How to atone for your sins | We cannot atone for our sins, but we do have hope. The Lord Jesus Christ says that He came precisely to minister and to give His soul for the redemption of many (Mark 10:45). The main thing is not human sins and weaknesses in and of themselves; the main thing - both the first and the most important - is that we are first of all members of the Church, members of the Body of Christ, and then only the sick, the weak, the powerless, the sinful, whatever. The main thing is that, as in all spiritual life, so in repentance, in the center of it, in the first, main place, He should be - and not some kind of me there with my supposedly super-sinfulness. Christ made the atonement for our sins at Calvary; we are called to receive His gift through repentance and faith. The Lord founded the Church and established the Sacraments in it - special actions through which He frees us from sins and gives us strength for a new life. Therefore, we just need to come to Church and bring our sins to confession. The Word of God firmly promises us that if we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1: 9). Only Christ can cleanse our sins. Atonement for sin through prayer can be made by a spiritual person. To do this, you need to remember your life and your sinful adventures. So they found a case and illuminated it with their consciousness, what it is and how to assess your thoughts and actions. If you see your sin and condemn it, repenting, then the sin is immediately atoned for and you ascend in spirit and your path is changed. Commemoration at Divine Liturgy(Church note) Those who have Christian names are remembered for health, and only those who are baptized in the Orthodox Church are remembered for repose. At the liturgy, you can submit notes: At the proskomedia - the first part of the liturgy, when for each name indicated in the note, particles are removed from special prosphora, which are subsequently lowered into the Blood of Christ with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins Sin is not just some immoral act, it is primarily a violation of the law of God, the laws of spiritual life established by the Creator Himself, lawlessness (1 John 3.4), or, in other words, sin is a violation of the will of God. Sin did not come from God and not from nature, but from the abuse of the mind and will of his rational beings, about their arbitrary deviation from God, about replacing his holy will with his own, from self-will. The first violator of His will was Lucifer, one of the order of the Archangel. Now he is Satan, that is, the enemy of God. Therefore, committing a sin is a conscious or unconscious opposition to God, and one must in every possible way avoid sin, making an effort to this end. That original, natural sin, which infected the nature of the ancestors, and therefore is hereditary, as long as carnal humanity exists, is the reason for everyone's personal sins. Therefore, the Lord said, "There is no man who has not sinned." Thus, the personal sins of each person come from a damaged human nature, under the influence of the external world, which “lies in evil,” and from the devil. In the case of committing a sin, it is imperative to repent in order to again become closer to your Creator and Savior, the inherent Protector and Guide. The Lord forgives us all sins, except for mortal sin. Mortal sin is persistent unrepentance, when a sinner in his bitterness reaches the point that he cannot repent from the bottom of his heart. And even if someone was terribly guilty before God, he can, humbly bowing down before Him, bring repentance. Repentance is the backdrop for all of our Christian life... The Monk Ephraim the Syrian left us with the necessary prayer: "Grant me the ripening of my transgressions." Again and again: seeing your sin is a spiritual act of extremely great value for all who seek the Face of the Living God. Moreover, this act is the action in us of God Himself, who is light. To our great regret, very rare people understand with their hearts the true nature of sin. Usually they stand at the level of human morality, and if when they rise above it, it is still not enough (and morality itself, if necessary, can be changed ...) such a sin that was not committed even with an instant touch of the mind. And no one can be sure that he is beyond the power of the thoughts that visit him. So, to the extent of our ability to see ourselves, we need to confess our sins so as not to carry them away with us after death. The indefatigable Psalter The indefatigable Psalter is read not only about health, but also about repose. Since ancient times, ordering a commemoration on the Unsleeping Psalter is considered a great charity for a deceased soul .. It is also good to order the Unsleeping Psalter for yourself, support will be vividly felt. And one more important point, but far from the least important, There is an eternal remembrance on the Unsleeping Psalter. It seems expensive, but the result is more than a million times the money spent. If there is still no such opportunity, then you can order for a shorter period. And it's good to read it yourself. Our entire earthly life, from birth to the last breath, ultimately can be seen and appreciated in an instant. Imagine a vessel of perfectly clear glass full of water; at first glance, you can tell whether the water is clean or not, and how much. So it will be with us after the transition to another world. Every movement of thought, even fleeting, leaves its mark on overall quality our life. Suppose that during the entire period of my earthly existence, only once an evil thought ran through my heart, for example, murder. And this one thought will remain dark spot on the body of my life, if it is not cast out through repentant self-condemnation. Nothing can be hidden: “There is nothing hidden that would not be revealed, and secret that would not be recognized” (Luke 12-23). And for every evil thought, we will be tortured in ordeals, as a result of which - an intermediate judgment: the soul will either go to God, or pushing away from God, will move "into outer darkness", to endless torment. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness ”(1 John 1. 8-9). Through sincere repentance with a resolute self-condemnation of oneself before God and people, the inner man is purified, and the water in the vessel, drawn through the spiritual filter of repentance, is restored in its purity. But he who does not repent becomes an enemy of the Church. As rotten branches fall away from a tree, so unrepentant sinners fall away from the head of the Church - Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is the vine, and we are the twigs that feed on life. Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov) says: “Sometimes they come to me for confession and say: we have no sins. I ask, do you go to Church, do you pray? It turns out, no, they don't go, they don't pray. And they do not admit sins for themselves: they say, we do good, bring benefit. Then I ask such people: are these chairs useful? - yes, they do, - and earthworms do good? - Yes, good. - Are the chairs alive? - Dead. - And the worms are spiritual? - No. Here you are, like these chairs or those worms ... ”Why should we repent? First, in their own sins; secondly, in the sins to which we have led our neighbors through motivation, temptation, or a bad example; thirdly, in the fact that they did not do good deeds that they could have done; fourthly, in that they have taken their neighbors away from good deeds; fifth, that the good deeds themselves did with a sin in half. And you have to ask your conscience about all such matters. Awareness of one's sins and self-reproach in them are the first steps on the path of repentance. Forty-mouth for the health of Forty-mouth is a prayer service, which is performed by the Church every day for forty days. Every day during this period, particles are removed from the prosphora. The elder Schema-Archimandrite Zosima noted that the entire history of mankind is measured in "weeks and forties." "For forty days Christ appeared to his disciples, staying on earth until the feast of the Ascension of the Lord. The holy feast is the fortieth day of the Ascension of the Lord. We spend on the eve of Easter and we will celebrate the great annual feast on the fortieth day after Easter - the Ascension of the Lord. Forty-tongues - forty days of fasting, forty days of Easter, everything goes in forties, weeks and forties. And the history of mankind also goes in weeks and forties. "Forty-tongues are ordered about health, especially about seriously ill patients. Sometimes it seems that it is difficult to draw the line where sin begins. What is the difference, say, between curiosity and curiosity, between indifference and indifference, between In such cases, the differences are easiest to clarify in opposites. Curiosity is opposed to restraint and modesty, curiosity is opposed to stupidity and laziness. Indifference is opposed by sympathy and responsiveness, Adequacy is nervousness and vanity. Neglecting fashion means maintaining chastity, freedom and independence of taste. To neglect custom means to be proud of yourself and despise people. Thinking about other similar qualities, you can learn to define the boundaries of moral and spiritual behavior. Some people consider a small sin to be a big one, but they hardly think about grave and great sins. So, for every pancake in fasting are ready to be tortured, and insults and condemnation of the neighbor, killing I him in the eyes of others, consider it almost nothing. Before going to confession, we must forgive everyone. Forgive without delay, now, and never remember the insult! Live as if they never existed. We must be reconciled with all our neighbors. Only then can we hope to receive forgiveness from the Lord. To repent means to feel in the heart a lie, insanity, the weight of one's sins; means to realize that they have offended their Creator, Lord, Father and Benefactor, infinitely holy and infinitely abhorrent of sins; means with all my soul to desire correction and atonement for them. And just as we sin with all the strength of our soul, so repentance must be all-soul. Repentance only in words, without the intention of correction and without feelings of contrition, is called hypocritical. And the coldness of the heart in confession, as in prayer - from the devil, he is the coldness of the hellish abyss. Sometimes it is difficult and painful to open up all your shameful deeds and thoughts to the confessor without concealment, sometimes it is painful, shameful and humiliating. But it is necessary to overcome this last demonic barrier of false shame on the path of salvation by reading the "Door of Mercy" and the Symbol of Faith. Otherwise, the wound will remain unhealed and will erode mental health, remaining a putrid leaven for subsequent sins. For the same reason, confession should not be postponed. Verb, it is said, your iniquity, and do not be silent about them, but be justified. It is always necessary to acknowledge one's own evil will as the culprit of a sin. Let's not be ashamed and cry in confession. If a person cried, it means he has resigned himself, the proud and proud do not cry. Some Christians, out of shame, cowardice, fear, hide their sins from their confessor. By doing this, they inflict tremendous spiritual harm on themselves. Through hidden sins, the devil continues to dominate the soul of the sinner. The grace of God does not heal such a soul. It is not for nothing that the priestly prayer at confession says: "If you hide anything from me, you will have a double sin." Prayer for health Prayer is a special service in which they ask the Lord, the Mother of God, the saints to send mercy or thank God for receiving benefits. In the church, prayers are performed daily, except for the time of Great Lent, at the end of the liturgy. On Sunday, after the early liturgy, a prayer service is performed with blessing of water, that is, there is a small blessing of water. Such molebens belong to private worship and are performed at the request and needs of individual believers. Public prayers are held on the days of temple holidays, on New Year , before the beginning of the teaching of the youths, in the absence of rain, etc. You can also order a thanksgiving prayer to the Savior on behalf of a person or several people who thank the Lord. Pure confession destroys unrighteousness, averts from sin, protects from evil, affirms in goodness, strengthens against temptations, maintains vigilance, keeps God's commandments on the path, strengthens against temptations, infuses holy peace into the soul, multiplies the desire for a godly life and makes a person day from the day is cleaner and more perfect. Some may think that according to everything that has been said, you can sin as much as you want, and then you will repent - and that's it. But such a thought is the deception of the devil. The great sacrament of repentance and the mercy of God do not at all provide grounds for a sinful life, "for if we, having received the knowledge of the truth, sin voluntarily, then there is no longer a sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10:26). He who, in the hope of repentance, allows himself to sin arbitrarily and deliberately, acts insidiously in relation to God. The sinner, arbitrarily and deliberately, in the hope of everlasting repentance, forgiveness, is unexpectedly struck by death, and he is not given time, like a liar, for the supposed virtues. “Wash yourself, cleanse yourself; remove your evil deeds from my eyes, ”the Lord calls,“ stop doing evil; learn to do good, seek the truth, save the oppressed, protect the orphan, stand up for the widow. Then come - and let us judge, say the Lord. If your sins be as crimson, I will whiten you as snow; if they are red like purple, I will whiten like a wave. If you want and obey, you will taste the blessings of the earth; but if you deny and persist, the sword will devour you: for the mouth of the Lord speaks ”(Isa. 1 16-20). To sin, hoping for the mercy of God, is “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,” that is, an unforgivable sin. Likewise, those who say: "We will sin in our youth, but we will repent in our old age," will be deceived and will be ridiculed by the demons. As sinners arbitrarily, they will not be worthy of repentance, they will die without confession. The consequences of a sinful life are blindness of the mind, hardening, insensibility of the heart: “my iniquities have exceeded my head, like a heavy burden they have weighed upon me” (Psalm 37: 5). What is the consequence of such sinfulness? “My heart has forsaken me” (Ps. 39.13). The mind of an inveterate sinner sees neither good nor evil - his heart loses its capacity for spiritual sensations, his conscience is literally burned out. When, with the help of God's grace, many of his sins are revealed to a person, then it is impossible that he does not come to extreme bewilderment from such a spectacle of his life. Through cutting off sins in confession, a person wakes up, clears his conscience, which is felt even physically, in the body; the human brain becomes clearer, the soul becomes joyful. In one of the temples in Perm, there was even a case of a bent old woman's back healed immediately after confession. She, moving away from the analogion ten meters, suddenly turned sharply and ran back to the priest: "Father, my back has stopped hurting!" she almost screamed. And everyone in the church began to be moved, as the Lord clearly showed the healing of the sacrament of confession. Church note A church note given "about health" or "about repose", along with candles, is the most massive and usual church appeal of people to the Lord, the Mother of God and the saints. particles are removed from special prosphora, which are subsequently lowered into the Blood of Christ with a prayer for the forgiveness of the sins of those remembered, For Mass - this is how the people call the liturgy in general, and the commemoration for it in particular. Usually such notes are read by clergy and clergymen before the Holy See; At the litany - a public commemoration. It is usually performed by a deacon. At the end of the liturgy, these notes are commemorated a second time in many churches, at the service. You can also submit a note for a prayer service or a requiem. But dear readers! Please do not think that the Church focuses us on the concepts of "must" and "must not", that the Church, like a corral, slams the door behind us - and that's it, now only fasts and rules, obedience and cutting off everything that is possible. The Church is the house of God in which the human soul grows and develops. The purpose of this life is to become a partaker of Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven in joy and peace. The path to God is long, all life. In the spiritual life of every person, regardless of age, there is childhood, adolescence, maturity. And you need to "grow", improve gradually, albeit with the compulsion of the will (as in any business), which actually proves the love of God. You just need to remember that spiritual growth is the main business of life, a spiritual guideline in any field of life. We must remember about the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, which frees people from the torment of sins and bitter captivity by the elements of this world, about the fact that only in the Church does a person acquire true freedom. Repentance presupposes not just an awareness of sin, but precisely sin before God. And this is very important. All the feelings that penitential practice offers us to go through: self-reproach, humility, seeing ourselves as the worst of all, fear of punishment, and so on. - in their true sense, they should be not just human feelings, emotions, movements of the soul, heart, mind - but precisely religious feelings, moreover, positively religious. That is, they are true and correct only when they are accomplished in God, in front of Him, in the context of Him and the Church, by the joint action of our soul and the grace of God - co-creation, synergy - but in no case by themselves. I turn to this your Special attention, for this is the root of all religious errors. Self-reproach is not to convince yourself: I am a freak and nothing. Humility is not a complex of guilt and self-inferiority, in the language of psychology. Repentance is not self-gnawing, not at all. I repeat, these are positive religious feelings, that is, they mean: there is God, He is Love and Grace; He is my Savior, it is mine, all good and good are all His. Mine - really, passions and weaknesses; but in spite of them, He gave me such a gift in the Church - to live by Him, by His good, good and perfection; and I am a member of His body, I live by Him and do not want to live by myself, by my passions. And for the sake of precisely this, and only this - to live by Him, I do everything: I repent, and I pray, and I abstain, and I struggle with sin, and so on, and so on, that the Church prescribes - in order to seek Christ, to be with Him in order to make up for our weakness by His grace. And not for the sake of simply stating every hour that I am a sinner, not to eat myself up. This is what happens in repentance. And humility is a feeling that God loves me immeasurably as well as all others, and we are the same before Him - equally weak and sick, and I, perhaps, more than others; but He accepts us all, heals, nourishes, supports, comforts, admonishes us with great love and mercy, like a mother to a child; and before Him everything is ours, even something good and good - nothing, zero, dust and dust. This is humility and self-reproach. And all these penitential feelings should bring into the soul of a person not despondency and despair, not an inferiority complex, which always happens when we deprive repentance of the church context, but because of the fact that these are spiritual movements of the soul - the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is not ecstasy, not pink exaltation, not blood heat - the grace of the Holy Spirit is witnessed in the soul by a subtle, peaceful, joyful, humble, quiet, cool, truly spiritual feeling that gives a person peace, love and freedom - and, as it were, gathers a person into something whole, into what it should be according to the plan of God.

