Greetings and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ! This page is a presentation of the Eastern Catholic practice of what the Roman Catholic Church calls “The Sacrament of Reconciliation.”
As we begin, let us remember that we are in the presence of God.
Let us pray: O Lord of Powers, be with us, for in the time of trouble we have no other help but You. O Lord, God of Powers, have mercy on us. Amen.
Why is it important for Roman Catholics to study the Eastern Catholic Church’s practice of this Sacrament? (And for the primary readership of this blog– seminarians in St. Louis, Missouri– why must future Roman Catholic priests understand better the East?)
1) they are our Catholic brothers and sisters. We should know about our family.
2) There are three Eastern Catholic Churches in St. Louis (not to mention the other dioceses represented in this seminary). In St. Louis, these three are the Maronites, the Ukrainians, and the Byzantines.
3) So many of the Eastern Catholics, many of whose church is not in St. Louis, find themselves going to a Roman Catholic Church. We must be aware of this and become more sensitive to their needs (some grew up in the Eastern tradition, while some are Eastern in name only).
“… Vatican II said that ‘Provision must be made therefore everywhere in the world to protect and advance all these individual churches’” (OE §4, cit in (NCCB, p. 29, Eastern Catholics in the United States of America [ECUSA])
“Because of religious persecution, war and civil disorders, the twentieth century has witnessed an unprecedented emigration of Eastern Catholics from the lands of their origins. the resulting situation is that the Eastern Churches have become everywhere a minority group, struggling to maintain their apostolic faith and traditions. … In the land of the ‘diaspora’ they are cultural and ecclesial minorities, stuggling to maintain their identity”(The New Latin code of Canon Law and Eastern Catholics (CCEC); cit in ECUSA p. 7)
“In his apostolic letter Orientale Lumen [OL] of May 2, 1995, Pope John Paul II said that a “conversion is … required of the Latin Church, that she may respect and fully appreciate the dignity of Eastern Christians, and accept gratefully the spiritual treasures of which the Eastern Catholic Churches are the bearers, to the benefit of the entire catholic Communion” (§21). The pope called upon the Latin Church to “show concretely , far more than in the past, how much she esteems and admires the Christian East and how essential she considers its contribution to the full realization of the Church’s universality” (ibid)” (ECUSA, p. 5).
“Hence it is not merely a question of the preservation of the Eastern Churches just for their own sake. The traditions and spiritual riches are not the exclusive possession of the Eastern Churches, for they form part of the patrimony of the entire Church of Christ. The sharing of the riches of the faith and traditions of the East nurtures and strengthens the unity in diversity of the Church.” (ECUSA, pp.5-6).
“These elements are capable of giving a more complete Christian response to the expectations of the men and women of today. Indeed, the comparison to any other culture, the Christian East has a unique and privileged role as the original setting where the Church was born” (OL §5).
“Where in the West there are no Eastern priests to look after the faithful of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Latin Ordinaries and their co-workers [that’s us] should see that those faithful grow in the awareness and knowledge of their own tradition, and they should be invited to co-operate actively in the growth of the Christian community by making their own particular contribution” (JPII, OL; quoted on p. 23 in ECUSA).
“Catholics may receive absolution from any priest belonging to either the Latin or the Eastern Churches provided he has the faculty to administer the Holy Mystery of Penance. However, priests of the Latin Church hearing the confession of members of Eastern Churches should exercise particular care, as the perception of failing towards God and one’s neighbor is deeply formed, and expressed, in terms drawn from one’s own liturgical and religious experience.” (NCCB, ECUSA, p. 29)
Priests of the Latin Church need to be aware that the automatic penalties in the law of the Latin Church are not found in that of the Eastern Churches. On the other hand, the practice of “reserved sins” is still retained in the Eastern Churches.
The history of the Eastern Catholic Church is very beautiful, but it is also complex. For the purposes of this project, it is helpful to know the origins and the names of the churches. This graph will be of great help. (click image for larger size)
(taken from Light of the East: A Guide to Eastern Catholicism for Western Catholics. George Appleyard. p. 55)
The sacraments in the East are understood in ways that differ from the Roman Catholic Church.
