Father John Sergiev of Kronstadt’s Instruction for the Mystery of Confession

1. «I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.» (Lk 15:7).

2. «Even the righteous are prone to stumble into sin, but to remain in sin is already the mark of a soul gone dead. God accepts repentance in place of keeping His commandments—He reckons sorrow for sin to us as though it were virtue: such is the goodness of God!»

Saint Isaac the Syrian.

3. «Come, then, sinners like me, to Christ the Savior with faith and unfeigned repentance, and He will give you peace. I myself have been overtaken time and again by the ruinous, deadly uprising of the passions, and every time, through repentance from the heart, I have received deliverance from the Lord.»

Fr. John Sergiev.

«That icon is wonderworking, the deeply wise senior hierarch of the Russian Church—a ninety-year-old elder1—once remarked, which has the power to awaken faith in its own wonderworking; the force of that profound saying can be applied to Father John of Kronstadt as well»—so said the late Most Reverend Nikanor, Archbishop of Kherson and Odessa2. Yes, truly the deeds of the Kronstadt pastor are wonderworking; word of them spreads in waves of grace across all Russia, and carries far beyond her borders.

Who does not know of the wonderworking healings of those sick in body or soul—healings worked almost daily through Father John’s prayers? Who has not heard of the marvelous deliverances Father John has won for drunkards from their vicious, ruinous passion? Who, finally, is unaware of the beneficial, life-giving power of all of Father John’s prayers in general? But not everyone has heard of Father John’s general confession, and still fewer have felt for themselves the plainly wonderworking power of that confession, which takes hold of the whole being of those confessing, pierces their sin-darkened souls like a warm ray of sunlight, and softens hearts that will not repent. And what a moving, touching sight it is, when hundreds of penitents, with loud weeping or quiet, peace-bringing tears, cry out to the Almighty for forgiveness—cry out to the sound of the God-inspired words of a good pastor, on whose sorrowful eyes shine pure, sincere tears for the sins of wayward sinners, for the weakness of the flesh. It is no wonder, then, that those who have once been present at Father John’s general confession, or heard of it from friends and acquaintances, express the wish—as I myself have heard more than once—to have that confession in their own hands; but it has unfortunately never yet appeared in print, and that is why I, to the best of my ability, having gradually written down the words of the confession in church and checked my notes against the copies circulating around Kronstadt, resolved to publish it, so that those who repented at Father John’s general confession might better fix its instructive words not only in their hearts but in their minds as well, and so that everyone, on becoming acquainted with its content, might not lose heart or fall into despair, but believe—believe fervently—that the Lord God, who showed mercy to Kings David and Manasseh for their «grievous» sins against Him, will show mercy to us sinners too, on the condition, of course, of «sincere and deeply heartfelt» repentance.

Sergei Okhotsky.

Sinful men and women who wish to approach the Holy Mysteries, brothers and sisters! Have you prepared yourselves to receive so great a Mystery? Know that I bear a great account before the throne of the Most High if you approach unprepared. Know that you are not confessing to me, but to the Lord Himself, who is invisibly present here, whose Body and Blood are on the altar at this very moment. Listen, then, brothers and sisters, to the prayer.

(The first prayer of repentance is read.)

In this prayer to God the Father, the First Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the All-good, All-holy, Everywhere-present, All-wise, All-creating, Almighty, All-ruling Lord, dread to every creature, the Holy Church entreats the Lord to grant mercy to the repenting sinners, men and women, to forgive their transgressions, every lawless act committed whether through thoughtlessness or through carelessness, willingly or unwillingly, to forgive and have mercy as He once had mercy on the prophet and King David3, who sinned grievously against God. Walking one day on the terrace of his palace, David saw a very beautiful young Hebrew woman bathing, was captivated by her beauty, burned with passion for her, and desired to make her his wife; to this end he sent her husband off to war and ordered his commanders to set him in a place of danger, where he was killed. But the prophet Nathan, sent by God, began strenuously and firmly to reprove King David for his lawlessness, urging him to repent. David at last recognized his grievous sin, began to repent sincerely and fervently before the Lord and to pray, and shed bitter tears over his sin; then the Lord heard the cry of his heart and forgave him his sin. David had possessed the Holy Spirit before his sin, and the Spirit departed from him after he sinned, but when he repented, the Spirit of God dwelt in him again and did not leave him to the end of his days. King David expressed his heartfelt, sincere contrition for his sins in the psalms, in which he thanked and glorified the Lord. He left behind him a book—the Psalter, the most used book in the Orthodox Church—and the well-known Fiftieth Psalm, «Have mercy on me, O God!», stands as a beautiful and irreplaceable pattern of heartfelt repentance. Brothers! King David was a devout man, meek, without malice, wise, and gifted with prophecy—and even he sinned, failing to watch over himself. Oh, how easily a person can sin! One must be watchful over one’s soul, must always keep watch over oneself, and rein in one’s passions.

Another king, Manasseh4, fell away from God and lapsed into idolatry, practiced sorcery and the calling up of spirits—was, in today’s terms, a spiritist5—and taught his own children to do the same. Ungrateful and proud, he despised the people who loved God, while flattering and drawing close to self-loving men like himself. By his lawless deeds he provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord’s patience ran out: during the war of the Jews with the Assyrians, Manasseh was taken captive, his hands and feet were bound in fetters, and a bronze ring was passed through his nostrils; in this shameful state he was led through Babylon and thrown into a dark dungeon, where he was kept for three months. And there, in such grievous captivity, he came to himself, recognized his sins before the Lord and his own nothingness, understood that he was a worm and had nothing to be proud of, because before the Lord all are equal—God made everyone alike, made them out of one dust, and will turn them all back to dust. Manasseh began to pray earnestly, to repent, to weep day and night over his errors; the Lord heard his pleas and forgave him. King Manasseh left behind a prayer of repentance, which is read during Great Lent, at Compline.

In the persons of these two kings, David and Manasseh, who sinned grievously, the Holy Church holds up patterns of sincere and deeply heartfelt repentance. The Lord God is the dread Judge of all the earth. He shows no partiality to anyone: man or woman, boy or girl, king or commoner, master or peasant, general or soldier, rich or poor—before Him all are equal; He looks instead at one’s hope, one’s faith, one’s deeds—He looks at the heart. From people of high standing and education the Lord will require more than from common folk, though He does not let the latter off either, when they sin, drink to excess, or commit adultery. Listen, brothers and sisters, to the second prayer, to Jesus Christ, the Son of God:

(The second prayer of repentance is read.)

In this prayer the Holy Church entreats the Chief Shepherd, the all-merciful One, to forgive our wrongdoings; she prays that He have mercy, deliver us from eternal torment, and forgive our lawless intentions, our thoughts, and our lawless deeds. The Holy Church prays to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world and who is coming with dread glory to judge the living and the dead, to have mercy on us as He had mercy on the two debtors in the Gospel, who had nothing with which to pay their creditors their great debt; as He had mercy on the harlot who washed Christ’s feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. The Lord God saw her true repentance, her desire to make amends for her sins, and let her go in peace. So too will there be forgiveness and deliverance from eternal torment for all who repent. We are given a great deal of time in this life to come to our senses, to grieve, to sorrow, to weep—but people are lazy, unwilling to care for their souls, unwilling to fight the sins that break into their souls like thieves and robbers, unwilling to make war on them and drive them off. The Lord God does everything for those who love Him, while those who insolently thrust away the hand of God do not wish themselves well, and go to their own ruin of their own accord. Without God we cannot exist for a single second: for our life, for the breath and the air we breathe, for the light of the sun, for food and drink, we are indebted entirely to Christ; we owe Him without end, we are His debtors who can never pay Him back. The Lord God is a dread and righteous Judge; He did not spare the fallen angels who rose up in pride against God Himself, but condemned them to eternal torment. We sinners sin every minute and provoke the Lord with our sins. Why, then, this mercy toward us? God the Father sent His beloved Son into the world, who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, suffered for the sins of mankind, lifted from us the curse that had weighed upon us since the fall of the first humans, and gave us blessing in its place. The Lord Jesus Christ, through His suffering on the Cross, delivered us from eternal torment, and in this way satisfied Divine justice and fulfilled all the righteousness of God—and only the Son of God could do this, not a mere man. God the Father gave all authority to judge mankind to Jesus Christ; the Lord Jesus Christ gave that authority to the apostles, and they to the bishops and priests—and so, among them, to me too, John, a sinful priest—to absolve those who repent, to forgive or not to forgive, according to whether they repent sincerely or not. If a person repents sincerely, with contrition of heart, the priest absolves him of his sins; but if a person repents insincerely, without awareness, the priest does not release him from his sins, so that he may come to his senses. So then, to receive forgiveness of sins, one must repent fervently, sincerely, from the heart. What, then, is repentance? Repentance is a gift of God, granted by God for the sake of the merits of His beloved Son, who fulfilled all the righteousness of God. Repentance is a gift given for self-judgment, self-accusation, self-reproach. Repentance is a firm and unwavering resolve to leave one’s former sinful life, to correct oneself, to be renewed, to love the Lord with one’s whole soul, to be reconciled with God and with one’s own conscience. Repentance is a firm hope, a confidence, that the merciful Lord will forgive all our transgressions. Whoever does not repent becomes an enemy of the Church; as rotten twigs or branches fall away from a tree, so unrepentant sinners fall away from the Head of the Church, who is Christ. Christ Himself is the vine, and we are the branches, drawing our life from the sap of that vine. The schismatics perish in their error, the Pashkovites6 perish too, and the Tolstoyans7 perish as well—all of them unrepentant sinners: they perish themselves, and drag others down to ruin with them.

Brothers and sisters, do you repent?

Do you wish to amend your life?

Do you recognize your sins?

Were you too lazy to pray to God? Did you drink to excess? Commit adultery? Deceive others? Break your oaths? Blaspheme? Envy? Scheme? Bear malice? Speak evil of others? Steal?

Yes, you have many, many sins, brothers and sisters—too many to count them all.

(The prayer of absolution is read.)

