Confession Part 1: A General Confession

Lit

This is part 1 of 2 parts on confession. This week we explore the General Confession.

Book References:

1.) For the Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann

2.) Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another by Rowan Williams

3.)The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Quotes:

"Confession takes two forms. According to the one, we give thanks for blessings received; according to the other, we bring to light and examine what we have done wrong. We use the term confession both for the grateful appreciation of the blessings we have received through divine favor, and for the admission of the evil actions of which we are guilty. Both forms produce humility. For he who thanks God for blessings and he who examines himself for his offences are both humbled. The first judges himself unworthy of what he has been given; the second implores forgiveness for his sins."

-St. Maximos the Confessor "Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice" found in the Philokalia Volume 2 pg. 226 #63

"Once a brother committed a sin in Scetis, and the elders assembled and sent for Abba Moses. He, however, did not want to go. Then the priest sent a message to him, saying: Come, everybody is waiting for you. So he finally got up to go. And he took a worn-out basket with holes, filled it with sand, and carried it along. The people who came to meet him said: What is this, Father? Then the old man said: My sins are running out behind me, yet I do not see them. And today I have come to judge the sins of someone else. When they heard this, they said nothing to the brother, and pardoned him."

Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers. Translated and illustrated by Yushi Nomura.

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