A Guide to Confession – by Valeriu

Gafencu written from the Communist

Gulag

What sin is!

Sin is treading upon the law of God, a voluntary or involuntary
treading, in knowledge or in ignorance, in deed, in word, in
thought. Sin is dishonour toward God, insult, disdain,
defamation, ingratitude and wounding toward the Divine being,
in an egocentric spirit.
Sin is a lack of faith and a lack of confidence in God and in His
law, and too much faith and confidence in oneself, such that a
man becomes a law unto himself, because whenever you break
the law of God, you obey another law, your own, or the devil’s.
Sin is a second crucifixion of Christ, for through sin all the
insults, mockery, and beatings are renewed. The nails, the
spear, the thorns, through sin, Christ feels them all again.
Today, however, the blows no longer come from those who
defamed Him and shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Now
they are administered by those who say they believe in Him,
who say that they follow His commandments, that they love
Him. Now it is those who are baptized who spit in His face, it is
those who call themselves Christians who put the crown of
thorns on His head, now it is they who slap Him, who nail Him
to the cross, who goad Him with the spear, those for whom
Christ suffered mockery and beating and for whom He shed His
blood on Golgotha in order to make them sons of God, in order
to open the gates of heaven for them, to destroy death and
demolish hell.
Sin is estrangement from God and drawing near to the devil. It
is estrangement from the house of the Father and life in a
faraway country with the devil’s pigs.
Because we are the servants of him whom we serve (John
8:34), sin means slavery to the devil. When you sin, you no
longer consider what God has done for you, you are no longer
His son, and you do not think about His justice, by which He will
punish those who sin against His will. Through sin, all the
creatures of God act contrary to the purpose for which they
were created. The mouth was not created by God that we might
curse and swear with it or slander and curse our neighbour, but
that we might use it to speak things useful to the soul. God did
not give you a mind so that you can find arguments to distance
yourself from Him, but that you might find arguments to draw
near Him. The eyes were not made so that we might look at
things that damage the soul, but that we might look upon God’s
creation and give Him thanks. Just so, the ears, hands, and
feet were not made in order that we might distance ourselves
from God. Don’t you want to acknowledge the goodness and
long-suffering of God? For you should know that time was
given to you in order to gain paradise, and you waste it
believing that God will no longer judge, that He will forgive us,
that there are others much worse than you.
The Consequences of Sin
The evil brought about by sin:
1) Through sin, we lose the most precious gift that we have
received from God. Without this gift, the soul remains
deformed.
2) Through sin, the Holy Spirit is taken from us and we are
no longer recognized as sons.
3) Through sin, we lose the eternal blessedness of heaven.
We lose the possibility of union with God and life together
with the saints. We lose eternal light and rest.
4) We attain unto hell with its unquenchable fire and its
eternal darkness.
5) Through sin, we lose all the good deeds that we may
have done previously, for God will judge you according to
the state in which He finds you.
6) Through sin, we lose the help of God (to the extent that
you are found in sin).

Confession
Do you not weep at the thought that you have lost heaven?
Does the sorrow you have caused God not make you tremble?
Does the thought of hell not frighten you? Do you not seek to
acquire the state that you have lost? Is it still possible? Yes! But
you must want it….
From the very beginning, God has known our powerlessness
and has given us the possibility of being purified from sins. He
knew that man will sin as long as he lives and that no one is
without sin, and therefore He said to His disciples: Whatever
you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, words through which
He instituted the sacrament of Confession.
Confession or repentance is a bath from which the soul
emerges relieved from the weight of sin and cleansed from the
filth of sin, a bath in which we are cleansed of all our
defilements and errors.
Confession is a medicine that heals the soul of the wounds
inflicted by demons, a medicine that renders ineffective the
poison of sin.
Confession turns a sinner away from the devil and back to God
and restores His connection with his Creator.
Confession leads the soul to deeds and things that are for the
sake of and according to the soul. Confession restores a man
clean before God. Confession prepares the soul and body to
receive the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Confess in the Church four times a year to the same spiritual
father.
When you examine your conscience, consider yourself guilty,
don’t justify yourself; think about the following things:
1) The motive or aim with which or for which you sinned.
The following day, try to avoid the same situation.
2) The intention with which you sinned.
3) The surroundings, avoid them the following day.
4) The place where you sinned.
5) Whether your sin influenced others by encouraging
them to sin also.
6) The number [of times you’ve performed this particular
sin]

