Orthodox faith is repentance. Repentance is impossible without a meeting with God On the weakening of the eternal torment of the dead without repentance

Complete collection and description: a prayer for the dead without repentance for the spiritual life of a believer.

Prayer of the Monk Leo of Optina for the unbaptized, those who died without repentance and suicides

Seek, O Lord, the lost soul of Thy servant (name): if it is possible to eat, have mercy. Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not put me in sin with this prayer of mine, but may Thy holy will be done.

Venerable Paisios the Great

Troparion, tone 2

Kontakion, tone 2

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Prayer for the weakening of the eternal torment of the dead without repentance: text

Prayer for the weakening of the eternal torment of the dead without repentance: Russian text. Can read Right words Orthodox prayers in Old Church Slavonic.

Prayer for the weakening of the eternal torment of the dead without repentance

Venerable Paisios the Great

Troparion, tone 2:

With divine love from youth we inflame, reverend, all red, even in the world, hate, you loved the only Christ, for this sake you settled in the wilderness, even if you were honored with a Divine visit, It is inconvenient to see and angelic eyes, fall down, bow down. Great Giver, like a Humanitarian I say to you: do not be afraid, my beloved, your works are pleasing to me. Behold, I give you a gift: pray for some sinner, his sins will be forgiven. You, in the purity of your heart, are kindled, taking water and touching the Untouchable, minds His nose and drinking water, enrich yourself with the gift of miracles, heal the sick, drive away demons from people and deliver sinners from torment with your prayer. O Reverend Father Paisios, I pray that you also beg for me, as if you were a God of promises, for from these I am the first sinner, may the Lord give me a time of repentance and forgive my sin, as a Good and Humanitarian, yes with all and I will sing to Him : alleluia.

Kontakion, voice 2:

Leave worldly rumors, you loved the silent life, like the Baptist with all the images, we honor you with him, father of the fathers Paisios.

The passions of the winner, the souls of the helper, about all the prayers, all the salvation of the intercessor and mentor, sighing from the depths of the heart, earnestly and ardently pray to you, Paisio Reverend! Hear and help us, do not reject and do not despise us, but hear abye in the humility of the hearts flowing to you. You, reverend, diligently sought to save your neighbors, and you brought many sinners to the light of salvation. He considered excessive feats of reassurance in itself, wonderful, and, always burning with love for the Lord, you were honored with the appearance of Christ the Savior, and imitating Him, for the people who died, imitating love, and prayed for those who renounced Christ.

Hear us, Paisios most praiseworthy, for we are unworthy of praying for the granting of the great mercy of the Lord to us, because we are sinners, and we have defiled lips and burdened hearts, and under the burden of sins we suffer, and our prayer does not reach the Lord. For this sake, pray for us with your strong and God-pleasing prayer, Saint Paisios, may the relatives who died without repentance, our neighbors and our friends, be delivered from eternal torment, and our Savior will accept your prayer in good will and His mercy instead of their good deeds will give them, free them , we believe, from suffering and instill in the villages of the righteous, and in repentance he will honor us with death, let us glorify together the All-Holy and magnificent name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer for the dead without repentance.

Venerable Paisios the Great

With divine love from youth we inflame, reverend, all red, even in the world, hate, you loved the only Christ, for this sake you settled in the wilderness, even if you were honored with a Divine visit, It is inconvenient to see and angelic eyes, fall down, bow down. Great Giver, like a Humanitarian I say to you: do not be afraid, my beloved, your works are pleasing to me. Behold, I give you a gift: pray for some sinner, his sins will be forgiven. You, in the purity of your heart, are kindled, taking water and touching the Untouchable, minds His nose and drinking water, enrich yourself with the gift of miracles, heal the sick, drive away demons from people and deliver sinners from torment with your prayer. O Reverend Father Paisios, I pray that you also beg for me, as if you were a God of promises, for from these I am the first sinner, may the Lord give me a time of repentance and forgive my sin, as a Good and Humanitarian, yes with all and I will sing to Him : alleluia.

Leave worldly rumors, you loved the silent life, like the Baptist with all the images, we honor you with him, father of the fathers Paisios.

The passions of the winner, the souls of the helper, about all the prayers, all the salvation of the intercessor and mentor, sighing from the depths of the heart, earnestly and ardently pray to you, Paisio Reverend! Hear and help us, do not reject and do not despise us, but hear abye in the humility of the hearts flowing to you. You, reverend, diligently sought to save your neighbors, and you brought many sinners to the light of salvation. He considered excessive feats of reassurance in itself, wonderful, and, always burning with love for the Lord, you were honored with the appearance of Christ the Savior, and imitating Him, for the people who died, imitating love, and prayed for those who renounced Christ. Hear us, Paisios most praiseworthy, for we are unworthy of praying for the granting of the great mercy of the Lord to us, because we are sinners, and we have defiled lips and burdened hearts, and under the burden of sins we suffer, and our prayer does not reach the Lord. For this sake, pray for us with your strong and God-pleasing prayer, Saint Paisios, may the relatives who died without repentance, our neighbors and our friends, be delivered from eternal torment, and our Savior will accept your prayer in good will and His mercy instead of their good deeds will give them, free them , we believe, from suffering and instill in the villages of the righteous, and in repentance he will honor us with death, let us glorify together the All-Holy and magnificent name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever.

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  On the weakening of the eternal torment of the dead without repentance

  Venerable Paisios the Great (from Kontakion)

  With divine love from youth, we inflame the reverend, all the red even in the world hate, Christ alone you loved. For this sake, they settled in the desert, even if they were worthy of a Divine visitation, It is inconvenient to see Him and the angelic eyes, bow down. The Great Giver, like a Lover of mankind, speaks to you: Do not be horrified, My beloved, your deeds are pleasing to Me. Behold, I give you a gift: if you pray for any sinner, his sins will be forgiven. But you, in the purity of your heart, were kindled, taking water and touching the Inviolable, the minds of His feet. And drinking water, enrich yourself with the gift of miracles, deliver sinners from their torment with your prayer, heal the sick, oh, reverend Father Paisios, and drive away demons from people, for I am the first from these sinners. I pray thee, pray to the One who promised you, may he give me time for repentance, and forgive my sin, as the Good and Lover of mankind, and with all I will sing to Him: Alleluia . (Twice s)

  Leave worldly rumors, you loved the silent life, like the Baptist with all the images, we honor you with him, father of the fathers Paisios.

