday, I picked it up, this holy story, and I can’t read it without tears.” Knowing and loving God, we must remember that God has shown us what we should be and how we should live. But how often do we live completely differently from what the Lord requires of us. We realize that this is not good, but there is some force within us that pushes us away from God and draws us to break His commandments. This power is sin. It’s as if two beings are fighting in our soul: one is good, and the other is evil. The good being says there: “Remember God, love God, fulfill His commandments, pray, go to church, be kind, meek, pure, truthful, be inspired by foul language, and even more so by bad deeds, which are shameful to even mention.” And the evil creature tells us: “Forget about God, you want to go to church, it’s boring there, better mind your own business, live for your own pleasure.” When you obey the first voice and struggle with the second, then although it is sometimes difficult, this makes our soul joyful and calm, and when we are carried away by the suggestions of the second voice, then although there is some temporary pleasure, a bitter feeling, dissatisfaction with ourselves and sadness appear in our soul. Where do these sinful, bad attractions come from in us? Did God really make us that bad? No, God created people good and wanted people to remain good, but God did not want to force people to be good. Therefore, He gave them: free will, so that they freely, voluntarily choose good, because only good that is done voluntarily is real good. Man, created good and free, used his freedom for evil. From here sin arose, which took deep roots, first in the first people, and then in all their descendants. In order to teach people to obey God, God gave people the simplest and easiest commandment, but they did not want to obey Him even in this small matter. From small things you need to accustom yourself to obey God. The Savior said: “He who is faithful in a little is also faithful in much, and he who is unfaithful in a little is also unfaithful in much” (Luke 16:10). A small violation of our duty, a small omission in something good cannot be considered unimportant! It's the small things that make a difference! In small matters, you need to dominate yourself in order to gradually get used to commanding yourself in important matters. It is not a difficult task, for example, to listen attentively or read the morning or evening prayer, it is not a difficult task to read half a page from the Gospel with attention every day, it is not a difficult task to correctly put on the sign of the cross, but all this cultivates in us decency, efficiency, the habit of doing every task conscientiously, and at the same time, strength of character is cultivated, not to mention those grace-filled fruits in our soul, the fruits of faith and morality that are created by reverent prayer and constant reading of the word of God. So, the beginning of sin comes to us from our first parents, or, better said, from the tempter who seduced them - the devil. But, constantly being passed on from generation to generation, sin took possession of all people and subjugated everyone to itself. And this sin lives in our souls, and it prevents us from living a real, good life, and it separates us and distances us from God, with whom, as with the pure, there cannot be an unclean thing in fellowship! How to overcome this sin in yourself? How to get rid of it? How to instill goodness and holiness in yourself instead of sin? God, in His mercy, helped people in this by sending His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, to earth. Why did Jesus Christ come to people For five and a half thousand years, humanity waited for the Savior promised by God, who was supposed to destroy the power of the devil and the power of sin over PEOPLE. During this long time, people managed to feel the full weight of sin and realized that on their own they could not save themselves from it, tear it out of their human nature, or reconcile with God, whom they had offended with their sin. And then the promised Savior came. He came to lay the beginning of a new, holy life on earth. All people were corrupted by sin, all were unclean, not one was pure, as the word of God says about this: “There is none righteous, not one; there is no one who understands; no one seeks God; all have turned aside from the path, one and all are worthless; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Ps. 13:1–3; Rom. 3:10–12). People “became fussy in their speculations, calling themselves wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image similar to corruptible man, and birds, and four-legged animals, and reptiles... They replaced the truth of God with a lie, and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator... And since they did not care to have God in their minds, God gave them over to a corrupt mind - to do lewd things, so that they were filled with all sorts of serious grievances, but the repentant criminals did not feel rejected by Him. In a word, He took upon Himself, into His soul, all disasters and all human sins, without ceasing to remain sinless Himself. He taught people who had forgotten God to know God the Father. He taught people devoted