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Why do they impose penance? Penance. Excommunication from the Communion of the Holy Mysteries

Penance(penance, penance) (from the Greek ἐπιτιμία - punishment) - spiritual medicine, a form of healing for a sinner, consisting in the fulfillment of deeds of piety determined by him (or simply. Penance is a spiritual-corrective measure aimed at correcting a person, it is a means of help repentant in the struggle with. Penance in Orthodox ascetic literature is also commonly understood as Divine punishments in the form of sorrows and illnesses, the endurance of which frees a person from sinful habits.

Penance usually comes down to sanctions of an ascetic nature (additional fasting, bowing, prayer) and excommunication from communion for a certain period. Such a serious measure as anathematization is imposed only by decision of a church court and only for offenses of such a level as organizing a schism.

When assigning penance, the confessor is advised to be guided more by the spiritual state of the person than by the severity of his sins. The circumstances of the sinner’s life are also usually taken into account. For example, it is customary to treat a married youth who has committed fornication more gently than an adult man who has been married for many years.

The saint says that the purpose of penance is to “remove those who have sinned from the snare of the evil one” (Basily the Great Rule 85) and to “overthrow and destroy sin in every possible way” (Basily the Great Rule 29). The period of penance, in his opinion, is not something important in itself, but is entirely determined by the spiritual benefit of the penitent. Penance should extend only as long as it is needed for the spiritual benefit of the sinned person; healing should be measured not by time, but by the manner of repentance (Rule 2). The saint says: “Just as in physical healing, the goal of the medical art is one - the return of health to the sick, but the method of healing is different, because according to the difference in ailments, each disease has a decent method of healing; Likewise, in mental illnesses, due to the multitude and variety of passions, a variety of healing care becomes necessary, which produces healing according to the illness.” The time of penitential penance in itself and for St. Gregory of Nyssa has no specific meaning. “In any type of crime, one must first of all look at the disposition of the person being treated, and for healing one should consider time not sufficient (for what kind of healing can be from time?), but the will of the one who heals himself with repentance” (Rule 8). He who has been healed of a sinful illness does not need penance. The Holy One teaches that a confessor is a father, but not a judge; confession is a doctor’s office, not a court of justice; in order to atone for a sin, one must confess it. He advises to heal passion by practicing the opposite virtues.

bishop:
Penance should not be seen as a punishment; still less as a way to atone for a crime. Salvation is a free gift of grace. By our own efforts we can never make amends: , the one mediator, is our only atonement; Either He forgives us freely, or we are not forgiven at all. There is no “merit” in performing penance, because in relation to it a person can never have any merit of his own. Here, as always, we must think primarily in therapeutic rather than legal terms. Penance is not a punishment or even a method of atonement, but a means of healing. This is pharmacon, or medicine. If confession itself is like an operation, penance is a strengthening agent that helps restore the body during the recovery period. Therefore, penance, like the entire confession as a whole, is essentially positive in its purpose: it does not create a barrier between the sinner and God, but serves as a bridge between them. “So, you see the goodness and severity of God” (): penance is not only an expression of Divine severity, but also an expression of Divine love.

Archimandrite Nektarios (Antonopoulos):
As the Sixth Ecumenical Council teaches, “sin is a disease of the soul.” Therefore, penances sometimes act as punishments, sometimes as medicine, a kind of treatment for a disease of the soul. They are imposed mainly so that a person realizes the scale of sin and sincerely repents of it.

In addition, penances are not some kind of tribute that we pay as a ransom for sins, as if for a “letter of absolution” or in order to free ourselves from remorse. They in no way “ransom” us or justify us before the Lord, who is not a merciless dictator demanding atoning sacrifices. By and large, penances are not punishments. These are spiritual medicines and spiritual hardening, which are extremely useful to us. Therefore, they should be accepted with gratitude and observed with care.

Athanasius (Nikolaou), Metropolitan of Limassol:
If the priest says: “You know, don’t take communion for one year (or one week, or one day”), this means that you are under the obedience of the Church, and you are not cut off from it, this is part of your treatment. This happens to a sick person who is on the mend from the very beginning of treatment. Treatment means that the patient is not abandoned, but has embarked on the path of recovery.

