As if delving into the mystery of such a state, the priest turns to the penitent: "Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession..." With these words, the priest emphasizes the importance of standing before Christ the Savior, so that the penitent confesses his faith and tells his confessor his sins, being aware of the invisible presence of God. It is before Him that the penitent reveals his truthfulness: he contrites his heart for the sins he has committed, not hiding their gravity and not adding to them. Before the Living God, the penitent prepares to denounce himself in confession, and not to excuse himself; name your own sins, not someone else's. The penitent speaks of his sins "not in simple conversation, but with heartfelt regret," intending to keep himself from such sins in the future, for without this there can be no true repentance. (Exhortation before confession to the penitent.

Trebnik). "Everything that you say to me," says the priest, "I will testify before the Lord, for He alone can give the alienation of sins." And he concludes: "Hearken unto thee: for thou hast come to the hospital, that thou mayest not be healed."

Reading the Symbol of Faith

The Symbol of Faith, pronounced aloud to the whole church, allows the confessor to feel himself under the enlightening influence of the Divine Truth. It affirms the conviction that the gates of hell and the law of sin will not prevail against the Church, and that the regenerating and healing power of life, "which is illumined by the Trinitarian unity of the sacred mystery," will not be exhausted in it (Stepenna, tone 4, 1st antiphon). It is to this power of life that the confessor wishes to be a partaker.

The reading of the Symbol of Faith raises in the heart of the penitent a living confidence in the possibility of appearing before God in the Sacrament and receiving His help for spiritual rebirth. And then the believer turns to Him, accepts Him "as the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), his heart is imbued with love for Christ and burns with the desire to be in total unity with Him, a unity lost through the Fall.

According to Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, "faith is always directed towards the Other and is a person's exit from the limits of his 'I'. As a result, there is a "radical change in his relationships, first of all, with himself."194

The truth of Christ by its very nature cannot be individual. Contact with the Light of Christ's Truth brings enlightenment to the mind, will, and entire life of the confessor.

Faith in God is the basis of man's salvation. The preaching of the one saving faith permeates the entire New Testament and constitutes its main content. Christ, says the Gospel, is "the True Light" (John 1:9). To all who "received Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the power to become children of God" (John 1:12). The meaning of this power is that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:15).

Faith allows a person to see and recognize the facts of God's existence and to comprehend the paths of spiritual life that lead to living communion with God (James 2:20-26).

According to the testimony of the Church Fathers, a true follower of Christ was one who accepted the dogmas of the Church.195 According to Clement of Alexandria, "faith is the only universal salvation of mankind" (Pedagogue, 1, 4). "Right dogmas about God," says St. John Chrysostom, "sanctify the soul." Existence in the Church and acceptance of church dogmas, testifies St. Irenaeus of Lyons, constitute the essence of the "life-giving faith" (Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 3).

The word "symbol" in translation from Greek (to aѵtsRoLoѵ) means a sign, an image, an expression. The Symbol of Faith therefore signifies an exposition of the Church's doctrine, a confession of faith, a rule, a dogma, a tablet of faith by which the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church lives.196

The Creeds have been a generalizing synthesis of the faith and dogmatic truths of the Church since the first century of Christianity.

The church historian of the fourth century, Rufinus, says that the apostles, before departing to preach the Gospel, set before themselves a "model of future preaching," so that, being at a distance from one another, they would offer something uniform to those who were brought to the faith of Christ. To this end, all of them together, moved by the Holy Spirit, formed a single opinion on the faith and determined to give the faithful a sign or symbol, so that by it "he may be known who preaches Christ in truth, according to the rules of the