to vice to know and love holiness in His Person. He comforted the grieving and persecuted people with His mercy. With all this He broke the power of sin and destroyed its power over people. For people who came to know Christ, sin lost its attraction, or at least they had a desire to fight sin, relying on the strong help of their Savior. Grasping Him, clinging to Him with their souls, they climbed out of the mud of sin and stood, holding His saving hand, on the solid ground of holiness. In Him, people felt forgiven by God the Father. This is how Jesus Christ saves us. That is why He is called our Savior. We must remember this and love Him as our Savior, leading us onto the path of pure life, firmly believe in Him as the Son of God and not forget that He is close, very close to each of us. And just as during His earthly life He suffered, seeing the sins of mankind, so now He suffers, seeing the sins of each of us! But, someone will ask, if Jesus Christ defeated sin and freed people from it, then why does sin still dominate people? Because people do not take the helping hand extended by the Savior. When they take this hand and strive to emerge from the swamp of sins, they are saved. In order to make it easier for people to free themselves from sin, the Lord Jesus Christ established His Holy Church on earth, to which he gave grace-filled means to deliver people from sin. Why was the Church established? Christ did not want those who believe in Him to live separately. He united them into one society, into one family, all members of which are mutually connected by the same faith and mutual love. This community of believers is called the Church. Jesus Christ gave the Church the correct structure and sent down the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. He did this so that everyone who believes in Him could be more easily saved from sin. When there were few Christians and they all lived as one loving family. The rich gave their property to the apostles, and the apostles used it to help the poor. Every day, believers gathered for prayer, listened to the instructions of the holy apostles, and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. When the Christian Church from Jerusalem spread to other cities, then in each such city all believers also constituted one family. They also often gathered for prayer, for reading the word of God and communion of the Holy Mysteries, and also lovingly and willingly helped each other and cared for the sick, the elderly and orphans. Each such society was called a church, and all of them together constituted one Christian Church. Subsequently, those places where believers gathered for prayer, that is, churches, began to be called churches. To govern the Church and to perform divine services, the apostles established bishops, priests and deacons. Gradually, the same order of worship was established in the churches, the same church customs and rules - fasting, the sign of the cross, liturgical clothing, etc. Church hymns were composed, which were included in the general use of the Church, essays were written to defend and explain the faith, and general councils were convened to discuss and resolve church affairs. Thus, church life gradually took shape in the form in which it exists today. Everyone lived the same church life. Having endured cruel persecution from Jews and pagans during the first three centuries of its existence, the Christian Church, in subsequent centuries, was forced to endure an equally cruel internal struggle with heretics who tried to darken the purity of its apostolic teaching with their inventions and, having defended its teaching at the Ecumenical Councils, by the middle of the ninth century it was adorned with the fullness of its creed, liturgical order and chants. Why is it so important and saving for us to belong to the Orthodox Church? Because why no one would want to leave a strong and well-managed ship and rush into a stormy sea in order to sail alone across the boundless expanse of the sea, exposed to the every minute danger of death. Another comparison can be used. Who, owning a spacious, durable and well-furnished house, would want to leave it and begin to build a new home nearby with their own weak strength? The Orthodox Church, founded by the Lord Jesus Christ, strengthened and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, grown on the labors of the holy Apostles, on the blood of the holy martyrs, on the exploits of the Church Fathers and saints, adorned with solemn and touching holidays, memories, rituals and chants, shining with the high examples of holy ascetics and the inspired writings of the fathers and teachers of the church, is for us that spiritual ship and that spiritual a home where each of us finds spiritual shelter and spiritual food, where our soul receives correct and healthy spiritual development and learns true Christian life. That is why the Apostle Paul calls the Church “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), and Jesus Christ promises the Church an indestructible fortress: “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Gospel of Matthew 16:18). From the very first days of our lives, we already enter into the grace-filled environment of the Church, but