Priest Mikhail Vorobyov:
Penance is a special obedience that the confessing priest offers to perform to a repentant sinner for his spiritual benefit. As penance, a ban on communion for a certain time, an increase in the daily prayer rule, and, in addition to the rule, reading the psalter, canons, and akathists with a certain number of prostrations may be prescribed. Sometimes intense fasting, pilgrimage to the shrines of the Church, almsgiving, and specific help to one’s neighbor are prescribed as penance.
In the early Christian era, penance was prescribed in the form of public repentance, temporary excommunication from the fullness of church life. Repentant sinners were divided into four categories: those who cried, who stood at the entrance to the temple and wept, asking for forgiveness of their sins; the listeners who stood in the vestibule and listened to the reading of the Holy Scriptures and went out along with the catechumens; those who fell, who were allowed into the church, were in it during the Liturgy of the faithful and, falling on their faces, listened to the special prayer of the bishop; standing together, who were present in the temple along with everyone else, but were not allowed to receive communion. The canonical rules approved by the Church Councils determined the duration of penance for each type of sin, and for some sins lifelong excommunication from Communion was provided, with the exception of the case of impending death.
Penance was imposed on sinners of all classes. The saint subjected Emperor Theodosius the Great to church repentance for his cruelty in suppressing the popular uprising. Penance was also imposed on Emperor Leo the Philosopher for his fourth marriage. The Moscow Tsar Ivan the Terrible was subjected to the same punishment for a similar crime against morality.
The understanding of penance exclusively as a church punishment intended to atone for sins in earthly life was characteristic of medieval Catholicism. It can be said that in the Roman Catholic Church this attitude towards penance has been preserved to this day.
On the contrary, in the Orthodox Church, penance is not a punishment, but an exercise in virtue, intended to strengthen the spiritual forces needed for repentance. The need for such an exercise arises from the need for long and persistent elimination of sinful habits. Repentance is not a simple listing of sinful actions and desires. True repentance consists in real change in a person. A sinner coming to confession asks the Lord to strengthen his spiritual strength for a righteous life. Penance, as an integral part of the Sacrament of Repentance, helps to gain these strengths.
The Sacrament of Repentance actually frees a person from sin revealed in confession. This means that the confessed sin will never again be held against the repentant sinner. However, the validity of the Sacrament depends on the sincerity of repentance, and the repentant sinner himself is not always able to determine the degree of his sincerity. The tendency to self-justification prevents the sinner from identifying the true reasons for his actions and does not allow him to overcome hidden passions that force him to repeatedly commit the same sins.
Penance helps the penitent to see his true face, to feel disgust for what only recently seemed attractive. Exercise in prayer, unhypocritical fasting, reading the Holy Scriptures and patristic books make one feel the joy of truth and goodness, and strengthen the desire to live according to the Gospel commandments.

XIII century

From "Two Rules for Monks"

XIV century
From "Questioning-Confession".

Having committed fornication at the back - 40 days of dry meat.

Play with godfather or neighbor until the seed - 40 days of eating dry.

Crossed streams when urinating - 12 days (dry to eat).

And these are great sins

Sin of Sodom - 3 years.

Sodomy - 3 years.

From "Rules about Believers in Reptiles"

15th century
Question for husbands

Or did he commit the fornication of Sodom? Fasting - 3 days.

If he committed the fornication of Sodom, in his own way or in someone else’s, and if he gave a wife to another, the penance is 3 or 4 years.

If he committed fornication with cattle through nature, penance - a year or two.

If you committed fornication in your own hand or in someone else’s - 3 months of penance.

From "A Certain Commandment" - a bad nomocanon

If anyone, a priest with an eunuch, commits fornication, let him be cast out (renounce his rank). If he comes to his senses, then let him repent for 5 years, and let him take communion from Easter to Easter, turn to fornication as little as possible, and let him worship 12 times in the morning and 12 times in the evening...

Every person who uses his seed for evil is called a murderer (i.e., everyone who sinned by fornication killed a person?).

Question for wives

Either she climbed onto her friend, or she let her friend onto herself and acted with her finger into her womb, fasting for 40 days.

16th century

Lord, Father, forgive me in the same way that, looking at the male sex, and at wives, and at maidens, and at boys, at nuns, and at babies, I touch them, and hugging, and kissing them with thoughts of immorality and to the point of sedition ( seminal filth). [...] And the sin of Sodom also happened to me myself, when I was in the mind and not in the mind.

It is a sin to poke one’s bosom, whether for husband or wife. Penance - 12 days, prostrations - 60 per day.

It is a sin to kiss with your tongue in your wife or friend’s mouth. Penance - 12 days, prostrations - 60 per day.

It is a sin to indulge in fornication. Penance - 6 days, prostrations - 30 per day.

Sin is manual fornication in one's own hand or in another's. Penance - 3 years, bows - 100 per day.

And others commit lawlessness with their relatives - they put their ouds in their mouths, and they themselves kiss their shameful ouds. Penance - 3 years, bows - 100 per day.

It is a sin for husbands to wear women's clothing when playing, or for wives to wear men's clothing. Penance - 7 weeks, 150 bows per day.

If anyone falls into fornication with two sisters or two brothers with one wife, fasting - 5 years, no communion, no dry food, and bowing - 150 per day.

