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- "Do not be ashamed to reveal your scabs to your
spiritual director. Be prepared as well to accept from him
disgrace for your sins, so that by being disgraced, you might
avoid eternal shame." Counsels of
Venerable St. Hilarion (Ponomarev) of Optina
- "Do not go into detail in confessing carnal acts, lest you
become a traitor to yourself." St. John
Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston: Holy
Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step28: On Holy and Blessed
Prayer, the Mother of Virtues, and on the Attitude of Mind and
Body in Prayer
- "During the time of one’s confession not only the person who
makes his confession is judged, but the confessor as well. In
the past, confessors were practical. They did not judge on the
basis of the seriousness of a transgression, but rather on the
intent. They did not concentrate so much on the sins being
confessed as on thinking of how to treat the repentant person’s
soul." An Athonite Gerontikon by
Archimandrite Ioannikios (Kotsonis)
- "If you want cure your soul, you need four things. The first
is to forgive your enemies. The second is to confess thoroughly.
The third is to blame yourself. The fourth is to resolve to sin
no more. If we wish to be saved, we must always blame ourselves
and not attribute our wrong acts to others. And God, Who is most
compassionate, will forgive us." Modern
Orthodox Saints I, St. Cosmas Aitolos).Dr. Constantine Cavarnos.,
INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK STUDIES., Belmont,
Massachusetts., pp.81-94
- "Let us not wait to be convicted by others, let us be our
own examiners. An important medicine for evil is confession, and
care to avoid stumbling." St. Gregory
Nazianzen (On His Father's Silence no. 17)
- "Let us then not be ashamed to confess our sins unto the
Lord. Shame indeed there is when each makes known his sins, but
that shame, as it were, ploughs his land, removed the
ever-recurring brambles, prunes the thorns, and gives life to
the fruits which he believed were dead. Follow him who, by
diligently ploughing his field, sought for eternal fruit: "being
reviled we bless, being persecuted we endure, being defames we
entreat, we are made as the offscouring of the world." If you
plough after this fashion you will sow spiritual seed. Plough
that you may get rid of sin and gain fruit. He ploughed so as to
destroy in himself the last tendency to persecution. What more
could Christ give to lead us on to the pursuit of perfection,
than to convert and then give us for a teacher one who was a
persecutor?" St. Ambrose of Milan,
Concerning Repentance
- "The proof of authenticity of the spiritual condition of a
father confessor is, that while he is very strict with himself,
he is very lenient with others and does not use the canons of
the Church like cannons against them."
Elder Paisius of the Holy Mountain (+July 12, 1994)
- "You are, I am sure, aware that for you penitence is now no
longer limited to disclosing your sins to your confessor, but
that you must now bear your sins in mind always, until your
heart nearly breaks with their ugly load; and would break, were
it not for your firm faith in the mercy of our Lord."
St. Makary of Optina
- "My child, do you want to crush the head of the serpent?
Openly reveal your thoughts in confession. The strength of the
devil lies in cunning thoughts. Do you hold on to them? He
remains hidden. Do you bring them to the light? He disappears.
And then Christ rejoices the prayer progresses, and the light of
grace heals and brings peace to your nous and heart."
Monastc Wisdom: The Letters of Elder
Joseph the Hesychast
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