  The passions of the winner, the souls of the helper, about all the prayers, all the salvation of the intercessor and mentor, sighing from the depths of the heart, earnestly and ardently pray to you, Paisio Reverend! Hear and help us, do not reject and do not despise us, but hear abye in the humility of the hearts flowing to you. You, reverend, diligently sought to save your neighbors, and you brought many sinners to the light of salvation. He considered excessive feats of reassurance in itself, wonderful, and, always burning with love for the Lord, you were honored with the appearance of Christ the Savior, and imitating Him, for the people who died, imitating love, and prayed for those who renounced Christ. Hear us, Paisios most praiseworthy, for we are unworthy of praying for the granting of the great mercy of the Lord to us, because we are sinners, and we have defiled lips and burdened hearts, and under the burden of sins we suffer, and our prayer does not reach the Lord. For this sake, pray for us with your strong and God-pleasing prayer, Saint Paisios, may the relatives who died without repentance, our neighbors and our friends, be delivered from eternal torment, and our Savior will accept your prayer in good will and His mercy instead of their good deeds will give them, free them , we believe, from suffering and instill in the villages of the righteous, and in repentance he will honor us with death, let us glorify together the All-Holy and magnificent name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

  On the weakening of the eternal torment of those who died unbaptized

  With the army of holy martyrs, the suffering is lawful, in vain, oneh, showed you courageously your fortress. And rushing to passion with your will, and die lust for Christ, Izhe accepted the honor of the victory of your suffering, Uare, pray that our souls be saved.

  Following Christ, martyr Uare, Having drunk the cup, and tied the crown of torment, and rejoicing with the Angels, pray unceasingly for our souls

  Oh, holy martyr Uare, venerable, with zeal for the Mistress of Christ we kindle, you confessed the Heavenly King before the tormentor, and now the Church honors you, as if glorified from the Lord Christ with the glory of Heaven, Who has given you the grace of great boldness towards Him, and now stand before Him with the Angels, and in the highest you rejoice, and see the Holy Trinity clearly, and enjoy the light of the Beginning Radiance: remember our relatives and languor, who died in ungodliness, accept our petition, and as Cleopatra, the unfaithful generation freed you from eternal torment with your prayers, so remember the figurines buried contrary to God, who died unbaptized (names), try to ask them for deliverance from eternal darkness, so that with one mouth and one heart we praise the Most Merciful Creator forever and ever. Amen.

  Prayer of the Monk Leo of Optina for a parent who died without repentance

  Seek, O Lord, the lost soul of my father, if it is possible to eat, have mercy! Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not put me in the sin of this prayer of mine. But may your holy will be done.

  Remember, Lord our God, in the faith and hope of the belly of the eternally reposed Thy servant (name), and as Good and Lover of mankind, forgive sins and consume iniquity, weaken, leave and forgive all his voluntary sins and involuntary; deliver him eternal torment and the fire of Gehenna and grant him the communion and enjoyment of Your eternal good, prepared for those who love You, and with Your saints, like the Generous, rest; there is no man who will live and not sin. But Thou alone art except for all sin, and Thy righteousness is righteousness forever; and You are the only God of mercies and generosity, and love of mankind, and we send glory to You, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and forever and ever. Amen.

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Prayer to Paisios the Great for those who died without repentance: prayers

Do not depart from us in spirit, preserving us from the arrows of the enemy and all the charms of demons and the wiles of the devil, our good shepherd. (If only the relics of your cancer are always visible before our eyes, but) your holy soul with the Angelic hosts, with the Incorporeal faces, with the Heavenly forces, at the Throne of the Almighty, is worthy of fun.

Leading thee truly and living after death, we fall down and pray to you: pray for us to the Almighty God, for the benefit of our souls, and ask us time for repentance, let us unhinderedly pass from the earth to heaven, from the ordeals of bitter, demons, air let us be delivered from eternal torment, and let us be the heiress of the Kingdom of Heaven with all the righteous, who from the ages have pleased our God Jesus Christ; All glory, honor and worship is due to Him, with His Beginningless Father and with His Most Holy and Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and forever and forever and ever. Amen.

For we do not think of you as if you were dead: if you passed away from us in body, then after death you remain alive.

For the cancer with your relics is always visible before our eyes, but your holy soul with hosts of Angels, with Incorporeal faces, with Heavenly powers, standing at the Throne of the Almighty, rejoices with dignity.

How to pray for the dead without repentance. Schemes for reading the canons of Paisius the Great, Martyr Uar and on Ecumenical Saturdays

Many Christians at least once wondered: how and to whom to pray for relatives, friends, acquaintances who died without repentance. This material contains schemes for reading the canons for the dead without repentance, which an Orthodox Christian can pray. The Old Orthodox, Old Believer tradition knows several names of saints, to whom the Lord granted a special right to intercede for the dead without repentance and unrepentant sinners. Among such holy saints of God, the most famous are the Monk Paisios the Great and the Martyr Uar.

Canon to Saint Paisios the Great

Saint Paisios the Great has deliberate grace to deliver from eternal torment those who have died without repentance. Commemoration takes place on July 2 (N.S.).

"God, merciful..."(3 bows to the belt, if several people pray, then only the elder puts these 3 bows, namely, the one who prays).

Song of Jesus: (bow at the waist).

( "God is the Lord...").

(bow at the waist).

Further, the canon itself is read to the Monk Paisios the Great. The canon consists of 9 songs, the 2nd song is missing. According to the 1st song, the chant is read: "Reverend Father Paisios the Great, pray to God for us" (bow). According to the 3rd ode of the canon, the sedal is read, voice 2: "Binding my soul with the love of Christ..." Glory, and now, the Theotokos: "Quick cover ...". According to the 6th pension of the canon, the kontakion is read, tone 2: "Leave everyday rumors ...". Ikos: "Hearing the voice of Christ..." According to the 9th song, a dignified man is read, in tone 8: “Mistress, accept the prayer of Your servants…” (bow to the earth).

Then the Trisagion is read, and according to the Our Father. Jesus Prayer. Troparion to the Monk Paisios the Great twice: "Divine love..."

"Lord have mercy" (40 times). Glory, and now. "The most honest cherub ...". (twice), Lord bless (with bows at the waist). Vacation:

"Lord have mercy"(thrice). Initial offerings.

Canon to the Martyr Huar

Also about people who died in unbelief or heresy, the canon to the martyr Uar is read. There are two canons for him, the second canon is the great one. The memory of the martyr Uar is celebrated on November 1 (N.S.). It should be noted that prayer for people who died in heresy or unbelief is performed privately, at home, outside the church, since during their lives these people did not visit the temple of God. There are times when people during their lifetime openly fought against God or blasphemed. In such cases, the possibility of commemorating the deceased should be consulted with your spiritual father or another experienced priest.

The seven-bow began. Publican's Prayer "B" oh, merciful...» ( - one who prays).

Song of Jesus: “For the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (us), amen” (bow at the waist).

"God is the Lord and appear to us, blessed are those who come in the name of the Lord."

"Confess to the Lord, for it is Good, for His mercy is forever."

“He went around me and resisted them in the name of the Lord.”