we do not always replace and appreciate it, and we do not always care about taking advantage of all the benefits that it offers us. Immediately after our birth, she blesses our entry into the world with a special prayer. On the eighth day of our life, she gives us a Christian name and prays that we will grow up worthy of the name Christian. On the fortieth day, she blesses our entry into the church and churchizes us. And she illuminates all subsequent important, decisive moments of our life with her prayer, strengthening your spirit with her grace-filled power. In the church she educates our soul with holy impressions. And after our death, she does not leave us with her prayers. And she only wants one thing from us, that we meet her halfway with an open heart, that we do not deprive ourselves of her gracious help, that we do not destroy the good deed she does in us with a bad life, and that for our part we live as our Christian dignity requires, without breaking away from her maternal concerns and good influence. We said that Jesus Christ established His Holy Church on earth to cleanse us from sin. Among the various means by which the Church helps us to be saved from sin, the most important is the holy sacraments. What is a sacrament? Leaving His disciples, Jesus Christ promised them that He would not leave them orphans, but would send them the Holy Spirit - the Comforter, who would teach them the truth. And indeed, ten days after the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven, the disciples received the promised Holy Spirit, who descended on the apostles, as if in the form of tongues of fire, and produced an extraordinary change in them. Simple fishermen who had never left their homeland, they suddenly spoke the languages ​​of all nations. Not understanding the simple words of their Teacher, they began to understand the prophecies. Timid, confused, they courageously and with dignity spoke before the leaders and kings and gave them wise answers. Thus, the grace-filled power of the Holy Spirit imparted to them enlightened, animated and made them wise. We also receive this grace-filled power of the Holy Spirit in the Church. This power enlightens our mind, purifies and inspires our heart; it is given to us in prayers, in reading and listening to the Word of God, in all sacred rites of the church, but especially in the holy sacraments. The sacraments are those sacred church actions through which the grace-filled power of the Holy Spirit is especially communicated to us. There are seven of them - baptism, confirmation, communion, repentance, consecration of oil, marriage and priesthood. And each of these sacraments brings its own special gift to our soul. In the sacrament of baptism, the seed of holy life is laid in us, which we or our parents and successors must grow in us. In the sacrament of anointing, strength is given to our feelings and strength for our spiritual growth. In the sacrament of communion, we receive Divine life into ourselves, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ. In the sacrament of repentance we receive forgiveness and cleansing of sins committed after baptism. In the sacrament of consecration of oil we also receive forgiveness of sins, especially those due to forgetfulness of those not confessed in the sacrament of repentance, and bodily health. In the sacrament of marriage, family life is sanctified and God’s blessing is brought down on the birth and Christian upbringing of children. The sacrament of the priesthood imparts the power to be a prayer leader for others, a performer of the sacraments, and a leader in spiritual life. Anyone who approaches the sacraments with attention and proper preparation actually feels a clear change in the soul produced by the touch of the grace of the Holy Spirit. A fire flares up in the soul, peace descends on it, confusion and disorder of feelings subsides in it, sin leaves it for a while. So, understanding what the sacraments are and what we receive through them, with faith, eagerness and reverence, let us approach the great sacraments of repentance and communion, through which our soul is cleansed from its sins and sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Fasting is the most ancient church institution. The first commandment given to the first people in paradise was the commandment to fast. The Old Testament righteous fasted, Saint John the Baptist fasted, and, finally, our Lord Jesus Christ fasted forty days before going to preach, following the example of which our forty-day Great Lent was established. Despite all these examples, despite the fact that fasting has always existed in the Orthodox Church, many do not observe it. They resemble a patient who, when asked to take medicine, says: “Why should I take this medicine? After all, I don’t need to take medicine, I need to get better.” This patient forgets that the medicine is given to him precisely so that he gets well... Likewise, fasting is not significant in itself, but only as a means to acquiring mental health. What is the significance of fasting for the health of the soul? As you know, fasting is primarily expressed by a transition from more nutritious meat food to less nutritious fish, and sometimes to even less nutritious