I make my confession to God. the Father Almighty, and to His beloved Son, Jesus Chist, and to the Holy Spirit

Part of preparing for partaking of the Eucharist in the Syriac Orthodox Church is corporately speaking the prayer of confession.1 The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is also called communion. Without this prayer, one should not approach the priest who is holding the paten with the holy gifts. Here are two lines from this prayer2:

I have sinned through all my senses, both inwardly and outwardly, in word, in deed and in thought. My sin is great, very great, and I repent of it most sincerely, purposing not to fall again into the same ever, preferring death rather than embrace sin.

In the Greek Orthodox church of my husband, the prayer of confession sounds in part like this:

I believe, O Lord, and I confess that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, Who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. I believe also that this is truly Thine own pure Body and that this is truly Thine own precious Blood. Therefore, I pray Thee, have mercy upon me, and forgive my transgressions, both voluntary and involuntary, in word and in deed, in knowledge or in ignorance.

I prayed a prayer of confession in the evangelical world as well before partaking of the Lord’s Supper, which here is entirely viewed as a memorial meal, not the Body and Blood of Christ, of course. But the prayer was there. Yet, in retrospect, it was almost always a call to introspection of what I had done wrong. And I had to trust that God forgives me. Well, wait. He had already when I turned to Him in faith and prayed that prayer initially. I was recently chastised by a friend for making Protestantism sound too simplistic, but in all fairness, I encountered exactly this in many places of church life.

Back to the topic at hand. I never felt that there was a sort of “release” before I partook of the Lord’s Supper. Fast-forward to the Orthodox world, and when I have said that prayer after an hour of listening to psalms, litanies, the Gospel and epistle readings, my heart and soul are ready for that prayer of confession. And while the priest in my husband’s Greek Orthodox church does not respond directly after the faithful pray, my Syriac Orthodox priest does. In both churches, I feel a release from the burden of my sin. Why?

I have been to confession whenever possible (my Father Confessor is in Germany), and I have prepared my heart throughout the week by praying my prayers as often as humanly possible. Each set of prayers is a fresh reminder of my need for repentance. But why repent?

It is not because I fear God might smite me, but it is because I know He intends to heal me from the horrible sin nature that was originally part of me. With Adam's fall, this sin nature has been passed along to every human being after him. Christ came so that by His death, He could conquer death.

In the faithfulness we show to this good news by being baptized and chrismated, and partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we now have been given this beautiful gift of growing ever more closely to Him and becoming more and more like Him. Death has been defeated. We can live in Him!

Being Orthodox is truly life-giving. Glory to God for all things, including the fact that I am reminded every day of just how wretched a sinner I am, and yet of how much Christ loves me. Repentance is not hard when it is our way of life. Repentance does, however, require our truthfulness to both ourselves and our confessor. And let me just say… some of my sin is u-u-u-u-g-l-y! Yet, as we see above, repentance brings life. Why is that? We serve a God who loves mankind. Glory alleluia!

From the Sutoro of Monday from the Daily Husoye, shared with me by Dayroyo Abrohom from Holy Cross Syriac Orthodox Monastery in Sayednaya, Syria (tawdi!):

Promiyon: Praise... to the good Lord, who has compassion on sinners and takes pleasure in those who repent and turn to Him; to the rich one, who loves the poor who beg from Him and rejoices in those who knock at His door…

Sedro: God, who are the fountain of goodness to those who knock at the door of repentance and beg for the mercy of Your grace; we in our weakness beg and beseech You in penitence; have compassion on us. Lord, in mercy, not in anger, make us turn from error and watch over us. Lord, bind us by Your pure and holy love that we may seek and love and cleave to You alone; and when we have received deliverance from our sins, make us worthy of the crowns of the workers of justice; and there we will offer You praise and thanksgiving, now and always and forever, Amin.

I, for one, am eternally grateful that our repentance leads to life.

1

I wrote about it already here:

A Prayer of Confession Before Partaking of the Eucharist

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Mar 25

Orthodox Christians, whether Oriental or Eastern, typically speak a prayer of confession before partaking of the Eucharist. This is a very important part of the liturgy, as it readies the faithful to partake of the life-giving Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ.