{"id":28071,"date":"2025-05-04T17:39:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T21:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/?page_id=28071"},"modified":"2025-05-04T17:54:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T21:54:57","slug":"repentance-and-confession-introduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/repentance-and-confession-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Repentance and Confession \u2013 Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>

Introduction<\/span><\/h2>

Confession is in decline and repentance is misapprehended. The decline and the misapprehension cannot be easily qualified, but they are unmistakable at least inasmuch as they are considered to be no more than incidental practices in the life of the Church today. The \u201ctraditional\u201d way of thinking of sin and forgiveness has collapsed among a growing number of Christians. Nothing less than a theological and pastoral renewal is necessary in order to rediscover the living meaning of repentance and confession.<\/span><\/p>

The degeneration is often attributed to secularization. Yet secularization should not be seen, in a scapegoat fashion, as merely an external enemy. It acts from within the Church. Even those actively involved in church life suffer from formalism caused by the established patterns of religious practice. There is a need to appeal to the deepening of repentance and confession as spiritual realities rather than their imposition as obligatory customs. It is only in a realization of the nature of sacramental life that repentance acquires its significance as a way of renewal and reconciliation in Christ.<\/span><\/p>

Repentance is indeed an act of reconciliation, of reintegration into the Body of Christ, which has been torn asunder by sin. For \u201cif one member suffers, all suffer together\u201d (1 Corinthians 12.26). \u201cTherefore, confess your sins to one another \u2026 that you may be healed\u201d (James 5.16). The whole Church expresses a search for repentance in the repeated words of the Psalmist, commonly known as the \u201cmiserere\u201d (Psalm 50). It is through the faith of the community that the individual is readmitted and forgiven. \u201cWhen Jesus saw their faith he said, \u2018man, your sins are forgiven\u2019 \u201d (Luke 5.20; cf. Matthew 9.2 and Mark 2.5).<\/span><\/p>

\u201cJustification\u201d in the New Testament does not mean a transaction \u2013 a kind of deal; and repentance defies mechanical definition. It is a continual enactment of freedom, a movement forward, deriving from renewed choice and leading to restoration. The aim of the Christian is not even justification but a re-entry by sinner and saint alike into communion in which God and man meet once again and personal experience of divine life becomes possible. Both prodigal and saint are \u201crepenting sinners.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Repentance is not to be confused with mere remorse, with a self-regarding feeling of being sorry for a wrong done. It is not a state but a stage, a beginning. Rather, it is an invitation to new life, an opening up of new horizons, the gaining of a new vision. Christianity testifies that the past can be undone. It knows the mystery of obliterating or rather renewing memory, of forgiveness and regeneration, eschewing the fixed division between the \u201cgood\u201d and the \u201cwicked,\u201d the pious and the rebellious, the believers and the unbelievers.<\/span><\/p>

Indeed, \u201cthe last\u201d can be \u201cthe first,\u201d the sinner can reach out to holiness. Passions are conquered by stronger passions; love is overcome by more abundant love. One repents not because one is virtuous, but because human nature can change, because what is impossible for man is possible for God.<\/span><\/p>

The motive for repentance is at all times humility, unself-sufficiency \u2013 not a means of justification for oneself, or of realizing some abstract idea of goodness, or of receiving a reward in some future life. Just as the strength of God is revealed in the extreme vulnerability of His Son on the Cross, so also the greatest strength of man is to embrace his weakness: \u201cfor my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I render glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me\u201d (2 Corinthians 12.9). To be flawed is the illogical, perhaps supernatural characteristic of humanity in which one encounters God.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Two Dimensions of Repentance<\/span><\/h2>

Divine Initiative<\/span><\/h3>

Repentance is not a self-contained act: it is a passing over, a Pascha<\/em> from death to life, a continual renewal of that life. It consists of a reversal of what has become the normal pattern of development, which is the movement from life to death.<\/span><\/p>

To experience this reversal in repentance is to have tasted of the glory and beauty of God; it is the mark of man\u2019s presence before God in the abundance of His mercy and of God\u2019s presence before man in the abyss of his weakness:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cSet Your compassion over against our iniquities, and the abyss of Your lovingkindness against our transgression.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