Confession must be done with contrition of heart and a sense

of regret. Contrition of heart is the grief and pain that the
memory of the sin causes you. This pain consists not only in
feeling the sin, to sigh and weep for it, but consists primarily in
hating the sin. Regret is the pain that the repentant feels
because he now lacks the grace of God and has earned
torment. The church has established the rule that one should
fast for seven days before confession, or possibly less. The
sick are excused. Write down your sins on paper and read
them alone before your spiritual father. Make a promise before
God to not repeat your sins.

The Ten Commandments

The First Commandment:
I am the Lord thy God, thou shall not have any gods before
me.
1) Do you believe in God?
2) Do you believe in the Holy Trinity?
3) Do you worship God?
4) Do you love Him?
5) Do you know Him? Have you compelled yourself to learn
something about God from the books of Holy Scripture,
church books, or from somewhere else?
6) Do you somehow believe in charms and magic spells?
7) Have you visited fortune tellers and astrologers?
8) Do you practice occultism?
9) Do you believe in dreams? Believe only in God.
10) Do you somehow bestow more honour upon some
creature or things than to God?
11) Do you value money, food or wine, a woman or a man,
more than God?
12) Have you ever grumbled against God?
13) Have you despaired because of any trouble,
misfortune, or any other evil that has befallen you?
14) Have you opposed the truths of Christian teaching?
15) Have you read books that are against religion?
16) Have you given such books to someone else to read
17) Have you attended gatherings of nonbelievers?
18) Have you read their books and magazines with the
intention of discovering another truth other than that of the
Church?
19) Have you defended lack of faith or sects or Islam?
20) Have you brought gifts to sectarians?
21) Do you believe in superstition or paganism?
22) Is God your main concern?
23) Have you always put hope in God?
24) Do you believe that heaven and hell exist?
25) Do you believe that there will be a judgment?
26) Do you put too much trust in the goodness of God and
in this way not fear judgment?
27) Do you believe that God can no longer forgive you
because of the multitude and gravity of your sins?
28) Have you always sought the help of God?
29) Have you prayed regularly? Evening, morning, and at
noon?
30) Do you go to church regularly?
31) At prayers and at church do you think only of God?
32) At the end of the day, do you remember God?
33) Have you brought thanks to God through all your
deeds?
34) Have you sought His help before doing something?
35) Do you sometimes say prayers only from habit?
36) Do you think of other things during the time of prayer?
37) Does the thought ever come to you that you cannot be
saved?
38) Have you put off repentance until old age?
39) Do you deliberately go late to church?
40) Do you pay attention to the service?
41) Do you laugh or talk or look at other people when in
church?

The Second Commandment:

Thou shall make no graven image or the likeness of any

thing of what is in heaven or on earth, in the sea or on the
earth, nor shall you worship them or serve them.
1) Do you believe that some men are great and have the
same value that Christ had? For example, philosophers or
religious leaders.
2) Do you believe in the holy icons?
3) What kind of worship do you accord them?
4) Do you believe that an icon is in fact the very saint that it
depicts?
5) Do you believe in people – your wife, your husband,
your child – instead of believing in God?
6) Do you worship things such as money, food, drink, or
other pleasures?
7) Is your own mind your only law and do you do only that
which it tells you?

The Third Commandment:

Do not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain.
1) Have you ever sworn by God the Father or by the
Saviour Jesus Christ?
2) Have you sworn by the angels, archangels?
3) Have you sworn by the Holy Virgin?
4) Have you sworn by the saints, the church, Pascha, the
oil lamps, the icons, the cross, or other things?
5) Have you brought false witness to the Name of God?
6) Have you sworn other kinds of oaths, for example on
your eyes, your life, the salvation of your soul? For the
Saviour said, „Let your speech be yes and no; for
anything more than that is of the devil.”
7) Have you cursed anyone? Have you sent others to the
devil or yourself?
8) Do you have the habit of cursing those who do you
wrong? The Saviour taught us to pray for them.
9) Have you sworn a false oath?
10) Have you sworn a true oath?11) Do you use as an oath
the word “zău,” which is an abbreviation for “pe
Dumnezeul meu” [upon my God]?

