Is it possible to confess on the phone? Orthodox priests answer trust.
The hotline of many allows you to overcome the psychological line, which sometimes arises from non-church people. They want to communicate with the father, but it is even scary to go to church: how to behave there, unbelieving himself, will it be blasphemy?
"Sometimes, because of all the constraints and fears, people postpone their conversation with the priest for years," says the participant of the project of Archpriest Andrei Krnyuk. - We ourselves took the step towards such people. On the phone it is easier to be frank. In addition, the confession often there is often no time to talk in souls, and many at the beginning of their spiritual life need it in a trust conversation. "
Father Andrew already has experience in spiritual communication by phone. Since March of this year, he, together with the group of priests-volunteers, was on duty on the telephone confidence for oncological patients. During this time, two things have become apparent: the first is such a help in demand, the second - clergymen could help more people. As a result, the idea was born to organize a special Orthodox hotline.
"We wanted to make it all-Russian, but then we decided to try the project at the level of the capital for the beginning," says Curator of the project Polina Jofeva. - Information about this appeared in the press, on television, we place it in the centers of social adaptation, hospitals, oncological dispensaries - wherever people suffer and sometimes remain alone. "
Clearyts that answer calls - people prepared not only by their pastoral practice. They participated in the seminar "Honder therapy in acute situations", which was specifically carried out for them oncopsychologists of the CO-Action project, and also listened to lectures on the psychology of emergency situations within the framework of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The new initiative was supported by experts from the Moscow Psychological Assistance Population. "We share mental and spiritual assistance," says the Deputy Head of the Department of Emergency Psychological Assistance of 051 Innocent Postniki. "If a believer has thoughts that harm himself, it turns out to be easier to deploy to the other side than a convinced atheist. However, sometimes I have a feeling that the questions with which they are addressed to me are outside of my competence. We are psychologists and are not experts in spiritual aid. "
According to him, if employees of the service feel that a person needs to be sent to a conversation to the priest, they try to use this resource: they offer him to go to the nearest temple. There are about ten percent of such calls. But whether a person comes to the temple, whether it is that the priest that is unknown that is unknown that is unknown. Therefore, according to employees of the service, the phone for which the father will answer "here and now", more than in demand.
- You can contact a priest with any question. You do not only need to ask about the commission of the sacraments (you can not let sins let it be released) and do not try to order the demands (it is better to go to the nearest temple for this), "says Vasily Rulin's spokeswoman.
- Does it make sense to call on this phone completely unbelieving?
- The call makes sense always, because any unbelieving can become a believer. If a person who has never even went to the temple, there was a need to talk to the priest, it is necessary to call.
Phone reference service "Mercy" 542-0000, working hours from 12.00 to 22.00 without days off (with a break for Saturday evening)
I confessed on the Vigil on Saturday, and on Sunday on Liturgy I remembered about one unskilled sin. And confused - what to do? Ask the priest in the morning to confess me again? But the Batyushki during the liturgy is usually no time. How to act in such cases? Staff again confessing at the same service? Or can you approach the communion, and confess later? Natalia.
As far as I understand, the total prayer that the priest reads before the confession is part of the sacrament. But to get to her, it is necessary to come to the very beginning of confession, and this is not always it turns out. Sometimes confession begins when you stand in line on the anointing, and then you do not know where to go: whether to go on the anointing, or to run to listen to prayer. Sometimes you come in the morning to confession, and it has already begun. And sometimes, if the priest comes out to confess separately one or two people, he does not read this prayer at all. How important to get to the very beginning of confession and listen to the overall prayer? Is it possible to confess if it failed? Yulia
It seems to me that the written confession is sometimes very convenient, but I never had to write my sins on paper. Or leaves dry listing: did not file alms, he envied, knighted with her mother. But it is somehow completely formally. Or you have to go into details and it turns out not confession, but a whole novel. Are there any rules for making confession on paper? My girlfriend once went to confession with a leaflet, on which only one word was written: for a blond. But not always you can simply formulate everything, what you want to repent. Eugene
Why so many people calling themselves Orthodox, do not know anything about spiritual life? Why is the number of Orthodox in our country grow, and love does not become more? The reason is that people do not know or forgot about the words that the Lord said once, but he said to all living on earth, for those who still live: "... Repent, for the kingdom of heaven approached!" (Matt. 4: 17). What is repentance? Why start fighting sin in yourself? The first confession tells the Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevsky Panteleimon.