From "Rules with the name Maxim"

If anyone commits fornication on himself, he will fast for 40 days.

From "The Apostolic Questioning"

The apostles asked: what if he defiles his body with cattle? How to answer that? The Lord said: let him fast for one summer, eat dry food, and not go to church for 3 summers.

And an adulterer or one who commits fornication with cattle - 8 years of fasting, and they must also bow to them 1000 times.

Question for husbands

If he committed fornication in Sodom, penance - 3 years.

If he committed fornication in his hand, penance - 3 weeks.

If with livestock - 40 days of fasting.

Question for husbands and youths

Or did he dance in a woman's dress?

Without inscription

· fornicated with a friend, indulging in himself and his friend;

· the sin of Sodom, in fornication and in quarrel with one’s neighbors, and in executions without mercy, and in shaming, and in blinking;

· I washed myself in the bathhouse, and in vain I felt my shameful odor;

· manual fornication countless;

17th century
From "The Commandments of the Holy Fathers"

If a monk with a male sex or with cattle, committing lawlessness, is exposed (unmasked), penance - 8 years, and communion - from Easter to Easter. And there are 25 bows a day.

·Mr. Father, in Sodom’s fornication in fornication and with the monk and in opposition he fell;

· He counseled many about sexual immorality, especially youths, and in the bath he washed his sinful body many times, and exposed it shamelessly to many, and fell and washed himself;

·attacking a friend with passionate love;

·once lying prostrate in the water and standing, and lying prostrate on the ground, he released the flow with his hand, and into the lip, that is, into the mushroom, he created the flow, inflating the intestines of I don’t remember which animal, and thus fornicated into his passage.

· The fornication of Sodom happened to the male sex, and such evil happened to me in foolishness and in reason;

· The youths and men committed fornication with drunken men, but unknown to them, malicious fornication was committed against them and in ignorance, and I did not make a confession, but I, the accursed one, am guilty of those sins;

·By frequent bathing he shamelessly exposed his body to many, and matured and felt his shameful parts, and caused the discharge. And he also saw and touched other people’s shameful uds naked, and with unthinking hands he ate, and drank, and gave to others;

· He touched his shameful ouds, and brought them to his nostrils, and smelled the uncleanness and filthiness of his body, and held on to a woman’s shame with his hands, and in the same way he let many touch his ouds, many times he shaved his ouds with a knife, and burned with a candle, and did other harm to the body , and anointed him with tar and other potions for the sake of need, and sinned in all of this;

Didn’t you kiss other people’s wives (at the top: husbands) and girls with unclean thoughts? Was there any unclean touch between you?

Aren't you making small things?

Canonical church monuments of the XIII-XVIII centuries. (pp. 13-116).

Or did he commit the fornication of Sodom?
(sexual perversion according to canonical
monuments of the XIII-XVIII centuries)

Canonical church monuments of the 13th-18th centuries give an idea of ​​what was considered sins in those days and what punishment was imposed for them. All texts have different recipients. Some of them are intended for laity, separately for men and women, others for monks, monks and clergy. It is interesting that lay men (18th century) had to tell during confession whether they were sinning with love of money, hypocrisy, or whether they had any grudge against anyone, and they were asked about the sin of Sodom only if the man sinned with malakia (masturbation). If there was no such sin, then they did not question him further. The situation was different with the monks and monks. They were questioned in detail about homosexual contacts, including mutual masturbation and sexual intercourse. During confession they had to talk about such sins in detail, for example, “he advised many to commit fornication, especially youths, and in the bath he washed his sinful body many times, and exposed it shamelessly to many, and fell and washed himself.” The same sin implied punishment of different severity for laymen and monks. A more severe penance was imposed on them.

In this collection, the main focus is on records related to masturbation, sodomy and other “sodomite” sins. In order to have something to compare the severity of punishment for “blue” sins, we have provided several extracts regarding bestiality. It is curious that bestiality was punished less than sodomy, while at the same time some “heterosexual” sins were punished more severely than “gay” sins. It is also interesting how the attitude towards the same sin changed from century to century. Thus, in the 14th century, the sin of Sodom was punishable by 3 years of “dry meat”, and in the 18th century, for sodomy – 26 years of penance and 300 bows per day.

There are, of course, sins that are funny from the moral point of view of the 21st century. For example, “If someone to the east urinates while standing, let him bow 300 times,” and “Those who crossed streams while urinating – 12 days (to eat dry).” In general, if you read carefully, you can draw quite a lot of interesting conclusions - about how widespread such a sin as sodomy was, about how “sophisticated” the “sin of Sodom” was sometimes. What the monks of the 17th century repented of sometimes simply amazes with the richness of their imagination: “once upon a time, lying prostrate in the water and standing, and lying prostrate on the ground, I released a leak with my hand, and into my lip, that is, into a mushroom, I created a leak, inflating my intestines, I don’t remember which one.” animal, and thus committed fornication into his own passage.”