The Fourth Commandment:

Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
Sunday is the Lord’s day. And all the feast days instituted by
the church throughout the year have the same value.
1) Have you kept all Sundays and feast days?
2) Were you in church on each of those days?
3) Did the other members of your household keep them,
did they attend church, did you prevent them for any
reason?
4) Have you given others work on those days? Do you go
to church late?
5) Did you keep the Lord’s day in a worthy manner? Or is it
for you an ordinary day or a day for parties and
amusements? Do you go to church in the morning? In the
afternoon do you read books that are useful and
constructive for the soul?
6) Do you look after your soul more on those days than on
others?
7) Have you done or participated in a clacă (An informal
gathering around a campfire for conversation, music, and
dancing) ?
8) Do you behave improperly in church?
9) Have you cursed the church or the servants of the Holy
Altar?
10) Do you honour priests as the servants of God? Do you
make fun of them or disdain them? Do you gossip about
them and speak of their sins?
11) Do you pray for them? Do you obey them?

The Fifth Commandment:

Honour thy father and thy mother.
1) Have you beaten your parents or in-laws?
2) Have you abused them or persecuted them?
3) Have you heeded their advice?
4) Have you deceived them in any way?
5) Have you taken advantage of their good faith?
6) Have you helped them when they are in difficulty?
7) Have you done church services for them after their
deaths?
8) Have you helped your brothers and sisters?
9) Have you taken care of your wife and children? For St.
Paul says, If anyone does not look after his own, and
especially those of his own household, such a one has
abandoned the faith and is worse than a non-believer. (1
Tim 5:8)
10) Have you beaten your wife? Have you held anything
against her? Have you abused her?
11) Have you honoured your husband? Have you loved
your husband or wife as your own self?
12) Have you deceived your husband or wife?
13) Have you made his/her life more difficult? Do you nag
or criticize?
14) Have you sufficiently looked after the spiritual well-
being of those in your household?
15) How have you behaved with your spiritual fathers?
Godparents, teachers, priests? Have you respected them
and helped them?
16) Have you been insolent or stubborn with your parents?
17) Have you upset them? Angered them?
18) Have you spoken ill of them or derided them?
19) Have you made fun of their weaknesses?
20) Have you been mindful of your religious obligations?
21) Have you been ashamed of them?
22) Have you spent money on useless things (tobacco or
other pleasures), causing your family to be lacking in
necessary things?
If you are a parent:
23) Have you steered your children on the path of the
Church, in word and in deed?
24) Have you set a bad example with arguments,
drunkenness, filthy language, lying, stealing, dishonour,
gossiping, laziness?
25) Do you live with a concubine and the children see it?
26) Have you punished them for bad deeds: such as
arguing, lying, fighting, stealing? Have you spared them
out of mercy?
27) Have you prayed for your children, wife, husband,
brothers, sisters, parents?
28) Were you too harsh or too easy on your children?
29) Have you had bad servants who taught your children
things harmful for the soul?

If you are a guardian:

30) Have you fulfilled all your material and moral
obligations toward the children?
31) How have you behaved with your servants or
apprentices?
32) Have you paid them honest wages, have you held
anything back for any reason?
33) Have you encouraged them to fulfil their religious
duties?
34) Have you encouraged them to commit any sin?
If you are a servant:
35) Have you obeyed your master or boss?
36) Have you diligently fulfilled all your duties?
37) Have you done your work in a careless, slipshod
manner?
38) Have you stolen anything?39) Have you told bad
stories about the house to others?

The Sixth Commandment: Thou shall not kill.

1) Have you ever killed anyone, voluntarily or
involuntarily?
2) Do you want to kill anyone, or have thoughts of
revenge? Have you ever praised anyone who killed?
3) Do you want anyone to die, in order to gain their wealth,
wife, husband, etc.?
4) Have you beaten anyone?
5) Have you threatened anyone?
6) Do you hate anyone, are you reconciled with all those
you know?
7) Do you wish anyone evil, death, or harm?
8) Do you rejoice when evil befalls your fellow man?
9) How do you behave with those around you?
10) If you are a man, have you abandoned your children?
11) If you are a woman, have you voluntarily abandoned
your baby?
12) Have you sought to kill yourself, directly or indirectly?
13) Have you gone hunting?