Dear Father!

I have a very delicate question. I know that compared to the questions of other parishioners, my question is very stupid, but I can no longer endure ... It is very important for me to get an answer to it. The fact is that since childhood I have a very unstable psyche. I am prone to exaltation and crazy actions, which I later regret. I have sinned a lot because of this ... In my singing youth, I knew about such a structure of my psyche. And I knew about another quality of my character, for which I hate myself. Since childhood, I have promised a lot to everyone (parents, friends, God !!!) and almost always changed my word. I knew about all these terrible inclinations of mine and decided once and for all to protect myself from the sin of perjury before God. I went to the temple and made a vow to God forbidding any other vow to God on my part, except for the one that is given during the wedding ceremony. At the same time, I emphasized that if sometime, in forgetfulness or in a state of strong exaltation, I nevertheless break it and again promise Him something, then let this vow NOT BE CONSIDERED as a real vow. Thus, knowing my sinful nature, I wanted to protect myself in advance from future sins. Several years passed, and one day, in a state of very strong emotional stress, I forgot that I had made a vow to God that excluded any other vow except a wedding, and I had promised him something. Then I remembered this and repented. Now I feel very bad, because I am afraid not to keep my word ... Father, tell me, if I don’t keep him, will it be a sin? After all, in advance, quite consciously, I promised God nothing more to promise Him and asked Him that none of my vows to Him in the future would have the power of a vow. I know that I am crazy ... Perhaps I need a psychiatrist, not a priest ... forgive me for asking this ... I really am ashamed ... Help me, please ...

Answer:

Hello Olga.

Your question is not at all stupid, do not hesitate to reveal your spiritual weaknesses and problems, especially in confession. Your trouble is that you are trying to replace repentance with self-criticism that flows from your pride. Through this, you fall into nervousness and despondency. A fallen person is very weak and unable to live according to the commandments of God, and the Lord knows this and is ready to endlessly forgive the repentant sinner and help him. Saint John Chrysostom writes: “Have you sinned? Enter the church and blot out your sin by repentance. No matter how many times you fall in the market, you get up every time; so no matter how many times you sin, hurry to repent, do not allow despair. Still you sin, yet repent; do not sink and do not give up the hope of receiving the benefits that are presented to us. Even though you are already an old man and have sinned, go to church and repent. Here is a doctor's office, not a court; here not punishment for sins is imposed, but remission of sins is given. Say your sin to God alone: ​​You, the only one, have sinned and evil in your sight (Ps. 50: 6) - and your sin will be forgiven you. " Repentance should be understood as a sincere desire and application of efforts to live according to the commandments of God, asking the Lord for help in this, and about healing your heart from the wounds inflicted by sin and freeing it from slavery to sinful passions. How many times you unreasonably promise something to the Lord and do not fulfill it, so many times ask Him for forgiveness, and try as much as you can not to repeat this sin. And if you repeat it, repent again and forget about it, but do not philosophize: "Is this a sin or not a sin?" Don't be discouraged in any way.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello! I blasphemed the Holy Spirit, the priests of my church admitted this and do not pray for me. Is salvation still possible for me or not? What exactly should I do and how to live further?

Lyudmila.

Answer:

Hello Lyudmila.

Without knowing you and the details of your case, I cannot give you an exhaustive answer. Nevertheless, I will give you some of my reasoning. According to St. Basil the Great: “As soon as you said about the Spirit, which you should not say, it became evident in you that you were forsaken by the Spirit. As the one who has closed his eyes has his own darkness in himself, so the one who has separated from the Spirit, becoming outside the Enlightener, is embraced by mental blindness. " If you sincerely repent of what you have done, if you think about the salvation of your soul and consider Christ your only Savior, then all this testifies that you are not forsaken by the Holy Spirit and your sin can be forgiven. It is obvious that repentance and faith in Christ and the desire to live according to his commandments are gifts of the Holy Spirit and you are not forsaken by God. St. John Chrysostom also encourages you: “If we see that the donkey has fallen, then we all hasten to reach out and put him on his feet; but do not we care about the dying brothers? The blasphemer is the same donkey that could not bear the weight of anger and fell. Come and lift him up in word and deed, and meekness and strength; let the medicine be varied. "

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the fruit of pride and its consequence will be a complete petrification of the heart. If you have humbled yourself before God and have repentance for what you have done, then all is not lost, and you are mistaken in classifying your sin so harshly. Do not be discouraged and, moreover, do not despair, bring repentance to the Lord with all your heart and the Lord will accept it.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello, Father Sergius.

Please tell me is it acceptable for a Christian to like himself? How can self-satisfaction be compatible with constant self-observation, repentance, striving for the ideal and the understanding that God alone is sinless? Thanks.

Answer:

Hello Inna.

To please oneself is a sin of self-righteousness, akin to it the sins of self-admiration and self-righteousness. All sins beginning with self refer to the passion of pride. Self-morality is incompatible with the Christian life, distorts it in every possible way, leads to a state of profound delusion, i.e. flatter yourself. I will give you an excerpt from the answer of Abbot Nektariy (Morozov) to a similar question: “Self-admiration is that sin that entailed the most terrible consequences in the history of both the material and the spiritual world. The first one who sinned with them was the once bright Day of Day, and later the apostate from God and the murderer devil. He, as the holy fathers teach, leaving the contemplation of infinite Divine perfection, turned to contemplation of his own beauty, beautiful, but created. He loved himself more than God, which is why he fell away from his Creator and attracted part of the angels and the first people to the same falling away. The same can be seen in our present life: where there is narcissism, true faith is absent. The one who admires himself becomes for himself that idol, the deity he worships ”(from the site www.eparhia-saratov.ru).

The reason for self-morality is the complete spiritual blindness of a person, insensibility to their sins. “The beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and the sign of its health lie in the fact when the mind begins to ripen its sins, many of which are similar to the sea sand,” writes St. Peter Damaskin. Sin is evil, an abomination, a stench, but what can you like about yourself in this case? The state of seeing one's sins, i.e. health of the soul, spiritual sobriety - back to self-morality.

But what St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) about a similar state of spiritual seduction: “Whoever thinks of himself that he is passionless will never be cleansed of passions; who thinks of himself that he is full of grace will never receive grace; who thinks of himself that he is holy will never attain holiness. It is simple to say: those who ascribe to themselves spiritual deeds, virtues, dignities, gifts of grace, flattering themselves and amuse themselves with "opinion", with this "opinion" blocks the entrance into themselves and spiritual deeds, and Christian virtues and Divine grace, - opens wide the entrance to sinful infection and demons. There is no longer any ability for spiritual success in those infected with "opinion."

But one should not go to the other extreme - despondency from one's sins and self-criticism. You need to endure yourself, accept yourself as you are, striving through repentance to heal the stinking ulcers of your soul with the grace of God. Such acceptance and patience of oneself leads a person to meekness and humility.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello! Tell me please. If I say, "I read a book." and don't read - is it a sin? Lies? Lie? Or if I say, "I MAY BE reading a book." will the words "MAY BE" change something? I know that if you PROMISE, reading a book and not reading it is a sin, an unfulfilled promise! And yet, if you condemn a person, but immediately regret it - is it a sin? Thank you in advance!!!

Answer:

Hello Irina.

The power of the word is very great and the responsibility for the spoken words is also great. That is why the virtue of silence is so high for a Christian, and so heavy is the sin of breaking a promise, and even more so of an oath. The Lord Jesus Christ tells us in the Gospel: “I tell you that for every idle word that people say, they will give an answer on the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). Breaking a promise is always a sin, but the reasons for this can be different and deception, and the realization that he said the wrong, unnecessary and simply human weakness: forgetfulness, lack of strength to fulfill. The words “maybe”, I think, change a lot if they mean “if it is the will of God,” “if I have the strength,” or something like that. With these words, the opinion about their limitless possibilities leaves, i.e. pride. Hence the sin goes away, since a person understands that not everything is within his power. Of course, this is in the case when “maybe” is not simply guile. Therefore, the Savior tells us: "You have heard what the ancients said:" Do not break your oath, but fulfill your oaths before the Lord. " But I say to you: do not swear at all: not by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor the earth, for it is His footstool; nor Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. But let your word be: "yes, yes"; "no no"; and anything beyond this is from the evil one ”(Matthew 5, 33-37). Of course, there is a lot of difference between an oath and a promise, but the spirit also has a lot in common.

Condemnation, even if it was only in thoughts and only for a short time, is still a sin. One can sin by deed, word, and thought. Even if we do evil for a short time, this evil remains with us. But if a person repents, regrets that he thought so and asks the Lord to cleanse him from this filth, then the sin goes away. It is especially easy to leave if we only thought and did not embody evil in words and deeds. Therefore, it is so important to be attentive to the state of your heart and immediately repent when we notice that we have lost our peaceful spirit.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello, tell me, please, what prayer to read to an unborn child, I myself did not have an abortion and was not going to, it all happened, I got to the hospital with bleeding ... maybe I did something wrong, since it happened ... Help please! Thanks!

Catherine.

Answer:

Hello Ekaterina.

At the end of the days of purification, over the mother who unwittingly vomited the baby, at home or in the temple, the "Prayer to my wife, when she erupts the baby" should be read. Try to test your conscience and bring to confession the sin of the involuntary death of a child and the circumstances of your life, if there were any that somehow contributed to this misfortune: inattention to your health, some quarrels, conflicts, maybe sins associated with conceiving a child, in fornication or during fasting and so on. To heal the spiritual and spiritual wound of your heart, I advise you to read the "Canon of Repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ" for some time. Ask the Lord for forgiveness for involuntary sin and those sins that you may not have realized that could contribute to this trouble. Unborn children do not have personal sins, therefore the Church does not pray for them, the Lord himself arranges their further fate.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello, it is very difficult for me to write about this, but I will. when I was 15 years old I got pregnant from my young man... When my mother found out about this, she was certainly not thrilled. The result ... she took me to an abortion, I asked and begged her to leave the child, but what has been done cannot be corrected .. now I am already 23 years old, I have a husband, 2 children, but since then not a day has passed so that I don’t think about it , I cry for a long time and not when I cannot forgive myself, if only it was possible to turn back time .. I want to know if it is possible to atone for this sin somehow. Every day after so many years, I fall asleep with this and wake up. It becomes simply unbearable pain, I cannot live with it, and I cannot die. Help…

Answer:

Hello Olga.

There is no such sin that the Lord would not forgive the repentant. And you have been crying and grieving for what you have done for 8 years. St. Basil the Great, in his discourse on Psalm 32, writes: “The judge wants to have mercy on you and make you a participant in His bounties, but in this case, only if he finds that you have become humble by the deed of sin, cried a lot about your crafty deeds, without shame, revealed what you had done in secret , asked the brethren to work with you for your healing. In a word, if he sees that you are worthy of pity, then he shamelessly gives His alms. " And here are the words of St. Ephraim the Syrian: "By His mercy, the Lord heals and heals from all iniquity, and sins, and defilement of everyone who brings repentance, because He is the sea of ​​bounties." Do not be discouraged and do not engage in self-criticism. Be sure to come to confession and bring repentance for all sins, and the fornication that preceded the abortion became its beginning. And in no case condemn your mother, God is our only judge. After confession, with the blessing of the priest, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Try to spend the rest of your life according to the commandments of God.

You can read how to prepare for both the sacraments of confession and Holy Communion on our website in the section.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello.

I don’t understand where hatred and anger come from in me, mom is good, dad is good, we live in purity and satiety. And that's why I am sometimes so rude and aggressive, I spend a lot of time at the computer (7 hours a day), maybe because of this. But in general it manifests itself as follows - I am calm, cheerful, and then after a while I feel something is wrong, inside a feeling, as you know, when a storm begins, suddenly everything calms down, then the wind picks off the leaves. In the same way, I feel the influx is coming and I cannot stop it, then I start to snap back and rage over trifles. The negative coming from me is incredible. I do not know what to do.

George.

Answer:

Hello George.