CANONICAL CHURCH MONUMENTS XIII-XVIII centuries.

Special edition of "Kirik's Questioning".
From "Two Rules for Monks."

If two monks lie on the same bed, then let them be called fornicators.

From "Questioning-Confession".

Behind the fornication he created - 40 days of dry meat.
Play with your godfather or neighbor until the seed - 40 days of eating dry.
Crossed streams when urinating - 12 days (dry to eat).

And these are great sins
Sin of Sodom – 3 years.
Sodomy – 3 years.

From "Rules about those who believe in reptiles."

About malakia. Let the one who acts in Malakia and commits fornication receive a ban for 3 years of 24 bows. Malakia has two differences: some do it with their hands, others with their thighs. And Malakia is more evil with his hands, not his hips, but they are also evil and crafty.
There is also female malakia, when wives act on each other. About the same good thing is for the spiritual father to eradicate and give them a ban for the summer alone.
May sodomy be banned for 5 years with other repentance. The difference between sodomy is written at the end of the writings of John Mnich.

Question for husbands

Or did he commit the fornication of Sodom? Fasting – 3 days.
If he committed the fornication of Sodom, in his own way or in someone else’s, and if he gave a wife to another, penance - 3 years or 4.
If he committed fornication with cattle through nature, penance - a year or two.
If you committed fornication in your own hand or in someone else’s – 3 months of penance.

From "A Certain Commandment" - a bad nomocanon

If anyone, a priest with an eunuch, commits fornication, let him be cast out (renounce his rank). If he comes to his senses, then let him repent for 5 years, and let him take communion from Easter to Easter, turn to fornication as little as possible, and let him worship 12 times in the morning and 12 times in the evening...
Every person who uses his seed for evil is called a murderer.

From the "Rules of the Council of Chalcedon"

It is not worthy for husbands to wear women's clothes, nor for wives to wear men's clothes.

Question for wives

Either she climbed onto her friend, or she let her friend onto herself and acted with her finger into her womb, fasting for 40 days.

From "Confession by a priest and a deacon"

Didn’t you fall from your wife with a man, or with a husband’s wife, or with a widow, or with a slave in the diaconate?

From "Renewal to the Holy Monks"

Lord, father, forgive me in the same way that, looking at the male sex, and at wives, and at maidens, and at boys, at nuns, and at babies, I touch them, and hugging, and kissing them with thoughts of lust and to the point of sedition ( seminal filth). [...] And the sin of Sodom also happened to me myself, when I was in the mind and not in the mind.

From Old Russian translations of the nomocanon of John the Faster

If a worldly person engages in masturbation, do not take communion for 40 days and do not eat meat, except butter. Let him practice prayers and bow down. If this happens to a monk, let him eat dry for 60 days, remaining without communion, fasting every day and praying unceasingly. So is the priest.

If a monk falls into the scourge (of seminal defilement) - eat dry food for 60 days, strict fasting for up to 30 days and 300 bows daily until he falls to the point of fatigue.

From "The Rule of Saints (Father) on Penances"

It is a sin to poke one’s bosom, whether for husband or wife. Penance - 12 days, prostrations - 60 per day.
It is a sin to kiss with your tongue in your wife or friend’s mouth. Penance - 12 days, prostrations - 60 per day.
It is a sin to indulge in fornication. Penance - 6 days, prostrations - 30 per day.
Sin is manual fornication in one's own hand or in another's. Penance - 3 years, bows - 100 per day.
And others commit lawlessness with their relatives - they put their ouds in their mouths, and they themselves kiss their shameful ouds. Penance - 3 years, bows - 100 per day.
It is a sin for husbands to wear women's clothing when playing, or for wives to wear men's clothing. Penance – 7 weeks, 150 bows per day.
If anyone falls into fornication with two sisters or two brothers with one wife, fasting for 5 years, no communion, no dry food, and 150 bows per day.

From "Rules with the name Maxim"

It is not worthy for husbands to go to women's ports, and for wives to go to men's ports.
If anyone commits fornication on himself, he will fast for 40 days.

From "The Apostolic Questioning"

The apostles asked: what if he defiles his body with cattle? How to answer that? Speech of the Lord: Let him fast for one summer, eat dry food, and not go to church for 3 summers.

From the "Rule "If a Bigamist..."

Rule of the Saints Apostle and Saints Father
... And an adulterer or one who commits fornication with cattle - 8 years of fasting, and they must also bow to them 1000 times.

Question for husbands

If he committed fornication in Sodom, penance - 3 years.
If he committed fornication in his hand, penance - 3 weeks.
If with livestock - 40 days of fasting.