It is the awareness of God\u2019s beauty that makes one realize the chasm that separates one from His gratuitous grace. The initiative belongs to God, but presupposes man\u2019s active acceptance, which is a way of perpetually receiving God within the heart, of God being embodied within man, of divine incarnation. Here God calls man, and man responds to God and in doing so gains salvation and life abundant:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cSorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of\u201d (2 Corinthians 7.10).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

In repentance it is man\u2019s total limitation and insufficiency that is placed before God, not simply particular wrongdoings or transgressions.<\/span><\/p>

The \u201cdialectic\u201d of beginning and end underlying repentance is important. Every manifestation of life has an eschatological dimension, even while, paradoxically, repentance gives rise to restoration, to a return to man\u2019s original state. Everything tends towards and expects the \u201cend,\u201d even while being a matter of the here and now. To repent is not merely to induce a restoration of lost innocence but to transcend the fallen condition. Indeed the greater the fall, the deeper and more genuine the repentance and the more certain the resurrection. Man is \u201cenriched\u201d by his experience even if it has been crippling and tormenting. The Fathers appear to express greater love\u2014almost a preference\u2014for the more sinful person, inasmuch as thirst for God increases in proportion to the experience of one\u2019s debasement and abasement (Romans 5.20).<\/span><\/p>

The word for \u201cconfess\u201d in Greek (\u1f10\u03be\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9<\/em>, \u1f41\u03bc\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u1ff6<\/em>) does not bear the contemporary meaning peculiar to it. When we say \u201cconfess\u201d we imply that we accept, recognize or witness an event or fact. But this is not the original meaning. The point is not of admitting, more or less reluctantly, a hitherto \u201cunrecognized\u201d sin, but an acceptance of and submission to the divine Logos (exomologesis<\/em>) beyond and above the nature and condition of man. It is this Logos, the Word of God, that man seeks to regain, or rather to commune with. To confess is not so much to recognize and expose a failure as to go forward and upward, to respond from within to the calling of God.<\/span><\/p>

Created in the image and likeness of God, man bears before himself and in himself that image and likeness. In repenting he does not so much look forward as reflect and react to what lies before and beyond him.<\/span><\/p>

Human Response<\/span><\/h3>

\u201cOpen to me the gate of repentance. Metanoia<\/em> is the gateway to oneself, to one\u2019s fellow man, and to heaven. It leads inwards, but it also leads outwards by leading inwards. The world ceases to rotate around the self and begins to gravitate toward the other\u2014the divine and the human other. Sin has the opposite effect. It blocks the way both inwards and outwards.<\/span><\/p>

To repent and to confess is to break out of this restriction, \u201cto accept with joy,\u201d in Isaak the Syrian\u2019s words, \u201cthe humility and humiliation of nature,\u201d to transcend and to recover oneself. The world thereupon ceases to rotate around \u201cme\u201d and begins to gravitate towards the other, centering on God. Then, everyone and everything no longer exist for myself but for the glory of God, in the joy of the Resurrection.<\/span><\/p>

One is then able to comprehend more clearly the positive dimension of even sin, suffering, death, the devil and hell. Then, one discovers the depth of love crucified, the presence of the Lord in our midst\u2014even \u201cwhen the doors are shut\u201d (John 20.19, 26). One is not, however, demanded to love God from the outset, but rather to know that \u201cGod so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son\u201d (John 3.16).<\/span><\/p>

Nevertheless, the love of God is implicit in His very nature. God Himself is the Archetype of divine love. When John the Theologian says that \u201cGod is love\u201d (1 John 4.8, 16), love is seen as an established ontological category of both divinity and humanity in His likeness. In fact, the beauty and loving freedom of the human person is, in the words of Nicholas Berdiaev, God Himself. It is He, \u201cthe creator of all \u2026 who out of extreme erotic love moves outside Himself \u2026 burning with great goodness and love and eros.\u201d It is He who is \u201cthe fullness of erotic love.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

And it is this supreme love that moved God to create human nature in His image and likeness. \u201cAs Lover, He creates; and as Loved, He attracts all towards Him.\u201d \u201cAs a mad Lover He desires His beloved human soul,\u201d says Saint Nilos. \u201cHerein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us\u201d (1 John 4.10).<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Sacrament of Confession<\/span><\/h2>

