Confession in Orthodoxy.

~Anastasia~

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Subscribing, I'm interested to see how answers will be worded.

Christ forgives, not the priest. The priest is acting as a witness, and a spiritual counselor, a facilitator if necessary, and gives the penitent the benefit of hearing the words spoken regarding forgiveness of sins.

It's not a legal model. No one is saying anything like missing confession on one's deathbed means condemnation, for example.

It is a medicine of the Church. One thing among many that helps us on our path.

I would have to ask though - why did the person not confess? If it was disbelief, what else did they disbelieve? If it was spiritual laxity, then how else were they lax and what was their spiritual state? (Not that we're likely to know, but I'm assuming this is a theoretical person/scenario.). Were they just being stiff-necked and totally rebellious? That one gives me especial concern, because such a person might not have at all the right disposition toward God.

I hope I've avoided answering and just gave some general thoughts. I'm looking forward to hearing how my more experienced and wiser brothers and sisters will answer. :)
 
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Anhelyna

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Kylissa

As you all probably know I have a very good friend who happens to be an Orthodox priest :)

One time we were talking about the differences between the practices of our Churches - and I was stunned to hear him say that he is slowly getting the people who come the the Church where he serves , to actually start practicing Confession . I looked at him open mouthed and he agreed it was shocking but said he'd actually had the joy of hearing the Confession of an 80 yr old lady , in poor health , who had just Confessed for the second time in her life .

As he says - it's a work in progress , but it's starting to take shape. He is actually a good Confessor :)
 
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ArmyMatt

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at risk...I dunno if we would use that language. it's certainly not what God laid out for us. nowhere in Scripture does it say to confess to God only, and all confession in the OT and NT is public. but for someone who never knew, God certainly would not hold that against him.
 
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~Anastasia~

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Kylissa

As you all probably know I have a very good friend who happens to be an Orthodox priest :)

One time we were talking about the differences between the practices of our Churches - and I was stunned to hear him say that he is slowly getting the people who come the the Church where he serves , to actually start practicing Confession . I looked at him open mouthed and he agreed it was shocking but said he'd actually had the joy of hearing the Confession of an 80 yr old lady , in poor health , who had just Confessed for the second time in her life .

As he says - it's a work in progress , but it's starting to take shape. He is actually a good Confessor :)

It's interesting, Anhelyna. And I think it depends on jurisdiction. I have spoken to OCA priests who were reluctant to allow me to receive the Eucharist without having confessed within days (though interestingly, there were cases where receiving the Eucharist a few times a week was acceptable if it had been continuous since my confession - in a sense I wonder if the Eucharist didn't "extend the effectiveness" of confession?). And recently in our Church a lady went to confession for the first time and she was elderly. The Greeks are very different from the Russians/OCA as far as I can tell.

I read Fr. Alexander Schmemann's argument that confession was for reconciliation from something as grave as excommunication and ought not be done often.

And to be honest, I don't feel the need to go to confession weekly? But that is absolutely the weakest reasoning there could be. It means nothing.

On the other hand, if confession were an opportunity to discuss the thoughts, struggles, temptations, or whatever that affected my walk, then perhaps that would serve as receiving the counsel of a spiritual father, if done correctly. That I would very much welcome on a frequent basis.

But if it's just a weekly recap of the same "I got upset when someone mistreated me, I judged someone for wearing a miniskirt to Church, I didn't stop the person I heard gossiping, I overslept and cut my morning prayers short" ... (Not real examples, but my point is that I think we all have certain things we end up doing over and over). If it's just a weekly repetition of the same, and nothing more at all, I would think that would become discouraging. I know when I misunderstood "logismoi" as being sins, I WAS despairing, because I was fighting HARD to keep any of it from happening, and I was starting to wonder what's the point if we never get any better with regard to avoiding sin.

Ah, as you can see, I'm still figuring this out. I've been to confession 3 times. Each time was a different dynamic. And for a few weeks I've wanted to go again, but I feel I'd be imposing. It just "feels like time" though there's no particular burden. At that rate, seems like I'm wanting confession about every 6 weeks. I'm planning to try to talk to Father this week about several things, so I should add that to the list.
 
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