“I will not die, but I will live and do the work of the Lord.”

“The stone, which builders do not care for it, This was at the head of the corner, this was from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (and after each verse we say: "God is the Lord...").

Glory, and now (Mother of God): "Hidden from time immemorial..."

"Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (us), amen" (bow at the waist).

Further, the canon itself is read to the martyr Uar. The canon consists of 9 songs, the 2nd song is missing. According to the 1st song, the chant is read: "Holy martyr Uare, pray to God for us" (bow). According to the 3rd ode of the canon, a sedal is read, tone 1: "The passions of the honest seeing the martyr ...". Glory, and now, the Theotokos: "To the hope of the Christians, the Blessed Virgin ...". According to the 6th pension of the canon, the kontakion is read, tone 4th: Ikos: “Give me singing, my God…”. According to the 9th song is read “Worthy to eat…” (bow to the earth).

Then the Trisagion is read, and according to the Our Father. Jesus Prayer. Two troparia to the martyr Uar: “Your martyr, O Lord Uar…”, “The army of saints suffering from the law…”

Glory, kontakion: "Following Christ the martyr Uare ...". And now, the Mother of God: "Hidden from time immemorial...".

"Lord have mercy" (40 times). Glory, and now. "The most honest cherub ...". Glory, and now. Lord have mercy(twice), Lord bless (with bows at the waist). Vacation: "Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God..."

"Lord have mercy"(thrice). Initial offerings.

The Great Canon to the Martyr Uar has the same reading scheme as the previous one.

Canon on Ecumenical Sabbaths

The canon for the dead, read on Ecumenical Saturdays (Meat and Trinity), is aimed at commemorating very many departed souls, in particular, for those who died under unknown circumstances, went missing, died during mass disasters, etc. Of course, that many of these people died without repentance. This canon, since it is addressed to the Lord God Himself, if read with diligence, will great benefit the souls of the dead who died without repentance.

The seven-bow began. Publican's Prayer "God, merciful..." (3 bows to the belt, if several people pray, then only the elder puts these 3 bows, namely - one who prays).

Song of Jesus “For the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (us), amen” (bow at the waist).

Then the troparion, voice, 8th is read: "Beyond the depths of wisdom..."

Glory, and now. Bogorodichen: "You have a city and a haven of Imams ..."

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (us), amen" (bow)

The canon consists of 9 songs. According to the 1st song, the chant is read: "Rest, Lord, soul of His servants who have fallen asleep" (bow). According to the 3rd song, a saddle is read, voice 6th "Truly, all vanity ...". According to the 6th song, kontakion is read, voice 8th Peace with the saints.... Ikos “Thou art from the beginning alone immortal…”. According to the 9th ode of the canon it reads: “Worthy to eat…” (bow to the earth).

Chorus “For the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (us), amen” (bow at the waist)

Vacation "Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God..."

“As a servant of God who has passed away from the ages to all Orthodox Christians, we also create remembrance of them: eternal memory, eternal memory, eternal memory.”

Then they pray for the dead troparion three times with bows “Rest, Lord, the soul of His servants who have fallen asleep, who have passed away from the ages of all Orthodox Christians (bow). And the fir tree in this life is like people have sinned. You are like a philanthropist God forgive them and have mercy (bow). Deliver eternal torment (bow). Communicators make the Heavenly Kingdom (bow). And create useful things for our souls (bow)».

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Repentance is the beginning of the Christian new life, or the Christian new being, being in Christ.

Thus began the gospel with the words of St. : " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ". And Christ's sermon after Baptism was: Repent and Believe in the Gospel «.

But in our time the question is raised: why is repentance necessary? From a social point of view, it is inappropriate to talk about repentance. There is, of course, some semblance of repentance, especially in the countries of Eastern totalitarianism: when someone deviates from the party line, they demand from him " repentance“, or when the leaders of the party themselves deviate from their original plan - only this is not called repentance, but some kind of “ reform" or " perestroika"... There is no real repentance here. Which of you saw Abuladze's film ""? There, it is precisely about false repentance, and only at the end of the film is it clear what true repentance is. The film exposes false repentance as a kind of change " ideal", or " style a power that remains essentially the same. And indeed, such repentance has nothing to do with true repentance.

In Scripture there are (in the Greek text) two different expressions for repentance. One expression - metanoia , and the other metamelia . Sometimes this second expression is not translated by the word " repentance"and the word" repentance". I thought, for example, to go to Frankfurt and " repented“, that is, I changed my mind: I won’t go. This is what is called in Scripture metamelia“It's just a change of intent. This is no spiritual significance does not have. There is also, in a social or psychological sense, something like " remorse“That is change. In the field of psychology, there perestroika"his character, his neurosis ... In depth psychology, Adler, or Freud, and even Jung do not have the concept of repentance.

Repentance is a religious concept

You have to repent before someone. It does not mean simply changing the style of life or one's inner feeling or one's experience, as is meant, say, in Eastern religions and cultures. These religions say that a person must get his own experience, must know himself, fulfill himself, so that the light, his consciousness, awakens. But such a change does not require God. And Christian repentance is certainly before someone.

And here's an example for you. One of our Serbs - now he is 60 years old - was a communist in his youth and, like all of them, did a lot of evil to the people. But then he turned to faith, to God, to the Church, and when he was offered to take communion, he said: No, I did a lot of evil «. — « Well go confess «. — « Well no , - He speaks, - I will go to confession to the priest, but I have sinned before the people, I need to openly confess to the people «.

This is the expression of the full consciousness of what repentance is. Here you see the church's perception, ancient Christian and truly biblical, that a person is never alone in the world. He stands, first of all, before God, but also before people. Therefore, in the Bible, a person's sin before God always has to do with his neighbor, which means that it has a social, social dimension and consequences. And this is felt both in our people and among the great Russian writers. The Orthodox people have a feeling that some kind of thief or tyrant, or one who does evil to his neighbor, is the same as an atheist. Let him believe in God, but this is useless, in fact he will simply blaspheme God, since his life is at odds with faith.

Hence comes a holistic understanding of repentance as a proper standing both before God and before people. Repentance cannot be measured only by social or psychological scales, but there is always a God-revealed, biblical, Christian concept.

Christ begins his gospel, his good news, his teaching of mankind with repentance. St. Mark the Ascetic, a disciple of St. John Chrysostom, who lived in the 4th-5th centuries in Asia Minor as a hermit, teaches that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's power and God's Wisdom, providing for the salvation of all, from all his various dogmas and commandments left only one the law is the law of freedom, but that one comes to this law of freedom only through repentance. Christ commanded the apostles: Preach to all nations repentance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ". And the Lord wanted to say by this that the power of the Kingdom of Heaven is contained in the power of repentance, just as the leaven contains bread or the whole plant is contained in the grain. Thus, repentance is the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let's remember the message of St. Apostle Paul to the Jews: those who repented felt the power of the Kingdom of Heaven, the power of the future age. But as soon as they turned to sin, they lost this strength, and it was necessary to revive repentance again.

