Part I On the Eve of Confession

PREFACE

The present edition is composed mainly of articles that were included in the books "Daily Teachings in the Word of God", "A Complete Yearly Cycle of Short Teachings", "Spiritual Crops", "Lessons and Examples of Christian Faith, Hope and Love". To these we have added stories from church history and articles telling about the paths leading to the attainment of eternal salvation of the soul, which in a generally accessible and interesting form acquaint the reader with the essence and properties of true repentance and thus prepare the Christian for the great and salvific Sacrament of repentance.

In view of the great importance and universally binding nature of this Sacrament, without which a truly Christian life is impossible and eternal salvation is unattainable, if you do not repent, you will all perish, as our Lord Jesus Christ said

(cf. Luke 13:3), it is extremely important that a Christian has a correct understanding of it and approaches it properly. He must once and for all renounce a purely external, formal attitude towards him, which consists in coming to confession without any spiritual preparation, standing silently before the lectern, or saying meaningless: "I am a sinner in everything"; at best, to pronounce a few general confessions before the confessor, calmly, indifferently, sometimes even with self-justification and accusation of others, and then return to the former sinful life and not make any effort to take at least one step along the path of moral perfection.

It seems that after reading this book, a Christian will come to the conviction that without an awareness of the gravity of his sins, without heartfelt, tearful, humble contrition for them, "pity," as St. Tikhon of Zadonsk put it, and verbal confession of them before Jesus Christ, who is invisibly present and listens to the confession of the penitent, and before the visibly standing pastor of the Church, without firm faith in Jesus Christ and strong hope for mercy, without a resolute intention to correct one's life and, with God's help, to embark on the path of moral renewal, without an active effort to atone for sins by contrary good deeds (for example, to return what was stolen, to reward the victim of our unrighteousness, to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts for excessive service to sensuality, etc.), without observing these conditions, his confession will not have the character of a truly Christian confession and will not serve him for salvation. He must repent in a Christian way, as the Church requires, so that his repentance may be for his salvation.

In order to facilitate the very order of confession of sins, which immensely tires even the spiritual people themselves, we have attached several articles - plans of self-examination, adhering to which, it is not difficult to recall all the most important cases of violation of our duties in relation to God, neighbor, the holy mother of our Church and to our soul.

At the end of the book, we have enclosed several lively and illustrative articles on the salvation of the soul, which tell us what a truly repentant person should take care of, who desires and undertakes to enter the path of a new, spiritual life after repentance.

To what extent we have succeeded in this, we leave it to the readers, whom we earnestly ask to remember in their holy prayers the laboring priest Gregory.

Priest Gregory Dyachenko February 4, 1897

Chapter One. On Sin

Sayings about sin

1. Sin is the most terrible evil in the world. Flee from sin, at least so that earthly calamities may weigh on you as little as possible (Archbishop Philaret of Chernigov).