What you saw inside yourself and described in a letter is called the act of sinful passions in a person. The Holy Fathers single out only seven main sinful passions: gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger, longing, despondency, pride. Sometimes pride is divided into two sinful passions: vanity and pride. After the fall of Adam and Eve, in every person living on earth, to one degree or another, all these passions are active. Sin is a violation of the commandments of God, the spiritual laws of the existence of our world. Sin is evil that we do to ourselves, inflicting wounds on our soul. Sinful passion is a deep habit of one or another sin, a habit of it, bondage to it. The Lord in the Gospel shows us the main and only means in the struggle with our sinful passions - this is repentance. It consists in the fact that after reading the Gospel, knowing the commandments of God, a person can objectively understand what is good and what is evil and, having cognized this, look into his heart and see evil in it, the wounds of sinful passions, turn from the bottom of his heart into a repentant prayer to God with a request to get rid of evil, heal the wounds in his heart, give reason and strength to live according to the commandments of God. The end of repentance should be the confession of your sins before God in the sacrament of confession. It is very precious that you saw the state of your soul and grieve about it, and want to change something in your life, most people do not notice this and consider themselves absolutely healthy and therefore they do not need a Savior. “But when Jesus heard this, he said…: it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick… I came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9: 12-13). As you can see, the Lord is waiting for you and your repentance.

Remember the words of St. Ignatiy Bryanchaninov: “Humility and the repentance arising from it are the only conditions under which Christ is accepted! Humility and repentance are the only price to buy the knowledge of Christ! Humility and repentance are the only moral state from which one can approach Christ, assimilate into Him! Humility and repentance are the only sacrifices that God requires and accepts from fallen humanity. " You can read how to prepare for the sacrament of confession on our website in the section. Pay attention to the section.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello.

I survived a frozen pregnancy (after it I can’t get pregnant anyway), went to Moscow (to the relics of Matrona) and to Murom (to the relics of Peter and Fevronia). But literally 2 days ago, my grandmother handed me a little book with prayers, which mothers read about babies killed in the womb. The question arose accordingly - a frozen pregnancy also needs to be praised, like an abortion? This thought somehow never even crossed my mind. How should I proceed? Please advise. I really need your answer.

Photinia.

Answer:

Hello Fotinia.

Abortion is free, i.e. by our will, the murder of our own child. In the case of a frozen, undeveloped pregnancy, the child dies in the womb without her will, and the doctors are already removing the body of the dead child, not killing it, but preserving the mother's life. But the second case is also associated with sin, it is called the involuntary murder of a child, when at the time of pregnancy the woman did not want this. But the death of a baby in the womb is not an accident, but a consequence of some other, previously committed sins at the will of the wife, or husband, or maybe even their relatives who lived earlier. The reason for this is the following important law of spiritual life. St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov describes it as follows: “... arbitrary submission to one good idea entails natural submission to another good thought; the acquisition of one virtue introduces into the soul another virtue, akin and inseparable from the first. On the contrary, voluntary submission to one sinful thought entails involuntary submission to another; the acquisition of one sinful passion attracts into the soul another passion, akin to it; voluntarily committing one sin leads to involuntary falling into another sin born first ”(Vol. V, p. 351).

It is clear that the severity of sins in the case of an abortion and a frozen pregnancy is completely different. The rite of confession says so about it: “And when it is found, as if you have done something, and you will be outraged, there is a murderer, and it is forbidden as a murderer. If it is not by will, by the need of some monster, his offspring, one summer may not receive communion. " In practice, in our time, such a sin is not excommunicated from the sacrament, but it undoubtedly requires a person to repent before God for his unconscious sins, which resulted in the death of a child, others should not be blamed for this. It would be nice for a husband to repent of his sins without blaming his wife. Read the canon of repentance, adding in your own words a petition for the forgiveness of this sin. It is imperative to say this in confession.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Please tell me, is it possible to say in confession about lesbianism, bestiality and malakia to simply say that she sinned by fornication or unnatural fornication (without going into details)? Save the Lord!

Answer:

Hello Daria.

I would advise you to tell you all the sins associated with the passion of fornication immediately at the first confession, fully and specifically, in two or three words exactly naming each sin, but without going into the details of these sinful events. Then you can truly forget about these sins once and for all. If this is not done, then, as a rule, a person soon begins to be confused by thoughts: "Was this general repentance enough, did the Lord forgive me all these sins?" Thus, you will still bring all this to confession, only prolong the “pleasure” of delving into these sins in time.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello father.

I want to apologize in advance for the topic, which may not be addressed. But I really need advice. I am ashamed to talk about it, but I can no longer be silent. I am a person who is determined to create a family according to all traditions, civil marriage and free relationships are not for me. It so happens that I have been dating my boyfriend for three years now. I will say right away that intimate relationships we didn't have much, maybe once every two weeks. And by the third anniversary, I hoped that he would propose to me (he always said that I was his wife, and that he wanted children from me, etc.), and we would have a wedding., Not necessarily magnificent, at least registration. I agreed, I am for a legal relationship. But!!! What a shock it was when I found out by chance (he hid it) that he underwent gender reassignment surgery. When the truth was revealed, I simply lost the ground under my feet, I could not understand why. We explained to him, he confessed everything and said that he made a mistake, that he loved me and would never leave me and wanted to do everything back, swore that he would become a man again, that it was his mistake. I forgave him. but now two months have passed, and I do not feel at ease, like I love him and want to be with him and forgiven him, but his behavior suggests otherwise. I would like to know your opinion on this issue. Am I doing the right thing, that I still communicate with him, or should I break off the relationship, because they will not lead to anything good ?. I really hope for an answer. Thank you for your time. I wish you health and all the best!

Victoria.

Answer:

Hello Victoria.

In the Fundamentals of the Social Concept ... the Orthodox Church clearly defines its attitude to a person's change of their gender: “At times, perversions of human sexuality are manifested in the form of a painful sense of belonging to the opposite sex, which results in an attempt to change sex (transsexualism). The desire to give up belonging to the sex that the Creator gave to a person can only have detrimental consequences for the further development of the personality. "Sex reassignment" through hormonal exposure and surgery in many cases does not lead to resolution psychological problems, but to their aggravation, giving rise to a deep internal crisis. The Church cannot approve of this kind of "rebellion against the Creator" and recognize the artificially changed gender identity as valid. If a “sex change” occurred to a person before Baptism, he can be admitted to this Sacrament, like any sinner, but the Church baptizes him as belonging to the gender in which he was born. Ordination of such a person to the priesthood and his entry into church marriage unacceptable ».

You need to understand that such an insane state of a person (slavery to any sinful passion according to the teachings of the Church makes a person insane and this is inherent to one degree or another in each of us) is not an accident, not a play of nature, but a consequence of generic sin and following the sinful urges of man himself. This is a consequence of the triumph of prodigal passion, which has taken on such a perverted form. Scripture does not speak of such a sin as sex change, then they could not even think about it. In essence, the Apostle Paul said about such moral abominations: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor malaki, nor sodomy, nor thieves, nor covetous people, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor predators - will inherit the Kingdom of God ... Or you do not know that he who intercourses with a whore becomes one body with her? for it is said: the two will be one flesh. And he who unites with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord. Flee fornication; every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are the essence of God ”(1 Cor. 6, 9-10, 16-20). You also need to think about many things and repent, remember “he who has sex with a harlot becomes one body with her”, i.e. through the fornication, you entered into complete union with this person and this, undoubtedly, will have a very destructive effect on your soul. The relationship with this young man must undoubtedly be broken, because they really will not lead to anything good. In the Gospel, the Lord admonishes us: “Woe to the world because of temptations, for temptations must come; but woe to that man through whom temptation comes. If your hand or your foot tempts you, cut them off and throw them away from you: it is better for you to enter life without an arm or without a leg, than with two hands and with two legs to be thrown into eternal fire; and if your eye tempts you, pluck it out and throw it away from you: it is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to be thrown into fiery hell with two eyes ”(Matthew 18: 7-9). It is important to understand this gospel passage correctly. Let us turn to St. John Chrysostom: “The Savior is not talking here about the members of the body, but about our friends and relatives, who constitute, as it were, necessary members for us. He spoke about this before, and now he speaks. Indeed, nothing is as harmful as communicating with vicious and depraved people. What necessity cannot produce, it often produces friendship - both for harm and for benefit. That is why the Savior with special power commands us to leave harmful people, meaning by them those who introduce temptations. Do you see how Christ prevented the harm that could come from temptations? First, He predicted that temptations would surely occur, so that no one indulged in carelessness, but everyone, waiting for them, would stay awake; secondly, he showed that temptations are a great evil (he said not without reason: “Woe to the world because of temptations,” but to show the great harm that comes from them); thirdly, and even more so, he showed this by calling the one who introduces temptations unhappy (in the words: “woe to that man,” the Savior means that this person will be subjected to severe punishment). And not only with these words, but also with the comparison attached to them, the fear increases. But not content with this, He also shows the way in which temptations can be avoided. Which way is it? Stop, He says, your friendship with wicked people, even if they were very kind to you, and presents you with irrefutable proof of this. If, he says, they remain your friends, then you will not be of any use to them and you will ruin yourself. If you end your friendship with them, then at least you yourself will gain salvation. So, if friendship with someone is bad for you, move away from him. If we often cut off members of our body when they are incurably ill and harmful to other members, then all the more so should we do this with friends. If evil depended on nature, then all this admonition and any advice would be superfluous, and the warning contained in the above would be superfluous; if it is not superfluous - what it really is - then it is obvious that evil depends on the will "(St. John Chrysostom. Interpretation of St. Matthew the Evangelist. Conversation 59.4).

Even if your friend really manages to acquire deep repentance, corrects what he did to himself, and wishes to continue living according to the commandments of God, then remember that marriage with him is impossible for two reasons. First, the Lord really forgives the repentant sinner, but the forgiveness of a specific sin will only be the beginning in healing from the sinful passion that led to sin. And to be healed from such a heavy passion, the essence of spiritual illness, life is hardly enough. Undoubtedly, the desire to be healed will require a person to strictly abstain from any bodily pleasures. It is not a sin for a healthy person to drink a little wine for the joy of the heart on holidays; obviously, for a healed alcoholic this is unacceptable, because will immediately become the beginning of a new binge. So here, even within the framework of a legal marriage, a heavy sinful passion, which a person is sick with, will be kindled. Secondly, think about the children that may be born in this marriage (if it is still capable of becoming a father). After all, children inherit from their parents their sinful ailments, are not responsible for them, but get sick with them.

Save you, Lord, and do not delay with your repentance and confession.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Good afternoon.

I want to ask if it is possible for a husband and wife to have oral sex? Or will it be considered a manifestation of fornication? If so, how to get rid of this desire?

Basil.

Answer:

Hello Vasily.

"Try what is pleasing to God, and do not participate in the fruitless works of darkness ... For what they do in secret, it is a shame to speak." (Ephesians 5, 10-12). What you are asking refers to a type of sin of womanhood, i.e. unnatural use of a woman when copulating with her. The Apostle Paul recalls this sin in the Epistle to the Romans when he speaks of how the Lord gave up the Gentiles “in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, so that they filthy their own bodies” (Rom. 1:24), who did not give Him glory, but worship idols made with hands and to various living creatures: “Therefore God gave them up to shameful passions: their women replaced natural use with unnatural; likewise men, leaving the natural use of the female sex, were kindled by lust for one another, men doing shame on men and receiving in themselves due retribution for their error ”(Rom 1: 26-27). How can a Christian do this?

If the Church's ordinary sins of fornication belong to the category of the most serious sins that defile the soul and body, although they are justified in a natural physiological attraction, then think how much more unnatural fornication sins cripple the soul. They are committed against human nature, i.e. are not justified by the needs of human nature.

Fight this passion just like any other. First, with all my heart to really desire to be a Christian and follow Christ, striving to live according to the commandments of God. Second, to understand that it is impossible to get rid of slavery to sinful passions by one's own strengths and desires. You must, through prayer, warm up repentance in your heart to hatred of sin and confess everything that concerns your prodigal passions in the sacrament of confession. More details on how to deal with the action of the passion of fornication can be found in the book of St. John Climacus "Ladder" in word 15 "On imperishable purity and chastity, which the corruptible acquire by labor and sweat."

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello.

I began to notice sudden and sometimes unreasonable outbursts of anger. I quarrel with my husband over trifles, I strongly scold the little child for wrongdoing. I myself am already getting scared from this. are there any prayers to pacify my anger? Once a month I go to receive communion and confess, but the grace from this sacrament is not enough for long.

Anastasia.

Answer:

Hello Anastasia.

One of the reasons that grace after confession and the sacrament suffices for a short time, perhaps, is that the story of sin in confession is not preceded by proper repentance. That is, maybe they did not hate this sin in their hearts, were justified in their anger, did not properly pray for healing from this sinful wound, did not ask for forgiveness from those at whom they were angry. Another reason may be that your anger is the result of arbitrary unrepentant sin associated with a completely different passion. There is one important law of spiritual life:

“It lies in the“ affinity between both virtues and vices, ”that is, in the fact that both the acquisition of virtues and the action of passions are subject to strict sequence and interdependence, or otherwise. Saint Ignatius warns that ignoring this law can lead the ascetic to the most dire consequences for him. “Because of this affinity,” he writes, “arbitrary submission to one good thought entails natural submission to another good thought; the acquisition of one virtue introduces into the soul another virtue, akin and inseparable from the first. On the contrary, voluntary submission to one sinful thought entails involuntary submission to another; the acquisition of one sinful passion attracts into the soul another passion, akin to it; voluntarily committing one sin leads to involuntary falling into another sin, born first. Malice, said the fathers, does not tolerate being unbroken in the heart ”(V, 351).

Serious warning! How often Christians, not knowing this law, carelessly treat the so-called "minor" sins, arbitrarily, that is, without the violence of passion, sinning in them. And then, in bewilderment with suffering and despair, already like slaves, they involuntarily fall into grave sins, leading to heavy sorrows and tragedies in life "(A.I. Osipov" The Path of Reason in Search of Truth ", ch. 8, par. 5) ...

From what sinful passions can anger be born? Let us turn to St. John Climacus. In The Ladder, he writes: “So let anger be bound, like a tormentor, by the bonds of meekness, and afflicted with long-suffering, drawn by holy love and, having appeared before the judgment seat of reason, let it be interrogated. Tell us, insane and shameful passion, the name of your father, and the name of your wicked mother, as well as the names of your nasty sons and daughters. Tell us, moreover, who are those who are fighting against you and killing you? “In response to this, anger tells us:“ I have many mothers, and my father is not alone. My mothers are: vanity, love of money, gluttony, and sometimes prodigal passion. And my father is called arrogance. But my daughters are: memory malice, hatred, enmity, self-justification. But my enemies who resist them, who hold me in bondage, are without anger and meekness. My guide is called humility; and from whom it is born, ask him himself, in due time "(" Ladder ", ch. 8, verse 29).

For the correct knowledge of yourself I strongly advise you to read this book of St. John of the Ladder. You are asking for the advice of a prayer. Try, firstly, upon the fact of realizing that you have again fallen into anger, retire and at least briefly pray in your own words for healing from this sin, and when peace comes in your heart, ask for forgiveness from those you have offended. And every day you can try for a certain period of time to read the Lenten prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, love of command and idle talk. But the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love, grant me to Thy servant. To her, Lord King, grant me to see my sins, and not to condemn my brother, for you are blessed forever and ever, amen. " Although it does not speak directly about getting rid of anger, in essence, it seems to me that it will be useful to you.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello.

I would like to ask: if I am Orthodox and I am baptized…. Can I get the hieroglyph "happiness and family" on my body?

Answer:

Hello Maxim.

In the Holy Scriptures in the five books of Moses, you can find an unequivocal prohibition on applying any images and writing on your body by injecting and rubbing paint, which was often found among the pagans. “For the sake of the deceased, do not make cuts on your body and do not inscribe writing on yourself. I am the Lord (your God) ”(Lev 19:28). The reason why the Lord should not do this is indicated at the beginning of this chapter, listing then a number of prohibitions, one of which I gave you above. The reason is as follows: “And the Lord said to Moses, saying: declare to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them: be holy, for holy I am the Lord your God” (Lev 19: 1-2). Holiness in this text means purity, i.e. the prohibition to touch everything that is filthy and sinful, and non-worldliness, i.e. we must live in this world, but be not of this world. Your desire to decorate your body with a tattoo before God is a disfigurement of your body. This offends the Lord, He created us in His own image and likeness. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes: “... you were bought at a high price. Therefore, glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are the essence of God ”(1 Cor. 6:20). An expensive price is the death of the Savior on the cross for the remission of our sins, our salvation and communion of His holiness.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello Father.

My name is Valery, sometimes I commit fornication with a woman I’m not married to, we just live in a civil marriage. Tell me, what should I do with this sin of mine? And how is it to be prayed for?

Valery.

Answer:

Hello Valery.

By civil marriage, you probably mean living together outside of marriage, i.e. without a list in the registry office. How to deal with this sin? Sin is a violation of the commandments of God, i.e. the spiritual laws of our universe. This is evil that we do, first of all, to ourselves, i.e. we hurt our soul. When we inflict a bodily injury on ourselves, for example, grab a hot frying pan with our bare hand or step on a nail with our feet, then you are unlikely to ask the question on the Internet how to treat it. First of all, you will undoubtedly throw a hot pan or pull a nail out of your leg, and then see your doctor. Healing the wounds we have inflicted on our soul should be like this. Those. first, undoubtedly, stop from the gross manifestation of the passion of fornication, i.e. stop cohabiting with a woman outside of marriage (fornication, desires and dreams will torment you for a long time), and then turn to the doctor of our souls - the Lord Jesus Christ with repentance, with prayer to give strength and reason to live according to the commandments of God. To begin the sacrament of confession, and in time, God willing, and to the sacrament of Holy Communion. Just try to understand well that, to put it mildly, it is unreasonable to ask a doctor to heal a burned hand if I refuse to let the hot frying pan out of it.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello Father.

My name is Svetlana. I really need your advice. I really want to help a loved one. We are not together now, but I still wish him happiness. The fact is that he is now surrounded by not very decent people, and in his soul he has complete confusion, he began to show his negative sides forgetting about the good. I began to pay attention to superficial things, to entertainment, and completely forget about true values. And he is not like that, he is very kind and gentle, probably because of this he lends itself to influence, I have known him for five years. I'm afraid for him. I have talked to a psychologist more than once, she is a good friend of mine. She helped me a lot. In this situation, she advised me one technique. When you want to help a person so that the bad will go away from his life, you need to imagine a mirror, and in it all the negative from the life of this person, and then imagine how the mirror breaks along with everything bad. Then next to present a mirror already with all the good that we wish for this person. With the help of such a technique, we help a person to remove the bad from life and see that there is another path in life, a kind, bright one, and whether he will go along it or not is the choice for him. Father, I wanted to consult with you - I am an Orthodox believer, isn't such a technique a sin? How can I help this person?

Thank you! Svetlana.

Answer:

Hello Svetlana.

I think not worth using Orthodox Christian by the method that the psychologist suggested to you. If all this had to be presented to him, then, perhaps, it would be possible to talk about psychological assistance. But here it is suggested that you do all this, and this supposedly should affect him. Those. the implication is that by doing this, you will have an impact on him. If such an impact occurs, then, you must agree that it can hardly be called psychological, rather, extrasensory or magical. In fact, such actions are unlikely to affect him at all, but if they do, then what kind of opinion about yourself (pride) will involuntarily appear in you, because you were able to change his life. Such changes are possible only when the spirit of flattery (lies) is at work. How can I help this person? This is a very difficult question and in absentia, i.e. without knowing him and you can only be answered in general terms. First, we can help another person only when we cover up his shortcomings with patience and love. Secondly, you cannot live your life for another person. Ultimately, he will always decide for himself what to choose: good or evil. And even the Lord will not touch his freedom of choice. Thirdly, always remember the gospel words of the Savior that “the impossible for men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Therefore, pray for your loved one and the Lord will not leave him, He will again and again guide him on the right path. And fourthly, if you want your prayer to bring someone closer to God, try to start with yourself, i.e. strive to live according to the commandments of God, and for this, seek God's help in prayer and Church Sacraments, first of all, confession and Holy Communion.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello!

Yesterday the devil beguiled me, I was with a friend in the evening and a fortune teller came to her ... I could not resist and she read fortunes for me too. She told me everything, different, completely confused me. When I went home, I felt uncomfortable, I repented to tears, I understand what a sin it is, how awful I did. And today I didn’t go anywhere from home, I sit and cry, I don’t even understand why ... What should I do, how to repent? Please help me ... My heart is very bad ... Thank you so much! Save you Lord!

Answer:

Hello Marina!

Are you asking "what should I do, how to repent"? Your crying and the realization that your soul is very bad is already the beginning of repentance. Repentance lies in this, that a person becomes unbearably bad from a committed sin, in hatred of this sin, a firm desire not to repeat the sin he has committed, grief that with this sin he has offended the Lord God and has lost the grace of the Holy Spirit. But still try to find the roots of the sin you have committed in your life, why this sin became possible for you when you allowed it into your heart. Maybe they showed interest in some kind of fortune telling, dreams, reading horoscopes, as it seemed to you, just like that, as a joke before. Try to remember all this, realize it as a sin of spiritual betrayal of the Lord God, ask God for forgiveness in prayer and, without delay, prepare for confession. All this will cleanse your soul, sin will be forgiven for you, and you will regain the grace and peace of God.

Sincerely,
priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello Father Sergius! Please tell me how you feel about the fact that many confessors prescribe penances in the form of bows and prayers? Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh speaks in his audio sermon about the inadmissibility of such penances, what is your opinion on this?

Answer:

Hello, Elena!

I listened to one of the lectures on the ministry of Vladyka Anthony through your link (however, the first time I listened to it many years ago) and did not come across a fragment there that would deal with the question of imposing a penance. I am unlikely to listen to the rest of the lecture in the near future, so I will simply express my opinion, without touching on the lectures of Vladyka Anthony of Surozh. Although, as far as I remember, these words about the inadmissibility of such penances were said in relation to his Western flock, however, I could be wrong.

Let's see what penance is. Usually it is understood as spiritual punishment, but the Church Slavonic word “punishment” means instruction, teaching. In the handbook of the clergyman S.V. Bulgakov, we find: “When imposing these penances on the repentant in necessary cases, the priest must firmly remember that they are not punitive, but corrective means, that they have as their purpose not avenging the sinner for sins, not satisfying the truth of God, but the spiritual healing of the sick, eradicating in him those sinful habits and inclinations that make him an unworthy son of the Church. " Therefore, penance is better understood as a spiritual medicine, which is sometimes bitter, difficult and unpleasant, which is given to a sinner who repents of serious sins, as a rule, excommunicating him from the grace of the Holy Spirit and church communion. This spiritual medicine is designed, firstly, to give the repentant sinner depth of repentance, hatred of the created sin and, ideally, a deep inner feeling of the impossibility of repeating the created sin. Secondly, it is necessary to heal those terrible wounds and spiritual mutilations that a person inflicted on himself by sin. What medicine does the Lord offer us in the Holy Gospel to cleanse ourselves from sinful passions? When the apostles were unable to heal the demon-possessed youth “Then the disciples, approaching Jesus in private, said: why could we not drive him out? But Jesus said to them ... this kind is driven out only by prayer and fasting ”(Matthew 17: 19-21). Those. prayer and fasting is a medicine indicated to us by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the fight against the grave ailments of our souls, and this medicine, as follows from all the practice of church life, has been successfully used as one of the possible options for imposing penance.

Now let's turn to prostrations, why are they needed? A person standing upright in the church symbolizes the risen Christ, therefore on the day of major church holidays, and, especially, on the days of the Easter celebration and on Sundays, the church charter prohibits bows to the ground... Bowing to the ground symbolizes a person who has fallen in sin, turning to the Lord in repentance. Therefore, bowing to the ground is inappropriate on the days of church celebrations and absolutely befitting the days of fasting and, moreover, of carrying penance. In addition, prostrations to the ground partly exhaust our body, which is a form of fasting that subdues our sinful passions. Therefore, in my opinion, prayer and obeisances are quite consistent with the meaning of penance. In my spiritual practice, I have not seen cases when a penance, consisting of prayer and bows, spiritually damaged a person. There were quite a few people who received healing. To this I can add only one thing. I have never imposed a penance on a person, and, moreover, I do not force it to perform if the person himself does not agree with it. It is obvious that in different cases Penance can have a different character of spiritual work and consist far from only prayer and bows, for example, I blessed one woman to do the cleaning in her apartment every week.

Sincerely,
priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello!

My son was born in May. He is now 7 months old. I would like to baptize him, and I would like to godfather my son was mine best friend... I read that godfathers and parents of a child cannot be married. Tell me, can my friend be a godfather if we have a close relationship with him (of course, without marriage)?

Evgeniy.

Answer:

Hello Eugene!

I must upset you, but if you are with your friend, as you write, in a "close relationship", then you will not be able to baptize your child until you change your lifestyle. The child is baptized according to the faith of his parents, therefore, you, together with the godparents, become full-fledged participants in this Sacrament, and the sin of Sodom, in which you are, makes this unacceptable. Without changing your life and repentance, you must not begin any church Sacraments.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Thanks for the answer! I'm upset because my love is not being chosen. I'm scared to even ask what will happen if we break the rule and baptize the child together. No one but us knows and will not recognize anything. Should the child remain unbaptized because of me? And I cannot renounce my love.

Thanks. Sorry to take so long.

Answer:

Evgeniy!

The child will be able to be baptized, but later, having entered a conscious age, according to his faith, if there is one. Eugene, make no mistake, you cannot be called a Christian, despite the fact that you were baptized. A Christian can only be called a person who believes the word of God. In the Holy Scriptures we read: "Do not lie down with a man as with a woman: this is an abomination" (Lev. 18:22). “Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor malaki, nor sodomy, nor thieves, nor covetous people, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor predators, will inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6: 9-10). If you believed God, you would not do this.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello Father Sergius!

How and in what way can you help a friend suffering from the ailment of drunkenness? Now he himself began to understand that it is addictive. He asks me to help, tk. drinks every 2 days. I offered to go to church, talk to the priest, but he is overcome by some kind of fear and refuses to go. Unfortunately, we live in different cities, so my help can only be at a distance so far. I really want to help, but I don’t know how to do it correctly. I ask for your advice. Father Sergius, please pray for God's servant Paul. Thank you for your help.

Natalia.

Answer:

Hello, Natalia!

First of all, it is important to help your friend understand the need for treatment so that he or she wants to stop drinking. In addition to conversations with him on this topic, be sure to pray to the Lord God about it. But we can help another only if we ourselves cleanse our hearts from sin, if we ourselves draw closer to the Lord. Begin by preparing yourself for confession and partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. This, both spiritually and by example, will help him seek help from the Lord. Alcoholism is a spiritual and physical illness, so after confession it would be good to seek medical chemotherapy help.

Below is a detailed answer of Father Job (Gumerov) to a person who wants to free himself from the ailment of drunkenness. The text is taken from the site www.pravoslavie.ru.

Question: Recently I realized and admitted for myself that I was sick with drunkenness, I saw how my loved ones and loved ones suffer. I really want to get rid of this ailment forever, I understand and I myself completely agree with this that it is necessary to heal the soul and lead it to God, and not be encoded. Help me with this or advise me where to go. Many thanks.

Alexander.