Question for husbands and youths

Or did he feel his passage with his hand, or near the boys?
Or did he raise his oud with his hand for fornication?
Or did he dance in a woman's dress?

From "Questions to abbots and monks"

Did you fall with a male or a young monk?

Without inscription

Have I sinned in heaven and before you, father, I repent, I have committed many iniquities. Sinned:
fornicated with a friend, indulging himself and himself in a friend;
the sin of Sodom, in fornication and in quarrel with one’s neighbors, and in executions without mercy, and in shaming, and in blinking;
I washed myself in the bathhouse, and it was in vain on my body, and I felt my shameful ouds;
manual fornication countless;

From "The Commandments of the Holy Fathers"

If a monk with a male sex or with cattle, committing lawlessness, is exposed (unmasked), penance - 8 years, and communion - from Easter to Easter. And there are 25 bows a day.

From "Monastic without an inscription" and from "Renewal to the Monks"

These are my sins before God and before you, Mr. Father:
Mr. Father, in Sodom fornication in fornication and with a monk and in opposition he fell;
He counseled many against sexual immorality, especially youths, and in the bath he washed his sinful body many times, and exposed it shamelessly to many, and fell and washed himself;
falling on a friend with passionate love;
once lying prostrate in the water and standing, and lying prostrate on the ground, he released the flow with his hand, and into the lip, that is, into the mushroom, he created the flow, inflating the intestines of I don’t remember which animal, and thus fornicated into his passage.
The fornication of Sodom happened to the male sex, and such evil happened to me in foolishness and in reason;
The youths and men committed fornication with drunken men, but unknown to them, malicious fornication was committed against them and in ignorance, and I did not make a confession, but I, the accursed one, am guilty of those sins;
By frequently washing himself in the bath, he shamelessly exposed his body to many, and matured and felt his shameful uds, and caused the discharge. And he also saw and touched other people’s shameful uds naked, and with unthinking hands he ate, and drank, and gave to others;
He touched his shameful ouds, and brought them to his nostrils, and smelled the uncleanness and filthiness of his body, and held on to a woman’s shame with his hands, and in the same way gave his ouds to be touched by many, many times he shaved his ouds with a knife, and burned with a candle, and did other harm to the body, and anointed him with tar and other potions for the sake of need, and in all this he sinned;

XVIII century

Questions from a collected manuscript of the 18th century.

About fornicators

QUESTIONS
PENANCE/YEARS
BOW/DAY
Sodomy?
26
300
Didn't you play with godfathers until the outpouring of filth?
40
80
Have you fornicated with your hand or foot through a tailor?
21
200
Did you not itch with lust until the outpouring of filth?
40
60
Did you think of cattle with lust?
7
20
Didn't he play with his own hands?
40
50
Didn’t you commit handicapping with each other, you – his, and he – your oud?
80
50
Didn't you grab someone by the shameful oud?
3
100

"General questions for the laity without inscription"

Didn’t you kiss other people’s wives (at the top: husbands) and girls with unclean thoughts?
Was there any unclean touch between you?
Aren't you making small things?
And if this happens, he asks about Sodomy, about bestiality, about bird-bashing in detail.

Published on Canonical church monuments of the XIII-XVIII centuries. (pp. 13-116).
“And these are evil, mortal sins...” Love, eroticism and sexual ethics in pre-industrial Russia. Texts, research. M.: "LADOMIR", 1999. pp. 335-344.

Penance- used in the sense of punishment, punishment, but also used in the sense of learning to get rid of sin. Penance must be imposed by a priest who knows the person; it can be canceled either by the person who imposed it or by the ruling bishop. Rule 80's St. Basil the Great, says that if someone has given an unreasonable penance, then the penance is removed from the innocent person and placed in full weight on the one who imposed it.

There is a canonical rule of the IV Antiachian Council that goes like this: “if a person believes that he was subjected to penance unjustly, then he must file an appeal, but he is obliged to fulfill the penance before the court of appeal.” Only the bishop can excommunicate from communion for a long period of time.

Forms of penance:

1) Excommunication from communion for some time.

2) Alms.

3) Prayer rule.

7. Who is given the power to forgive sins?

Some claim that the power to forgive sins was given only to the 12 apostles, but this is absolutely not true, as we see from the following verse: “Many of those who believed came, confessing and revealing their deeds. And of those who practiced sorcery, quite a few gathered up their books and burned them in front of everyone, and added up their prices, and they turned out to be fifty thousand [drachmas]” (Acts 19:18-19). These verses indicate that the Apostle Paul, who was not one of the 12, also accepted confession.