A Christian\u2014at any rate, an Orthodox Christian\u2014views repentance as a dynamic act of responsibility to God, but also to other men. It is not pining away in narcissistic self-reflection, even while implying self-knowledge and self-examination.<\/span><\/p>

Sin itself is a relational act\u2014a break in the \u201cI\u2013Thou\u201d relationship. It concerns my relationship with another person. When the prodigal son \u201ccame to himself\u201d in the Gospel parable (Luke 15), he did so in relation to his father:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, \u2018Father, I have sinned against heaven and before You\u2019\u201d.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

We repent in the face of God; and we repent in communion with others, in the Church. Repentance in the early Church was in fact a solemn public act of reconciliation, through which a sinner was readmitted into church membership. Even in Buddhism, monks regularly confess their sins publicly before Buddha and the congregation; the phenomenology is the same as in the Church, even if the theology or ideology is different.<\/span><\/p>

Sin (and evil) divides, repentance conciliates, confession affirms the conciliation. Outside the community\u2014outside the Church\u2014repentance would settle into guilty gloom, dulling the spirit or even driving to despair: metanoia<\/em> turning into paranoia.<\/span><\/p>

Confession, too, takes place within the Church. It is not a private procedure, a treatment of some guilt-ridden individual on an analyst\u2019s couch. It is not based on an admission of guilt and certainly cannot be reduced to a feeling of guilt, of liability for conduct contrary to norms and laws which render a person subject to punishment.<\/span><\/p>

It is related to what is deepest in man, to what constitutes his being and his relation with other human beings as well as with God. It is a sacrament\u2014\u201cthe visible form of an invisible grace\u201d (Saint Augustine), re-establishing a bond of union between God and man, between man and man.<\/span><\/p>

This is why confession also takes place within prayer because it is there that a personal relationship in all its intensity is realized both with God and the entire world. As such, confession and prayer are not merely technical terms but means and opportunities offered by the Church for overcoming sin and death.<\/span><\/p>

Repentance is indeed the cause and consequence of prayer, being the highest and fullest foundation for and form of prayer. \u201cTrue prayer,\u201d according to Saint Anthony, \u201cis that in which one forgets that one is praying,\u201d and genuine repentance enables one to forget oneself and simply long for God, who is present in the very depth of repentance. For it is \u201cbefore Him alone that one sins\u201d (Psalm 50.3\u20134)\u2014this is the personal or relational aspect of both sin and repentance.<\/span><\/p>

The supreme act of communion is the Eucharist, the communal sharing of bread and wine, symbolizing sacramentally the reconciliation to come and the reconciliation already achieved in the here and now. Repentance and confession as sacrament seal man\u2019s change of direction from disruption to reconciliation.<\/span><\/p>

Historical Roots and Development<\/span><\/h3>

An examination of the early forms of confession shows that they are derived from community services and even liturgies. Origen explicitly stresses the significance of the Eucharist for the forgiveness of sins. Later services for confession developed undoubtedly from community rites closely related to the eucharistic celebration, or else to the monastic offices of matins or compline.<\/span><\/p>

Since forgiveness of sins involves reconciliation in and through the Eucharist, the eucharistic prayer contains penitential elements as immediate preparation for communion.<\/span><\/p>

In early Christian times, the exhortation of James served as a foundation for the sacrament of repentance:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cTherefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed\u201d (James 5.16).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

Confession was regarded as a form of repentance and regeneration (Matthew 3.6; Mark 1.5; Acts 19.18). The actual ritual aspect of repentance was a direct result of such apostolic testimony, at first in the form of confession before the entire Church and, subsequently, before a spiritual father.<\/span><\/p>

Nevertheless, the earliest order of confession is of relatively late origin (tenth century) and is ascribed to John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople. This text may well be the source of later Greek and Slavonic services of confession.<\/span><\/p>

The communal, sacramental aspect of confession was more apparent in the early Church when penance constituted a public act rather than an individual episode. It was only after the fourth century that private confession was more widely practiced.<\/span><\/p>

But even then, penance did not have the legalistic and clericalistic character which it acquired later. In fact, very few Church Fathers refer even to absolution as a formal procedure, although such silence does not necessarily mean that absolution in some form or other did not exist.<\/span><\/p>