Father Job (Gumerov), a resident of the Sretensky Monastery, answers:

Addiction to drunkenness is indeed an ailment. Moreover, it is important to know that both the soul and the body suffer from this disease. Spiritual illness (dependence on demons) dominates over physical. That is why purely medical means are insufficient. In the dying diary of St. righteous John of Kronstadt (October 28, 1908) there is a short prayer sighing: “Remember your creation, Alexy (Poldneva), a drunkard, and deliver him from the clutches of disembodied enemies, I pray You and his wife through me. Amen "(M. - SPb., 2003, p. 84). Several years earlier, St. John wrote: “With satiety and drunkenness, the ethereal enemy enters the heart of a person - this can be felt by everyone who is attentive. This is the reason why, with increasing drunkenness, the propensity to drunkenness increases so terribly (because the strength of the enemy over a person increases), which is why drunkards have such a force that involuntarily attracts them to the satisfaction of passion or an inner desire for wine - these unfortunate people have an enemy in their hearts. How to drive out the demon of drunkenness? By prayer and fasting ”(My Life in Christ, M, .2002, p. 191). The words "prayer and fasting" are taken from the Holy Gospel (Matthew 17:21). They briefly indicate the most important weapons of defense against demonic misfortune. First of all, an intensified appeal to God for help (prayer) is necessary, without which we are unable to overcome the most experienced and cunning enemy. Fasting in a broad sense means a continent life, when a person is spiritually free and does not adhere to the world (food, pleasures, fame, etc.). It is through this adherence of a person to everything worldly (it can easily develop into passion) that demonic forces captivate him. He falls into an invisible, but real and difficult to dissolve dependence on hidden destroyers. One of the reasons for their success is that the person arrives blind and does not understand what is happening. He is in a complacent state, reducing everything to a habit, which he (as it naively seems to him) will one day overcome by an effort of will. When the first troubles in life arise (quarrels in the family, disciplinary action at work), he makes his first feeble attempts to get off the dangerous path. But unsuccessfully. There is only one reason: the demons skillfully hide from him the abyss that awaits him. Their reception is rather primitive. They put him to sleep, suggest that nothing disastrous is happening. Although the history of mankind is full of countless examples of destroyed lives, the drinker willingly accepts their suggestions, because he wants to. The more time passes, the easier it is for demonic forces to carry out their destructive work. The enemy finally takes possession of a person and destroys him only when he leads him to the idea that the situation is hopeless and that there is no hope. But this is nothing more than a demonic lie: while a person is alive, a will remains in him, albeit weak, captivated, distorted by sinful passion. And if a person, seeing himself on the edge of the abyss, despite all his weakness, sincerely asks God for help, the Lord will give it: “the impossible for men is possible for God” (Luke 18:27).

Dear Alexander! In order for help from God to come to you to overcome an illness, you need faith that the Lord will help you. You need to repent of all your sins and continue to do this regularly, two to three weeks. Communicate often as well. Coming to the Holy Chalice with faith and reverence for the greatest shrine, you will receive healing of soul and body. You need to have a peaceful spirit. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4: 6). As often as possible (at least briefly, but fervently) address prayer to the Queen of Heaven.

A prayer appeal for help to God and to the Most Holy Theotokos must necessarily be combined with the determination to leave this destructive passion forever. All one's will must be directed towards returning to normal life.

We must strictly prohibit ourselves for the rest of our lives, even the smallest amount of alcohol. Otherwise, the insidious enemy will easily take advantage of this and plunge you into an even worse state than before. In general, one must have a very strong fear: the fear of perishing both physically and spiritually. Then the will will manifest itself. We must constantly warm up in ourselves the love of life. See its high meaning and purpose.

You need to try to find yourself some interesting and exciting activity. Do not be idle in any way.

Much depends on the warmth with which your loved ones will warm you. However, the decisive factor is your desire and firm will.

Your request to pray for R. b. I will try to fulfill Paul to the best of my ability.

Sincerely,
priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello! I have committed, and more than once in the past, the great sin of masturbation.

I read that this is a terrible sin, a mortal sin equal to fornication, and those who commit fornication will not go to heaven. I am very sorry. Can I be forgiven by the LORD GOD? And what can I do so that GOD forgives me, how to cleanse my sin? I ask you to help with advice and prayer for me! Goodbye.

Dmitriy.

The sin that a person hated and sincerely repents of him will undoubtedly be forgiven him due to the infinite mercy and philanthropy of the Lord. But it is very difficult to fight against prodigal passion. In addition to the desire not to repeat sin, it is necessary to apply spiritual labors to overcome this passion. First of all, get ready for the sacrament of Confession and, especially, pay attention to all the sins associated with the passion of fornication, starting from the earliest childhood. If you can remove the roots of sin through repentance, passion itself will dry up. Also, undoubtedly try to fast by training your body to abstain. Try to start the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion at least once a month. Prayerfully ask the Lord for the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit to get rid of this passion. God help you, do not be discouraged, do not despair.

Sincerely,
priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello, is anonism a sin?

Alexey.

Answer:

Hello Alexey!

Yes, the sin of masturbation is a sin against the seventh commandment of God, "Do not make love". One of the first mentions of this sin we find in the book of Genesis: “Onan knew that the seed would not be for him, and therefore, when he went to his brother's wife, he poured [the seed] on the earth so as not to give the seed to his brother. Evil was in the sight of the Lord what he did; and He killed him also ”(Gen. 38, 9-10). This sin consists in satisfying one's own lust with the help of hands. “The fornicator sins against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:18). The secrecy and accessibility of this sin leads to the fall into it of most young people. It is not only men who suffer from this sin, but also women, not only young people, but also the elderly, and not only who have tasted fornication, but have not even experienced sexual intercourse yet. The special voluptuous sensitivity that accompanies malakia develops this defect to such an extent that even by marriage or marriage it is not always cured. This vice often completely enslaves the will of a person, he wants to leave it and cannot.

Repentance in confession, fasting, abstinence of mind, heart and feelings from inappropriate dreams, sights and reading helps to weaken the influence of a bad habit. Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, trying to be more in public, walking, going to church, praying to Mother of God, John the Baptist, about the gift of chastity and purity helps to keep up with this bad habit. The Church appoints the sinner an epitimy that helps him to cope with this sinful vice. For example, dry eating and 100 bows for 40 days (According to the rule of John the Faster).

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

The answer used the book of the priest Alexy Moroz "I Confess Sin, Father".

Is changing the shape of the body (increase in height, plastic surgery) a sin, if so, why. After all, a person with short stature, increasing his height, becomes happier and does not suffer from everyday depression. And plastic surgery is sometimes simply necessary for girls with an impeccable appearance in order to find a life partner for themselves, to create a family. After all, external beauty is far from the last means for obtaining satisfaction from life.

Valentine.

Answer:

Hello Valentine!

Changing the shape of the body is not always a sin, for example, plastic surgery is quite acceptable if a person receives a burn or other injury that disfigures his body, as well as surgical correction of the protrusion of the ears, external deformities of the nose after injury, correction of scars, correction of deformities of the face, head, etc. trunk, traumatic etiology. (More details can be found, for example, in the book "The Orthodox Church and Modern Medicine" edited by priest Sergiy Filimonov, Ph.D.). But when a person suffers from daily depression due to the fact that he considers himself low, or ugly, or that no one will love him with such an appearance, then behind this lies a whole series of sinful passions: rejection of the will of the Lord about you, murmuring against God, envy to others (taller, more beautiful ...). Often there is also a prodigal passion in the desire to attract the attention of persons of the opposite sex indiscriminately, and from a medical point of view, it speaks of some mental disorders of a given personality that require certain treatment. Natural beauty, like other bodily qualities, is a gift from God. Is it good to be annoyed with a person because he received the gift of God, but to be annoyed with God that he did not give it to me? Moreover, is it good with cunning to try to capture the gift that God did not give me? Often we do not understand, and in this life we ​​will never know why, by good providence for us, the Lord does not give or deprives us of something, in particular, beauty and health. But we must always remember and believe that the Lord is good and calls Himself our Heavenly Father, who lovingly gives us everything we need for earthly life and our salvation and protects us from the unnecessary and harmful.

You write that "outer beauty is far from the last means to obtain satisfaction from life." This is true, but what does this have to do with Orthodoxy and the desire to be saved from sin and inherit eternal life? These things are incompatible and exactly the opposite. Worldly pleasures in this life have nothing to do with the joys of spiritual life and the bliss that awaits us in eternal life "... for the image of this world passes away ..." (1 Cor. 7:31), "... for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but they are like the Angels of God in heaven. " (Matthew 22:30).

Despondency and depression about their bodily defects (often appearing to a person due to his suspiciousness) are evidence of a person's deep enslavement to the sinful life of this age, forgetting about their salvation, because your appearance can in no way darken your relationship with God.

Priest Sergiy Demyanov.

Hello, Father Sergius!

Please help me figure it out.

Is it true that fornication is one of the most serious sins, and even worse than murder? It's just not entirely clear what exactly is considered fornication. Some sources say that fornication is a relationship between a man and a woman outside of marriage. What kind of marriage is meant here: the one that was married in the church or the one that is formally legalized in the registry office? If taken literally, it’s even scary to think ... After all, then more than 90% of the total population are fornicators? And how many cases when a man and a woman live their whole lives together in love and harmony, have children without ever getting married! Do they also commit this sin? Or, for example, a man and a woman met, fell in love, and are going to get married in the future. Their relationship before marriage is also fornication ??? Well, or if a person made a mistake, got burned, realized that he had met the wrong person on his way, but later found true love... Has he committed a more terrible sin before the Lord than, for example, a murderer? In general, there are many different situations in life, but how to understand this fine line? How to find out where there is sin and where it is not?

I am also interested in such questions:
1. Do doctors who perform abortions commit a sin of murder? After all, this is their job, for them it is a medical operation.
2. How does the church feel about artificial insemination?

Hello Olga!

Fornication is indeed one of the most serious sins that a person can commit. "... Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor malaki, nor sodomy, nor thieves, nor covetous people, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor predators, will inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6: 9-10) - says the Holy Scriptures. According to the nomokanon, which is based on the apostolic rules and rules of the Holy Councils, for the sin of fornication after repentance it is supposed to excommunicate a person from Communion for 7 years, for murdering a person - for 8-11 years, for adultery (when at least one of the fornicators is married, or married, i.e. fornication is accompanied by the sins of destroying the family and insulting a third person: someone else's husband or wife) should be excommunicated for 15 years. Here, as in any law, the severity of the punishment probably corresponds to the severity of the crime committed. You wrote the definition of fornication correctly - this is a relationship between a man and a woman outside of marriage. For non-Christians, or people baptized, but who have fallen away from church communion, there can be no talk of the Sacrament of the Wedding. Therefore, for them, a legal marriage at all times and to this day is considered to be an official official obligation to the state and society to be husband and wife to each other. Currently, for us it is a painting in the registry office. And this is not a formality at all, as you write. Refusal of such obligations reveals, first of all, the irresponsibility of a man (or woman) in relation to his wife (husband) and children, and cowardice to be responsible for his act of creating a family, as well as proud disregard of the state. Church-going Orthodox Christians, of course, would also do well to take a blessing from the Heavenly Father for marriage, i.e. with God through the Sacrament of Wedding.

Cases when a man and a woman live their whole lives together in love and harmony, have children, and not getting married, I have not met in my life. In such a "family", as a rule, one of the spouses feels the inferiority of such a union, and children are always traumatized by the absence of a legitimate father. What kind of love of a father for his children can we talk about in such a situation? The relationship between a man and a woman before marriage is also fornication, and spiritual death is the “spiritual burn” of such a relationship. You don’t believe it, but believe me, the spiritual laws by which our world exists are as immutable as the laws of mathematics, physics, chemistry, in which, I hope, you believe, these laws have one Creator - the Lord God. Just as two and two will always be four, so a prodigal relationship will always be accompanied by an unhappy family life, despair and sorrow, and in no case joy and happiness. A person is happy when he loves and is loved, and nothing else. God is love, and when we do something contrary to God (that is, we resist Love), love always leaves us. The Lord does not force anyone to live a chaste family life. Each person is inherently endowed by the Lord God with freedom of choice. In this case, to listen or not to His spiritual commandments. And the evidence of this freedom are countless examples of the prodigal life, which has become commonplace, moreover, even the norm. modern culture... You simply do not feel the gravity of the sin of defiling your future family life by fornication, the sacrament of childbirth, the human body, which in the Holy Scriptures calls the "Temple of God." The line that we cross, turning the love of two people into a prodigal relationship, will always be prompted by our conscience. If she is not completely clouded, we will hear her voice. And having heard, it would be good to obey him.

Now about abortion. Undoubtedly, doctors who perform abortions are infanticides, among other things, in complicity with their parents. Yes, this is their job, and in this case it is no different from the work of an executioner. The executioner also has such a job. You will understand this well if you watch the documentary "Silent Scream", be sure to try to watch (http://www.pms.orthodoxy.ru/zhizn). However, I do not in any way condemn the doctors of surgeons-gynecologists, because many of them are aware of the tragedy of this situation and in no case would have done abortions if they were not forced to do so by the laws of our state on the compulsory provision of medical care to women who want to have an abortion. This is a personal tragedy of many doctors, but not an excuse for them, but only the Lord God can judge. It is necessary to demand that the state at least physically demolish the places where children are born and where children are killed. These should be completely different departments, and different doctors should work in them. Although, it will hardly be possible to apply the word "doctor" to those working in abortion clinics. Also, keep in mind that abortion doctors are among the highest paid medical professionals in the West. I have not met Russian statistics, but the situation in commercial medical centers, I think, is about the same. This is very profitable business- to kill unborn children.

Modern society, due to his blindness and petrified insensibility, does not want to see crimes in the sins of fornication and abortion. Indeed, it is always difficult to see your sin. But few people today do not notice the consequences of these sins. This is an extremely small number of happy families, where the husband and wife would live their whole lives in love, and the children would have relatives who love their parents. Everywhere we see around us the pain and suffering of spouses and children. Pain and suffering in themselves are not evil or sin. They are the result of evil. It is not difficult, after thinking, to guess which one. These are, first of all, fornication and abortion - sins that have destroyed the modern family.