8. The need for confession for everyone.

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, but walk in darkness, then we lie and do not act in the truth; if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John. 1:6-10). Provided we confess (name our sins out loud), we receive forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The apostles said that their main goal was to accept repentance. For example, the Apostle Paul calls his ministry the ministry of reconciliation. “All things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18). The job of priests is to serve reconciliation.

Confession to each other. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed: the earnest prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). Christians pray for each other for the deliverance of any sin. But it does not say that sin is forgiven.

9. Forgiveness of sins is possible, as a last resort, without confession.

There is an opinion that without confession, forgiveness of sins is impossible - this is not true. John Chrysostom says this, “God, out of His great love for the repentant sinner, gave many ways for the forgiveness of sins.” You can beg God with tears, you can give alms, you can come to the bishop and receive forgiveness of your sins from him. There is such a possibility; God has not given up such a right. But this right, of course, extends to the children of God (baptized).

10. Form of confession.

From the 6th century, from John the Faster, a sanction appeared for the priest who revealed the confession. This practice continues to this day. The priest is not allowed, even under the threat of the death penalty, to tell what he was told in confession. This does not mean that the priest does not have the right to tell the story itself about sin and its consequences. It does, but if it is not clear who committed this sin.

1) Public confession.

2) Personal confession.

There are sins that are still cured only through public confession - these are sins against God and the Church. Heresies and schisms are now treated only exclusively by the rite of accession. The sin of heresy and schism cannot be forgiven at the ordinary sacrament of confession. It’s one thing if a person just went to listen to lectures in a sect, then he does not need to join, he confesses in person. But if he went through some initiation rites in the set, then he is obliged to go through the rite of joining.

11. What sins are not forgiven?

One text of the Holy Gospel speaks about the non-forgiveness of sins: “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men; if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; But if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the next” (Matthew 12:31-32).

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

1) Conscious resistance to the Truth. This, for example, is a conscious rejection of the miracle of God, or the assertion that the miracle of God is the result of a natural process (opposition against the Holy Fire, against the creation of the Universe from nothing, etc.).

2) Rejection of God's mercy. This is despair of salvation. When a person says that “God will not forgive me.” Despair leading to suicide.

3) Refusal to confess, with affirmation, that God will forgive anyway. J.J. Rousseau "God will forgive - that is His work."

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is ONLY these three points. In all three types, a person is deprived of the opportunity to repent. Now there is talk that any conscious sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It's a lie! Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is only the three points listed above.

“What is penance? I heard that after you repent, the priest can impose this penance on you, and then no one except this priest can remove it. What will happen if you don’t fulfill it?” – asks the reader of “Neskuchny Sad”. We turned to authoritative priests for clarification.

On the island of Patmos there is a whole grove planted by those who were subject to penance - to plant a tree (“Elder Amphilochios († 1970), who labored on the island of Patmos, gave the peasants, as penance in confession, the command to plant a tree. “Where in the photographs of the beginning of the present centuries, which captured the hills near the Cave of Revelation, we see only bare and barren slopes, today the forest thicket is rampant" (Bishop Kallistos of Diocleia. Through creation to the Creator. M., 1998. P. 3-4)."

Indications for use

For many Orthodox people, penance is some kind of disciplinary sanction imposed on the offender. This interpretation is only partly correct.

The word itself came to us from Greek, where it sounded like penance, with the emphasis on the penultimate syllable, and really meant punishment, punishment. But in a spiritual sense, this is not a punishment, but rather a medicine so that the wound left by sin heals faster.

The medicine that a person seeks for himself, convicted by his conscience. “Penance is born from a certain urge to the right action, which would cross out my past,” explains the confessor of Moscow, rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Krylatskoye Archpriest Georgy BREEV . — Remember the Gospel episode with the tax collector Zacchaeus? The Lord said to him: “...today I need to be in your house” (Luke 19: 5). The publican, in the eyes of the faithful people of that time, was a despicable person, completely lost his conscience and rejected by God. And now, realizing how blessed he has been, Zacchaeus suddenly says: “Lord! I will give half of my property to the poor, and if I have offended anyone in any way, I will repay him fourfold.” The Lord did not advise him or order anything. I just visited him, and a reciprocal feeling was born in the publican. Because he looked at his past - yes, indeed, it is worthy of condemnation. Indeed, it is impossible to live with such a heavy burden. God came to meet him, visited his home, exalted him, and naturally there was a holy response in response to the desire to change his life. Some justice demanded that he bear some kind of penance, and he proclaims it to himself. Penance is a means that a person, having deep faith in God and understanding his untruth before Him, additionally takes upon himself to show that his repentance is not superficial. That he thanks God for his mercy, but wants to additionally bear some kind of righteous reward for his deeds.”