“These sacraments are understood less as isolated acts through which a ‘particular’ grace is bestowed upon individuals by properly appointed ministers acting with proper intention, and more as the aspects of a unique mystery of the Church, in which God shares his divine life with humanity.”[1]
Particularly, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, emphasis is placed upon the healing power of Christ. The prayers of absolution, as we have seen, highlight the power of Christ through the priest– the emphasis is on Christ who absolves: “We go to the priest as to a physician who has received the power of healing in the name of the Lord, as pointed out by the Council of Intrullo (692): ‘Those who have received the power to bind sins or retain them should behave like careful physicians who find the healing remedy for each individual penitent and his particular sins.’” Thus, the absolution formulas in the East are often called “deprecative,” that is, “formulas which beg the Lord to give pardon, but which make no express mention of the ministerial action of the priest” (Chapungco, p. 106). Nevertheless, these formulas do absolve the penitent from sins and have always been considered to do so (Chapungco, p. 107).
This is a departure from the Roman Catholic understanding which highlights the importance of the priest in the act of absolution: “I absolve you…” Interestingly, as many Eastern Churches entered into communion with Rome, they often incorporated this Roman understanding, thus using two prayers of absolution in the sacrament.
(Perhaps this element of Eastern sacramental theology can shed light on the Roman’s current Book of Blessings).
But, to add not one more bit of clarity to the matter, in the Syriac tradition, Christians “do not particularly distinguish between the formulas of absolution and the prayers that accompany them” (Chapungco, 107).
It is also important to note that “In Byzantine theology, there is no actual listing of “mortal” and “venial” sins. The prayers of the Sacrament of Penance seek a general forgiveness of sin “deliberate and indeliberate, committed by word and deed, by day or night….”
“Confession is regarded as an extension of the holy waters of baptism. Hence it is sometimes called the “second baptism.” (Byzantine Daily Worship, p. 927).
In order to understand better the theology behind the sacrament, we should look also at the history of the sacrament.
“During the first five centuries of the Christian era, Syriac and Byzantine Christianity would have come to possess the apostolic canons and constitutions, as well as the canons of the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople, and of the Synods of Neocaesarea, Gangre, Laodicea, and Antioch… Later the discipline of penance would become quite varied, eventually declining and even falling prey to abuses among the Jacobites and Nestorians.” (Chapungco, p. 105)
“East and West began to diverge as the West began to include more and more acts in its catalogue of offenses that required the intervention of the Church’s authorities. For its part, the East left it more and more to spiritual directors and holy people to help to heal the sinfulness of those who had recourse to them. The great theologian and bishop Saint Symeon of Thessalonica (died 1022) went so far as to remove the hearing of confessions from the work of the clergy and entrusted it exclusively to the ministry of the monastics—lay monastics at that! This divergence points to two very different attitudes between the two Churches. …
“The east tends to use a medical model for the sacrament. That is, a spiritual guide discerns spirits, the way a physician would examine symptoms, and prescribes remedies for the spiritual illness if needed. Generally in the East the ministry of reconciliation is entrusted to those who prove themselves skilled at it. Priestly ordination alone does not necessarily qualify one to perform this ministry in some Easter Churches. [comment: the same is true in the West]
… “When penance was no longer a lengthy public matter, the Western Church took the concept [of indulgences] and applied it to the residual punishment due to sin that an individual might face after death. The Byzantine Church simply discarded references to indulgences in its penitential practices.” (Appleyard, pp. 22-23)
It is interesting to point out that, in Russia:
“At diocesan conferences after the first [Russian] revolution of 1905, in several places the clergy resolved ‘to abolish private confession and replace it with general confession…. This amounts to abolishing the Orthodox Faith, since without confession the attitude toward religions life as a constant inner struggle is lost, and it is precisely this which distinguishes our faith from the Lutheran and Stundist heresies [Stundists were the forerunners of the Russian Baptists].” (Confession, p. 13)
In the Roman Catholic Church, there are many names for this sacrament: the Sacrament of Penance, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Sacrament of Confession, etc.