It is the reduction of sin to a punishable legal crime\u2014an act of lawbreaking inviting a penalty\u2014that is almost wholly absent in patristic literature.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cHave you committed a sin?\u201d asks Saint John Chrysostom, \u201cthen enter the Church and repent of your sin\u2026 For here is the Physician, not the judge; here one is not investigated but receives remission of sins.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Common Misunderstandings and Modern Practice<\/span><\/h3>

Unfortunately, confession at times undermines and even replaces the genuine inner repentance of a Christian: people feel \u201centitled\u201d to communion after confession. This contradicts the true nature of repentance. It is a result of the sacrament being narrowly and juridically reduced to \u201cabsolution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Scholarly theology tended to transpose the concept of sin, repentance, and forgiveness into a forensic idiom, and placed the emphasis on the power of the priest to absolve. In the Orthodox Church, the priest is seen as a witness of repentance, not a recipient of secrets, a detective of specific misdeeds.<\/span><\/p>

The \u201ceye,\u201d the \u201cear\u201d of the priest is dissolved in the sacramental mystery. He is not a dispenser, a power-wielding, vindicating agent, an \u201cauthority.\u201d Such a conception exteriorizes the function of the confessor and of confession, which is an act of reintegration of the penitent and priest alike into the Body of Christ.<\/span><\/p>

The declaration, \u201cI, an unworthy priest, by the power given unto me, absolve you,\u201d is unknown in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is of later Latin origin and was adopted in some Russian liturgical books at the time of the domination of Russian Orthodox theology by Latin thought and practice.<\/span><\/p>

The idea served to bring confession into disrepute, turning it into a procedure of justification and exculpation in respect of particular punishable offenses. Forgiveness\u2014absolution\u2014is the culmination of repentance, in response to sincerely felt compunction. It is not \u201cadministered\u201d by the priest, or anybody else. It is a freely given grace of Christ and the Holy Spirit within the Church as the Body of Christ.<\/span><\/p>

A word must be said about \u201cgeneral\u201d confession, as distinct from a face-to-face confession between penitent and priest. General confession, in certain circumstances, could be a living model of repentance as a communal act, involving the whole body of the Church and as such manifesting the very essence of confession.<\/span><\/p>

But it is not strictly a substitute for personal confession, involving intimate self-examination on the part of the penitent and possible guidance on the part of the confessor.<\/span><\/p>

Altogether, the function of the priest should not be ignored or minimized.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAll who have experienced the blessing of having as their confessor one imbued with the grace of true spiritual fatherhood,\u201d writes Bishop Kallistos Ware, \u201cwill testify to the importance of the priest\u2019s role. Nor is his function simply to give advice. There is nothing automatic about the absolution which he pronounces. He can bind as well as loose. He can withhold absolution\u2014although this is very rare\u2014or he can impose a penance (epitimion<\/em>), forbidding the penitent to receive Communion for a time or requiring the fulfillment of some task. This, again, is not very common in contemporary Orthodox practice, but it is important to remember that the priest possesses this right\u2026 Not that the penitence should be regarded as punishment; still less should it be viewed as a way of expiating an offense\u2026 We do not acquire \u2018merit\u2019 by fulfilling a penance, for in his relation to God man can never claim any merit of his own. Here, as always, we should think primarily in therapeutic rather than juridical terms.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

The most significant effect of confession is indeed due neither to the penitent nor to the priest, but to God who heals our infirmities and wounds. It is not a matter of a let-off, a clearance; it has the force of healing, of making the penitent whole.<\/span><\/p>

As such, it is a gift from God which man must be open to receive, and learn to receive:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cLet us apply to ourselves the saving medicine of repentance; let us accept from God the repentance that heals us. For it is not we who offer it to Him, but He who bestows it upon us.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

It is significant that the Greek for confession, exomologesis<\/em>, implies not only confession but also thanksgiving (cf. Matthew 11.25; Luke 10.21):<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI shall confess\/give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, and tell of all His wonders\u201d (Psalm 9.1).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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On Guilt, Grace, and Eschatological Hope<\/span><\/h3>

