How to confess in church, and why do Christians do it?

How to confess in a church? This question is often asked by those who are just going to the temple, and those who are just curious about what a confession is all about. The question of how to properly confess in the church - with emphasis on the word "right" - is very significant for those who go to the temple all the time.

As a rule, preparation for confession takes place in several stages. Confession is not an indulgence, nor is it permission for new sins. Just once a person realizes that it is unbearably hard for him to carry a lump of sin on his heart. She presses and oppresses him. This is the first stage of preparation for confession. A person realizes his sinfulness, feels the impossibility to continue to live the way he lived. Therefore, he asks from God: "Lord, help change, help turn this page of life!" The main condition under which the page can be turned up is sincere repentance, spiritual affront and full confession of guilt and sinfulness.

Sincere heartbreak is incompatible with malice and all sorts of excesses. Therefore, confession is preceded by a period when a person reconciles with others and forgives those who have offended him, fasts, perhaps refrains from carnal pleasures. An important part of the pre-confession stage is the recitation of penitential prayers or simply prayers for the forgiveness of one's sins.

Do I have to write down my sins and bring a detailed account of them? Or a short note? How right? Confessing in the church is possible from memory. But Lutherans, for example, quite rightly believe that a person is not able to remember all his sins and will necessarily miss something. Orthodox priests recommend writing memos for themselves, sharing sins over broken commandments. It is necessary to begin with the main thing - sins against God. Then - sins against their neighbors, in the last place there are minor sins. But, of course, strict instructions do not exist - it's just easier not to forget.

Then follows the confession itself, and the priest will solve the sin by the power given by Christ. Perhaps he will impose a certain punishment - penance, which will consist of additional fasting, reading prayers and bowing. Why is this done? Often a person simply needs to feel that sin is really worn out, passed, forgiven. Penance is never unlimited.

As a rule, after confession, the believer communes with the Holy Mysteries of Christ. This strengthens the weak human spirit in the decision not to sin any more.

Where and how to confess? In the church? Or you can confess at home? For example, seriously ill how to confess? In the church too? But it happens that circumstances develop so that a person can not reach the temple.

It is acceptable to confess and at home, you just need to discuss this matter with the priest. Moreover, a believing person confesses his sins to God every time during prayer.

The rite of remission of sins itself takes place differently in Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism.

In the Orthodox Church, the priest covers the believer with an epitaph and reads the permissive prayer. The Catholic priest does not see the face of the confessor, because he is in a special small room - a confessional. This rite many represent on feature films. Protestants do not impose penance, because it is believed that all sins are released according to God's mercy.

Confession does not have to be a secret. The first Christians opened their thoughts and repented of their sins publicly - and all the faithful prayed together for the forgiveness of sinners. This kind of confession existed and subsequently - for example, it was practiced by John of Kronstadt. But then the confession became a secret - for some of the sins of the penitent could pay for life. Since the fifth century, the concept of the secret of confession appeared. Moreover, later, both in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, punishments were introduced for a priest who violated the secret of confession.

But secular power made exceptions - for example, under the decree of Peter I the priest was charged with reporting to the authorities if from confession he became aware of a crime against the state or the monarch. In Soviet Russia, the failure to report on the impending crime was prosecuted and there were no exceptions for priests. Therefore, such an act as "confessing in the church," demanded considerable courage from both believers and priests. Now the secret of confession is protected by law - the priest is not obliged to report or give evidence about what became known to him at confession.

It is interesting that confession is not the prerogative of Christianity alone - it is inherent in all Abrahamic religions. Both in Judaism and in Islam there are analogues of the Christian confession, a prayer for the forgiveness of sins. But there it does not have such a systemic character as in Christianity.