The Seventh Commandment:

Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Those unmarried commit fornication, those married adultery.
1) Have you committed fornication, or if you are married,
adultery?
2) Do you live as a concubine?
3) Do you sin against nature – masturbation or
homosexuality?
4) Do you desire to sin with the husband or wife of
another?
5) Do you seek opportunities to commit sexual sins?
6) Do you think about shameful things too much?
7) Do you seek to recall such scenes?
8) Do you want to see the shameful parts of the body?
9) Do you speak about shameful things?
10) Have you read books that give you sexual pleasure?
11) Have you urged anyone to commit such sins?
12) Have you caused someone else to sin through clothing
or dressing up?

The Eighth Commandment:

Thou shalt not steal.
A priest cannot forgive the theft of something that has not been
returned. Therefore, give back what you stole and then go to
confession.
1) Have you stolen money or other objects from the state,
society, or any man?
2) Have you done harm to others?
3) Have you helped those you have harmed to recover?
4) Have you taken adequate care of the wealth of another
man that has been entrusted to you?
5) Have you given back money or other objects that you
borrowed?
6) Have you received stolen things (things that were
stolen)?
7) Have you given back things that you found?
8) Have you secretly changed the property line between
you and your neighbour?
9) Have you urged someone else to do this?
10) Have you charged too much interest for borrowed
monies?
11) Have you altered merchandise and then sold it as if it
were good?
12) Have you deceived anyone by weighing or counting
goods wrongly?
13) Have you taken things by force from someone smaller
than you?
14) Have you accepted bribes?
15) Have you taught children to steal?
16) Do you have thoughts about making money by
dishonourable means?

The Ninth Commandment:

Thou shall not bear false witness.
1) Have you sworn a false oath?
2) Have you lied?
3) Have you born false witness?
4) Have you behaved correctly with your neighbour?
5) Have you lied to him?
6) Have you told lies about others?
7) Have you purposefully spread false account about
others?

The Tenth Commandment:

Thou shall not covet thy neighbour’s wife. Thou shall not
covet thy neighbour’s goods.
1) Have you desired the wife, daughter, husband, or son of
your neighbours?
2) Have you desired the wealth of your neighbour?
3) Have you desired the social status of someone higher
than you?
4) Have you hated your neighbour for any reason?
5) Have you desired the house, the land, the vineyard, or
the work of your brother?

The Seven Deadly Sins

Pride: is the source of all spiritual evil. It is a spiritual greed
through which the demons fell from the grace of God.
1) Are you proud, haughty, conceited?
2) Do you put too much faith in your own beauty or your
wealth, have you grown proud because of them?
3) How do you behave with those who are rich or
important?
4) Do you despise anyone?
5) Are you willing to talk to anyone?
6) Are you hypocritical (you say one thing, and do
another)?
7) Have you bragged through deeds, words, or clothing?
8) Have you said something in order to be praised?
9) Have you slandered your neighbour in order to lower his
honour and in order to raise up your own?
10) Have you born the offenses of him who offended you?
11) Have you forgiven those who upset you?
12) Have you prided yourself on your learning and
knowledge?

Greed: Starting out as something abstract, egotism is put into

effect through greed.
The Holy Apostle Paul is looking from this point of view when
he says that greed is the root of all evil.
1) Are you greedy for food and drink [gluttony]?
2) Do you want to collect wealth or other things?
3) Are you greedy in accumulating money, have you
deceived your neighbour for this reason?
4) Have you eaten or drunk secretly?
5) Have you eaten on fast days or before the Holy Liturgy?
6) Have you eaten carrion?

Laziness: is the failure to make use of the physical and

spiritual powers that God has granted us to use in our lives.
1) Are you lazy?
2) Do you waste time without working?
3) Do you occupy yourself with things that are vain or
pointless?
4) Do you pray regularly?
5) Do you look after your soul?
6) Do you do your duty as a clerk, worker, servant?
7) Do you force those smaller than you to do your work?
8) Have you sought a spiritual father who is more lenient?
9) Have you fulfilled your penance?