So, repentance is not just a social or psychological ability to get along with other people without conflict. Repentance is an ontological, that is, an existential category of Christianity. When Christ began the gospel with repentance, he had in mind the ontological reality of man. Let us say in the words of St. Gregory Palamas: the commandment of repentance and other commandments given by the Lord fully correspond to human nature itself, for in the beginning He created this human nature. He knew that later He Himself would come and give the commandments, and therefore He created nature according to the commandments that would be given. And vice versa, the Lord gave such commandments, which corresponded to the nature, which He created in the beginning. Thus, the word of Christ about repentance is not a slander on the nature of man, it is not " imposition» the nature of man is something alien to it, but the most natural, normal, corresponding to human nature. The only thing is that human nature is fallen, and therefore is now in an abnormal state for itself. But it is precisely repentance that is the lever by which a person can correct his nature, return it to its normal state. That is why the Savior said: Metanoite " - i.e " change your mind «.

The fact is that our thought has gone away from God, has gone away from ourselves and others. And this is a sick, pathological state of a person, which in Slavonic is called the word " passion", and in Greek the word" pathos"(pathology). This is just a disease, a perversion, but not yet destruction, just as a disease is not the destruction of an organism, but simply damage. The sinful state of a person is a corruption of his nature, but a person can recover, accept correction, and therefore repentance comes like health to a sore spot, to a sick nature of a person. And since the Savior said that we must repent, even if we do not feel the need for repentance in ourselves, then we must believe Him that we really need to repent. And in fact, the closer the great saints got closer to God, the stronger they felt the need for repentance, because they felt the depth of the fall of man.

Another example from the present. A certain Peruvian writer Carlos Castaneda has already written 8 books about some Indian sage and magician, Don Juan in Mexico, who taught him to take drugs in order to get a state of a second, special reality, to enter the depths of the created world and feel its spirituality, to meet spiritual creatures. Castaneda is an anthropologist, and aroused great interest among the youth. Unfortunately, we have already translated 8 volumes. The other day in Belgrade there was a discussion: what is Castaneda - accept it or reject it. One psychiatrist said that taking drugs to hallucinate is a dangerous path from which one can hardly return. One writer praised Castaneda. I was the harshest critic.

There is nothing new in the diagnosis of Don Juan by the writer Castaneda. Humanity is in a tragic, abnormal state. But what does he suggest to get out of this state? To feel another reality, to free ourselves a little from our limitations. And what happens? Nothing! Man remains a tragic being, not redeemed or even redeemed. He cannot, like Baron Munchausen, lift himself out of the swamp by his hair. The Apostle Paul points out: neither other heavens, nor another creation, nor the other world, nor the seventh heaven can save a person, for a person is not an impersonal being who needs only peace and tranquility. He is a living person, and seeks living communion with God.

One Serbian communist peasant said rather rudely: “Well, where is God, so that I would take Him by the throat?” Is he an atheist? No, he is not an atheist, but he feels God vividly, quarrels with God, like Jacob. Of course, it is a disgrace on the part of this Serb to say so, but he feels living life… And to consider that salvation is in some kind of balanced bliss, in nirvana, in the inner world of concentration and meditation, does not lead a person anywhere. This even closes the possibility of his salvation, because man is a creature created from non-existence into existence and invited to fellowship...

In the Song of Songs or in the Psalms we see an existential dialogue between God and man. They both suffer. And God is sorry for man, and man is sorry. Dostoevsky especially clearly showed that when a person moves away from God, something precious and great is lost. Such a mistake, not coming to meet God is always a tragedy. Tragedy is the consciousness of losing what we could comprehend. When a person loses love, moves away from God, he feels it tragically, because he was created for love. Repentance brings us back to this normal state, or at least to the beginning of a normal path. Repentance, as Father Justin (Popovich) said, is like an earthquake that destroys everything that only seemed stable, but turns out to be false, and then everything that was must be changed. Then begins the real, constant creation of the personality, the new man.

Repentance is impossible without meeting God. Therefore, God goes to meet man. If repentance were simply contemplation, repentance, the disposition of one's forces in a different way, it would be a restructuring, but not a change in essence. A sick person, as St. Cyril of Alexandria says, cannot heal himself, but he needs a healer - God. What is the disease? In the corruption of love. There shouldn't be one-sided love. Love must be at least two-sided. And for the fullness of love, in fact, three are needed: God, neighbor and I. I, God and neighbor. Neighbor, God and me. This is perekhorisis, the interpenetration of love, the circulation of love. That is what eternal life is. In repentance, a person feels that he is sick and seeks God. Therefore, repentance always has a regenerating power. Repentance is not just self-pity, or depression, or an inferiority complex, but always a consciousness and a feeling that communication has been lost, and immediately a search and even the beginning of the restoration of this communication. The prodigal son came to himself and said: Here's the state I'm in. But I have a father, and I will go to my father! » If he had simply realized that he had gone astray, this would not yet have been Christian repentance. And he went to his father! According to the Holy Scriptures, it can be assumed that the father had already gone out to meet him, that the father, as it were, took the first step, and this was reflected in the son's motivation to return. It is not necessary, of course, to analyze which is first and which is second: the meeting is double. Both God and man in repentance enter into the activity of love. Love seeks fellowship. Repentance is regret for lost love.

Only when repentance itself begins, then a person feels the need for it. It would seem that first a person needs to feel that he needs repentance, that it is salvation for him. But in fact, it turns out paradoxically that only when a person already experiences repentance, then he feels the need for it. This means that the unconscious of the heart is deeper than the consciousness that God gives to those who want it. Christ said: Who can accommodate, yes accommodate ". Saint Gregory the Theologian asks, who can accommodate ? And answers: whoever wants . Of course, the will is not just a conscious decision, but much deeper. Dostoevsky also felt this, and Orthodox asceticism knows that the will is much deeper than the human mind, it is rooted in the core of a person, which is called the heart or spirit. As in Psalm 50: Create a pure heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb. ". This is a parallelism: the heart is pure - the spirit is right; create - update; in me - in my womb, that is, only in other words is confirmed what was already said in the first part. The heart or spirit is the essence of man, the depth of man's god-like personality. It can even be said that love and freedom are contained in the very center, in the core of man. God's love called man out of nothingness. The call of God came true, and the answer came. But this answer is personal! That is, a person is an answer to the call of God.

