Письмо 104

To your question about confession I will say in detail: St. the fathers do not advise explaining the sins of sensuality in detail, so as not to defile the feelings with the memory of the details, but to simply say the image of sin; and other sins that bring shame to self-love should be explained in more detail, blaming oneself. When you receive peace of conscience after confession, you should see in this the mercy of God, looking upon your repentance; but when you hate good things, the devil causes confusion, “what did you say wrong?” and so on; reflect it with hope in God’s mercy. When you begin the Divine meal and feel tenderness and tears, then of course this is a visit from God; That is why one must approach with fear, faith and love, and be wary of accepting thoughts of vanity and reject the fear that there will be a passionate movement at this time; from this very fear it can happen; however, even for this there is repentance with humility: when we have the guarantee of self-awareness and humility, then we cannot suffer anything like that; and when, with observation (Luke 17:20), we look for something lofty and comforting in ourselves and are carried away by vanity, then consolation and tenderness are taken away, but sanctification is not taken away. For we walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7); You yourself understand that for vanity and arrogance of mind and pride, in any case, we are deprived of spiritual consolation; but even this is not always useful to us, and in its place comes temptation and the spiritual cross, curbing our opinion. Read from St. Isaac 78 and 79 words. Mnogohreshny I.M. May 11, 1857. You might be interested in: