Abba Isaiah was asked: "What does repentance consist of?" He answered: The Holy Spirit teaches us to turn away from sin and no longer fall into it. This is what repentance consists of. Those who bring true repentance are no longer engaged in condemning their neighbors, they are engaged in lamenting their sins. Whoever condemns sinners expels repentance from himself. Whoever justifies himself alienates himself from repentance. Love humility: it will cover you from your sins. Humility consists in the fact that a person should recognize himself as a sinner before God, who has not done a single good deed before God. I beseech every person who wants to bring repentance to God to refuse to drink wine in large quantities. Wine revives extinguished passions in the soul and expels the fear of God from it. Do not argue with one another about anything, do not speak ill of anyone, do not judge anyone, do not condemn or humiliate anyone either in word or in heart, do not murmur at anyone, do not suspect anyone of any evil. Do not show contempt to anyone because of his bodily defect. If someone glorifies you and you accept praise with delight, then there is no fear of God in you. If they say something unjust about you, and you are troubled, then there is no fear of God in you. If, in conversation with the brethren, you seek that your word may prevail over the words of others, then there is no fear of God in you. If your word is ignored, and you are offended by it, then there is no fear of God in you. Do not be curious and do not inquire about the vain affairs of the world. Do not consult about your thoughts with everyone: consult about them only with your fathers. Otherwise, you will incur sorrow and confusion for yourself. Do not reveal your thoughts before everyone, lest it be a cause of stumbling for your neighbor. Guard yourself from lying: it drives out the fear of God from a person. From the love of human glory lies are born. Whoever behaves deceitfully in relation to his brother will not be able to avoid sorrow of the heart. Do not seek friendship with the glorious of this world, lest the glory of God be extinguished in your heart. Do not be carried away by the sweet remembrance of the sins you have committed, lest the sense of these sins be renewed in you. Remember the Kingdom of Heaven, and little by little this remembrance will draw you to it. Remember also Gehenna, and hate the works that draw you into it. Every morning, rising from sleep, bring to mind that you must give an account to God of all your deeds, and you will not sin before Him: His fear will dwell in you. Consider your sins daily, pray for them, and God will forgive them. He who expects to die near will not fall into many sins. On the contrary, he who hopes to live a long life is entangled in many sins. Live as if every day you experience were the last in your life, and you will not sin before God.

Application

According to the "Otechnik" compiled by St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

All passions, if freedom is allowed to them, act, grow, strengthen in the soul, and finally envelop it, take possession of it, and separate it from God. These are the heavy burdens that fell upon Adam after he ate of the tree. These passions were killed on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the old skins into which new wine is not poured (Matt. 9:17). These are the swaddling clothes with which Lazarus was bound (John 11:44). These are demons sent by Christ into a herd of swine (Matt. 8:31-32). This is the old man, whom the Apostle commands the Christian to cast off (1 Corinthians 15:49). These are thistles and thorns, which the earth began to spew out of Adam after he was cast out of paradise (Gen. 3:18).

Abba Isaiah was asked: "What does repentance consist of?" He answered: The Holy Spirit teaches us to turn away from sin and no longer fall into it. This is what repentance consists of. Those who bring true repentance are no longer engaged in condemning their neighbors, they are engaged in lamenting their sins. Whoever condemns sinners expels repentance from himself. Whoever justifies himself alienates himself from repentance. Love humility: it will cover you from your sins. Humility consists in the fact that a person should recognize himself as a sinner before God, who has not done a single good deed before God. I beseech every person who wants to bring repentance to God to refuse to drink wine in large quantities. Wine revives extinguished passions in the soul and expels the fear of God from it. Do not argue with one another about anything, do not speak ill of anyone, do not judge anyone, do not condemn or humiliate anyone either in word or in heart, do not murmur at anyone, do not suspect anyone of any evil. Do not show contempt to anyone because of his bodily defect. If someone glorifies you and you accept praise with delight, then there is no fear of God in you. If they say something unjust about you, and you are troubled, then there is no fear of God in you. If, in conversation with the brethren, you seek that your word may prevail over the words of others, then there is no fear of God in you. If your word is ignored, and you are offended by it, then there is no fear of God in you. Do not be curious and do not inquire about the vain affairs of the world. Do not consult about your thoughts with everyone: consult about them only with your fathers. Otherwise, you will incur sorrow and confusion for yourself. Do not reveal your thoughts before everyone, lest it be a cause of stumbling for your neighbor. Guard yourself from lying: it drives out the fear of God from a person. From the love of human glory lies are born. Whoever behaves deceitfully in relation to his brother will not be able to avoid sorrow of the heart. Do not seek friendship with the glorious of this world, lest the glory of God be extinguished in your heart. Do not be carried away by the sweet remembrance of the sins you have committed, lest the sense of these sins be renewed in you. Remember the Kingdom of Heaven, and little by little this remembrance will draw you to it. Remember also Gehenna, and hate the works that draw you into it. Every morning, rising from sleep, bring to mind that you must give an account to God of all your deeds, and you will not sin before Him: His fear will dwell in you. Consider your sins daily, pray for them, and God will forgive them. He who expects to die near will not fall into many sins. On the contrary, he who hopes to live a long life is entangled in many sins. Live as if every day you experience were the last in your life, and you will not sin before God.

Preparation for Confession

In the sacrament of holy repentance we are given the opportunity to lay aside the heavy burden of sin, to tear the chains of sin, to see the "tabernacle fallen and broken" of our soul renewed and radiant. How often should we resort to this saving sacrament? As often as possible, at least in each of the four fasts. Usually, people who are inexperienced in the spiritual life do not see the multitude of their sins, do not feel their gravity, do not feel their aversion to them. They say: "I have not done anything special", "I have only minor sins, like everyone else", "I did not steal, I did not kill" – this is how many people often begin confession. But our holy fathers and teachers, who left us prayers of repentance, considered themselves the first of sinners, and with sincere conviction cried out to Christ: "No one has sinned on earth from eternity, as I have sinned, the accursed and the prodigal!" And vice versa: people immersed in the darkness of sin do not see anything in their hearts, and if they do, they are not terrified, since they have nothing to compare with, for Christ is hidden from them with a veil of sins. Therefore, in order to overcome our spiritual laziness and insensibility, the Holy Church has laid down preparatory days for the sacrament of repentance – retreat. The period of retreat can last from three days to a week, unless there is special advice or instructions from the spiritual father. During this time, one should observe fasting, guard oneself from sinful deeds, thoughts and feelings, and generally lead a life of abstinence, repentance, dissolved in deeds of love and Christian charity. During the period of retreat, one should attend church services as often as possible, be more diligent in prayer at home than usual, devote leisure time to reading the works of the Holy Fathers, the lives of saints, self-absorption and self-examination. In understanding the moral state of one's soul, one must try to distinguish the basic sins from their derivatives, the roots from the leaves and fruits. One should also beware of falling into petty suspicion of every movement of the heart, of losing the sense of what is important and unimportant, of getting entangled in trifles. The penitent must bring to confession not only a list of sins, but, most importantly, a feeling of repentance; Not a detailed story about his life, but a broken heart. To know one's sins does not mean to repent of them. But what is to be done if our heart, parched by the flames of sin, is not watered with the life-giving waters of tears? What if spiritual weakness and "infirmity of the flesh" are so great that we are incapable of sincere repentance? But this cannot be a reason to postpone confession in anticipation of a feeling of repentance. The Lord accepts confession - sincere and conscientious - even if it is not accompanied by a strong sense of repentance. Only this sin - petrified insensibility - must be confessed courageously and frankly, without hypocrisy. God can touch the heart during confession itself - soften it, refine spiritual vision, awaken a feeling of repentance. The condition that we must certainly observe in order for our repentance to be accepted by the Lord effectively is the forgiveness of the sins of our neighbors and reconciliation with all. Repentance cannot be accomplished without verbal confession of sins. Sins can be absolved only in the church sacrament of repentance, performed by a priest. Confession is a feat, self-compulsion. During confession, you do not need to wait for questions from the priest, but make an effort yourself. Sins must be named precisely, without obscuring the ugliness of sin with general expressions. It is very difficult, when confessing, to avoid the temptation of self-justification, to abandon attempts to explain to the confessor "mitigating circumstances," from references to third parties who allegedly led us into sin. All these are signs of self-love, lack of deep repentance, and continued stagnation in sin. Confession is not a conversation about one's shortcomings, doubts, it is not a simple informing of the spiritual father about oneself, although spiritual conversation is also very important and should take place in the life of a Christian, but confession is something else, it is a sacrament, and not just a pious custom. Confession is a fervent repentance of the heart, a thirst for purification, it is a second baptism. In repentance we die to sin and are resurrected to righteousness, holiness. Having repented, we must be confirmed inwardly in our determination not to return to the confessed sin. A sign of perfect repentance is a feeling of lightness, purity, inexplicable joy, when sin seems as difficult and impossible as this joy was just far away.

Rite of General Confession

Compiled by Archbishop Sergius (Golubtsov, †1982)

The sacrament of holy repentance has the main goal of awakening our spiritual consciousness, opening our eyes to ourselves, coming to our senses, deeply understanding in what a destructive state our soul is, how necessary it is to seek salvation from God, to ask tearfully and contritely for forgiveness of our countless sins before Him. The Lord Jesus Christ expects from us a most sincere awareness of our deviations from His holy will and a humble appeal to Him as unworthy of His servants, who have sinned many and offended His Divine love for us. We need to remember and deeply believe in the infinite mercy of God, which stretches out its arms to every sinner who converts. There is no sin that God, in His ineffable mercy, would not forgive a person who has shown sincere repentance for his sins, a firm determination to correct his life and not to return to his former sins. Approaching confession, let us pray to God that His almighty help would open the doors of repentance to us, reconcile and unite us with Himself, and grant us the Holy Spirit for a new and renewed life. Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! As we prepare to approach the great sacrament of holy confession, looking at God's mercy, let us ask ourselves whether we have shown mercy to our neighbors, whether we have been reconciled with everyone, whether we do not have enmity in our hearts against anyone, remembering the cherished words of the Holy Gospel: "If ye forgive a man their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you" (Matt. 6:14). This is the condition that we must understand and observe in the salvific work of holy repentance. Human life is so diverse, so mysterious is the depth of our soul, that it is difficult even to enumerate all the sins and sins that we commit. Therefore, when approaching the sacrament of holy confession, it is useful to remind oneself of the main violations of the moral law of the Holy Gospel. Let us carefully examine our conscience and repent of our sins before the Lord God. We, many sinners, confess to the Lord God Almighty, glorified and worshipped in the Holy Trinity the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to you, honorable father, all our sins, voluntary and involuntary, committed in word, or deed, or thought. We sinned by not keeping the vows we gave at baptism, but in everything we lied and transgressed, and made ourselves useless before the face of God.

We have sinned by disobedience to the actions of God's providence, by a stubborn desire for everything to be our way, by pleasing people, by a partial love for creatures and things. They did not try to know the will of God, they did not have reverence for God, fear of Him, hope in Him, zeal for His glory, for He is glorified by a pure heart. We have sinned by ingratitude to the Lord God for all His great and unceasing blessings, which are poured out in abundance on each of us and on the entire human race as a whole, by not remembering them, by murmuring against God, by faint-heartedness, despondency, hardness of our hearts, lack of love for Him and failure to fulfill His holy will. They have sinned by enslaving themselves to passions: voluptuousness, covetousness, pride, laziness, self-love, vanity, ambition, covetousness, gluttony, delicacy, secret eating, gluttony, drunkenness, addiction to games, spectacles and amusements. They have sinned by godliness, by not fulfilling vows, by forcing others to worship and oaths, by not reverence for holy things, by blasphemy against God, against the saints, against every holy thing, by blasphemy, by calling upon the name of God in vain, in evil deeds, desires, and thoughts.