St. Basil the Great says (and this has entered the service of the holy Archangels) that all angelic forces strive with irresistible love for Christ. Let them be angels, let them be great spiritual beings, almost gods, but they also have emptiness without Christ, without God. Dostoevsky put into the mouth of Versilov in " Teenager "an image that humanity has realized social truth, love, solidarity, altruism, but having expelled from the earth the great idea of ​​​​God and immortality. And when Christ appeared in His Second Coming, then all of a sudden they felt — they are all happy, who have realized the kingdom of the earth, “ heaven on earth “, they felt that they had an emptiness in their souls, the emptiness of the absence of God. So there was no love. And Dostoevsky rightly said that love for man is impossible without love for God.

The two commandments of love are united. Love for God completely, being your own, and love for your neighbor completely, as you love yourself. They cannot exist one without the other, and together they only create the Christian cross: vertical and horizontal. If you take away one, then no more cross is obtained, and there is no Christianity. Love of God is not enough, and love of neighbor is not enough.

Repentance and love

Repentance immediately arouses a person both to love for God and for love of one's neighbor.

Theophan the Recluse in Paths to salvation says (but this is also the experience of all the Fathers) that when a person awakens to repentance, he immediately feels that he loves his neighbor. He is no longer proud, he does not consider himself great. He wants everyone to be saved. This is already a sign of true Christian life. This means that repentance opens the way for us in an abnormal state, in a sinful, alienated state, a turn to a normal state, a turn to God and correction before God. It reveals the full truth about the human condition. And repentance immediately turns into confession. Confession is the revelation of the true man. Sometimes even us. Orthodox Christians, it seems that repentance is a kind of " duty» the person who us « should be followed". But no, this is too low an understanding of confession. And the confession is similar to what one Russian old woman told me about, who guarded her little grandson. For some tricks, she spanked him on the arms; he went into a corner and wept with resentment. She did not pay any more attention to him, but continued to work. But finally, the grandson comes to her: “ Grandma, they beat me here and it hurts here". Grandmother was so touched by this appeal that she herself began to cry. The childish approach won over the grandmother.

He opened up to her. So, confession-repentance is a kind of disclosure of oneself before God. Like those words from the psalm that passed into the irmos: “ Prayer to the Lord “… you seem to have a jug of dirty water and just pour it out before God…” And I will tell Tom my sorrows, for my soul is filled with evil and my life has reached the bottom of hell ". He simply feels that he has fallen to the depths of hell, like Jonah in the whale, and now he opens himself before God.

Confession as a continuation of repentance is the true self-disclosure of man. Yes, we are sinners, that is why we reveal our wounds, illnesses, sins. A person sees himself in a desperate, hopeless situation. But what is truly true is that he looks not only at himself, but, as St. Anthony the Great: put your sin in front of you and look at God on the other side of sins. Through sins look at God! But then sin will not stand the competition of meeting with God. God conquers all: what is sin? Nothing! Nonsense before God. But this is before God! And in itself, for me, it is an abyss, death, hell. As David the Psalmist says: From the depths I called to You - raise my belly from the abyss! ". Our soul yearns for God, as a deer in the desert yearns for flowing water.

Like St. Augustine felt that nowhere can a man's heart rest—only in God. As when something happens to a child, he runs and looks for his mother and no one else, and he wants nothing more than his mother, but when he falls into the arms of his mother, he calms down.

Therefore, the Gospel is precisely a book of basic relationships: it talks about a child, about a father, about a son, about a house, about a family. The gospel is not a theory, not a philosophy, but an expression of existential relations - ours among ourselves, and ours with God.

So confession is revealing the truth about yourself. There is no need to slander yourself, that is, to scold yourself more than you are really sinful, but you don’t need to hide it either. If we hide, we show by this that there is no sincere love for God in us. is a recorded living experience taken from reality. Much is shown in the Bible, there are many sins, both apostasy and theomachism, but in all this you will not find one thing, this is insincerity. There is no area in life where God is not present. One must know, Father Justin said, as the holy prophets knew that there is much evil in man, and the world is lost in evil, but that there is salvation for such a world and such a person. This is our joy! There is a possibility of salvation, and there is a real Savior.

Father Justin once showed this by such an example (he loved the prophet Elijah and John the Baptist very much!). According to him, the Forerunner was the most unfortunate person in the world, because as a child he went with his mother to the desert, and when his mother died, he remained there, and God protected him with Angels. So, he lived in a pure desert, with a pure sky, pure stones, pure rain and did not know sin, he lived like an Angel of God in the body. But now, when he was 30 years old, God told him: go to the Jordan and baptize people. And then people come to him and begin to confess… they pour out sins on the Forerunner, which become a hill… a mountain… And the Forerunner cannot endure these sins. Do you know what sins people have and carry in themselves! And the Forerunner begins to despair: Lord, is this the man you created? Is this the fruit of Your hand? » Forerunner began to drown. And the masses go to confession - how many more sins must pile up? And when the Forerunner can no longer endure, suddenly God says to him: Here is the Lamb of God, among these sinners One, uplift (taking) the sins of all these and the whole world ". And then the most unhappy person becomes the happiest. Glory to Thee, Lord! This means that there is salvation from these sins and from all sins.

There is a Savior! This Father Justin expresses, of course, from his own experience, what kind of repentance the Forerunner experienced there. And indeed, I will speak from my little experience with Father Justin. He was a man who lived like the Forerunner: a pure, great ascetic, and he sympathized, like Metropolitan Atony (Khrapovitsky), sympathized with sinners, sympathized with every person, all creatures, and God gave him for this compassion the great gift of tears. And it was not something foreign to us. Human tears are always close to each of us. Near a person who sincerely repents, one can feel that repentance is also what we need, that tears are natural water, as precious as blood, it is new blood Christian, this is a new baptism, as the fathers said. Through tears, we renew baptismal water, which becomes warm and full of grace.

Fasting and repentance

And fasting is added to such repentance.

Saint John of Kronstadt in My life in Christ ”writes that when a person hates, his gaze prevents another from even walking. A person not only suffers from sin, but everything around him suffers, right down to nature, and when a person begins to repent and fast, this is reflected in everything around him.

Allow me this digression: if modern humanity fasted more, there would not be so many environmental problems. Man's attitude to nature is not at all fasting, not ascetic. It is brutal and violent. Man is already an exploiter, or an occupier. This is what Marx taught: you just have to pounce on nature and use it, master the laws and reproduce. This will be " story" etc. Such an attitude is different, only not human, not humane.

The holy fathers ascetics said that we are not carnivores, but passion-killers. Fasting is not a struggle against the flesh as God's creatures. And Christ is flesh, and His Communion is also flesh. But the struggle must go with the perversion of the flesh. Each of us can realize and feel that if a person does not control himself, his body, then he already becomes a slave to food, or drink, or other pleasures. A thing begins to own a person, and not a person a thing.