In 1999, the historical center of Chora with the monastery of St. John the Evangelist and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the island of Patmos were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

The soul languishes and suffers from the wound inflicted by sin. Conscience denounces us, and it becomes difficult for us to bear this burden. Lamenting our sin, we go to confession to receive forgiveness. We believe that the Lord accepts our sincere repentance, but sometimes there is a need to do something else that would cleanse our soul and remove grave sin from it. “The practice of giving penance has existed since ancient times,” explains Fr. Georgy. - A person is entrusted with such obligations, the fulfillment of which would be within his power and would correct him. The Holy Fathers said that perfect sin is cured by a kind of opposite influence. That is, if you were stingy, show mercy. If you were not chaste, then leave your previous lifestyle and live chastely. For the sake of the latter, many even took upon themselves the feat of monasticism.”

special instructions

Just like conventional medicine, spiritual medicine should only be prescribed by a “doctor” with the necessary competence and authority. “The priest who imposes penance must “experience the fruits of repentance and wisely manage the person,” if necessary, weakening and shortening the penance or, conversely, tightening it. Therefore, it can only be imposed by one who vigilantly monitors the spiritual state of the penitent, his confessor,” explains senior lecturer at the Department of Church History and Canon Law of PSTGU Priest Dimitry PASHKOV. — If an unknown priest imposed penance on you, then you need to tell your confessor about it. The confessor will be able to assess the extent of its spiritual benefit and, accordingly, the appropriateness of its purpose.” In practice, not every penance serves the purpose of healing the soul. First of all, perhaps, because it is not prescribed by the “attending doctor”, but by a “trainee” who accidentally looked into the ward. Chairman of the Synodal Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces Archpriest Dimitry SMIRNOV I regularly encounter similar cases in my parish practice. “When penances are handed out left and right to people whom they see for the first time in their lives, it’s just savagery,” says the priest. This summer, his parishioner Ivan N. went on a pilgrimage to the monastery and returned from there despondent and confused. He wanted to take communion, but the hieromonk who confessed him not only did not allow him to take communion, but also imposed an unbearable penance - 300 bows daily. Ivan is sick with arthrosis, and his strength is barely enough for one bow, and if you try to do all 300, the health consequences may be irreversible. Father Dimitri himself sometimes gives the following penance: read a chapter from the Gospel every day.

On Patmos there are about five hundred churches for three thousand inhabitants

Penance should be prescribed with caution to those who have recently come to the Church. “What kind of penance can we talk about if a person does not feel his sin? - talking about. Georgy Breev. “He needs more than one year to figure out whether he believes and how he believes.” Develop some kind of living attitude towards God, learn to pray. And only then, as a person gradually enters spiritual life, he begins to see his untruth, his limitations, the fallenness of his nature. Then a response is born in him - “I want to work hard.” Some, after living in the Church for ten years, suddenly say: “Father, I still want to go to a monastery to work.” They have matured, they have seen. It is always pleasant, joyful, and beneficial to the person himself. And people who have not yet joined the spiritual life rarely accept penance with humility. Although, naturally, they may have many grave sins on their conscience, for which, if approached formally, penance is due.” According to Fr. George, such people should not be punished, but encouraged to work on themselves: “We need to help a person get to the point where, by reading the Holy Scriptures, praying, getting acquainted with spiritual life, with practice, he gradually opens up to himself.”

Overdose

“The concept of “I am a sinner” can vary from formal agreement with a fact to the deepest experience of oneself as a person clothed in a fallen nature,” says Fr. Georgy. - This is where God’s Love for man is revealed, deep self-knowledge is revealed, virtue and response are born in the soul - I don’t want to condemn anyone, because I see myself in a state worthy of all condemnation. This is how true repentance is born. This, in fact, is the ultimate goal of both prayers and penance - to lead a person to the understanding that he is not only not alien to sin, but from the inside he does not correspond at all to the high destiny to which the Lord calls him as a Christian.” But even if a person himself seeks penance corresponding to the sin committed, this does not mean that he has grown up to it, Father George is convinced. “I usually stop such “enthusiasts”. You need to start small: correct yourself in thoughts, words, take care of yourself. And only then, when a person feels some spiritual strength, he may be able to take on something more serious.”

If a patient wants to be cured, he must follow the doctor’s recommendations, even when he doesn’t really like them. The situation is similar in spiritual healing: it is better to fulfill the penance imposed by the confessor, but only the confessor himself can remove it. “And if penance is beyond your strength, you just need to discuss it with your confessor,” says Fr. Georgy. — As a last resort, if for some reason you can’t talk to your confessor, you can turn to the bishop. He has the power to remove any penance imposed by the priest.”