They sinned by negligence in prayer, by abandoning the reading of the Holy Gospel, the Psalter and other Divine books, the teachings of the Holy Fathers. They have sinned by forgetting sins at confession, by self-justification in them and diminishing their gravity, by concealing sins, by repentance without heartfelt contrition; they did not make efforts to properly prepare for communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, not having been reconciled with their neighbors, they came to confession and in such a sinful state dared to approach Communion. They sinned by breaking the fasts and not keeping the fast days - Wednesdays and Fridays, which are equated with the days of Great Lent, as days of remembrance of the sufferings of Christ. They sinned by intemperance in food and drink, by carelessly and irreverently making the sign of the cross. They sinned by disobedience to superiors and elders, self-will, self-will, self-justification, laziness to work and unscrupulous performance of entrusted tasks. They sinned by disrespecting their parents, abandoning prayer for them, disrespecting their elders in age, impudence, willfulness and disobedience, rudeness, stubbornness. They sinned by the lack of Christian love for one's neighbor, impatience, resentment, irritability, anger, infliction of harm on one's neighbor, fights and quarrels, intransigence, enmity, retribution of evil for evil, unforgiveness of offenses, rancor, jealousy, envy, ill-will, vindictiveness, condemnation, slander, covetousness. They sinned by lack of mercy to the poor, they did not have compassion for the sick and the crippled; sinned by avarice, greed, extravagance, covetousness, infidelity, injustice, hardness of heart. They have sinned by deceit towards their neighbors, deceit, insincerity in their treatment of them, suspicion, double-mindedness, gossip, ridicule, witticisms, lies, hypocritical treatment of others and flattery, and man-pleasing. They sinned by forgetting about the future eternal life, by not remembering their death and the Last Judgment, and by an unreasonable, biased attachment to earthly life and its pleasures and affairs. They sinned by intemperance of their tongues, idle talk, idle talk, ridicule, they told jokes; they have sinned by divulging the sins and weaknesses of their neighbors, by seductive behavior, by liberty, and by impudence. They have sinned by intemperance of their spiritual and bodily feelings, partiality, voluptuousness, immodest view of persons of the other sex, free treatment of them, fornication and adultery, various carnal sins, excessive ostentation, the desire to please and seduce others. They sinned by the lack of sincerity, sincerity, simplicity, loyalty, truthfulness, respect, sedateness, caution in words, prudent silence, did not protect and did not protect the honor of others. They sinned by the lack of love, abstinence, chastity, modesty in words and deeds, purity of heart, non-acquisitiveness, mercy and humility. We have sinned in despondency, melancholy, sorrow, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, lust, impurity, and all our feelings, thoughts, words, desires, and deeds. We also repent of our other sins, which, because of our forgetfulness, we did not remember. We repent that we have angered the Lord our God with all our sins, we sincerely regret this and wish to abstain from our sins in every possible way and to correct ourselves. O Lord our God, with tears we beseech Thee, our Saviour, to help us to be strengthened in our holy intention to live as Christians, and to forgive the sins we have confessed, as the Good and the Lover of mankind. The grave sins not listed here should be told to the spiritual father separately. Sins that have been confessed and absolved earlier should not be named at confession, for they have already been forgiven, but if we repeat them again, then we must repent of them again. It is also necessary to repent of those sins that were forgotten, but are now remembered. Speaking of sins, one should not mention the names of other persons who are accomplices in sin. Such must repent for themselves. Habits for sin are eradicated by prayer, fasting, abstinence, and good deeds.

Stories from the life of ascetics

(Taken from the "Ancient Patericon")