plant food and, finally, even to dry eating: this transition from one type of food to another is prescribed by the Church not because it considers one type of food pure and another not pure: all food is pure and blessed by God! And this is not even why so-called vegetarians refuse meat food, that is, out of a feeling of pity for animal creatures or out of awareness of the greater usefulness of plant foods. By changing food, the Church wants to weaken sensuality and give predominance to our spirit over our flesh. By switching from more nutritious to less nutritious food, we make ourselves lighter, more mobile, and more capable of spiritual life. How much influence food has on our spiritual life and work can be easily seen from our own experience. Try to engage in serious mental work after a hearty lunch and you will see how difficult it is! And praying at this time is even more difficult! They say that you can also abuse lean foods. This is true, but we must keep in mind not abuses, but what the Church prescribes for us. The Church also prescribes abstinence and moderation in Lenten food. Some people say that fasting is unhealthy. This is not true. It is not harmful for healthy people. For those who, due to poor health, need increased nutrition, the Church allows relief from fasting. That fasting is not at all harmful to health is evident, firstly, from the fact that those who fast get sick less than those who do not fast, and secondly, from the fact that they live no less. Many great fasters lived, as can be seen from the lives of the saints, to eighty, ninety, a hundred or more years of age. The change of food prescribed by the Church during Lent also has the significance for us that it gives us the opportunity to exercise our will in the fight against our desires and habits and victory over them. The transition from fast food to lean food is unpleasant for us. But by overcoming this unpleasant feeling and subordinating ourselves to the rules of the Church, we discipline ourselves, demonstrate our power over our habits and tastes, and this is very useful. This tempers us, makes us more courageous, resilient, stronger, helps us rise above our habits and not be slaves to them. We will appreciate the importance of fasting even more if we remember that fasting consists not only in replacing fast food with lean food, but also in limiting oneself in excesses and entertainment, for example, sleeping less, refraining from delicacies, watching TV, reading entertaining books and magazines, and the like. Finally, the Church also requires spiritual fasting from us. During fasting, we must take special care to suppress and eradicate our bad inclinations, habits and desires. On this occasion, Saint John Chrysostom said this: “Can't you fast? But why can't you forgive your enemy? Change your disposition: if you are angry, try to be meek; if you are vindictive, do not take revenge; if you like to slander and gossip, refrain, etc. Do more good during the days of fasting, be more sympathetic to people, be more willing to help those in need of your help, pray more diligently, warmly, etc. In all these directions, fasting opens up a wide field for you to work on yourself - just have the desire to work!” So, the Church did not accept and maintain holy fasts in vain. Let's learn to respect fasting, appreciate its benefits, let's not break it frivolously and treat it arrogantly! What is the meaning of confession Days of fasting are usually days of fasting, confession and communion for us. But how often do these days pass us by without bringing us any tangible benefit! This is not, of course, because they cannot bring us this benefit, but because we ourselves are too frivolous, too careless about them. Let's talk about confession first. To clearly imagine its meaning, let us turn to a consideration of our inner, mental life. We have already said that there are two beings constantly fighting inside us - good and evil. And so, true Christian life begins in us only when we consciously take the side of a good being and try to defeat the evil. As long as we treat our inner life carelessly, without even properly distinguishing between good and evil in it, we surrender to our desires and inclinations, whatever they may be, without making any assessment of them, until then we are not yet living a Christian life. And only when we feel our shortcomings, when we condemn ourselves and want renewal, only then do we enter the path of Christian life. Let's take living examples. Here before us is the Pharisee and the publican, about whom the Gospel tells. The Pharisee goes to the church of God, does many good deeds, but we still won’t say about him that he lived the true life. Why? Because he is pleased with himself, he does not feel his uncleanness, he boasts of his righteousness, the abyss of sin sitting in him has not yet been revealed to him. The publican, on the contrary, does not have any good deeds behind him. But he clearly saw the depth of his sinfulness and grieved for himself. He asks God for one thing - mercy, salvation. This is the true Christian mood! Another example: in the sixth century, in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, there lived a young sinner, Mary. Sin was sweet and pleasant