Anger: is also based upon the pivot or axis of greed.

When a man cannot fulfil his desires, he becomes angry
because he is prevented from achieving his evil goal. Man is
allowed to be angry only against sin.
1) Have you done evil through anger, cursing, beatings,
etc.?
2) Do you get angry often? How long do you stay angry?
You should know that St. Paul said, “Do not let the sun set
on your anger.” (Eph 4:26)
3) Are you presently angry with anyone?
4) Have you beaten or struck anyone with a stick, a club, or
your palm?
5) Have you angered or scolded anyone without good
reason, spitefully?
6) Have you wished evil to someone who did you evil? Or
to someone who did you good?
7) Have you gotten angry with a neighbour because he is
somehow better than you? Have you envied him?
8) Have you shed anyone’s blood (in drunkenness)?
9) Have you engaged in a duel?
10) Have you prayed, in anger, that evil come upon your
enemies?

Avarice (Greed): is material and spiritual.

Material when someone does not want to provide physical
comfort to the poor, while spiritual when one does not want to
steer someone away from evil.
1) Are you stingy?
2) Have you ever deprived a neighbour of necessary things
out of stinginess?
3) Have you helped the poor?
4) Have you called both the rich and the poor to eat at your
table? You should know that the Saviour urges us to call
to our table those who cannot repay us.
5) Do you sell items at too high a price?
6) Do you cheat people?
7) Do you regret any good deed that you have done?
8) Do you eat little and clothe yourself or your family
poorly in order to grow rich?
9) Do you neglect the health of your children, wife, parents,
brothers, in order to avoid spending money?

Envy (Quarreling or Jealousy): When an angry man cannot

prevail over the obstacles that are in his way by anger, unable
to do anything else, he sweetens his heart with the passion of
envy, so that he might conceal his neighbour’s spiritual and
physical honour and exalt himself.
1) Have you argued with anyone?
2) Do you like to argue?
3) Do you hate anyone?
4) Do you deride or disdain anyone?
5) Do you give advice maliciously?
6) Are you presently jealous of anyone?
7) Are you on speaking terms with everyone?
8) Have you given anyone a bad nickname?
9) Have you sown dissension between brothers?
10) Have you been jealous of anyone because he is
somehow better than you and enjoys more honour, wealth,
social standing, etc.?

Lust: is also a form of greed, but not of a material or spiritual

order, but of a sentimental order. The sin of dissoluteness,
unlike all other sins, is committed with the body.
The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (You can commit the
sin of dissoluteness by looking at or hearing things that cause
you to sin. Even eating, sleeping too much, speaking, etc.)
1) Have you fallen into fornication?
2) Or adultery?
3) Do you like to see or read books that cause you to sin in
your thoughts, do you like to hear or to speak vulgar or
shameful words? You should know that St. Paul tells us
that there should not be heard from our mouth any foul or
filthy words, nor silly jokes that are improper, nor words
that are imprudent.
4) Do you like to speak sensibly or senselessly?
5) Are you mastered by any passion?
6) Do you eat or sleep too much? You should know that St.
Paul also said “All things are permitted to me, but not all
things are useful.” (1 Cor. 6:12)7)
7) Do you have in your home paintings with naked bodies?
Do you look at them passionately?
8) Have you committed sexual sins with blood relatives or
spiritual relatives (godchildren, godparents)?
9) Have you touched someone’s body, overcome by the
passion of lust?
10) Have you wanted to see the shameful parts of the
body?
Sins That Cry Out to Heaven
A. Voluntary Killing
1) Have you killed anyone?
2) Have you sought to kill?
3) Do you want to kill anyone?
4) Have you sought to gain revenge by killing someone?
5) Have you beaten anyone?
6) Have you quarreled with or threatened anyone?

B. Sodomy (coupling against nature)

1) A man with a man or any kind of animal?
2) A man with a woman against nature?
3) Masturbation. Have you masturbated?

C. Withholding the pension or the wages of orphans,

widows, workers, employees, or servants.
1) Have you withheld pensions or salaries? For what
reason, as reimbursement for something broken, or other
reasons?
2) Have you withheld pay partially or unjustly?
3) Have you always compensated others for the work they
have done?