In the Eastern Catholic Church, there are many names for this sacrament as well. The Greeks, Russians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, and Melkites– to name a few– call the sacrament “The Mystery of Forgiveness.” (You will also note that each of these churches are Byzantine). Other titles for this sacrament include: The Order of Penance, The Ceremony of Forgiveness, The Sacrament of Confession, and Second Baptism.
These names are not regulated and, in many cases, are the result of historical development (for example, you may note that some of the names match those used in the Roman Catholic Church) or theological emphasis (as in the case of the name “Second Baptism”).
As mentioned in the Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches (1990), the place of the sacrament is ordinarily to take place within in the church and according to the law of the particular church.
For most of the Byzantine churches, the sacrament takes place before the iconostasis. What is an iconostasis? (click on the image below for a larger size)
The Iconostasis is what sets apart the sanctuary from the rest of the parish church. During the sacrament, you would stand before the Icon of Jesus Christ, facing (with the priest) the icon itself.
In other Eastern churches– for example, in the Maronite rite — the sacrament does not take place before the iconostasis, but rather it takes place in a confessional. This is very Roman and is the result of that Eastern church’s assimilation of Roman practice. (Chupungco says that none of the Eastern Churches use the Roman confessional, but the experience of persons who attend a local Maronite church disprove that).
The celebration of the sacrament takes various forms, depending upon which church you attend. Individual rites often vary according to the degree of assimilation of Roman practices. For example, the Maronite church– which never separated from Rome– uses the “Tridentine” rite.
The Byzantine churches– those that have been re-united with Rome– often incorporate traditionally Roman elements in their prayers and customs, but not always. For example, some use the Roman form of absolution, others do not; some use confessionals, many do not. Unfortunately, many Eastern Catholic Churches have been so decimated by wars and exile that many rites are not easily found except through attendance at the particular church or through ancient texts which may no longer be used in daily practice.
Here, we provide two examples of the individual rite of confession as seen in the Byzantine churches. The first example is more Eastern whereas the second is more Roman.
The Administration of Confession (from “The Offices of the Oriental Church” ed by Nicholas Bjerring; Ams Press, New York, 1969; pp. 104-108)
The priest leads each penitent alone, not two or more at once, with uncovered head before the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, and begins: Blessed be our God always, now and ever, and to age of ages Amen. Glory be to Thee, O our God, Glory be to Thee.
Heavenly King, Comforter, etc. Then the Trisagion: O Holy God, etc. After: Our Father, etc., Lord have mercy. Glory be to the Father, etc.
Then: Come, let us worship before the King, our God. Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ, the King, our God. Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and God.
Psalm 50(51): Have mercy upon me, God,…
Troparion: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us; we sinners, who have no excuse, bring to Thee, as our Master, this prayer: Have mercy upon us.
Glory be to the Father, etc.
Then: Lord, have mercy upon us, and thing not of our misdeeds; but look down as the Gracious One also now, and deliver us from our enemies; for Thou art our god, and we are They people; we all are the work of Thy hands, and we call upon Thy Name. Now and ever, etc.
Open to us the gates of mercy, thou blessed Mother of God, so that we, who hope in thee, may not perish, but may be freed by thee from every misery; for thou art the salvation of the Christian race.
Lord, have mercy.
First Prayer: Let us pray to the Lord. O God, our Saviour, who, by Thy prophet, Nathan, didst grant forgiveness to David, when he repented of his sins, and didst accept the prayer of penitence from Manasseh, receive also this They servant (handmaids), N., repenting of his (her) sins, according to Thy wonted kindness, and overlook all that he (she) hath done, forgiving his (her) fault, and passing over his (her) transgressions. for Thou hast said, O Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live; also Thou has said that we should forgive offenses seventy times seven. For as They greatness is without equal, so also boundless is Thy grace. If Thou should be extreme to mark iniquities, who shall stand? Thou art a God of the penitents, and to Thee, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we offer up praise and glory, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
Second Prayer: Let us pray to the Lord. O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, shepherd and Lamb, Who hast born the sins of the world, Who didst remit the debt to the two debtors , and Who didst bestow the forgiveness of her sins on the sinful woman: do Thou, O Master, remit, forgive, and pardon the sins, misdeeds, and errors, both voluntary and involuntary, known and unknown, which have been done in commission and omission by these Thy servants. And if they, as men who walk in the flesh and dwell in the world, have been led astray by the devil, whether they have sinned in knowledge or ignorance, or have despised the priestly word, or have fallen under the priestly ban, or a curse of their own, or have bound themselves by an oath: vouchsafe Thyself, as the good Master, in Whom is no evil, to loose these They servants by the Word, and to forgive them their own curse and oath according to Thy great mercy. Yea, gracious Lord and Master, hearken unto us, who implore for these They servants Thy grace, and forgive them as the gracious One all their errors, and remove them from the eternal torments; for Thou, O Master, hast said: Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven. For Thou only art without sin, and to Thee, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we offer up praise and glory; no and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
The Exhortation to the Penitent: Behold, my child, here stands Christ invisible, and He receives thy prayer of penitence: so be not ashamed and fear not, conceal also nothing from me; be not afraid, but tell me all that thou hast done, so that thou mayest obtain forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, before us is also His holy image, and I am only a witness, so that I can testify all that thou wilt say to me; therefore, if thou concealest anything thy sin shall be double. Consider wherefore thou hast entered this place of healing, so that thou mayest not go hence unhealed.
After this the Priest proposes to the penitent the questions, one after another, pausing a little after each, until the answer follows. After he has proposed the questions, which concern faith and morals, according to the difference of rank and sex and age of the penitent, and received the answers, he says: From all these sins must thou henceforth abstain, since thou hast received a second baptism according to this Christian mystery. so make now, with God’s help, a good beginning, and do not imprudently return to thy former sins, so as to become a derision to men, for this is not becoming to a Christian; but he should live honorably, and righteously, and godly, and to this God help thee with his grace.
When the confessor has said all this, and again examined the penitent, and the latter has disclosed all that is within him without concealment, he says to him: Bow thyself.
The penitent bows his head, and the confessor prays:
The Final Prayer:
Let us pray to the Lord. O Lord and god of the salvation of Thy servants, gracious, and merciful, and long-suffering, Who art grieved at our misdeeds, Who desirest not the death of the sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live, have mercy now upon Thy servant (handmaid) N.; grant him (her) true penitence, and the pardon and forgiveness of sins; remit to him (her) all transgressions, both voluntary and involuntary; reconcile and unite him (her) with Thy Holy Church through Jesus Christ Our Lord, with Whom be power and glory ascribed unto Thee, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
At the conclusion of the holy sacrament of confession, the Priest pronounces over the kneeling penitent the absolution:
Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, forgive thee, my child, N., by the grace and mercy of His kindness, all thy transgressions; and through the power granted unto me, I also, unworthy priest, forgive thee and absolve thee from all thy sins, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
At the close the Priest signs with his right hand the penitent with the sign of the cross. Then he says: It is indeed right to call thee blessed, etc.
After this the benediction, etc.
Historically, it has occurred that, sometimes the order of the prayers (namely, the First, Second, and Final) are reversed. (Chapungco, p. 106)
EXAMPLE #2:
An example of a particularly Roman use in the Byzantine church (According to the Byzantine Daily Worship book (pp. 931-932))
An examination of conscience and act of contrition precedes reception of the sacrament.
The penitent kneels in the proper place, blesses himself, and says: “Bless me, my spiritual Father, for I have sinned.”
It is customary for the priest to answer with the following blessing: “May the grace of the Holy Spirit be in your heart and on your lips, so that you may sincerely confess your sins before God, in the name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
The penitent continues: “It has been (how long) since my last confession. – These are my sins: “
Having briefly exposed his sins, the penitent adds: “For these and for all the sins of which I have ever been guilt I humbly ask pardon of God and absolution of you, my spiritual Father.”
He then listens attentively to whatever the confessor has to say, taking particular note of the penance imposed upon him. Then the priest places his right hand upon the head of the penitent and pronounces the absolution of sins:
“The Lord God through Nathan the Prophet forgave David his sin, and the adulteress weeping at his feet, and Peter shedding bitter tears for his betrayal, and the Publican and the Prodigal Son. May this same Lord and God through me a sinner, forgive you, N., all the sins of your life in this world and in the world to come. And may He make you stand uncondemned at his awesome tribunal for He is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.