to her. She was carefree and cheerful. She never experienced anxiety of conscience. She didn't understand herself. To give herself some new fun, she joined the crowd of pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. All the way she sang sinful songs, poisoning the peaceful rest of the pilgrims and their elevated mood with her shameless antics and laughter. Finally, she arrived with them in Jerusalem and carelessly, out of curiosity, followed the others to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. But what? When she wanted to cross the threshold of the church, she felt that some invisible force was not letting her in. She felt both scared and ashamed in front of her companions. She does not want to show that she cannot go to the church, but all her efforts to enter it remain fruitless. Only then did her whole past life illuminate before her with a bright light. She saw something she hadn't noticed before. She saw that she was unworthy to go to the church, because she was too unclean for this. And then she cried bitterly. From that moment on, an internal struggle began in her, to which she devoted her whole life. So, sometimes a person does not pay attention to his shortcomings and even to his sins and lives carelessly for a long time, and then the time will come and his eyes will open. For some, like Mary of Egypt, this happens immediately, for others it happens very slowly and with great difficulty. Let us now apply what we have said to ourselves. Trace your actions, intentions, words. Yesterday you offended your comrade with a rude, harsh word, offensive suspicion or poisonous ridicule; recently you were constantly haunted and tormented your soul by some dirty, base desire, and you not only did not drive it away from yourself, it was as if you even tried to enjoy it; Now you had the opportunity to sacrifice your peace or comfort in order to provide a service to someone, but you didn’t do it, etc. If you are attentive and conscientious, then you will see that your life will present a whole network, a whole huge interweaving of such small and large nasty things. If we do not pay attention to all this, if we think that all this is how it should be, this means that we have not yet begun the Christian life. Our Christian life will begin only when we say: “No, I don’t want such filth to live in my soul! I want to be clean and kind! I want to be a true Christian!” But as soon as you try to take this path, you will immediately see that the fight against evil in yourself is extremely difficult, painful and exhausting. You will see how evil your feelings are, how your nasty thoughts and desires, against your will, against your consent, take possession of you, push you to commit certain ugly offenses. Sometimes, having already uttered a rude, offensive word or done a bad deed, only then do you begin to understand that this should not have been said or done; and until then you did not see anything ugly either in the word you wanted to say or in the deed you wanted to do. You begin to feel the great truth of the words of the Apostle Paul: “I do not do what I want, but what I hate, that is what I do. I do not do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I do not want” (Romans 7, 15, 19). But not only do you become the plaything of your bad inclinations, you feel that your entire inner being is being desecrated, polluted by these bad inclinations, your thoughts are clouded, your desire is defiled, your will is weakened. How, one might ask, can a person get rid of all this dirt? How to throw her out of yourself? Should I really stay like this with her? It sometimes happens that after sharing his spiritual sorrows with someone, a person feels relieved. But in this way we only share our sadness with others, and do not free ourselves from it completely. Another, more certain means of salvation is needed. The famous spiritual writer, Saint Theophan, in one of his works, says: “There was a young man who was deeply saddened that he had desecrated his soul with his many sins. He fell asleep out of sadness. And so, he dreams that an Angel flew down to him from heaven, cut his chest with a sharp knife, took out his heart, cut it into pieces, removed everything that was spoiled and rotten from it, carefully put it back in its original place and healed the wound itself. The young man woke up and felt clean from his sins. But isn’t it true, how good it would be for us to sometimes experience such a healing effect of a luminous Angel!” And such an Angel is given to us. This is the grace of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confession. Confession is the sacrament of repentance. It was established so that through it we can be cleansed of all our sinful filth. In establishing this sacrament, Jesus Christ said to his disciples: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; on whomever you leave it, it will remain on him” (Gospel of John 20:22–23). And now the priests of the Christian Church, according to the authority given to them by the Lord, forgive the sins of those who repent, and the grace of the Holy Spirit cleanses their hearts. Thus, confession is not some incomprehensible, unknown why existing custom that must for some reason be blindly