Volumes I, II, and III, in luxurious bindings by the artist N. N. Karazin; Volumes IV and V in bindings by A. E. Zemtsov.

Volume I includes a portrait of the author.

From the earlier edition—pamphlets included in full in Volume I:

Issue I (179 pp.)—Talks on God the Most Holy Trinity, unbound, postage included…………………………………………………………..50 kopecks.

Issue II (96 pp.)—Talks on the Gospel Beatitudes, unbound, postage included……………………………………………………………………..30 kopecks.

Pamphlets of the new edition, drawn from the book My Life in Christ. Issue I, with a portrait of the author: 1) On the Holy Trinity and on the Persons of the Trinity individually; 2) On God as Creator of the universe, His creative power as shown in the smallest of His creations…………………………10 kopecks.

Issue II: 1) On the House of God; 2) On the Holy Icons and Their Great Importance in the Christian Faith; 3) On Calling upon the Most Holy Mother of God, All the Saints, and the Cross………………………………………………………………………..10 kopecks.

Issue III: 1) On Faith, Its Necessity for the Christian, and the Temptations to Which It Is Exposed from the Enemy; 2) Thoughts on the Objects of Christian Hope……………………………………………………………….10 kopecks.

Issue IV: The Spiritual Union of Christ with the Church in General, and with Each Believer’s Soul Individually…15 kopecks.

NOTE. Volume I contains: 1) talks on God the Most Holy Trinity; 2) talks on the Gospel Beatitudes; 3) sermons and homilies for the feasts of the Lord; and 4) sermons and homilies for the feasts of the Mother of God.

Volume II contains the full yearly cycle of sermons, homilies, and talks for the Sunday days and for Great Lent.

Volume III contains: 1) homilies, sermons, and addresses for the patronal feasts (of Kronstadt’s Cathedral of St. Andrew) and various occasions; 2) sermons for the high state occasions of the Imperial House; 3) various addresses, sermons, and homilies; and 4) the life, sufferings, and miracles of the all-praised holy great-martyr Euphemia.

Volumes IV and V contain excerpts from the diary titled: My Life in Christ, or Moments of Spiritual Sobriety and Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of the Soul’s Correction, and of Rest in God.

Also for sale here: A Sketch of the Life and Work of Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev, by A. A. Zybin, second edition, revised and considerably enlarged. Price 75 kopecks, 1 ruble with postage.

DISTRIBUTION OFFICE:

Kronstadt: Posadskaya St., House No. 27, Apt. 12, care of Ivan Vasilyevich Fidelin.

The Metropolitan of St. Petersburg Isidor—in the world, Yakov Sergeyevich Nikolsky—was born October 1, 1799, and died September 7, 1892.

The Most Reverend Nikanor—in the world, Alexander Ivanovich Brovkovich—was born in 1826 and died December 27, 1890. He is known as an eloquent preacher and writer. Among his works, especially notable is An Examination of the Roman Doctrine of Primacy; for this work Archbishop Nikanor was awarded the degree of Doctor of Theology in 1869. (Note by S.O.)

David, the second king of the people of Israel, prophet and psalmist; son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah, was chosen king after the death of Ish-bosheth, son of Saul. David conquered Jerusalem and, through successful wars, enlarged the kingdom of Israel; in his lifetime he suffered much grief from the rebellions of his sons Absalom and Adonijah. He died at seventy, around 1018 B.C. (Note by S.O.)

Manasseh, king of Judah, son of Hezekiah, succeeded his father in 697 B.C., and was carried into captivity by the Assyrians in 642 B.C. (Note by S.O.)

Spiritist—a follower of spiritism, that is, of the belief in the possibility of communicating with the souls of the dead: formerly through various conjurers (Emanuel Swedenborg) and mesmerists (Justinus Kerner), and in the present day (since 1849, the Fox sisters in America) through mediums, or intermediaries between the mysterious world of spirits and ordinary people, who put questions through the medium and receive, through the same medium, answers supposedly coming from the spirits. (Note by S.O.)

Pashkovites—followers of a sect of a strongly Protestant character, which began with the preaching of Lord Radstock, who arrived in Petersburg in 1874. The Englishman Radstock nowhere met with such enormous success—not in his own homeland, not in Paris, not in Switzerland—as he did with us in Petersburg, chiefly among aristocratic society (Prince Gagarin, General’s wife M. Chertkova, Count M. Korf, and others). The sect took its name from the retired Guards colonel Pashkov, who became an ardent admirer of Radstock and placed himself at the head of the sect. Father John of Kronstadt is known as a mighty opponent of the Pashkovite heresy: «Close by Petersburg itself, on the very road by which the founder of this heresy [Lord Radstock], a pastor arises with a special gift of prayer and healing. This most humble pastor is a living and forceful refuter of the sect’s proud false wisdom»—so said of Father John P. A. Smirnov, rector of the Cathedral of St. Isaac in Petersburg, a remarkable preacher himself.

Tolstoyans—followers of the beliefs of Count L. N. Tolstoy, a brilliant Russian novelist but an unsuccessful and overzealous interpreter of Gospel truths. (Note by S.O.)