Orthodox prayers before confession

Prayers to help you get ready for confession, from looking back over your sins to finding the courage to say them out loud.

Picture: Alexei Korzukhin, Before Confession, 1877

5 prayers

The night before

Daily confession of sins

I confess to You, O Lord my God and Creator,one God in the Holy Trinity, glorified and worshipped,Father, Son and Holy Spirit,all the sins I have committedall the days of my life, at every hour,now and in the days and nights gone by:

in deed, in word, in thought,by overeating, drunkenness, eating in secret,idle talk, despondency, laziness,arguing, disobedience, slander,judging others, carelessness, self-love,wanting more and more, stealing, lying,dishonest gain, clinging to things I do not need,jealousy, envy, anger,holding grudges, hatred and greed for gain;and by all my senses:sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch;and by all my other sins, of soul and body alike,by which I have angered You, my God and Creator,and wronged my neighbour.

I grieve for these sins.I stand guilty before You, my God,and I want to repent.Only help me, O Lord my God:with tears I humbly ask You.In Your mercy forgive me my past sins,and free me from all the sins I have named before You,for You are good and the Lover of mankind.

Traditional wording, 2011

I confess to Thee, my Lord God and Creator,in one Holy Trinity glorified and worshipped,to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,all my sins which I have committed in all the days of my life,and at every hour, at the present time and in the past, day and night,

by deed, word, thought, gluttony, drunkenness, secret eating, idle talking,despondency, indolence, contradiction, disobedience, slandering,condemning, negligence, self-love, acquisitiveness,extortion, lying, dishonesty, mercenariness,jealousy, envy, anger, remembrance of wrongs, hatred, bribery;and by all my senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch;and by the rest of my sins, of the soul together with the bodily,through which I have angered Thee, my God and Creator,and dealt unjustly with my neighbour.

Sorrowing for these,I stand guilty before Thee, my God,but I have the will to repent.Only help me, O Lord my God,with tears I humbly entreat Thee.Forgive my past sins through Thy compassion,and absolve from all these which I have said in Thy presence,for Thou art good and the Lover of mankind.

It names sins one by one, from idle talk to grudges. Read it slowly to see your own, then add what it leaves out.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with the Jordanville Prayer Book’s English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, Prayer Book, 2011.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

To examine your conscience

Confession of sins (Alcuin)

Plain English only: no traditional English wording is given for this prayer

Blessed is Your name, Lord God of our fathers.Even when You are angry, You show mercy,and in time of trouble You forgive the sinsof those who call on Your name.

To You, Lord, I turn my face;to You I confess all my sins.You know all things before they happen.You know that since my baptismI have scorned Your instructionsand not kept Your commandments.The good I could have done,I left undone through carelessness,and the evil I should not have done,I boldly did.

Through wrong desire I have done much evilin what I have seen, heard, tasted, smelled and touched,in thought, in word and in deed.

What I promised at my holy baptism,before Your angels and saints,I have not kept as I should.I have not fulfilled it, but squandered it,and I have not obeyed Your instructions as I should.By pride and anger, by scorn and neglect,by doing my own will, by grumbling,by running others down and by judging them,I have brought guilt upon myself.

God, You know my foolishness,and my sins are not hidden from You.Look on me as I confess my sins before You,and have mercy on me.Grant that I may truly repent in this life,and in the life to come give me pardon,for You were pleased to say,“I do not want the sinner to die,but to turn back and live.”

Pour out Your mercy on me,and forgive all my sins,the ones my conscience fears,and give me besides what my prayer does not dare to ask.Give me perseverance in good works,so that by Your mercy I may be found worthyto come to the glory of Your kingdom,O Saviour of the world,Who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.

Show the whole prayer

It starts from the promises made at baptism and goes through the senses before it turns to thought, word and deed. Take it a line at a time and note what is yours to confess.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, as printed in Migne’s Patrologia Latina; there is no traditional English translation. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

When you fear you will forget a sin

Prayer for forgotten sins (St Barsanuphius)

Plain English only: no traditional English wording is given for this prayer

Master,since even to forget my sins is a sin,I have sinned in everythingagainst You alone, the One Who knows the heart.

Forgive me everythingin Your love for mankind,for this is how the splendour of Your glory is shown:You do not repay sinners as their sins deserve.

For You are glorified above all for ever. Amen.

St Barsanuphius gave this prayer to a disciple whose sins kept slipping from memory. He told the disciple to leave the account with God, the way someone who cannot read trusts an honest lender to keep track of a debt.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from a Russian translation of Barsanuphius’s Greek, checked against a modern English translation made from the Greek. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Russian

On the way to church

Open to me the doors of repentance

Open to me the doors of repentance, Giver of life,for early in the morning my spirit comesto Your holy temple,bringing the temple of my body,stained all over.

But in Your compassion, make it cleanby Your tender mercy.

Traditional wording, 2011

The doors of repentance do Thou open to me, O Giver of life,for my spirit waketh at dawn toward Thy holy temple,bearing a temple of the body all defiled.

But in Thy compassion, cleanse itby the loving-kindness of Thy mercy.

A short hymn to say as you set out. The singer comes to church early in the morning with a body stained all over, and asks God to open the doors of repentance and make it clean.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, with the Jordanville Prayer Book beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, Prayer Book, 2011.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

For courage to say it

Whose sin is forgiven (Psalm 32)

Blessed is the one whose wrongdoing is forgiven,whose sin is covered.Blessed is the one whose guilt the LORD does not count,and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

When I kept silent, my bones wasted awaythrough my groaning all day long.For day and night Your hand was heavy on me;my strength dried up as in the heat of summer.

I made my sin known to Youand did not cover up my guilt.I said, “I will confess my wrongs to the LORD,”and You forgave the guilt of my sin.

Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to Youwhile You may be found.Surely, when the great waters rush in,they will not reach him.

You are my hiding place;You keep me from trouble;You surround me with songs of deliverance.

Traditional wording, 1611

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,whose sin is covered.Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity,and in whose spirit there is no guile.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed oldthrough my roaring all the day long.For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me:my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.

I acknowledged my sin unto Thee,and mine iniquity have I not hid.I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD;and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Theein a time when Thou mayest be found:surely in the floods of great watersthey shall not come nigh unto him.

Thou art my hiding place;Thou shalt preserve me from trouble;Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.

David kept quiet about his sin until it wore him down. Once he told it to God, he was forgiven (Psalm 32:3-5).

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew (verses 1 to 7), with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

Where it comes from, and the original

Scripture for this

He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

Proverbs 28:13 Whoever hides his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and turns from them finds mercy.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 Come to the throne of grace with confidence, and you will receive mercy and find grace to help you when you need it.

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.”

2 Samuel 12:13 David says, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan answers that the LORD has taken away his sin.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

James 5:16 Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The priest calls confession a place of healing.

²²When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

John 20:22-23 The risen Jesus breathes on His disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit. The sins they forgive are forgiven.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

A psalm for this

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10

The order of confession reads this psalm near its start. David prayed it after the prophet Nathan confronted him.

Psalm 51 Read the whole psalm, with St Athanasius’s advice on when to pray it.

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All prayers

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