D. Oppressing widows, orphans, invalids, or the helpless.

1) Have you beaten children, old people, or orphans?
2) Have you derided or made fun of them?
3) Have you oppressed anyone weaker or smaller than
you?
4) Have you laughed at the crippled or the helpless?
5) Have you angered or irritated them?
6) Have you somehow been obligated to help them and
failed to do so?
7) Have you helped those whom you were not required to
help, or did you pass them by like the priest and the Levite
in the Gospel in the story of the good Samaritan?
8) Have you deliberately caused a blind man to fall by
guiding him wrong?
9) Have you made fun of anyone who is helpless, deaf, a
stutterer, lame, crippled, one-eyed?

Obligations Regarding the Spiritual Life of our Neighbour

1) To protect our neighbour from sin
2) To teach the uneducated (ignorant)
3) To give good advice to those who have need of it
4) To pray to God for others
5) To comfort the sad/grieving
6) To suffer patiently when we are treated unjustly
7) To forgive the sins of others

Commandments Regarding the Physical Life of Our

Neighbour
1) To give food to the hungry. Have you given or not?
2) To quench the thirst of the thirsty
3) To clothe the naked
4) To care for the sick
5) To take in and show hospitality to strangers
6) To inquire after those in prison7) To bury the dead

Strange Sins
1) When you advise someone to sin
2) When you order someone to sin
3) When you permit someone to sin
4) When you help someone to sin
5) When you praise someone who sins
6) When you were able to but didn’t want to prevent
someone from sinning
7) When you know that someone is sinning but you don’t
tell him
Sins against the Holy Spirit
1) Disregarding the grace of God and having excessive
trust in one’s own self
2) To believe that God does not have the power to forgive
you is a very great sin.
3) To believe that you are everything and that God has no
power in the world
4) Lack of trust in God
5) Opposition to the Truth established by the Holy Church
6) Leaving the Orthodox Church. Guard yourself from this
sin, for Christ says, “He who blasphemes against the Holy
Spirit has no forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal
condemnation.” (Mk 3:29)

The Nine Church Commandments

1) Church attendance every Sunday and every feast day
2) Keeping the four fasting periods of the year
3) Respect toward the Church’s representatives (priests,
monks, nuns)
4) Confession of sin during the four fasts
5) Guarding ourselves from heretics
6) To pray for our country’s leaders and the officials of the
church
7) To abstain from weddings and parties during the fast
periods
8) To protect those things belonging to the church from
inappropriate use
9) To keep the fasts and to say the prayers that the bishop
ordains in times of trouble

Various Sins
1) Failure to carry out one’s obligations:
a) Have you carried out all your obligations to God,
to your own self, to your neighbour?
 b) Have you carried out the penance given to you in
confession?
2) Theft of holy things
a) Have you lied at confession?
b) Have you avoided telling everything and for what
reason have you done so?

Counsels
a) Go to confession at least four times a year, during the
fasts.
b) Fast before confession.
c) Maintain the same spiritual father.
d) Make a serious examination of conscience before going
to confession.
e) Write down all your sins, otherwise you might forget
them. After confession, burn the paper at once.
f) Confess not only sins you have committed, but also
those of your heart.
g) Do not conceal any sin.
h) Be reconciled with those who have offended you.
i) Avoid occasions of sin.
j) Give up your sins – make a promise that you will no
longer sin.
k) Feel contrition for your sinfulness.
l) Guard yourself from sins.
m) Receive Communion only if you feel clean. Otherwise, it
will be for condemnation.
n) Fulfil in a holy manner the penance given to you by your
spiritual father.
o) Judge only yourself for the sins you have committed.

Each one of us has his or her own mission to fulfil, but we must
heed the advice of our spiritual father, who puts aside our own
ill-informed will, making room for the will of God in each one of
us. Our spiritual father reveals the will of God in us. If we don’t
heed him, we can wander astray and make mistakes that are
even worse than the passions. I consider a friend anyone who
sends me even one thought of love. And I wish and request
that every one of my friends copy down this guide to
confession. I have written this as best as I could, in great haste,
out of a genuine wish to send you this guide to confession. With
all my love, Valeriu. The end and glory be to God!

Van het internet gehaald en omgezet in Dej, 2 oktober 2018.