In the Orthodox catechism, the following definition of this sacrament is given: "repentance is a sacrament in which the confessing sins of his own, with the apparent expiration of forgiveness from the priest, is invisible from sins by Jesus Christ."
The great post begins - a special time for repentance. How to prepare for the first confession tells the Bishop Smolensky and Vyazemsky Panteleimon
There are people who go to confession all their life - and never really swore. And there are people who do not know how to confess, but their repentance of the present. About how confession and repentance relate - the doctor of theology, the abbot of the church of the three saint on the slices of Archpriest Vladislav Sveshnikov.
A person comes to church with solid intention to change. But gradually the neophytic fervor passes, and the sins remain. And all the same as they were before - the usual and long-standing. "Why go to confession at all if nothing changes in me?" - the tempted idea is creepy. Really, why?
Repeatedly saw in the church a queue for confession. Sometimes the question "Who is the last one?" Reply: "You do not store here." So what kind of sign should the laity approach the priest to confession? Wait until you call? Observe the queue? But after all, the church is really not a store!
How to tell the priest about sins? Is the feeling of repentance for confession? Should I wait after the confession of spiritual relief? These neophytic questions often remain "patients" and for the most experienced parishioners. Many of us are shy to distract the priest on trifles with their too "simple questions." To replenish this gap, "Simple questions" about the confession correspondent "NS" Dmitry Reszov asked the older confessor of the Moscow Diocese, the abbot of the Pokrovsky temple in the village of Valerian Krchetovo near Moscow
Why are we when we pray, ask God to help us see our sins? The vision of these sins delivers us suffering, generates remorse of conscience. What's the point of this?
About the preparation for confession, about what "sins" do not need to repent and how did you not know whether the Bishop Smolensky and Vyazemsky Panteleimon says to conviction
From October 18, any Moskvich will be able to receive spiritual assistance by asking questions to the clergy on the phone of the reference service "Mercy".
"Many not church people have a certain barrier in communicating with the priest, and they postpone their first conversation or confession for years, says the participant of the project of Archpriest Andrei Krnyuk. - Communication with clergy on the phone is a step towards such people. On the phone it is easier to be frank. In addition, the confession usually does not have time to talk "souls", and many at the beginning of our spiritual life need it in such a confidence conversation. " Since March 2011, Father Andrei, together with the group of priests-volunteers, is on duty on the telephone confidence for cancer, on average, each priest gets about two calls a week. During this time, the priests understood two things: the first - their help is in demand, and the second - they can help more people. So the idea was born to organize a special Orthodox "hotline", to call which any Muscovite will be able to call.
The new opportunity as part of the reference service "Mercy" will appear from October 18. First, the phone was planned to be made by all-Russian, but then it was decided to try the project at the urban level. "We will place information about the phone in the centers of social adaptation, hospitals, oncodispers - in all those places where people suffer and remain alone, - says the project curator, head of the Synodal Department for the Charity Polina Jofeva. - Then we will study incoming calls and define, in what direction to develop the project to whom we are most needed. " The ads on the new phone will also be posted in universities - the project is not only a social, but also missionary. Young and well-educated priests (some of them have two or three higher Education) We will try to answer questions about spiritual life. On October 18, 28 priests and eight deacons will be on duty on the phone, many of them already have experience in communicating with oncological patients. All clerics were interviewed either with the Chairman of the Synodal Charity Department by Bishop Panteleimon, or with the responsible for the bump of hospitals at the Commission on Church Social Activities by Archpriest John Emelyanov. Most of them also, within the framework of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, listened to lectures on the psychology of emergency situations. In addition, all the priests took part in the "listening therapy in acute situations" seminar, which was specifically carried out oncopsychologists for the project "CO-Action".
Specialists of the Moscow psychological assistance service to the population supported a new initiative. "We share mental and spiritual assistance," says the Deputy Head of the Department of Emergency Psychological Assistance of 051 Innocent Postniki. "We are not experts in spiritual help, and personally, I certainly, sometimes there is such a feeling that the subject discussed is beyond the scope of my competence." Nevertheless, the psychologists of the service know that faith in God is an "internal resource", which can be reinforced when solving personal problems. "If a believer has thoughts about causing himself harm, it turns out to be easier to deploy to the other side than a convinced atheist," explains Innocent Postniki. Therefore, according to him, if psychologists consultants feel that a person can be sent to a conversation to the priest, they try to use this resource and offer a person to go to the nearest temple. There are about ten percent of such calls. But a person comes to the temple, whether it is that the priest that is unknown that is unknown. Therefore, according to Innokenty Postniki, the phone, according to which the priest will answer "here and now," will be more than in demand.
