What prayer is necessary before confession? Canons before confession

Every Orthodox person knows that the life of a believer who regularly attends worship services is simply inconceivable without regular confession and communion. However, for people who have just set foot on the path of Orthodoxy, many rules seem complicated and incomprehensible. How to prepare for confession? What prayers to read before confession? Or maybe there are some canons?

Confession

Confession is one of the sacraments of the Orthodox Church. During confession, the supernatural and incomprehensible to the human mind is the forgiveness of sins, in which the person confessed to the priest. Confession precedes the Sacrament, another of the sacraments of the Church, one of the most important. Children under the age of 7 can take communion without confessing, but adults are not allowed to Communion without confession.

What prayers to read before confession? In fact, there is no strict rule of reading out any specific prayers just before confession, unlike Communion, where it is simply necessary to read the prayers that prepare and set up a person for this sacrament. Before confession, something else is important. What exactly?

Prerequisites for Confession

In order for the confession to be really what is expected of it, and not some random episode in the life of a person, it should be approached consciously and seriously. Prayer before confession is necessary, as, indeed, in general prayer in the life of an Orthodox person. First of all, a person who starts confession must realize his sins, repent of them and have a strong desire not to repeat them again.

It seems that everything sounds not so difficult, but sometimes it is very difficult to execute these three rules, rather than simply subtract certain canons before confession. The reason for these difficulties lies in the fact that we lost the Orthodox faith and lived for several generations before us, no longer having faith, which had a disastrous effect on the spiritual life of the whole people. Spiritual life is incredibly difficult, which is why many people do not even try to live it.

Awareness of Sin

If you ask any person, they will answer: Of course, prayers are needed before confession. Orthodoxy, on the other hand, says that prayer is necessary for the believing person constantly, and not only in this case. Any step of a man whose eyes are directed to God should be compared with God's will, asking Him for blessing for any endeavor.

And before confession it is necessary, first of all, to remember your sins and realize that they really are. Many people consciously or unconsciously do not consider this or that sin a sin. Some simply do not know the Orthodox teaching and do not even know that what they do is a sin. They think that prayer before confession is more than enough, and, having not a drop of doubt in their rightness, go to confession. In fact, this does not go for good. On the contrary, this is detrimental to the human soul. Such people simply turn into lawyers who think that Orthodox prayer before the confession will save them. However, we all know that the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked the scribes and Pharisees, and the prudent thief, who was hanging near the crucified Savior, first entered with him to paradise, although he did not read a single special prayer. The point is only that this robber realized his sin, and having realized, repented in it.

Repentance

Repentance is the next stage necessary for the confession to be made to save a person, and not to his death. Without repentance, the life of an Orthodox person can not be called correct. The whole life of believing people must be permeated with repentance. Every morning you need to wake up with repentance on the heart and fall asleep in the same way. Without repentance, our salvation is impossible, and the prudent thief gave us an example of how repentance can save a person's soul. But the life of this robber was very far from perfect! We do not know how many atrocities he committed, but, most likely, a lot, otherwise he would not have been subjected to such a terrible and shameful death.

In addition to repentance, there must also be a desire not to repeat ahead of the committed sins. Any believing person knows how wicked his heart is, and that it is dangerous to trust his feelings and thoughts. Nevertheless, at the time of the confession, there must be a persistent desire not to repeat the committed sins, even if there is no clear certainty that they will not repeat.

Prayer before confession is necessary because it adjusts a person to the right way, as a musician does before performing a musical composition. In general, prayer is what the believer needs as air, and no matter whether before or after confession. Pray as you used to, using the prayers that you use every day, for example, "Theotokos", "Our Father," "I Believe," prayers to the Angel of the Guardian, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Holy Communion

When the confession is already behind, the Communion awaits the person ahead . This is another of the 7 Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, very important and necessary. During the Communion, a person joins with Christ, the human body becomes His body, and the blood of man is the blood of Christ. It is advisable to take communion regularly, because this sacrament helps the believing person cope with temptations that are constantly encountered on the path of spiritual life.

Before the Sacrament it is necessary to read the prayers and canons, which are designed specifically to prepare for this holy mystery. As a rule, these are the combined canons "To Jesus Christ" and the prayerful canon "To the Angel of the Guardian and the Most-Holy Theotokos." In any prayer book you can easily find these prayers and prepare for Communion, carefully and thoughtfully reading them, thus tuning the soul to the right way. It is advisable to read them not in a hurry at a time, but in a few days, so that the preparation would be more meaningful. Prayers before communion and confession do not accept fuss, as the spiritual life itself, which vanity simply kills.

Conclusion

The life of an Orthodox believer is filled with prayer, with which he begins any work in his life. Prayer is necessary always and everywhere, it serves as a guiding star and directs the person on the right path. This is communication with God, that is why it does not matter whether the prayer is read before confession or not. The main thing is the presence of the prayer itself, which is a kind of indicator, indicating whether everything is normal in the spiritual life of a person. If prayer is rare and in extreme cases, then there is reason to wonder why this happens. And again there is an occasion to repent!