The answer to your last question can be found in the official document "Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church" in section XII "Problems of Bioethics" (http://www.wco.ru/biblio/books/koncep1/).

"XII.4. The use of new biomedical methods in many cases makes it possible to overcome the ailment of infertility. At the same time, expanding technological interference in the birth process human life poses a threat to the spiritual integrity and physical health of an individual. Relations between people, which have been at the root of society since ancient times, are also under threat. The development of these technologies is also associated with the spread of the ideology of so-called reproductive rights, which is now being promoted at the national and international levels. This system of views presupposes the priority of the sexual and social realization of the individual over caring for the child's future, the spiritual and physical health of society, and its moral stability. The world is gradually developing an attitude towards human life as a product that can be chosen according to one's own inclinations and which can be disposed of on an equal basis with material values.

In the prayers of the wedding ceremony, the Orthodox Church expresses her belief that childbearing is the desired fruit of a legal marriage, but at the same time it is not its only goal. Along with the "fruit of the womb for the benefit" of spouses, the gifts of lasting mutual love, chastity, "like-mindedness of souls and bodies." Therefore, the Church cannot consider the paths to childbirth that are not in accordance with the plan of the Creator of life morally justified. If a husband or wife is incapable of conceiving a child, and medical and surgical treatments for infertility do not help the spouses, they should humbly accept their lack of children as a special vocation in life. Pastoral recommendations in such cases should take into account the possibility of adopting a child by mutual consent of the spouses. Artificial insemination with the husband's sex cells can be classified as acceptable means of medical care, since it does not violate the integrity of the marriage union, does not differ fundamentally from natural conception and occurs in the context of marital relations.

Manipulations associated with the donation of germ cells violate the integrity of the personality and the exclusivity of marital relations, allowing a third party to intrude into them. In addition, this practice encourages irresponsible parenthood or motherhood, deliberately released from all obligations in relation to those who are "flesh of the flesh" of anonymous donors. The use of donor material undermines the foundations of family relationships, since it presupposes that the child, in addition to "social", also has so-called biological parents. “Surrogate motherhood”, that is, the bearing of a fertilized egg by a woman who returns the child to “customers” after childbirth, is unnatural and morally unacceptable even in cases when it is carried out on a non-commercial basis. This technique involves the destruction of the deep emotional and spiritual closeness that is established between the mother and the baby already during pregnancy. "Surrogate motherhood" traumatizes both the carrying woman, whose maternal feelings are trampled upon, and the child, who may subsequently experience a crisis of self-awareness. Morally inadmissible from the Orthodox point of view are also all types of in vitro (out-of-body) fertilization, which involve the procurement, conservation and deliberate destruction of "excess" embryos. It is on the recognition of human dignity even for the embryo that the moral assessment of abortion, condemned by the Church, is based (see XII.2).

Fertilization of single women using donor germ cells or the realization of the "reproductive rights" of single men, as well as those with so-called non-standard sexual orientation, deprives the unborn child of the right to have a mother and father. Use reproductive methods outside the context of a family blessed by God, it becomes a form of fighting against God, carried out under the guise of protecting human autonomy and the misunderstood freedom of the individual. "

Sincerely,
priest Sergiy Demyanov.

October 3, 2013

How to atone for sins? Sometimes a person commits rash and stupid acts, which he soon repents of, then he stands in front of him logical question how to forgive sins and get rid of a heavy burden.

How to atone for sins?

V modern world people began to treat the church as a kind of relic of the past and an abstract manifestation of their culture. Some individuals go to temples and churches just to pay tribute to fashion, without knowing a single prayer and never observing a single church fast in their lives. All these aspects lead to the fact that a person does not feel his responsibility for committed acts and sins, does not think about the consequences of his actions and his words. Most often, the realization that he does not live correctly comes only when trouble comes to the house and more and more often various misfortunes occur. Then the question arises, how to forgive your sins, how to properly ask God for forgiveness?

First of all, you need to sincerely, with all your heart, repent of the perfect deed. It is best to ask a priest for help. Typically, people who attend church often have their own spiritual mentor. If you are not a permanent parishioner of the church, then you can choose a spiritual father yourself. It is very important to see how the confession will cool down: it happens that people, in the first place, confess their sins to the priest, and he, in turn, releases them to them. But if you have been walking towards your repentance for a long time and it really comes from the heart, this option does not suit you. It is ideal to choose a free priest who can take time for you to confess and then give you useful advice... You will definitely have to read a prayer for sins. Do not be afraid that someone will find out about your secrets, told to the priest. Priests strictly adhere to other people's secrets, so you can tell the confessor about the most intimate things without hiding. Speak only the truth, no matter how terrible it is. The priest will give you some instructions that must be strictly observed - this can be an order for a prayer service, the observance of a certain fast, or daily prayer for the forgiveness of sins. Remember that prayer should come straight from the heart, only in this case you will be completely freed from the heavy burden that torments your soul, cleansed yourself and as a result you will become closer to God. In the process of prayer, the soul is purified and thoughts come into order. When you repent of a perfect deed, you mentally return to it and relive your pain again, thereby saving you from committing sin again. Prayer helps you release your oppression and calm you down.

Many women are interested in whether it is possible to atone for the sin associated with abortion. And it does not matter at all why you made it, because sometimes it is not at all a matter of unwillingness to have a child from a casual acquaintance. It is very important that a woman repents of her sin and is ready to ask forgiveness for it before God. Go to church and confess, the priest will impose a penance on you, which carries an educational meaning. Unfortunately, there is no prayer that would remove the sinfulness of abortion, but you can earn Heaven's forgiveness by doing good deeds. It is believed that the adoption of a child from orphanage equated to the construction of a temple. In addition, by your own example, you can try to dissuade other women from committing this terrible sin. It doesn't matter what sin you have committed, what matters is that it can be atoned for by doing good and helping your neighbor.

Now if you are asked,

You will always know what to answer correctly :)

The most detailed description: prayer to atone for their sins - for our readers and subscribers.

Modern society often refers to religion as an abstract element of culture. Some even go to church to pay tribute to fashion. At the same time, not observing the fasts and commandments, and not knowing prayers. This approach leads to the fact that people sin without thinking about their actions or their consequences. The realization that something has been done wrong comes only after misfortunes have occurred in their lives. Then, remembering their lives, and analyzing what is happening, they understand that they have done a lot of bad things in their lives. And then they wonder how to atone for sins?

Cover up sins with prayer

In order to atone for your sins, first of all, you should sincerely repent of them. For this, it is better to contact a priest. Those who often attend church often have their own confessor, but if you are not a regular parishioner, then you can choose a priest yourself. But in this case, you should pay attention to how confession is carried out. It can flow like a stream, that is, a person lists all his sins, and the priest, in turn, releases them. However, if you really repented of your sins, then this option is unlikely to suit you. Therefore, it is better to choose a priest who will have time to talk with you, during which he will be able to give advice, and you will read a prayer for sins.

Any priest honors the secret of confession, and everything that you tell him will be kept secret. Therefore, there is nothing to hide, no matter how scary it is, it is better to tell everything as it is. Typically, the priest will give you some directions to follow. This can be an order for a prayer service, fasting, or a daily prayer for the forgiveness of sins. It is worth considering that reading prayers should come from the heart, only in this way can you free your soul from the burden of a perfect sin, clear your conscience and find peace of mind, and as a result draw closer to God. In other words, you will cleanse your heart, revive your soul and heal your consciousness. In the process of repentance, you will immerse yourself in memories, and note the sinfulness of your thoughts, actions, feelings at a certain period of your life and you will be able to free yourself from the oppressive state.

Many women ask themselves how to atone for the sin of abortion. It doesn't matter for what reasons they did it, it is important that they realized their mistake. In this case, you need to confess, then the priest will impose a penance, which is more educational in nature, rather than removing sin. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a prayer that removes the sin of abortion, but you can always help other women not to commit it. If you have no children, then you can adopt a child and raise him, which is equivalent to building a temple. In any case, whatever sin you commit, it can be atoned for by good deeds done from a pure heart.

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Prayer for the forgiveness of sins is very strong

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All peoples who live on Earth have secret words that are necessarily passed on from the older generation to the younger, and thanks to which, a person turns to the higher powers, to the Lord God. Such words are called prayer. The main conversion is a prayer to the Lord for forgiveness - the atonement of sin before another person, the cultivation of the power of forgiveness.

In order to atone for your sins, it is important to visit the temple of the Lord. Attend divine services. But, most importantly, you really want to receive from the Almighty the condescension of grace in the form of the forgiveness of sins. The Lord God forgives everyone and forgives them sins, but only to those who show him their unshakable desire to receive forgiveness, all-consuming faith and the absence of dashing thoughts.

Prayer for the forgiveness of sins

During his stay on planet Earth, a person commits a large number of sins from day to day based on various circumstances and reasons, the main of which are weakness, inability to subdue his willpower in order to resist the many temptations that surround us.

Everyone knows the impartation of Jesus Christ: "Out of the heart come the evil providences, and they will defile a man." It is in this way that sinful thoughts are born in the subconscious of a person, which flow into sinful actions. Do not forget that every sin originates only from “evil thoughts”.

Prayer for the forgiveness of sins is a very powerful prayer

One of the common ways to atone for sins is by giving alms and donations to those who need it more than you. It is through this act that a person can express his compassion for the impoverished and mercy for his neighbor.

Another way that will help to free the soul from sin is the prayer for the remission of sins, which comes from the very heart, about sincere repentance, about the forgiveness of committed sins: “And the prayer of faith heals the one who is sick, and the Lord will restore him; and if he has done sins, they will forgive and be redeemed to him ”(James 5:15).

In the Orthodox world there is miraculous icon Theotokos "Softening Evil Hearts" (otherwise - "Seven-shot"). Since ancient times, before this icon, believing Christians have been asking for forgiveness of sinful deeds and reconciliation of those at war.

Among Orthodox believers, there are 3 common prayers for the forgiveness of sins:

Prayer of repentance and forgiveness

“In the hand of Thy great mercy, O my God, I entrust my soul and my body, my feelings and verbs, my deeds and all my body and soul movements. My entrance and exit, my faith and residence, the course and end of my life, the day and hour of my breath, my repose, the rest of my soul and body. But Thou, O Merciful-hearted God, of the whole world by sins is insurmountable to Goodness, Good Lord, to me, more than all sinful men, accept in the hand of Thy protection and deliver from all evil, cleanse the many multitudes of my iniquities, give correction to my evil and accursed life and from my future life. Always delight me at the fierce falls, but in nothing, when I anger Your Humanity, also cover my weakness from demons, passions and evil people. Prohibit the enemy visible and invisible, guiding me through the saved path, bring to You, my refuge and my desire to the land. Grant me the end of the Christian, not ashamed, peaceful, from the airy spirits of malice observe, at Thy Terrible Judgment, be merciful to Thy servant and bring me to the right hand of Thy blessed sheep, and with them I praise thee, my Creator forever. Amen".

Prayer for forgiveness

"Lord, you see my weakness, give me correction and make me love you from all my soul and thoughts, and give me your grace, give me zeal to perform services, bring my unworthy prayer and thank you for everything."

Forgiveness with God

“Lord my God, you know what is salvation for me, help me; and do not allow me to sin before You and perish in my sins, for I am sinful and weak; do not betray me to my enemies, as I have come to You, deliver me, O Lord, for You are my strength and my hope, and You are glory and thanksgiving forever. Amen".

The power of appeal to the Almighty

A person's ability to forgive and ask for forgiveness is the ability of a strong and merciful person, because the Lord God performed a magnificent act of forgiveness, He not only forgave all sinning people, but was also crucified for human sins on the cross.

Prayer for the forgiveness of sins to the Lord can help a person achieve the long-awaited deliverance from sin. Its strength lies in the fact that the one who asks the Almighty already sincerely repents and wants to atone for his guilt. Turning to a prayer for the forgiveness of committed sins, he realized that:

• that I have committed a sin
• I was able to admit my guilt,
• realized that I had done wrong
• and decided not to repeat it again.

The supplicant's faith in His mercy can lead to forgiveness.

Proceeding from this, a spiritual prayer for sinful forgiveness is the repentance of a sinner for what he has done, since he who cannot realize the gravity of his deed will not turn to the Almighty in prayer.

Having paid attention to his mistakes and turning after that to the Son of God, the sinner is obliged to show his sincere repentance by doing good deeds. In this case, “the servant of God will certainly be accepted, and his prayer will come before the clouds themselves” (Sir 35:16).

Forgiveness from God for sins

Over the course of human existence, prayer has become necessary to receive divine grace, after which the character of a person completely changes: he becomes a rich soul, mentally strong, persistent, courageous, and sinful thoughts leave his head forever.

When changes occur in the inner world of a person, then he can: become better for those who are nearby,

• can do kinder than people that surround him,
• show what it means to do intelligent things,
• tell about the hidden nature of the origin of evil and good,
• prevent another from committing a sinful act.

The Mother of God, the Mother of God, also helps in atonement for sins - he hears all the prayers addressed to her and brings them to the Lord, thereby begging for forgiveness together with the one asking.

One can appeal with a prayer for forgiveness to both the saints of God and the great martyrs. Forgiveness of sins should not only be asked, this should be prayed for for a long time: the more serious the sin, the longer it will take. But rest assured, time won't be wasted. After all, the descent of God's grace on a person is the greatest gift from God.

How to be forgiven:

1. Visit an Orthodox church regularly;
2. Take part in services;
3. Address with prayer to the Lord at home;
4. Live with righteous views and pure thoughts;
5. Do not commit subsequent sinful acts.

Prayer for the forgiveness of sins, a kind of helper, an irreplaceable companion of every person. Forgiving, a generous person is truly happy. After all, when there is peace in the soul, then the reality around us is transformed for the better.