Phone reference service "Mercy" will not perform the functions of the "confidence phone" in the full sense of the word. First, due to the technical features of the multichannel number, the call on the phone is paid - the urban telecommunications operator pays it as a call to mobile. (Currently negotiations with the provider are underway to make the phone free). Secondly, the caller gets to the priest not immediately. First, the Tube takes the Mercy Help Service operator, which provides preliminary filtering issues. So, on requests for material assistance and the requirement, a reference nature, the operator responds independently, or switches the caller on the corresponding division of the Mercy Service.
On the phone of trust 8-800-100-0191 more than 20 Moscow priests are on duty. According to the plan, the service is designed to help cancer and their relatives, but people often have the need to talk not only about their illness, but in general - about the meaning of suffering and everyday troubles, and therefore about faith and God. Four years after the creation of the hotline "Co-action", psychologists called for the help of priests: it was difficult to support the dialogues about spiritual life. Moreover, not only patients onclinic and their relatives, but people with the most different problems call the trust today.
The priest Igor Palkin, one of the volunteers of the "trust phone", told Izvestia that it most often switched calls from people unchurceptive and few familiar with Orthodoxy. Before connecting the subscriber with the priest, the dispatcher finds out who is calling and from where. There are residents of various cities - Irkutsk, Ulyanovsk, Voronezh (by the way, in the Voronezh diocese there is a local confidence telephone, according to which priests answer).
For example, the daughter of the deceased woman asks: Mom was a believer, went to the temple, prayed for recovery - why did she die anyway? The priest will try to explain that Orthodox believe: Each God calls for the best time for a person, and one day to step over this threshold will have to each. The main thing for the priest is not to push away the resulting person an extra edification or an awkward word.
Recently, Father Igor Palkin talked with a 12-year-old boy, and he mentioned that she recently came to his mother from the boarding school.
And how did you get to the boarding school?
Mom sick, and her husband took only my brother to himself, because I have another father. The grandmother is devoid of parental rights, so I was sent to the boarding school, "the boy explained.
"In these two phrases - a whole life," says the priest. - We spoke 40 minutes. "
Mother of the boy passes difficult treatment, and he decided to call the priest to learn how to pray so that she does not die. But it is difficult to immediately start with such a serious question, and first the boy asked if the priest knows something about his hometown - Ulyanovsk.
Yes, "Pattyushka replied," you made my car in the city - UAZ.
And I thought that the priests are just a lot and they do not go to such, "the boy was surprised.
And I really really have a lot, for example, five children, - comforted his priest.
Actively use the telephone trust in Voronezh. Sometimes a day there are several dozen calls. The priests are treated for advice, and sometimes even asking financial assistance. Call and educated people, and old men, and teenagers. For example, one woman made a successful career, but missed her son, told the "Izvestia" by Archpriest Peter Petrov from Voronezh. The teenager became a drug addict, and the mother had already been unsuccessful to all doctors and even sorcerers, until he called a priest. Together with the church she managed to "remove the son from the needle."
In St. Petersburg, you can talk to the priest on the confidence in the Orthodox Center "Life". The main customers of the center are pregnant women who have fallen into the crisis situation and conceived abortion. Here phone call It becomes only the first contact, and then the future mother can have the most different help - both psychological, and material, if only she retained the child. Help all women, regardless of their religious affiliation.
In Ivanov, the phone has a confidence in the monastery. You can ask questions, including about HIV and AIDS problems. In Kazan, they say that the Muslims and atheists also call the Orthodox priests.
As for the calls of the mufti, the phone confidence for Muslim worked in Moscow three years ago, but existed only a few months. As Galina, Moderator of the Women's Muslim Forum said, but there is simply no money. But as soon as they appear, not one phone will be in demand, but a whole consulting center. In May of this year, the beginning of the work of a Muslim phone confidence in North Ossetia - Alanya was announced, but today the specified number is also unavailable.
Professor of the Moscow Spiritual Academy Archpriest Maxim Kozlov is responsible for readers' questions.
