§ 141. The Mysterion of Repentance and Confession. For people who have sinned after Baptism, the Mysterion of Repentance has been established in the Church by the Lord Jesus Christ. Therein, those who repent are invisibly granted absolution by Jesus Christ Himself when the priest visibly grants them forgiveness. The form of this Mysterion is as follows. Before approaching the Mysterion of Repentance, the believer must first of all prepare spiritually, that is he must fast, spend time at home and in church at prayer, recall and feel sorrow for the sins he has committed, and then either attend to the “rule” before Confession or read a series of penitential prayers. These explain that the Lord God, in His long-suffering, absolves, remits and forgives the sins, the voluntary and involuntary transgressions and trepasses, which His servants have committed either in knowledge or in ignorance, and their offences and disobediences. The priest reminds the penitent that, during confession, God Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, stands there invisibly, and that it is He that receives the confession. For this reason, there is no point in his attempting to hide anything from his spiritual father, who only stands as a witness of our sins before God, but that he should recount all his sins and so receive healing from the Lord. If someone premeditively conceals his sins, then his sin will be double. After preparing by prayer and coming to the priest, the penitent does a prostration or bow before the Cross and the Gospel Book lying on the lectern (which represent that Christ Himself is present there), and gives the priest a candle, as it were a sacrifice before God for the great benefaction which he hopes to receive at the end of confession: the forgiveness of his sins. [This is a Russian custom, which seems largely to have fallen into abeyance. The priest then later lights the candle when he prays for his spiritual child - transl.] Besides this the candle is a symbol of the fact that at that moment the heart of the penitent is softened like wax, and that he is therefore prepared to receive any reproofs or directions that the priest might give him. The the penitent enumerates his sins, so that the priest might know them and absolve them. Sometimes, by asking questions, the priest will help him to reveal everything and to repent with a pure heart, cleansing his soul. After confession, the penitent kneels or bows his head, and the priest places his stole over his head, as a visible sign of God’s grace, and reads a prayer of absolution for him. After the prayer by which his sins are forgiven, the priest blesses the one who has confessed, and the latter kisses the Cross and Gospel again. Usually we have confession before the reception of the Holy Mysteries (Communion). Then the penitent must read the evening rule of prayer and the morning one, with the prayers before Communion, and thus prepare to receive Communion. After a proper confession, the keeping of the rule of prayer and the pre-Communion absolute fast from midnight, the believer may draw near with reverence to receive the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, His Body and Blood, unto the remission of sins and as an earnest of the future, eternal life of blessedness.

… to be continued in the next issue with “The Mysterion of Matrimony.”