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To the reader

Repentance is called the second baptism: if baptism delivers us from the power of original sin, then repentance washes us away from the defilement of our own sins committed after baptism. However, in order to repent and receive forgiveness of sins, it is necessary to see your sin. And this is not so easy. Self-love, self-pity, self-justification interfere with this. A bad deed, of which our conscience convicts us, we are inclined to consider an "accident", to blame circumstances or neighbors for it. Meanwhile, every sin in deed, word, or thought is a consequence of the passion that lives in us, a kind of spiritual illness. If it is difficult for us to recognize our sin, it is even more difficult to see the passion rooted in us. Thus, we can live without suspecting the passion of pride in ourselves, until someone hurts us. Then passion will be revealed through sin: wishing evil to the offender, a harsh insulting word, and even revenge. The struggle with the passions is the main activity of Christian ascetics, especially monastics. But every Christian who seeks salvation is faced with this struggle, although to a different extent, for each state of the human soul is characterized both by its own measure of virtues and by its own measure of struggle against evil, which prevents virtues from being established in the soul. Therefore, having taken upon ourselves the task of publishing this small book to help penitents, we hope that it will help the reader to understand himself, to see his sins, to recognize the sinful illnesses of his soul, and through repentance to find the salvific path to the Kingdom of Heaven.

On the sinful ailments of the human soul

Through the transgression of the first man, sin entered into the world (Romans 5:12), and the human race was filled with all kinds of iniquities. The mouth shall not declare the works of men! It is impossible to count all the innumerable sinful deeds known among people! Sin is a crime against the will of God, against the righteous and eternal law of God, an insult to the eternal and infinite truth of God (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk). A Christian cannot love a sin that offends his Lord and Saviour, cannot but desire to follow His commandments, but how obvious to us is the impotence of our good striving to be faithful to Christ! The cause of our constant sinful falls is the sinful illnesses of our soul. In the Fall, the first-created man rejected and trampled on the will of God, choosing his own will instead, he wanted to be a self-sufficient being, independent of God, not limited by anything in his endless demands. Such a state of the human soul is called "selfishness" or "self-love" by the Holy Fathers, and it is characteristic of all people as heirs of the fall of their forefathers. As a result of the Fall, man distanced himself from God, lost Divine communion and fell under the power of the devil. In the soul of a man who had fallen into crime and had distanced himself from God, the devil sowed sinful thoughts and established the law of sin (St. Athanasius the Great). According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, "evil thoughts" or passions that grow out of original sin are the source of an innumerable multitude of sinful human deeds. Through a passionate disposition, the soul, originally created in the likeness of God and destined for communion with God, is alienated from God and as a result is deprived of eternal, true life. "Evil thoughts" deceive a person with deceptive sweetness and plunge him into slavery to sin. Working with passions, a person usually does not feel this slavery at all. And only when he enters into the struggle with sinful evil, he begins to experience the greatest suffering from slavery to the "law of sin" (Romans 7:23). And the saints, who had attained high levels of moral perfection, experienced one "admixture" of passion as martyrdom. If passions are diseases of the human soul, then virtues are naturally inherent in it - qualities of the soul that are opposite to passions and together constitute the perfection and likeness of man to God. Virtue is not a "good deed", not an act in itself, just as passions are different from sinful deeds. "Virtue is that mood of the heart when what is done is truly pleasing to God" (St. Mark the Ascetic) – for not all human good is pleasing to God, but only that which is done in purity of heart. The goal of every Christian's life is salvation, i.e. the restoration of communion with God destroyed by sin. Only those "who draw near to God by holiness of life and virtue" (St. Justin Martyr) can achieve this goal. But the passions are "an obstacle to the hidden virtues of the soul," and therefore for salvation it is absolutely necessary first of all to purify oneself from passions, to open this "door closed in the face of purity" (St. Isaac the Syrian). But is it possible? The Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers agree that this is impossible by human efforts. But this is why the Saviour came to earth, in order to restore the human soul "to its primitive state," to deliver it from the state of passion. And the commandments were given by the Lord as medicines, in order to cleanse the soul from passions and sins (St. Isaac the Syrian). If the Old Testament Law was intended to protect man from sinful deeds, then the commandments of the Gospel heal the ailments of human nature. After holy baptism, Christians can be cleansed not only of sins as sinful deeds, but also of passions, of their evil habits, and grow their virtues. But this is achieved through inner struggle and pious feats, and not only by one's own strength, but by the cooperation of God's grace. Passions do not easily submit to the commandments, they rebel against them. Passion blinds a person, and he does not see his illness. To fulfill the commandments means to be healed of the passions; but they cannot be fulfilled by a person who is weak in passions... Therefore, purity from passions, like any virtue, cannot manifest itself in a person except in a struggling way - moreover, "to the point of blood... against sin" (Heb. 12:4). The lives of numerous Christian ascetics testify to how difficult this struggle is and how impossible it is without God's help. The holy ascetic fathers were not only able to discern the passions, but also knew the remedies for each of them. The doctrine of the passions and the struggle with them, developed to the point of subtlety, can be found in the works of Evagrius, St. John Cassian of Rome, Nilus of Sinai, Ephraim the Syrian, John of the Ladder, Gregory Palamas and other ascetic fathers. But this "medical science of souls" – wisdom – is so difficult that it is impossible to learn it without an experienced mentor who has acquired the habit of it through long-term experience (St. Gregory of Nyssa). That is why St. Ignatius Brianchaninov advises people who are inexperienced in the spiritual life not to enter into a detailed and subtle examination of their sins and sinful qualities. "Gather them all into one vessel of repentance, and cast them into the abyss of God's mercy. This will only plunge you into despondency, bewilderment, and confusion. God knows our sins, and if we constantly resort to Him in repentance, then He will gradually heal our very sinfulness, that is, sinful habits, qualities of the heart" (from the letter). It is important, knowing our innumerable sins and falls, to attain awareness of the general morbid state of our soul, its sinfulness, its affliction with sin, and in sincere heartfelt repentance to resort to the one Physician who can heal us from our incurable ailments by any earthly means (References to the works of the Holy Fathers are taken from the book by S.M. Zarin "Asceticism according to Orthodox Christian Teaching").

