/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

Your spiritual father would be the person to ask, but a general guideline to any confession is: total honesty, total ownership of your sins, and total humility. And don't forget God's love for you and His mercy towards the brokenhearted.

God be with you, friend.

I always add at the end something like: "for these sins and the sins of all my life, I ask forgiveness"

Idk if that's valid tbh, but my priest has never brought it up.

I had to do this in november. Google "Orthodox Examination of Conscience" and see what they tell you. Basically what I do is go through the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes and write out how I've sinned' ex "I've lied countless times"; "I have had lewd thoughts regarding women on many occasions"; "I have fought with people, physically and verbally" etc etc etc. Just spend some time thinking about it and at the end say something like "For all these and the countless sins I have forgotten, I beg forgiveness."

Another good thing to mention is to make sure you mention the sins that trouble you the most. God values the confessions of your most shameful and secret sins above all the rest.

Also, don't be so explicit. Confessing to "I chronically masturbate 5 times per day" can be less lewd with "I have committed many immoral sexual acts while alone".

>>617381

Our act of contrition has "for all those I have forgotten" at the end. Confession is simple: If someone said, "you know what you did," the things that come to mind are what you need to confess. Use the 10 commandments and 7 deadly sins as a rubric.

>>617381

Personally I did the same only a few years ago and I still remember the sins I forgot to confess, have to clean my soul about once a week. As long as you do what other anons said you should be good. God bless!

>>617392

>the things that come to mind are what you need to confess. Use the 10 commandments and 7 deadly sins as a rubric.

This is your best advice OP. This is what I did when I came to the Church 2 years ago.

Confess all the sins you can think of under the 7 sins, theft, covetting, slander, masturbation, fornication, any other sexual act like blowjobs, drug use, etc.

Then at the end include and all other sins that I have committed but do not come to mind right now, not for lack of wishing to confess. Or something to that affect.

>>617381

Confess every sin you have committed since your baptism.

Pray for the holy spirit to guide you. Compare against the ten commandments and deadly sins.Catechism has a good comprehends break down of sins.

Do it and be at peace knowing your sins don't exist anymore

Man I can’t wait to have my first confession, get baptized and have communion. Church is awesome!!!!!

OP here, it went well. We met up at his house, confession lasted a lot of time like 40min then he invited me to eat dinner with his family. I talked a lot and a lot and it didn't seem like I exhausted even 10% of all my sins. He offered me good advice on humility.