The fall of Adam was that he did not want to restrain himself: when he ate the fruit, he did not receive anything new. The commandment was not to forbid him to eat this fruit, as if there was something dangerous in it, but to teach him to discipline himself in order to put him on the path of achievement. This is the feat of freedom and the feat of love. No one but man can do it, and therefore he is called to do it. To participate in the freedom and love of God, a person must be an ascetic.

For example, an athlete, a football player, must be an ascetic. He can't drink and eat and do what he wants and be a good athlete. Can not. It is clear as day, as the sun.

The Christian, on the other hand, must tame his body even more so that it serves (in Greek, liturgisalo), that is, so that it is in “ liturgy ". BUT " liturgy " means: full, normal general function, general activity. When we talk about the Holy Liturgy, this is the service of people to God, but the general meaning of this word is the normal functioning of everything that is given to man.

Therefore, a Christian who goes to repent also uses fasting. It is necessary to fast for this, and not just to fulfill a duty or even, as some people think, to earn a reward from God, a crown. No sacrifice that seeks a reward is a sacrifice, but simply a job waiting to be paid. Mercenaries may think so, not sons. Christ, when he made a sacrifice for us, did not seek a reward from God the Father for this, but went out of love. As Metropolitan Filaret says, the Son was crucified out of love for God the Father; out of the love of the Son for us He was crucified, and out of the love of the Holy Spirit He conquered death by His crucifixion. Only love can understand this.

This is the correct understanding of fasting.

In addition, fasting helps us correct corrupted human nature, bring in the necessary order that God has given. It is to feed first of all on the word of God, and then on bread. Bread is definitely needed. We cannot live without bread. But bread comes second. As Christ answered the devil who tempted Him in the wilderness: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God ". By the Word of God, that means fellowship with God.

I remember one Russian sufferer who was a librarian at our faculty.

He spent four years at Dachau. He adopted and raised one Serbian orphan, then married him. And this wife drove the old man out of the house. The old man then died very poor. He said that in Dachau one could see by the face who had a living communion with God. There was no hypocrisy. He told me, among other things, that, in his opinion, Berdyaev had never had a living contact with God. Of course, Berdyaev is a tragic figure, a sufferer, a kind of martyr, and one cannot simply reject him. But he is too pretentious, he did not know humility, he even scolded humility.

Resign not from an inferiority complex

And before God you need to humble yourself, but not at all from " inferiority complex". Job was sick, long-suffering, but he was not " inferior» before God. He was humble, and this humility gave him boldness. " Come down from heaven Job said to God, and God descended. We do not need to accept psychological or social categories: humility is not impotence, but precisely boldness. For example, I came to Vladyka Mark, I have no money, I would die here, but I hope that Vladyka will feed me and will not leave me. This is boldness. Otherwise, I will underestimate not only myself, but also the lord.

And here is how the ancient Christians prayed. One Egyptian monk said: I have sinned as a human. You are like God, have mercy ". Humility and boldness go side by side, together.

All together, beginning with repentance—whether repentance presupposes faith or is born in faith—it doesn't matter, they go together. Faith in God immediately includes repentance in my tragedy, in my problem, in my life. I do not agree to solve my problem without God. I am looking for communication. And God showed through Christ that He wants fellowship with us. He gave his Son! He loved us before we loved Him. So He is also looking for fellowship. This God is truly philanthropic, the God is active, the God who is called by some fathers " pre-eros". In order to enter into His omnipotence, He comes out to meet us, and by this He limits Himself to our measure in order to receive us. It is called " kenosis ". If He walked straight towards us, then... as if the sun burned us, we would just disappear. And He belittled Himself out of love, seeking our fellowship not forcibly, simply - He Himself wants it that way. And this immediately gives us dignity. Therefore, in our Orthodox Christian tradition there is a great basis for boldness, for hope in God. Man is sinful, but still: God is greater than sin! AT " Besakh "Dostoevsky, the elder Tikhon said this to Stavrogin:" You only have one step to the saints ". Indeed, this one step a person can take and meet God. There is never an impossible thing. It is impossible for man, but it is possible for God. And God has entered into this connection with us and does not want us to solve our problems without Him. And we have no reason to doubt it, since He gave His Son.

Powerful Reasons to Repent

These are powerful reasons we have for repentance. This is not just some kind of moral teaching of a person that one must be good, and therefore one must repent. No, repentance renews in us the very foundations of the Christian faith. God wants our salvation, seeks it, and longs for it, and waits for it. For our part, it is only necessary that we want, and then we will be able, not by ourselves, but by God.

Repentance with all the Christian virtues that accompany it, like confession, humility, boldness, hope, fasting, prayer... repentance is already a foretaste of the resurrection, even the beginning of the resurrection. This is the first resurrection of man. The second will be the result, the consummation at the Second Coming of Christ.

Such an experience of repentance does not exist in any religion, nor in any spiritual experience, nor in any mysticism. Even, unfortunately, even in Western Christianity this feeling, this experience, this event has almost been lost.

Father Justin told us that he was from the beginning of 1917 to 1919. at Oxford, where he studied. And then one Anglican monk, after two years of friendship, said to him: “ All of you are young, cheerful, like us, but you have one thing that we, as a church, do not have - this is repentance, we do not know this ... «. « The fact - Father Justin said, - that we once quarreled for real. And then I could no longer stand it and went to him to ask for forgiveness, threw myself at his feet, cried, and the man accepted this ... So he saw repentance «.

The fathers have instructions that there is no need to inflate passions, no one even needs " step on the shadow “… but in order for this to be real humility, it must be done with love, that is, it must not be simply indifference to the condition of a brother. Otherwise, this is not humility or dispassion, but just some kind of conventional attitude, " good tone“, that is, hypocrisy, officially established: one should not interfere in other people's affairs. (Let people die in Vietnam, Yugoslavia or Cuba). It all comes down to external propriety... As Father Justin used to say: culture is very often polish, but inside is a worm. Of course, you don't have to be aggressive either. But God led us Orthodox through history in such a way, we opened ourselves to Him in such a way that we could never be without problems. But recognizing the status quo, recognizing the abnormal regime as normal, is not Christianity. Repentance is precisely a protest against an abnormal state. There are difficulties in the family, in the parish, in the diocese, in the state, in the world - a Christian cannot deal with this " to reconcile". He definitely fights. But he starts with himself, so repentance is self-condemnation, self-restraint, or, as Solzhenitsyn said, or what Tarkovsky said, shame, shame as a religious concept, in the sense that a person returns to himself and begins to be ashamed. At the end of the film "" Abuladze shows what true human repentance is. A person begins to be ashamed of his deeds and immediately there is a determination to change this. It can be said that only in Orthodox countries, in Russia, in Serbia, in Greece, there is repentance as a theme (and even in literature). We have recently published a novel by Lubardo "" - about the relations of Serbs, Muslims and Catholics in Bosnia. And in his novel, only the Serbs repent. And the Serbs not only speak, but also do repentance.

