General Confession of Sins, Pronounced by a Penitent before a Priest

By St. Dimitri of Rostov

 

I confess to the Lord God Almighty, glorified and worshipped in Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to the most blessed Ever-Virgin Theotokos Mary, and to all the saints, and to you, honorable father, what I have done in all my sins, by thought, word, deed, and all my senses,1 for I was conceived in sins, I was born in sins, I was raised in sins, and I have dwelt in sins after baptism, even up to this very hour. I confess also that I have sinned in extreme manner by pride, vainglory, haughtiness with eyes and also with clothes and all my deeds, envy, hatred, desire for honors, and also by avarice, wrath, sorrow, laziness, stuffing the belly, sodomite lust, desecration, unrighteous cursing, adultery, theft, robbery, every type of fornication, most exceedingly shameful impurities, drunkenness, gluttony, lazy babbling, fleshly lust, impure kissing and touching even with my child-bearing members, the mental desire to murder; with respect to faith, hope, and love by always receiving the body and blood of the Lord unworthily; by violent exhortations and deception, ignorance, neglect, transgressing in gifts given and received, practice of usury, stewarding church property in an evil manner, insufficient giving of alms, hardness toward the poor, in insufficiently welcoming and giving hospitality to the lowly, stinginess toward the orphans entrusted to me, not visiting the sick and those in prison in accordance with the evangelical commandment, not burying the dead, not clothing the poor, not feeding the hungry, and not giving drink to the thirsty; by not rendering due veneration, honor, and celebration to feast days, both those of the Lord and of those saints who have pleased him, and by not remaining pure and sober on them; by agreeing to do evil against the one in charge and not being helpful before him; by not comforting those who ask and even harming them; by blaspheming and cursing elders and superiors, not keeping trust with my friends and benefactors, not fulfilling my given obedience, looking with impure conscience on bestial and animal intercourse; proud entrance into the church of God, standing, sitting, lying down, and going out of it inappropriately; carefree conversations in it, lawless activities, defiled conversations with others; touching the sacred vessels and the holy service with impure heart and defiled hands, and by performing the prayers, psalmody, and calling upon God indifferently in the church of God; by most exceedingly evil intention, meditation, and depraved teaching, lying opinion, senseless judgment, evil concord and unrighteous counsel, defiled enjoyment and delight, in free, excessive, impure, and vexing words, in lying, in enticements, in various curses, in unceasing slanders, stirring up quarrels and dissensions and laughing at others, in carefree mockery, in debates, in deceit, in wickedness, in whispering, in vain and futile joy and in all evil; complaining, blasphemy, joking, causing laughter, oversleeping, evil talk, reproach, defiled speech, insults, hypocrisy, keeping vigil against God [1], bodily lust, prodigal thoughts, impure delights, concord with the devil, breaking God’s commandments, neglect in offering love both for God and neighbor, by lustful and impure sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. I have perished in all my thoughts, words, will, and deeds. Inasmuch as in these and other lawless acts, by all those things by which only human infirmity can sin against its God and Creator in intention, word, deed, or pleasure, or enjoyment—in all this have I sinned—I consider myself guilty before the face of God more than all people, and I acknowledge and confess this and all my other numberless sins that I have committed, whether voluntary or involuntary, in knowledge or ignorance, myself with myself or through others, or by tempting my brother, and those which, on account of their multitude, I can neither know, nor remember, though what I have remembered, I have said—inasmuch as I repent, regret, and consider myself guilty before the Lord my God—for what has been said and not said, on account of not remembering the multitude of my sins, so do I humbly pray to the most holy and most blessed Virgin Theotokos and all the heavenly powers, and all the saints well-pleasing to God, and to you, honorable father priest, in all of whose presence I have confessed these things, that on the day of judgment you all might be witnesses against the devil, the enemy and adversary of the human race, that I have confessed all of this, and that you may pray for me, a sinner, to the Lord my God. And I ask you, honorable father, as one who have the authority given you by Christ God to absolve those things which have been confessed, to forgive and remit sins, that you absolve me from all these my sins, which I have described before you, cleansing me, forgiving me all these things; and also grant me an epitimia for all my transgressions, for I truly regret my transgression, and I have the will to repent and henceforth to keep myself from these things as much as is possible, with God’s help.

Forgive me, father, absolve me, and pray for me, a sinner. Amen.

And after this you may read a prayer to Christ, crucified for our sake, in order to recall his saving sufferings, undertaken for the sake of our sins, reading which [prayer] a man attains some tenderness, and, as if by some fetter, is held back from transgressions, with a view toward correction and succeeding in a life pleasing to God.

 

[1] “Keeping vigil against God”: The reversing of daytime and nighttime activities in opposition to the God-established order.

Source: Jesus Crucified: The Baroque Spirituality of St. Dimitri of Rostov, by John Mikitish, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2017, pp. 149-151.