May the Lord protect you!

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Thank you very much, very good article.

Thanks for reading your article on the second evening, very helpful.

Prayer for the forgiveness of sins to the Lord God, 3 prayers

I bring to your attention 3 Orthodox prayers about the forgiveness of sins, addressed to the Lord God.

Such prayers do not ask God for anything, except for magnanimous absolution.

Sins are different, mortal and everyday, as well as not mentioned by oblivion.

Exactly forgotten sins and pull our soul into the abyss of hellfire.

To ask the Lord God for forgiveness, read with lit candles and in a graceful silence one of the three Orthodox prayers below.

Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Forgive me for the sins mentioned and forgotten. Do not allow Orthodox torment as a punishment and do not torment my soul with new trials. I deeply believe in you and pray for your soon forgiveness. Thy will be done, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen.

I beg you, Son of God, for the forgiveness of forgotten sins. In captivity of the devil's temptation, I did (did) deeds that were not righteous. Forgive me all the insults, slander, greed and greed, stinginess and rudeness. Let not sinful scabs infect my mortal body. May it be so. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I confess to you for sinful thoughts and unkind deeds. Forgive me sins forgotten, accidental and intentionally committed. Help me to cope with the temptation of the devil and guide me on the path of holy Orthodoxy. Thy will be done. Amen.

God bless you!

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Thank you, very helpful and instructive.

Thank you for your prayers and clarifications. We do not know a lot, and we do not know how to behave correctly not only with God, but also with the people around us.

Thank you for your prayers, they help me a lot.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for the prayers.

Short, simple, accessible.

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How to forgive sins before God, 5 prayers

If you are haunted by known sins, then you can forgive them before the Lord God. This is done in church or at home. Jesus Christ will forgive you.

When concealing grave sins, you must clearly remember that by making a promise, you undertake not to repeat them.

When I was in a remote village, still a living healer gave me 5 prayers, allowing me to beg forgiveness for the sins of my ancestors, aborted children, fornication, lust and betrayal.

Light 1 candle. Supply icons that are available at home. Read the prayer “Our Father” several times.

Then proceed with priming.

How to beg for an abortion

Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Let me go of the sin of abortion - infanticide of the most nasty. In spiritual nakedness, she left the path of the righteous, seduced by weakness and lust. Thy will be done. Amen.

How to atone for the sins of ancestors

Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In commemoration of the church, forgive the sins of the ancestors of the deceased, who did not repent during their lifetime, rarely prayed and toiled. Thy will be done. Amen.

How to atone for the sin of fornication

Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Cleanse me from lustful striving and immeasurable seed pollution. I pray you for strict retribution, so that the offspring does not suffer, my sorrows do not absorb. May it be so. Amen.

How lust is atoned for

Lord, do not destroy my soul, but cool the lustful desire of the flesh. I pray you for just punishment and relief for your frank confession. Thy will be done. Amen.

How to pray for treason

Lord Jesus Christ, in youthful lust and carnal attraction, I repent of the marital apostasy. Righteously angry, punish for treason, show me the spiritual path to the Temple. Thy will be done. Amen.

Now you can atone for your own and others' sins.

May the Lord God hear your groans!

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Symbol of faith

How to atone for your sins

We cannot atone for our sins, but we do have hope. The Lord Jesus Christ says that He came precisely to minister and to give His soul for the redemption of many (Mark 10:45).

The main thing is not human sins and weaknesses in and of themselves; the main thing - both the first and the most important - is that we are first of all members of the Church, members of the Body of Christ, and then only the sick, weak, powerless, sinful, whatever. The main thing is that, as in all spiritual life, so in repentance, in the center of it, in the first, main place, He should be - and not some kind of me with my supposedly super-sinfulness.

Christ made the atonement for our sins at Calvary; we are called to receive His gift through repentance and faith. The Lord founded the Church and established the Sacraments in it - special actions through which He frees us from sins and gives us strength for a new life. Therefore, we just need to come to Church and bring our sins to confession. The Word of God firmly promises us that if we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1: 9). Only Christ can cleanse our sins.

Atonement for sin through prayer can be made by a spiritual person. To do this, you need to remember your life and your sinful adventures. So they found a case and illuminated it with their consciousness, what it is and how to assess your thoughts and actions. If you see your sin and condemn it, repenting, then the sin is immediately atoned for and you ascend in spirit and your path is changed.

Commemoration at the Divine Liturgy (Church note)

Those who have Christian names are remembered for health, and only those who are baptized in the Orthodox Church are remembered for repose.

At the liturgy, you can submit notes:

On the proskomedia - the first part of the liturgy, when for each name indicated in the note, particles are removed from special prosphora, which are subsequently lowered into the Blood of Christ with a prayer for the forgiveness of sins

Sin is not just some immoral act, it is, first of all, a violation of the law of God, the laws of spiritual life established by the Creator Himself, lawlessness (1 John 3.4), or, in other words, sin is a violation of the will of God. Sin did not come from God and not from nature, but from the abuse of the mind and will of his rational beings, about their arbitrary deviation from God, about replacing his holy will with his own, from self-will. The first violator of His will was Lucifer, one of the order of the Archangel. Now he is Satan, that is, the enemy of God. Therefore, committing a sin is a conscious or unconscious opposition to God, and one must in every possible way avoid sin, making an effort to this end. That original, natural sin, which infected the nature of the ancestors, and therefore is hereditary, as long as carnal humanity exists, is the reason for everyone's personal sins. Therefore, the Lord said, "There is no man who has not sinned." Thus, the personal sins of each person come from a damaged human nature, under the influence of the external world, which “lies in evil,” and from the devil. In the case of committing a sin, it is imperative to repent in order to again become closer to your Creator and Savior, the inherent Protector and Guide.

The Lord forgives us all sins, except for mortal sin. Mortal sin is stubborn unrepentance, when a sinner in his bitterness reaches the point that he cannot repent from the bottom of his heart. And even if someone was terribly guilty before God, he can, humbly bowing down before Him, bring repentance. Repentance is a fundamental backdrop to our entire Christian life. The Monk Ephraim the Syrian left us with the necessary prayer: "Grant me the ripening of my transgressions." Again and again: seeing your sin is a spiritual act of extremely great value for all who seek the Face of the Living God. Moreover, this act is the action in us of God Himself, who is light. To our great regret, very rare people understand with their hearts the true nature of sin. Usually they stand at the level of human morality, and if when they rise above it, it is still not enough (and morality itself, if necessary, can be changed ...) such a sin that was not committed even with an instant touch of the mind. And no one can be sure that he is beyond the power of the thoughts that visit him. So, to the extent of our ability to see ourselves, we need to confess our sins so as not to carry them away with us after death.

The indefatigable psalter

The indefatigable Psalter is read not only about health, but also about repose. Since ancient times, ordering a commemoration at the Unsleeping Psalter has been considered a great charity for a deceased soul ..

It is also good to order the Unsleeping Psalter for yourself, support will be vividly felt. And one more important point, but far from the least important,

There is eternal remembrance on the Unsleeping Psalter. It seems expensive, but the result is more than a million times the money spent. If there is still no such opportunity, then you can order for a shorter period. And it's good to read it yourself.

Our entire earthly life, from birth to the last breath, ultimately can be seen and appreciated in an instant. Imagine a vessel of perfectly clear glass full of water; at first glance, you can tell whether the water is clean or not, and how much. So it will be with us after the transition to another world. Every movement of thought, even a fleeting one, leaves its mark on the general quality of our life.

Suppose that during the entire period of my earthly existence, only once an evil thought ran through my heart, for example, murder. And this single thought will remain a dark stain on the body of my life, if it is not spewed out through repentant self-condemnation. Nothing can be hidden: “There is nothing hidden that would not be revealed, and secret that would not be recognized” (Luke 12-23). And for every evil thought, we will be tortured in ordeals, as a result of which - an intermediate judgment: the soul will either go to God, or pushing away from God, will move "into outer darkness", to endless torment.

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness ”(1 John 1. 8-9). Through sincere repentance with a resolute self-condemnation of oneself before God and people, the inner man is purified, and the water in the vessel, drawn through the spiritual filter of repentance, is restored in its purity. But he who does not repent becomes an enemy of the Church. As rotten branches fall away from a tree, so unrepentant sinners fall away from the head of the Church - Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is the vine, and we are the twigs that feed on life. Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov) says: “Sometimes they come to me for confession and say: we have no sins. I ask, do you go to Church, do you pray? It turns out, no, they don't go, they don't pray. And they do not admit sins for themselves: they say, we do good, bring benefit. Then I ask such people: are these chairs useful? - yes, they do, - and earthworms do good? - Yes, good. - Are the chairs alive? - Dead. - And the worms are spiritual? - No. Here you are, like these chairs or those worms ... "

What can we repent of? First, in their own sins; secondly, in the sins to which we have led our neighbors through motivation, temptation, or a bad example; thirdly, in the fact that they did not do good deeds that they could have done; fourthly, in that they have taken their neighbors away from good deeds; fifth, that the good deeds themselves did with a sin in half. And you have to ask your conscience about all such matters. Awareness of one's sins and self-reproach in them are the first steps on the path of repentance.

The magpie is a prayer service that is performed by the Church every day for forty days. Every day during this period, particles are removed from the prosphora.

The elder Schema-Archimandrite Zosima noted that the entire history of mankind is measured in "weeks and forty days." “For forty days Christ appeared to his disciples, staying on earth until the feast of the Ascension of the Lord. Feast of the saint - the fortieth day of the Ascension of the Lord. We are celebrating Easter on the eve of Easter and we will celebrate the great annual holiday on the fortieth day after Easter - the Ascension of the Lord. Forty-tongues - forty days of fasting, forty days of Easter, everything goes in forties, weeks and forties. And the history of mankind also goes on in weeks and forties ”. Magpies are ordered for health, especially for seriously ill patients.

Sometimes it seems that it is difficult to draw the line where sin begins. What is the difference, say, between curiosity and curiosity, between indifference and dispassion, between fashion and custom? In such cases, the easiest way to clarify differences is in opposites. Curiosity is the opposite of restraint and modesty, curiosity is stupidity and laziness. Compassion and responsiveness are opposed to indifference, nervousness and vanity to dispassion. Neglecting fashion means maintaining chastity, freedom and independence of taste. To neglect custom is to be proud of yourself and despise people. By thinking about other such qualities, you can learn to determine the boundaries of moral and spiritual behavior.

Some people consider a small sin to be a big one, but they hardly think about grave and great sins. So, for every pancake in the post they are ready to be worn out, and insults and condemnations of a neighbor, killing him in the eyes of others, are considered almost nothing.

Before going to confession, we must forgive everyone. Forgive without delay, now, and never remember the insult! Live as if they never existed. We must be reconciled with all our neighbors. Only then can we hope to receive forgiveness from the Lord.

To repent means to feel in the heart a lie, insanity, the weight of one's sins; means to realize that they have offended their Creator, Lord, Father and Benefactor, infinitely holy and infinitely abhorrent of sins; means with all my soul to desire correction and atonement for them. And just as we sin with all the strength of our soul, so repentance must be all-soul. Repentance only in words, without the intention of correction and without feelings of contrition, is called hypocritical. And the coldness of the heart in confession, as in prayer, is from the devil, he is the coldness of the hellish abyss.

Sometimes it is difficult and painful to open up all your shameful deeds and thoughts to the confessor without concealment, sometimes it is painful, shameful and humiliating. But it is necessary to overcome this last demonic barrier of false shame on the path of salvation by reading the "Door of Mercy" and the Symbol of Faith. Otherwise, the wound will remain unhealed and will erode mental health, remaining a putrid leaven for subsequent sins. For the same reason, confession should not be postponed. Verb, it is said, your iniquity, and do not be silent about them, but be justified. It is always necessary to acknowledge one's own evil will as the culprit of a sin. Let's not be ashamed and cry in confession. If a person cried, it means he has resigned himself, the proud and proud do not cry.

Some Christians, out of shame, cowardice, fear, hide their sins from their confessor. By doing this, they inflict tremendous spiritual harm on themselves. Through hidden sins, the devil continues to dominate the soul of the sinner. The grace of God does not heal such a soul. It is not for nothing that the priestly prayer at confession says: "If you hide anything from me, you will have a double sin."

Prayer for health

A prayer service is a special service in which they ask the Lord, the Mother of God, the saints to send mercy or thank God for receiving benefits. In the church, prayers are performed daily, except for the time of Great Lent, at the end of the liturgy. On Sunday, after the early liturgy, a prayer service is performed with blessing of water, that is, there is a small blessing of water. Such molebens belong to private worship and are performed at the request and needs of individual believers. Public prayers are performed on the days of temple holidays, on New Years, before the beginning of the teaching of the youths, in the absence of rain, etc. You can also order a thanksgiving prayer to the Savior on behalf of a person or several people who thank the Lord.

Pure confession destroys unrighteousness, averts from sin, protects from evil, affirms in goodness, strengthens against temptations, maintains vigilance, keeps God's commandments on the path, strengthens against temptations, infuses holy peace into the soul, multiplies the desire for a godly life and makes a person day from the day is cleaner and more perfect.

Some may think that according to everything that has been said, you can sin as much as you want, and then you will repent - and that's it. But such a thought is the deception of the devil. The great sacrament of repentance and the mercy of God do not at all provide grounds for a sinful life, "for if we, having received the knowledge of the truth, sin voluntarily, then there is no longer a sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10:26). He who, in the hope of repentance, allows himself to sin arbitrarily and deliberately, acts insidiously in relation to God. The sinner, arbitrarily and deliberately, in the hope of everlasting repentance, forgiveness, is unexpectedly struck by death, and he is not given time, like a liar, for the supposed virtues. “Wash yourself, cleanse yourself; remove your evil deeds from my eyes, ”the Lord calls,“ stop doing evil; learn to do good, seek the truth, save the oppressed, protect the orphan, stand up for the widow. Then come - and let us judge, say the Lord. If your sins be as crimson, I will whiten you as snow; if they are red like purple, I will whiten like a wave. If you want and obey, you will taste the blessings of the earth; but if you deny and persist, the sword will devour you: for the mouth of the Lord speaks ”(Isa. 1 16-20). To sin, hoping for the mercy of God, is “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,” that is, an unforgivable sin.