Tradition instead of law

The clergyman’s handbook says that penance should help a sinner, firstly, to realize the extent of his sin and feel its seriousness, secondly, give him the strength to stand up again, inspire him with hope for God’s Mercy, thirdly, give him the opportunity to show determination in your repentance. The Church did not come to such an understanding of penance right away.

In the second half of the 4th century, after the persecution of Christians stopped and the Church was flooded with yesterday's pagans, the holy fathers began to develop certain norms and rules for community life. Among other things, Basil the Great draws out a number of disciplinary canons that show what requirements are imposed on a person who wants to improve. In those days, confession was public and concerned only the most important offenses (unlike modern confession, which often turns into a “revelation of thoughts”). The canons of the 4th century are dedicated to public confession. They provide mainly for one type of punishment - excommunication from communion for 10, 15 and even 20 years for murder, theft, adultery and similar grave sins. At the end of the 4th century, the institution of secret confession arose. Initially, the sanctions established by the canons continued to be used there, but gradually the approach to the penitent softened. John Chrysostom, for example, in his works advises not to approach the appointment of penance formally, calls for being guided more by the spiritual state of a person than by the severity of his sins.

The Trullo Council of 691, with its last (102nd) canon, also recommends an individual approach to confessors and establishes the possibility of both tightening and softening the penance prescribed by the canons. “For the disease of sin is not one and the same, but different and manifold.” At the turn of the 6th-7th centuries, a specific collection began to take shape - the canon, intended to regulate secret confession. He introduces two important innovations: on the one hand, the differentiation of sinful acts according to the degree of their severity, on the other, the difference between the sinners themselves depending on their individual characteristics. For example, he treats a married youth who has committed fornication more gently than an adult man who has been married for many years. It is in the canonikon that there is a sharp reduction in the terms of excommunication from communion and the emergence of new forms of penance. Let's say, instead of ten years, the new rules prescribe excommunication from communion for two years, but during these two years the penitent must observe a stricter fast, read prayers, bow, etc.

The collection gradually spreads throughout the Byzantine Church; in late Byzantium a whole series of its adaptations or independent collections of a similar nature appeared (the so-called “penitential nomocanons”). Around the same time, these collections penetrated into the Slavic countries, were translated here and began to be used in spiritual practice.

“In Soviet times, church legal science practically ceased to exist, and tradition took the place of law,” says Albert BONDACH, teacher of the history of sources of church law at PSTGU. — Today there are no clear regulations establishing the measure of church responsibility for sins. This area, like many other matters, is entirely governed by customs, which may vary from parish to parish. But one way or another, penance, as a rule, comes down to sanctions of an ascetic nature (additional fasting, bowing, prayer) and informal excommunication for a short period. And such severe punishments as long-term excommunication from communion or anathematization are imposed only by decision of a church court and only for offenses of such a level as organizing a schism.”

Servant of God Antonina

Penance is a means of healing and purifying the soul; this is precisely why it is given to a person. It may seem that penance is a punishment for a sin committed, serving to satisfy the Justice of God, but this is a wrong understanding, as Catholics understand penance. The incorrectness of such a vision of things lies mainly in the fact that in this case God appears before us not as a Merciful Savior, but as a kind of punishing despot who is consoled by the contemplation of our self-torture.

The Orthodox understanding of penance is different. Penance is an application of balm, not a slap on the head. By His ineffable mercy, the Lord admonishes the Church and gives us the means to heal the soul and heal spiritual wounds. They are accepted with joy, like a patient taking medicine.

Each person has certain vices, special passions characteristic of him, and to combat them special means are needed: prayer rules, bows, fasts, pilgrimages, prayers, eating prosphora and holy water.

Unfortunately, in your letter you wrote very little about the penance that was given to you: what specific canon, how many bows. But there is a sense of anxiety in the lines of your letter. There is no need to be afraid, the penance given to you is small: one canon and several bows - it is very easy to perform. I want to advise you not to abandon the penance given to you. At least try to read the canon every day (probably this is the penitential canon to the Lord Jesus Christ), but even if you miss once or twice a week, it’s not so bad. Bowing is a very good thing to do - it cuts passions at the root and destroys them! It is good to bow in the morning before starting prayers with the Jesus Prayer or the publican’s prayer: “God, be merciful to me a sinner (sinner).” Make at least 10 bows (the monastic rules indicate up to 300, but this is a monastic charter). It is useful to make bows throughout the day - no, no, and even add one or two bows, this very well maintains a prayerful state and does not allow passion in the heart. This is what Ignatius Brianchaninov advises in his book “Ascetic Experiences,” and Father Alexy Mechev, who was recently canonized, also taught: if passions or sinful thoughts come, make two or three bows.

Show obedience and maintain it for the rest of your life - it’s very good that you were given such penance! Pray and inherit the salvation of your soul. God bless you! priest Dionysius Tolstov 02.11.2001