followed, but it is an extremely important and extremely necessary means of moral healing and correction for us, meeting the most necessary requirements of our own moral nature. Avoiding confession is all that, suffering from some disease and knowing a cure for it, through negligence or laziness, does not use this medicine and thus triggers the disease. Our sins are a mental illness for us. We have been given a cure for this disease. Not using this medicine means not wanting to part with your spiritual impurity and accumulate it in yourself... Those who do not want to confess sometimes say: “Why do you need to tell your sins to a priest? Doesn’t God already know our sins? and can’t He forgive us for them without confession?” Is it necessary to confess your sins, that is, retell them before the priest, not because otherwise they will remain unknown to God, but because it is useful and necessary for the repentant himself?” Our sincere confession of sins before the priest shows, first of all, our sincere readiness to condemn ourselves for these sins. Whoever has the determination to express his sin before his confessor in order to be healed of sin, obviously this sin has already become unpleasant and alien to him. Confessed sin seems to come out of our soul, just as a removed splinter comes out. A person will never condemn his sin within himself with such sincerity and clarity as he condemns it when telling his confessor about the sin he has committed. Open confession of sin before a confessor humbles our pride, which often does not want to have witnesses to our shortcomings and sins, especially shameful ones. This pride of ours inspires us with the idea that one internal consciousness of sin before God is enough, for it is easier for her to admit her mistake before the Invisible God than in the presence of a visible person similar to us. Confession before a priest is also necessary because he is given the power to forgive or not forgive sin. How can a priest forgive or not forgive a sinner if he does not know the latter’s sins? And can the penitent himself have firm confidence that his sins have been forgiven and that he has been cleansed of them if there is no visible sign of this forgiveness and cleansing in the priest’s prayer of permission? The permission of the confessor completely calms the sinner, and he leaves him with joy and peace in his soul! Confession is usually followed by communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, but the priest can only admit a believer and a repentant to this communion, and therefore confession of sins before the priest is necessary. Finally, confession before a priest is also necessary because the priest, having become familiar with the state of the sinner’s conscience, can give him useful advice, show him the correct order of life and, thus, warn him against repeating previously committed sins in the future. How to prepare for confession? We usually live in such a bustle that it can be very difficult for us to concentrate on our inner state of mind and strongly feel our sinfulness. To help us with this, the Church established a fast before confession, which consists of leaving our usual way of life for several days, fasting, attending divine services in the morning and evening, reading spiritual books and spending time alone or, even better, with a person who is in the same mood as us. Thanks to visiting the church, prayers and chants, reading and detachment from our ordinary life, we enter a new world, with a predominance of spiritual interests in it. We think more about God and feel Him closer within ourselves; our inner life and its bad, sinful sides appear more clearly in our consciousness. Our main attention at this time should be paid to ensuring that we vividly feel God’s great love for us and our guilt before God. Therefore, you should often pray in the words of King David: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy! Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb,” etc. Self-condemnation is the first and most important thing with which we must come to confession. It sometimes happens that our conscience immediately shows us all our spiritual wounds. This happens if our conscience is sensitive enough or if we have committed some particularly serious sin. But sometimes our conscience is silent. People who are inattentive, who do not attach serious importance to confession, who “serve” it frivolously, come to confession without knowing what to repent of. And when the confessor turns to them with a question about how they feel sinful, they usually answer: “Especially nothing. I am a sinner, like all people, in deed, word and thought.” This answer shows that such confessors either did not have time, or were too lazy to delve deeper into themselves, and therefore did not notice anything special in themselves. They did not test their conscience, which anyone can easily do by testing themselves according to God’s commandments. The commandments clearly indicate man's duties. It cannot be that there is a person who has never violated one or another commandment. When you carefully examine your conscience, these violations are revealed. It is necessary to confess not only special sins, as some mistakenly think, but