Who is better - affectionate or strict?
- Father Maxim, should the believer confess anyone, namely "his" father?
- It is advisable to find a confessor - a priest to whom you will regularly go to confession, ask the Council to know you and will be able to help in spiritual matters.
- How to find it?
- You can visit services in different temples, seek, listen to how priests preach, understand which atmosphere in the parish, and then make your choice. It is important that you feel complete confidence in the father so that he causes you sympathy and respect.
- Some people are looking for a "comfortable" confessor, hoping that he will indulge their weaknesses. Or is it better to do the opposite: choose more strict to learn humility?
- It is unlikely that it makes sense to determine the confessor for such criteria. The same father can be with someone more stringent, but with someone less. At first, the priests usually try to encourage a beginner, but over time become stricter so that people grow spiritually, they did not relax, did not flow into pride. It is important to understand that the confessor for you is not a dictator and not a lasculator, but a more experienced older brother. You have a joint spiritual work, and you must have complete mutual understanding.
When asking advice
- Do I need to ask the confessor of the Council and blessings for anything?
- Not for anything, but in mentally difficult situations for you. Sometimes people confuse the confessor and the spiritual father. These are different concepts. The spiritual father is a concept of monastic practice. When he is tested, a person gives any obedience and continually confesses spiritual Father Not only your sinful things, but even thoughts. But if you are not a monk, this is not necessary. You do not need to go to the priest every day and confess the thoughts. No need to try to copy the monastery life and for anyone to go to the father for the blessing. You have enough to have a confessor and contact him as needed.
- That is, there is no talk about complete cut-off? And there are questions with whom you should not turn to the conf desk?
- It is necessary to soberly understand that the priest is not an oracle, not clear. He cannot know everything in advance and for you to determine your further life. Whatever fertile did not have a father, he can only advise, and the decision remains yours. Some people under the guise of special humility are trying to shift all responsibility for their actions. This is mistake. Ask, for example, to which institution to do, in which company it is to work, whether to take a loan in the bank, what to buy a car where to go on vacation, that give birth to a birthday. Similar questions are still better to solve themselves. Priest, of course, can give lowish CouncilBut to the spiritual sphere it is usually no relation to the relationship.
What can not be compromises
- Do you always need to obey the confessor?
- If I fulfill the advice of the priest, does this mean that I do not bear spiritual responsibility for my actions?
- You are listening to the council, but you stay with a free person. No one, even the Lord God, does not take away your will, and you are responsible for your decisions.
Do not worship the father
- In our mail there are anonymous letters from women who are recognized in special attachment to the confessors. The beneficial, cultural, emotionally sensitive priest sometimes becomes the object of hot feelings. This is normal?
- No, this worship should be protected. It is known: any shepherd must bring people not to themselves, but to God. Often, the favorite father causes positive emotions. He is trying to please, pamper, communicate with him becomes pleasure. And if he reduces the distance, then among the parishioners there may be overheads, invisible competition, the struggle for influence, jealousy ... all this should be avoided. The exaltated relationship can be a temptation for the very father. And the enthusiastic worship often passes in his opposite: first the confessor is raised to heaven, and then disappointment and condemnation follow.
- What to do a woman who is especially attached to the father, sees a male ideal in it?
"She better leave this temple and stopped video with his" male ideal ", otherwise there will be a pernicious substitution: instead of spiritual work there will be a soul-carnal passion. In such cases, it is necessary to decisively cut off the temptation.
Monopolies on spiritual tips no
- Is it possible to contact a believer not only to the confessor, but also to other experienced priests?
- Sure. No shepherd has a monopoly on spiritual advice, he is not the "owner of the soul", and your assistant. But sometimes there is a situation when a person has already accepted some kind of solution convenient for himself and seeks to be blessed. And his confessor against. And then the believer goes for approval to others, looking for more "stopped" shepherds. It is unlikely that it can be called a spiritual solution to the problem.
- Can a believer change his confessor? How to do it?
- Looking in circumstances. It happens, a man moves to another city or to another country. This is one option, and there are no special difficulties here: they continue to communicate by phone, on the Internet, but without confession. And it happens that there is a disappointment in the confessor, distrust of it. And then it is better to approach the priest and ask his advice. He can't bind you to him, say: "I will not let!", But it can advise you with another temple or that father, which will be closer for you by emotional warehouse.
