The Significance of the Mysteries

I recommend confessing two or three times per week. You do not need to prepare for it in any way. Say you have committed such and such a sin, God forbid. Well, come and repent of it. That's it. It is very easy to live in such manner. Here, I struggle in the absence of another priest; I do not go to Confession very often, and that is something that is actually quite unpleasant. When I was serving in other places, I had it good, but now I have to go somewhere else for Confession, and don't have the time to do so. People go to Confession beginning at age seven.

During Holy Unction, pray that the Lord restore your reason, for quite often after Holy Unction, forgotten sins are brought to mind. By the way, in the Holy Unction prayers, nothing is said about forgiving forgotten sins, so there is no point in harboring any delusions on that score.

-- Then why is it necessary?
For the healing of the body.

-- And how does Holy Unction differ from Confession and Communion?
In Confession, sins are forgiven, and in Communion, you are united with Christ. Holy Unction is administered specifically for the healing of the body or for the healing of spiritual illnesses, for example depression, associated with disturbance of bodily functioning. That is why Holy Unction is necessary.

However, open up the Sacred Scriptures, and read the General Epistle of the Apostle St. James, where nothing is mentioned about forgiving forgotten sins. In what sense are sins absolved? The consequences of sins are diseases. Those consequences, those punishments for sin, are removed through Holy Unction. I remember that in Seminary, I made a special effort to look through all of the Fathers of the Church who had written about Unction; I could find not a single mention of forgiving forgotten sins in any of their works. The consequences of sins are purged, but nothing is said about actual forgiving forgotten sins. The fact that sins are remembered is well known. Certainly, you remember that after receiving Holy Unction, something forgotten, something that happened long, long, ago, is brought to mind. That something is the effect of having experienced Holy Unction. The mind has been restored, so that one might repent of sin, might regret having committed it, and so that the Lord might cleanse him.

If you remember the life of Blessed Theodora, you know that upon finding herself in the world beyond the grave, she saw that she held a certain kind of gold, certain prayers. She was helped by the prayers of her spiritual father, Venerable St. Basil the New. Accordingly, we have to remember here that prayers help a great deal - both the prayers of the righteous, and those of ordinary people. Actually, why ask for prayers? Prayer helps one to be cleansed. The essence of prayer actually lies in the fact that the habit of sinning is purged. Of course it is even better to strive not to sin. Teach yourself to go to Confession more and more often. If you have committed some sin, immediately ask God for forgiveness, and do not attempt to justify the sin.

Remember that if you have no opportunity to go to Confession, the Lord can forgive sins even in the absence of a Confession. We know of cases in which the Lord Himself would cleanse someone. After all, he did not deny Himself the right to forgive sin. Is that not so? I could cite the example of a person who constantly fell into fornication, and always went to church immediately afterwards to repent. It once happened that he fell into sin, and while on the way to church to repent, he died. The devil wanted to take him away, but the Lord said, "The time of death is within my power, but repentance is within his. He was on his way to Me to repent, and for that reason, I am welcoming him."

I am not saying that you should justify a lecherous way of life, but that you need to get into the habit of repenting of sins. As soon as you stray, ask forgiveness. That is why the Church established the custom of confessing sins in the evening. Don't let it be simply a recitation of a list of sins, what some call "mouse-trapping." Although catching mice is dealing with an accumulation of clutter, confession should be of those actual sins which you have committed over the course of that day.

People ascend to the Heavens at varying rates. There are no absolute rules. For example, Makarios the Great ascended into Heaven in several minutes, while, in an attempt to evoke vanity in him, the demons cried out, "Makarios, you have defeated us." Makarios responded, "Not yet." He rose higher, and the demons once again cried out, "You have defeated us; see how powerful you are." He responded, "Not yet." Then, when already standing at the gates of Paradise, he said, "Yes, I have defeated you, through the power of Jesus Christ."

What do you do if you should be dying without a priest at your side? You should write down your sins on a piece of paper, and ask someone to give the list to a priest. He is sure to read the prayer of absolution and forgive those sins, for he retains the power to bind and loose. Likewise, priests keep their power, remaining priests after death. Did you know that? Accordingly, it is very important to know what to do if there is no priest nearby. At the same time, you also need to ask God to forgive those sins.