Discourse on Sins and Repentance

Sins are usually called not only sinful deeds, i.e. actions, deeds, words, thoughts, feelings that are contrary to the commandments of God, the Christian moral law, but often also the causes of sinful deeds - the passions and sinful habits of the human soul, as contrary to God's plan for man, distorting the perfection of human nature, created in the likeness of God. We are reminded of our sins by daily prayers at home: the evening prayer to the Holy Spirit, the daily confession of sins at the end of evening prayers, as well as the fourth prayer before Holy Communion: "For at Thy dreadful and impartial judgment seat..." (not placed, however, in all prayer books), and others. In most manuals for those preparing for the sacrament of confession, sins are distributed according to the Ten Commandments of the Law of God and the commandments of the Gospel. An example of confession built on this principle is contained, for example, in the book "The Experience of Building a Confession" by Archimandrite John Krestyankin (published by the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, 1992). This manual is especially valuable because it represents the living word of the pastor to our Christian contemporaries. In it one can find sins characteristic of our time. It should be noted that the Gospel understanding of the commandments of the Law of God, given through the prophet Moses to the ancient people of Israel, is much more extensive and profound than the Old Testament. Sin is considered to be the violation of the commandment not only by deed, but also by thought and desire. However, the last, tenth commandment, as if preparing the Old Testament people for a perfect understanding of the Law, says: "Thou shalt not covet." In the appendix to this book we place a fairly complete and detailed enumeration of sins in the "General Confession".

Sins against God, Neighbors and Your Own Soul