Reference has already been made to the cloud of guilt<\/strong> which at times shrouds the sacrament of confession. It is by no means a theoretical question, for guilt is part of the tragedy experienced by many people, whether in their personal lives or in the face of the appalling sufferings and misery\u2014mental, physical, social\u2014which afflict the world at large today and for which we all share the responsibility and the guilt.<\/span><\/p>

But in the specific context of repentance and confession, guilt is a highly misleading concept, largely fostered by Western thinking.<sup>[33]<\/sup> It originates in a hypertrophied individualistic, self-regarding view of sin and salvation, and indeed of repentance with its attendant legalistically oriented penitential system.<\/span><\/p>

Orthodoxy always resisted legalism\u2014whether in repentance or in confession\u2014eschewing both undue confidence in man\u2019s achievement or merit and the overwhelming sense of guilt, which is the negative aspect of being centered on oneself and seeking for some means to propitiate God\u2019s wrath.<\/span><\/p>

By contrast with this, God is seen to declare His love for men at their most unacceptable. It is God\u2019s identification with man and His loving acceptance of the worst that men can do that makes repentance and confession a way of rediscovering God and oneself, and thereby of being set on the road to full and loving relationship with God and with other men.<\/span><\/p>

There is no mention in Scripture of the word \u201cguilt\u201d<\/em> (\u1f10\u03bd\u03bf\u03c7\u03ae), although there is the adjective \u201cguilty\u201d<\/em> (\u1f14\u03bd\u03bf\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2). Instead of \u201cguilt,\u201d there is \u201csin\u201d<\/em> (\u1f01\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03af\u03b1)\u2014failure, loss, a break-up in relations, resulting in a kind of false consciousness. Even \u201c\u1f10\u03bd\u03ad\u03c7\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9\u201d implies keeping fast within, cherishing, sharing\u2014as distinct from being ashamed in the face of God who inflicts retributive punishment.<\/span><\/p>

Break in communication or communion can lead to pathological forms of guilt. But there is guilt born of a sense of responsibility for others as well as for oneself, leading one to an awareness of other people. The Christian view of man is largely a social one. Where there is a breakdown in personal love, or a rise in institutionalism, one finds a thickening of the atmosphere of guilt. Its antidote is collective confession<\/strong>, communal prayer<\/strong> to \u201cour Father.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

A saint might confess daily without fear of neurosis, because he is in constant communion with God and man. Acknowledgment of one\u2019s limitations leads to personal communion with God who alone can erase sin:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not hide my iniquity\u2026 Then You did forgive the iniquity of my sin.\u201d (Psalm 32:5)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

Through the forgiveness of sins in confession, the past is no longer an intolerable burden but rather an encouragement for what lies ahead. Life acquires an attitude of expectation<\/strong>, not of despondency<\/strong>; and confession becomes the way out of the impasse caused by sin<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>

In this respect, repentance is also an eschatological act<\/strong>, realizing in our very midst, here and now, the promises of the age to come. Looking backwards would seem to imply the fate of Lot\u2019s wife (Genesis 19:26);<\/span><\/p>

\u201cNo one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.\u201d (Luke 9:62)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

God Himself is revealed before us<\/em> and walks in front<\/em> of us:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cOne thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.\u201d (Philippians 3:13)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Notes<\/h3>

  1. Mandatum<\/em>, IV, ii, 2.<\/p><\/li>

  2. De Perfectione spirituali<\/em> 4, PG 31:636B.<\/p><\/li>

  3. De Compunctione<\/em> I, i, PG 47:395 and I, ix:408.<\/p><\/li>

  4. Abba Isaias, Logos<\/em> 29, 4.<\/p><\/li>

  5. John Klimakos, Ladder<\/em> 26:iii, 30, PG 88:1088C.<\/p><\/li>

  6. First prayer of Kneeling Vespers at Pentecost.<\/p><\/li>

  7. Cf. John Klimakos, Ladder<\/em> 4:125, PG 88:725D and 5:19, PG 88:780B.<\/p><\/li>

  8. Cf. Archbishop Stylianos Harkianakis, \u201cRepentance and Confession\u201d (in Greek: Acropolis Newspaper<\/em>, Athens 10-4-80), p. 6.<\/p><\/li>