any general impurity of the soul, and someone who is sincerely aware of this impurity sometimes grieves more strongly over a small offense than another frivolous person over a serious crime. The severity of sin is largely determined by the sensitivity of our conscience. Confession must be sincere. Only people who have no idea about the purpose of confession can rejoice that the confessor did not ask about sins. After all, if a sin is hidden, not expressed in confession, then this means that it remains in us. A sincere confession is sometimes hindered by false shame - the tongue does not dare to admit to a shameful sin. To overcome this false shame, we must firmly remember that we are confessing not to a priest, but to God, who knows this sin anyway. You must have the fear of God! Let this fear force us to overcome our shame before our confessor! Well, we will burn a little in shame, but our conscience will be clear, and we will be pure before God! Sometimes a sincere confession is hindered by fear that the confessed sin may become known to one of the other people. This fear is completely unfounded. The confessor has no right to reveal to anyone what was said to him in confession. This is an eternal secret between the penitent, the confessor and God! Some, not relying on their memory and fearing from the excitement of confession to forget this or that sin, write down their sins on a piece of paper and read them to their confessor from the paper. This method of confession is especially useful for those people who forget their sins out of excitement. In addition to self-condemnation and sincerity, we must bring to confession a sincere desire not to repeat the sins we have committed. The sins we have committed should seem disgusting to us, we shake them off and from now on we want to start a new, clean life! And we must firmly believe that the Lord, in the sacrament of confession, removes from us the heaviness and filth of sin and will put us on the path of a new life. And so, having come to confession with such a disposition of heart and confessing to your confessor sincerely, seriously, contritely your big and small sins, with attention and with faith you need to listen to the prayer of absolution read by him, and when he says: “I, unworthy priest, by His authority given to me, forgive and absolve you from all your sins,” you will feel a surge of extraordinary joy and freshness, you will feel that the heavy stone of filth lying on it has fallen away from your heart and that you have become a new, pure person. The past has moved away from you, the dawn of a new life begins! This feeling always happens to those who worked on themselves during the days of fasting and brought their confession with faith and contrition of heart. Confession is over. All unclean things have been swept out of your soul. The soul is clean and tidy. This is a lot, a lot! This is a great gift from God! But this is not all that a Christian needs. Confession is only the first step in the process of our spiritual renewal. It is not enough just to have a soul pure from sin. We must absorb the Divine, holy life into ourselves, commune with God, without which our spiritual strength and vigor are impossible, doing good is impossible, good direction of thoughts, desires and feelings is impossible. Jesus Christ says to his disciples: “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. I am the vine, and you are the branches; He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (Gospel of John 15:4–5). Without God we are nothing. God, who abides and acts in us, creates everything good through us. This is why the sacrament of Holy Communion is necessary. The Savior speaks about the meaning of this sacrament for us: “If you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. He who walks on My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. He who walks on My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (Gospel of John 6:53–56). Each of us understands how good it is to be under the protection of the Strong One, who can protect us from any offense; how pleasant it is to be with a Good being, who pours into our soul a softening and pleasing feeling of kindness; how pleasant it is to be with a Reasonable Being, Enlightening our thought and imparting to it new, reasonable concepts; how pleasant it is, finally, to be with a strong being, who affirms our will in good habits. The holy apostles experienced great joy, feeling protected and supported by the Almighty Love of Their Heavenly Teacher! We receive all this in the great sacrament of Holy Communion, in which the Lord Jesus Christ invisibly, under the guise of wine and bread, descends into our soul and unites closely with us until we again separate Him from ourselves through betrayal of Him. To establish the sacrament of Holy Communion, the Lord chose the holiest, most touching moment of his earthly life, the Last Supper, when, turning to His disciples and blessing the bread, giving it to them, he said: “Take, eat: this is My Body. And taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Gospel of Matthew 26:26–28). The first Christians so strongly desired to be in constant inner union with their Lord that they took communion every Sunday. Let us