Thank God, this means that we are sinners. And this is not pride, we do not praise ourselves, but we cannot reconcile ourselves to such a situation, neither ours nor others. Father Justin called this the genuine revolutionary spirit of Christians against sin, against evil, against the devil, against death. This is the rebellion of man against the false self, and the rebellion against the false in another person, and in religion, the rebellion against false gods and the struggle for the true God. Repentance is looking for a true vision of the world, God, man, looking for the right faith.

I am personally shocked that young people in Russia are now returning in droves to God, to Orthodoxy. This is how it is with us too. It is not just to find faith in some god, to reject atheism and find some kind of mysticism, but to find the living God, to get involved in the true life of the Church. The other day I read a good article by Vladimir Zelinsky " Church Time". It can be seen how a person found God, found Christ, found the Church. If a person just somehow repented and wants to live, no matter what church he belongs to, then I doubt the authenticity of even this original repentance. It's kind of " metamelia", but not " throwing ". This is not a true restoration of life. That is why the fathers stood so zealously for the faith.

But we must not forget behind this the fact that love is the first dogma of our faith. Love is the true cross, but don't be afraid of love if it leads to the cross. Never forget that when love is on the cross, it still remains love. If Christ had not said: Father, forgive them! “Then was not Christ, believe me. He would be a hero, an ideal man, but not the true Christ the Savior. And Dostoevsky in " Grand Inquisitor» Christ kisses even the inquisitor. This is not sentimentality, not romanticism, this is true love that is not afraid. Therefore, we Orthodox always feel that our strength and invincibility is not in ourselves, but in the authenticity of what we seek, desire, what we believe in and what we live for.

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It is not worth talking about how important the sacrament of repentance is, because without it the whole Orthodox life is simply impossible, even its beginning cannot do without repentance. Therefore, a believing Christian constantly returns to repentance, but not only mentally, but necessarily by his deeds, otherwise it turns out that human faith is dead without deeds.

Repentance vs remorse, what's the difference

Such a confession belongs to one of the seven existing Sacraments in the Orthodox Christian religion and which was established by the Lord God himself. That is, this sacrament represents the comprehension of one's sinful deeds, regret for what one has done, and firmness in the intention not to make such a future correction of the sins committed, not only in thought, but also in deed.

Let's see what repentance is and what are the differences between repentance and confession.

Repentance is a kind of awareness of sinfulness and one's experiences associated with such comprehension. That is, it is not only regret about the deeds done that do not correspond to existing moral standards and written commandments, but something more - repentance or, in other words, disapproval of everything that has been done. Therefore, for the feasibility of such a rite, it is necessary to sincerely and wholeheartedly repent and have a strong desire to change your life.

Repentance vs Confession - What's the difference? The difference lies in the fact that a person performs this rite every second, repenting in prayer or calling on the Lord at home, as well as in church, but without turning to the priest for confession. Confession consists in the fact that, having come to the Temple to the clergyman, the believer begins to speak about his sinful deeds before him, but at the same time pronouncing these sins to the Almighty.

Holy Fathers on repentance

Saint Isaac the Syrian: “What is repentance? Leaving the past and all the sorrows about it, i.e. repentance is the gate of beneficence, opening them to those who seek well. Through such gates, the Orthodox enter into the grace of the Lord, and apart from this exit, mercy cannot be found”;

Saint Silouan of Athos: “Here is a sign of pardon for sins: since you disliked sin, the Almighty will be able to forgive sinful deeds”;

St. Thalassios: “The pardon of sins is freedom from passions, and those who do not gain freedom from them will not know forgiveness.”

Turning to the vast pastoral experience Christian Church It should be noted that such repentance in Orthodoxy occurs in three stages, that is:

• immediately with the realization of the committed sinful act;
• at the end of the day;
• at confession.

For the first time, a person repents at the time when he realizes that he has committed a sin, and even if the understanding of the sinful act came immediately according to his teaching. However, it should be remembered that it is not worth delaying in turning to the Almighty in a penitential prayer service (and asking for pardon for a person in cases where a believer has committed a sinful act against his neighbor).

But at the same time, it will be considered a big mistake to postpone repentance until later, justifying it by the fact that now is not the most convenient time, etc. A sinful act is akin to an illness, and the sooner you start its treatment, the more successfully and quickly it will pass, therefore, the sooner you confess, the less harm sin will have, because. it is dangerous to be in sin.

At the end of the day, a person mentally recalls all the events that have occurred and again comes to his sin. I will think a little about him (that is, what was the reason, what will be the consequences and how to deal with all this), asks the Almighty for mercy. Such an evening ritual can help a believing Christian to establish a more attentive Orthodox life.

During the Sacrament in front of the invisible Lord God, the believer asks for forgiveness, and the clergyman pronounces a permissive prayer, as if I testify to the Almighty repentance for the sin of the Orthodox believer.

These are the prayerful words that should be pokakat in the deed:

Heavenly Father! I come to You in prayer, realizing all my sinfulness. I believe Your Word. I believe that You accept everyone who comes to You. Lord, forgive all my sins, be merciful to me. I don't want to live the old life. I want to belong to you, Jesus! Come into my heart, cleanse me. Be my Savior and Shepherd. Lead my life. I confess You, Jesus Christ, as my Lord. I thank You that You hear my prayer, and by faith I accept Your salvation. Thank You, my Savior, for accepting me for who I am. Amen.

After the priest has repented of his sins and the corresponding prayer has been read, the believing Christian at the end of the ceremony must kiss the Cross and the Gospel with his lips.

May the Lord keep you!

It will also be interesting for you to watch a video on how to repent in confession correctly:

Repentance(from the Greek μετάνοια (metanoia) - change of consciousness, rethinking, insight) -
1) deep repentance, contrition about, characterized by sadness and grief caused by a wound of conscience, but most importantly, a living feeling of separation from God; accompanied by a strong desire for purification, transformation of life; trust and hope in the Lord. In a broad sense, repentance means a fundamental change in life: from arbitrarily sinful, proud and self-sufficient - to a life according to God, in love and striving for.
2) in which, by sincere confession of sins before the face of a priest, the sinner, by the mercy of God, is freed from sinful impurity by the power of Divine grace.

Repentance is a change in the inner and outer life of a person, which consists in a resolute rejection of sin and the desire to lead a life in accordance with the all-holy will of God.

Repentance begins with a change in the human, turning away from and wanting to unite with God. Repentance is always a change of mind, that is, a change from one direction of the mind to another. A change of mind is followed by a change that God gives to experience His grace-filled love and holiness. The knowledge of God also gives strength to a person not to repeat sin and resist his actions. At the same time, the tasting of Divine love and holiness requires a considerable feat from a person in order to keep it in his soul. In this feat, God tests the free intention of man to reject sin and abide with Him forever.