  9. Hymn of Great Lent.<\/p><\/li>

  10. Dionysios, De Divinis Nominibus<\/em> 4, 2, PG 3:712AB and Maximus, Commentary on the Divine Names<\/em> 4, 17, PG 4:269CD.<\/p><\/li>

  11. Maximus, ibid., and De Amb.<\/em> PG 91:1260.<\/p><\/li>

  12. PG 79:464.<\/p><\/li>

  13. De Charitate<\/em> 3, 2 in Philokalia<\/em>, vol. 2.<\/p><\/li>

  14. John Klimakos, Ladder<\/em> 7:60, PG 88:813D.<\/p><\/li>

  15. Cf. John Klimakos, Ladder<\/em> 7:25 and 48, PG 88:805C and 809D.<\/p><\/li>

  16. Apophthegmata<\/em>, Arsenios 41, PG 65:105CD.<\/p><\/li>

  17. Oration<\/em> 19,7, PG 35:1049D\u20131052A.<\/p><\/li>

  18. Catechesis<\/em> 29.<\/p><\/li>

  19. Theodoret of Kyrrhos, Philotheos Historia<\/em> XXX, Domnina 2, PG 87:1493AB.<\/p><\/li>

  20. 15, 17. Cf. Kontakion<\/em> and Oikos<\/em> of Cheesefare Sunday in Triodion Katanyktikon<\/em> (Rome 1879), p. 105. Cf. also the prose-poem by Staretz Silouan in Archim. Sophrony, Wisdom from Mt Athos<\/em> (London 1974), pp. 47\u201355.<\/p><\/li>

  21. The doctrine regarding the \u201cgift of tears\u201d is by no means unknown in the West, but it seems to have been accorded a higher place in the East, probably on account of the greater emphasis on the heart<\/strong> as a vessel of the Holy Spirit.<\/p><\/li>

  22. In Cassian, Conferences<\/em> 9, 31. Cf. also Evagrios, De Oratione<\/em> 120, PG 79:1193B.<\/p><\/li>

  23. De Oratione<\/em> 28, PG 11:528\u201329.<\/p><\/li>

  24. Cf. F. Nikolasch, \u201cThe Sacrament of Penance: Learning from the East,\u201d in Concilium<\/em> 1, 7 (1971), 65\u201375.<\/p><\/li>

  25. Apostolic Constitutions<\/em> 8, 8\u20139; Gregory of Neocaesarea, Canon<\/em> XII. For confession before a spiritual father, cf. Socrates, Ecclesiastical History<\/em> 5, 19 and 7, 16; John Chrysostom, Sermon 4 on Lazarus<\/em>, PG 48:1012.<\/p><\/li>

  26. For a detailed description of this order, see N. Uspensky, Evening Worship in the Orthodox Church<\/em> (S.V.S.: New York 1985), p. 227f.<\/p><\/li>

  27. Cf. J. Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical and Doctrinal Themes<\/em> (London 1974), pp. 195ff.<\/p><\/li>

  28. De Poenitentia<\/em> 3, 1, PG 49:292.<\/p><\/li>

  29. Cf. A. Schmemann, Confession and Communion: A Report<\/em> (New York 1972), pp. 13\u201316.<\/p><\/li>

  30. St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain (d. 1809) underlines the fact that it is God, not the priest, who forgives: Cf. Exomologetarion<\/em> (9th ed. Venice 1885), pp. 77\u201378.<\/p><\/li>

  31. Bishop Kallistos Ware, \u201cThe Orthodox Experience of Repentance,\u201d in Sobornost\/Eastern Churches Review<\/em> 2:1 (1980), 24\u201325.<\/p><\/li>

  32. John Chrysostom, De Poenitentia<\/em> 7, 3, PG 49:327.<\/p><\/li>

  33. Timothy Ware, Eustratios Argenti: A Study of the Greek Church under Turkish Rule<\/em> (Oxford, 1964), p. 20 ff.<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Introduction Confession is in decline and repentance is misapprehended. The decline and the misapprehension cannot be easily qualified, but they are unmistakable at least inasmuch as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28071","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"campaignId":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28071"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28103,"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28071\/revisions\/28103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbarbarasrq.org\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}