also cherish this sacrament and approach it with great willingness and joy, but at the same time with fear, so as not to turn out to be unworthy participants. How to preserve the good fruits of confession and Holy Communion. The first lessons of Orthodox asceticism The fast ends with communion of the Holy Mysteries and a prayer of gratitude for it. What happened to us, and what should we do next? A lot has happened to us. If we took fasting seriously, we could be convinced from our own experience that fasting, confession and Holy Communion are not one simple, meaningless custom that supposedly has nothing to do with our inner life and our spiritual development. We have experienced and learned a whole series of serious and deep feelings and moods that have made a noticeable change in our soul, in our well-being and in our self-awareness and have introduced a lot of new and good things into them. It was as if we had visited some other, special world and received many new and strong impressions there. In a word, after the fast we became different people than we were before the fast. Both ourselves and the people around us now appear to us in a different light. That evil, in the power of which we were previously, with which our thoughts were occupied, has now largely faded for us, has lost its charm; and on the other hand, we experienced new holy feelings, appreciated the sweetness of prayer, fell in love with good more deeply, our will became stronger in the pursuit of this good, we became purer in heart and closer to God. These are the fruits of fasting, confession and communion. How to save them? Usually those who have partaken of the Holy Mysteries feel for some time, several days, and sometimes several weeks, as if inaccessible to the penetration of their previous sins into their souls. The soul is, as it were, closed to sins. It is clean and cozy. And this purity, peace and comfort are inexpressibly gratifying. But then gradually the dust of sin begins to settle on the soul again. You are already losing your initial sensitivity to sinful touches, you no longer stand so carefully on guard over your soul. Sin not only hovers around your soul, but also penetrates it, little by little dirtying it, and if you fail, it finally settles in it as a rightful owner. From this you see what needs to be done after confession and communion. We must not give in to sin. Let him be a stranger to you, do not make him your own. Remember the following order of our spiritual life: Sin first flashes through our minds as a completely alien thought; Then he already appears as our thought; when we focus our attention on it and begin to keep it in mind. Finally, it begins to touch us and attract our sympathy. After this, it becomes our desire and, in the end, takes possession of us and becomes our habit or our passion. The more firmly sin takes root in our soul, the more difficult it is to fight it and tear it out of our soul. From this you see that we must begin the fight against sin not when it has already become our habit or strong desire, but when it still only flashes in our minds, like a thought foreign to us. Then we should not focus our attention on it, but quickly turn away from it. If you do this, the Lord will help you save your soul from defilement by sin and keep it pure. And since any lasting success in this inner work is possible only if we rely not on our own strengths, but on God’s help, then always try to be internally with God and always ask for His all-powerful help. By doing this, you will protect the fruits of confession and communion in your soul! Look, you have been entrusted with a precious treasure - take care of it! And just as a person who has received some gift dear to him keeps it in a safe place, takes care that it does not deteriorate, that dust does not settle on it and that it is not stolen - so you carefully protect the shrine of that bright and good Christian feeling that penetrated your soul after confession and communion, and do not allow the gross impressions of sin to touch it! Let us finish with the words of St. Theophan: “If a big guest comes to you, you behave modestly, speak decorously; now the Lord himself has visited you, and who is greater than the Lord? Look - behave reverently and with fear... And not only think about this, but also about delivering something pleasant to the Lord. If a guest comes to you, you try to calm him down and offer him only what you know he likes. So now offer the Lord what He loves. What does He love? He loves everything good and blesses it, but he turns away everything bad and condemns it. Bring to Him whatever good thing each of you comes up with. Come alone and say: Behold, Lord, I will stop being angry and scolding, but I will be quiet and meek. Another say: I, Lord, will stop being lazy and lying on my side, and will begin to work hard and labor. Third, say: I, Lord, will not be proud and despise others, but will humble myself and consider myself worse than everyone else. So each one bring his own good to the Lord and offer it to Him as a gift; and the Lord will rejoice in this and be comforted by this. He will be pleased with you, and He will abide in you, and bless you, and give you great good, both spiritual and physical.”