Likewise, those who say: "We will sin in our youth, but we will repent in our old age," will be deceived and will be ridiculed by the demons. As sinners arbitrarily, they will not be worthy of repentance, they will die without confession.

The consequences of a sinful life are blindness of the mind, hardening, insensibility of the heart: “my iniquities have exceeded my head, like a heavy burden they have weighed upon me” (Psalm 37: 5). What is the consequence of such sinfulness? “My heart has forsaken me” (Ps. 39.13). The mind of an inveterate sinner sees neither good nor evil - his heart loses its capacity for spiritual sensations, his conscience is literally burned out. When, with the help of God's grace, many of his sins are revealed to a person, then it is impossible that he does not come to extreme bewilderment from such a spectacle of his life. Through cutting off sins in confession, a person wakes up, clears his conscience, which is felt even physically, in the body; the human brain becomes clearer, the soul becomes joyful. In one of the temples in Perm, there was even a case of a bent old woman's back healed immediately after confession. She, moving away from the analogion ten meters, suddenly turned sharply and ran back to the priest: "Father, my back has stopped hurting!" She almost screamed. And everyone in the church began to be moved, as the Lord clearly showed the healing of the sacrament of confession.

Church note

A church note given "about health" or "about repose", along with candles, is the most massive and common church appeal of people to the Lord, the Mother of God and the holy saints

But dear readers! Please do not think that the Church focuses us on the concepts of "must" and "must not", that the Church, like a corral, slams the door behind us - and that's it, now only fasts and rules, obedience and cutting off everything that is possible. The Church is the house of God in which the human soul grows and develops. The purpose of this life is to become a partaker of Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven in joy and peace. The path to God is long, all life. In the spiritual life of every person, regardless of age, there is childhood, adolescence, maturity. And you need to "grow", improve gradually, albeit with the compulsion of the will (as in any business), which actually proves the love of God. You just need to remember that spiritual growth is the main business of life, a spiritual guideline in any field of life. We must remember about the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, which frees people from the torment of sins and bitter captivity by the elements of this world, about the fact that only in the Church does a person acquire true freedom.

Repentance presupposes not just an awareness of sin, but precisely sin before God. And this is very important. All the feelings that penitential practice offers us to go through: self-reproach, humility, seeing ourselves as the worst of all, fear of punishment, and so on. - in their true sense, they should be not just human feelings, emotions, movements of the soul, heart, mind - but precisely religious feelings, moreover, positively religious. That is, they are true and correct only when they are accomplished in God, before Him, in the context of Him and the Church, by the joint action of our soul and the grace of God - co-creation, synergy - but in no case by themselves. I draw your special attention to this, for this is the root of all religious mistakes. Self-reproach is not to convince yourself: I am a freak and nothing. Humility is not a complex of guilt and self-inferiority, in the language of psychology. Repentance is not self-gnawing, not at all. I repeat, these are positive religious feelings, that is, they mean: there is God, He is Love and Grace; He is my Savior, it is mine, all good and good are all His. Mine - really, passions and weaknesses; but in spite of them, He gave me such a gift in the Church - to live by Him, by His good, good and perfection; and I am a member of His body, I live by Him and do not want to live by myself, by my passions. And for the sake of precisely this, and only this - to live by Him, I do everything: I repent, and I pray, and I abstain, and I struggle with sin, and so on, and so on, that the Church prescribes - in order to seek Christ, to be with Him in order to make up for our weakness by His grace. And not for the sake of simply stating every hour that I am a sinner, not to eat myself up. This is what happens in repentance.

And humility is a feeling that God loves me immeasurably as well as all others, and we are the same before Him - equally weak and sick, and I, perhaps, more than others; but He accepts us all, heals, nourishes, supports, comforts, admonishes us with great love and mercy, like a mother to a child; and before Him everything is ours, even something good and good - nothing, zero, dust and dust. This is humility and self-reproach. And all these penitential feelings should bring into the soul of a person not despondency and despair, not an inferiority complex, which always happens when we deprive repentance of the church context, but because of the fact that these are spiritual movements of the soul - the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is not ecstasy, not pink exaltation, not blood heat - the grace of the Holy Spirit is witnessed in the soul by a subtle, peaceful, joyful, humble, quiet, cool, truly spiritual feeling that gives a person peace, love and freedom - and, as it were, gathers a person into something whole, into what it should be according to the plan of God.

Church services in Orthodox churches in Jerusalem

Forty-mouth about repose

The indefatigable psalter

Church note

Prayer for health

Sorokoust about health

Temples and monasteries in which services are performed

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How to atone for the sins of a kind

It is possible and necessary to atone for sins of a kind. In Tsarist Russia, all peasant families had many children, and the youngest son was given to a monk to atone for the sins of the family. In the old days, people still felt the law of fate in the family, so they tried to intermarry only with the family in which there were no suicides, drunkards, madmen, fornicators, moral monsters, and childlessness (a bad sign - the doom of the family). In principle, the redemption of moral laws in a family is still noticeable: it is clear that women in a family, for example, always become single mothers, or men in a family go to prison, and so on. The most obvious sign that a family is doomed due to sins is childlessness. Is it possible to beg for the sins of the clan! You can beg for everything, but for this you need to understand what kind of sins are in the family, and how they are corrected. Currently, no one understands this better than Sergei Lazarev. Read his book "Diagnosis of Karma".

If you find a recurring generic problem and decide to tackle it seriously, here are some tips. Since ancient times it was believed that to pray for us, servants of God, and to pray for our sinful ancestors most handy for the servants of monasteries. Many cathedrals accept notes for a six-month and one-year commemoration of health or repose.

Therefore, you need to make a list of your relatives, members of a direct clan, taking into account everyone from the first up to the seventh knee... Brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts are not included in this list. The following names need to be written down: you are the first knee, your father and mother are the second knee, your grandparents are the third knee, your great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers are the fourth knee, and so on. Write down those whose names you know, and put them in two columns: those who are alive and those who are no longer in this world. Indeed, for some it is necessary to submit a commemoration of health, and for others - of repose.

But the work of monks is not the end of your family. Your direct participation in this is also great. There is three miraculous prayers , they can be found in any prayer book.

First - 90th psalm , the semantic and sound vibrations of which will help cleanse the energy structure of a person.

Second - 50th psalm ... It is very effective in protecting the biofield and the surrounding space of the individual.

And the third - Symbol of faith , at which there is a rapid filling with high-frequency energy of all centers and channels of the Soul.

Prayers traditionally used in Parastas

1. Psalm 90

He who lives with the help of the Most High, will settle himself under the roof of the Heavenly God. He will say to the Lord: "You are my protector and my refuge, my God, I trust in You." He will deliver you from the net of fishermen and from the rebellious word. He will protect you with His shoulders, and under His wings you will be safe. His truth will shield you with a shield. Thou shalt not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies during the day, the ulcer that walks in the darkness, the plague that devastates at noon. A thousand will fall beside you, and ten thousand to your right will not come close to you. Only you will look with your eyes and you will see the reward for sinners. For you said, "The Lord is my hope." You have chosen the Highest as your refuge. Evil will not come to you, and the plague will not come near your dwelling, for He commanded His angels to keep you in all your ways. They will take you into their arms so that you do not stumble with your foot on a stone. You will step on the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the serpent. “Since he trusted in Me, I will deliver him, I will cover him, for he has known My name. I am with him in sorrow: he will call on Me - and I will hear him, I will deliver him and glorify him, I will satisfy him with long days and show him My salvation. ”

2. Psalm 50 (penitential)

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy and according to the multitude of Thy compassions, cleanse my iniquity. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. To You alone, I have sinned and done evil in front of You, so that You will be righteous in Your judgment, and you will prevail when You judge. For behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins my mother gave birth to me. But you loved the truth: You have revealed the unknown and secret of Your wisdom to me. Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be cleansed, wash me, and I will become whiter than snow. Deliver joy and joy to my hearing, and the humble bones will rejoice. Turn Thy face away from my sins, and cleanse my iniquities. Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Return to me the joy of Thy salvation and confirm me with the Spirit of the Sovereign. I will teach the wicked your ways, and the wicked will turn to you.

Deliver me from the (shedding of) blood, O God, God of my salvation! And my tongue will joyfully praise your truth. God! Open my mouth, and they will declare your praise. If you wanted a sacrifice, I would give, (but) you are not pleased with a burnt offering. A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. Bless, O Lord, according to Thy good pleasure Zion, and may the walls of Jerusalem be built. Then you will be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, the offering and burnt offering, then they will lay calves on Your altar.

3. Creed

I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten, Who was born of the Father before all ages; Light from Light, God, true from God, true, born, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, Who was all. For us, for the sake of man and for our salvation, he descended from heaven and incarnated from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human. Crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. And he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
And packs of the coming with glory to judge the living and the dead, His Kingdom will have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord Life-giving, from the Father proceeding, Alike with the Father and the Son, we are worshiped and glorified, who spoke the prophets. In one Holy, Cathedral and Apostolic Church... I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I tea the resurrection of the dead and the life of the century to come. Amen.

These prayers must be read for each member of your family in a specific sequence. You need to start with yourself. Then you read for the mother, then for the father. Moving on to the third generation, you read for the maternal grandmother and grandfather, then for the paternal grandmother and grandfather. Working with the fourth knee, you begin to read for the great-grandmother and for the great-grandfather - the parents of the grandmother, then - for the great-grandmother and great-grandfather - the parents of the grandfather (this is work with ancestors in the female line). In the same way, you work with ancestors in the male line: first, you read prayers for your great-grandmother and great-grandfather - the grandmother's parents, then for the great-grandmother and great-grandfather - the grandfather's parents. Etc.

It must be remembered that when moving deeper along the birth canal, the energy of prayers is twisted clockwise according to the gimlet's rule (from left to right). The female part of the birth canal is on the left, and the male part is on the right.

So, you start reading prayers for yourself. After the third prayer, say the words: "I apologize to everyone to whom I intentionally and unintentionally brought evil".

Start working with each of the ancestors, for example, with the following words: "I cast my vote for my maternal great-grandfather, the servant of God Terenty".

Then you read prayers, and at the end ask for forgiveness for the ancestor from all those to whom he brought evil during his lifetime. If the name of your ancestor is unknown, then simply name his status according to your gender. It is more convenient to draw up a diagram of all relatives up to the seventh knee.

It is clear that such work will take a lot of time and cannot be completed in one approach. It will take someone a few days for it, it doesn't matter, the main thing is that the work you have done will bring invaluable results - yours genus will be cleansed from hard, low frequency, destructive structures

PRAYER FOR THE BLOWING OUT OF THE SINS OF ANCESTORS AND RELATIVES

Lord, I pray to You for all those who have departed and are living, for they and we, sinners, willingly and unwittingly, grieved, offended, or were tempted by word, deed, thought, knowledge or ignorance of you.
Lord God! Forgive us and them our sins, mutual insults; Eradicate, Lord, from our hearts all resentment, suspicion, anger, memory malice, quarrels and all that can hinder love and diminish brotherly love.
Have mercy, Lord, on everyone who asks for Your help.
God! Make this day a day of Thy mercy. Give each one at his request, be a shepherd of the lost, lead the ignorant to the light of God, be a mentor, a doctor for the sick, a comforter of the dying, and lead us all to the light of knowledge, forgiveness, repentance and sincere love for You and blissful tranquility. Forgive, Lord, the sins of all those who previously departed in the faith and hope of the Resurrection, our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, and make them an eternal memory.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us! (3 times)
Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen.

There is one more prayer to atone for the sins of the family. For these purposes, they read it 2 times a year.

This is a very rare prayer, which is written on the porch of the Temple of the Archangel Michael of the Chudovy Monastery (Kremlin, 1906.)

If you read this prayer every day throughout your life, you will receive the strongest protection from the evil one, from evil people, from magical influences, from temptations, as well as deliverance from hellish torments.

Write on a piece of paper the names of all your loved ones (children, parents, husband, wife) and name them all where (name) is written.

If you pray for the sins of the family, then 2 times a year - from September 18 to September 19 (the holiday of the Archangel Michael) and from November 20 to November 21 (Mikhailov day) you need to pray for the dead - calling everyone by name ( and at the same time add the phrase “and all relatives in the flesh up to the tribe of Adam.” This is done at 12 o'clock in the morning. Thus, the sins of your kind are atonement.

Oh, Lord God the Great, King Without Beginning, send, Lord, Your Archangel Michael to the aid of your servant (name), take me away from my enemies, visible and invisible! O Lord Archangel Michael, pour out myrrh of moisture on your servant (name). O Lord Michael Archangel, demons destroyer! Forbid all enemies Fighting with me, create them like sheep and crush them, like dust before the wind. Oh lord great Michael Archangel, six-winged first prince and governor of weightless forces, Cherub and Seraphim! O Lord, pleasing Michael the Archangel! Be my help in everything: in grievances, in sorrows, in sorrows, in deserts, on roadsteads, on rivers and seas, a quiet haven! Deliver, Michael the Archangel, from all the delusion of the devil, when you hear me, your sinful servant (name), praying to you and calling your name holy, hurry up to my help, and hear my prayer, about the Great Archangel Michael! Lead all those who oppose me by the strength of the honest life-giving cross The Lord, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Holy Apostles, and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Andrew the Fool and the Holy Prophet Elijah, and the Holy Great Martyrs Nikita and Eustathius, the Venerable Father of all saints and martyr and all holy heavenly powers. Amen.