Following the Divine commandments meets the resistance of fallen human nature, which is why repentance is inextricably linked with the tension of the will in moving from sin to God or. In asceticism, a sincere desire to overcome sin is required from a person, and grace is given from God to overcome it. The feat of repentance is the work of a person's whole life, since a person must strive all his life to unite with God and be freed from sin.

For the remission of committed sins, the Church established the Sacrament of Repentance (Confession), which requires sincere repentance of a person for a sin committed and the determination not to repeat it with the help of God. Repentance is the denunciation of one's sin, it is the determination not to repeat it in the future.

We sin against God, against our neighbor, and against ourselves. We sin with deeds, words and even thoughts. “There is no person who lives on earth and does not sin,” the prayer for the dead says. But there is no such sin that is not forgiven by God upon our repentance. For the salvation of sinners, God became a man, was crucified and rose from the dead.

The priest obviously accepts confession, but invisibly it is the Lord Himself, who gave the pastors of the Church the remission of sins. " Lord and God our Jesus Christ, by the grace and bounty of His philanthropy, may all your sins be forgiven, and I, an unworthy priest, by His power given to me, forgive and forgive you from all your sins", says the priest.

Each confession is a step

AT permissive prayer, which the priest reads over each person individually, there are such words: “Reconcile and unite him to the Holy of Your Church ... give him an image of repentance ...” That is, the time for repentance seems to have ended, it seems that the person confessed, but asks the Lord to give him an image of repentance . And why? Because, as the Holy Fathers say, when a person enters a dark room, at first he does not see anything, and then his eyes rest, he begins to distinguish between large objects, then smaller ones, and if you light up the room, he will see everything in even more detail. - From confession to confession, a person spiritually begins to see clearly.

Each confession is a step for the next stage. The Lord then opens more, more, in parts. First - the most important, noticeable, then less, less, less, even to the point of words, sometimes it is remembered how a person sinned. This is the work of repentance, which is done by a person who is trying to get rid of sins.

How does true Christian repentance differ from a mechanical enumeration of sins?

The attitude to repentance as a mechanical act of liberation from the yoke of sin is based on a false, crudely legal interpretation of the doctrine of Salvation and implies, as the main condition, the need for a mechanical enumeration of sins. According to this idea, the most important thing is to voice the sins before the priest; he, in turn, will pray, and God, being infinitely merciful, will certainly respond and forgive.

In reality, the basis of repentance should lie not only in the realization of guilt, but also in the firm desire for inner purification, change in life, eradication of sinful desires, sinful passions. The fruit of repentance should be not only tears of regret for sin, but also good deeds. Without such a striving, it is impossible to become like God, unite with Him and deify. If a person, repenting of sins, has in mind the above, God helps him, strengthens his spiritual strength, affirms in goodness.

As one grows in righteousness, a person begins to notice in himself and lament even about such thoughts, thoughts, actions that he had not thought about before (in terms of moral assessment) or did not consider them sins at all. The purer and more perfect a person becomes, the higher becomes his ability to properly perceive grace, the higher the joy from communion with God and the higher the ability to live according to the laws of the Kingdom of saints.

Mechanical repentance testifies to a person's misunderstanding of his own sinfulness. And if it is constantly accompanied by the unwillingness of the penitent to renounce sin, unwillingness to work on himself, this can be seen as evil stubbornness, gross disregard for God's law: they say, I understand that I am sinning, but, alas, I do not want to correct.

For this reason, mechanical repentance is often accompanied by self-justification and blaming others. Christian repentance requires the recognition and understanding of one's own guilt and does not imply the transfer of personal responsibility to others.

How is repentance different from remorse?

In everyday life, as a rule, compatible, but by no means synonymous terms are identified - repentance and remorse. Judging by what happened to Judas (see), repentance can be without repentance, that is, useless, and even fatal. Despite their consonance in Russian, in the text of Holy Scripture these terms correspond to the words of different roots μετάνοια (metanoia) and μεταμέλεια (metamelia). The word μετανοέω (metanoeo) means "to change one's way of thinking", to change one's vision, understanding of the meaning of life and its values. And the etymology of the word μεταμέλεια (metamelia) (μέλομαι, melome - to take care of) indicates a change in the object of care, aspirations, cares. Repentance, in contrast to repentance, presupposes precisely a deep rethinking of everything at the root, a change not only in the object of aspirations and worries, but a qualitative change in the mind itself.

Is repentance possible after death?

Repentance as a means of cleansing a person from filth, a means of restoring personal relationships with a person is possible only within the framework of earthly life. The earthly one provides him with all the necessary grace gifts for this.

Actually, the disposition of the soul to hell or Paradise is unmistakably revealed already on. Therefore, the impossibility of repentance beyond the grave cannot be reduced to crude legalism, they say a sinner would be glad to repent, but God does not allow it: the sinner himself locks the doors to repentance for himself, the doors to, even on earth.

Is it fair to determine a person's fate in eternity on the basis of a short earthly life?

Sins tend to develop into, and good deeds into. The time of an earthly person is quite enough to determine spiritually in relation to God, to partake of His goodness or resist it, to choose or perish.

Is repentance possible for unbelievers?

Priest Nikolay Lyzlov: One parishioner in some bewilderment says: “I just can’t quit smoking. And I pray, and I confess, and I ask God's help, but I can't overcome the sin of smoking. But my colleague, a non-believer in general, thought that smoking was bad, took it and quit. This means that he conquered sin, but in books we read, and in sermons, the fathers say that it is impossible to conquer sin without God's help, without prayer.

Indeed, this happens, and many other examples can be cited, how an Orthodox person cannot cope, for example, with alcohol abuse, and another person who simply wants to lead a healthy lifestyle does not even think about God, does not repent at confession, but takes threw. But sin is not just a specific act or our habit, but it is the state of our soul, it is what separates us from God. In principle, we have only one sin: it is that we have fallen away from God, both because we bear the seal of original sin and as a result of our own sins. We cannot see God, we cannot communicate with God, we have no need to see Him, and this is sin. And all specific manifestations - a person smoked, or did something else - these are just particulars. You can not smoke, not rob a bank, not steal, and still be far from God.

Based on this understanding, cleansing from sin, repentance is a change in the way of thinking, the way of life. In general, this is a different life: a person lived outside of God, his whole life was without God, he did not think about sins, and now he repented, renounced, changed, began to live for God, to unite with Him.

Our sins and falls were visible to the world, but our repentance was known and visible only to the Lord God alone.
Hegumen Theodosius

Repentance is always appropriate for all sinners and the righteous who wish to improve salvation. And there is no limit to perfection, because the perfection of the most perfect is truly imperfect. Therefore, repentance until death is not determined by time or deeds.
Rev.