And the priest may add the following: [notice the double absolution, this second one being very Roman]
“May our Lord and God Jesus Christ who gave his holy apostles the command to retain or forgive the sins of mankind forgive you, N., from on high all your sins. I, his unworthy servant, who have received from these apostles the mandate to do the same, absolve you from all the sins of your life in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the priest may add: “Go in peace and do not be disturbed by the evil you have done.”
You will note that the two forms differ dramatically in length and in content. In fact, in the first form, the prayers which the second form uses for the absolution actually come prior to the absolution used.
It appears that many Eastern churches use variations of the first form, and most of those quite shorter than the full text provided here. For example, in one Greek church, the following directions are given to a preparing penitent:
At the appointed time you will meet the priest at the place of confession – in front of an icon, in a special room, wherever it is appropriate. The priest will begin the Service of Holy Confession with some petitions and prayers for the blessing and healing of your soul. You will then share your confession. This may also involve some spiritual counseling with the priest.
When you are finished, the priest will typically ask you to kneel. He will then place the Epetrahelion (the long sash around his neck) over your head and read the prayers of absolution. … Once these prayers are completed the Service of Holy Confession is concluded and you are free to go.
When there are many penitents, the prayers of the first form provided above are said by the priest only once and before all the people– then confessions are heard individually. There seems to be no evidence of the existence of a rite of general absolution as would be found in the Roman church.
There is, however, a “general confession” which is often said in some Eastern churches. Instead of listing sins by quality and number, individually, the following prayer– which begins much like the Roman church’s “Act of Contrition– is said. Interesting, the option for listing sins individually is provided, but not required.
“I confess to the Lord my God and before you my Spiritual Father, all my innumerable sins which I have, until today, committed in word, deed and thought. Every day and every hour I sin ungratefully towards the Lord Who gives me, the sinner, His great and infinite blessings through His providence.
My sins are the following: Vain words, criticism of others, disobedience, pride, unmercifulness, envy, spite, jealousy, anger, slander, inattention, neglect for my salvation, carelessness, inconsiderateness, impertinence, irritability, hopelessness, revenge, hard heartedness, contradiction. I complain too much, I am self-righteous, I harm my neighbor, I speak with contempt, I lie, I make fun of my neighbor, I am scandalous, I am egotistical, ambitious, gluttonous, vain, idle. I have evil thoughts, I am greedy, I look at or read immoral photographs, periodicals and books, I am negligent during Church services, I lack concentration during prayer at Church and home.
Generally, I have sinned through words, deeds, thoughts, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and with all these feelings, bodily and of the soul.
I repent of all my sins and I ask for forgiveness from my Lord and my God.
(Here the penitent can state other sins that exist in his soul.)
Also, I repent and ask forgiveness for sins which I possibly forgot and did not mention during my confession.
I ask you, please, my spiritual Father, to forgive and release me of all my sins and give me your blessings to partake in Christ’s Holy and Life-giving Mysteries, to the renunciation of sin and the receiving of life-everlasting.”
AN EXAMPLE OF THE SYRIAC TRADITION (from the 12th century)
“… confession [should] be heard while seated at the door of the church. The penitent should present himself with head uncovered, hands joined, eyes downcast, and kneel at the priest’s right for the confession. After having heard the confession, the priest says: ‘Keep yourself from repeating these deeds. I pardon you here as does God in heaven, and the deed that you have revealed will not be made manifest again on the day of Judgment, nor will you be condemned on its account.’
“Then the priest recites psalms and the Gloria, a number of ancient prayers, readings, and hymns, adding to them prayers relative to each sin, and lays on hands. When the confession has to do with the sins of the flesh or lies, there is found at this point a reminder of the promise of Christ to the apostles: ‘What you bind on earth… ‘ Finally, he imposes the canonical penance. After the penitent has completed the penance that had been imposed, he must once again present himself to the confessor. The confessor places his hands on the penitent’s head, breathes three times into his face, and says: ‘May this sin be wiped away from your soul and body, in the name of the Father. May you be purified and made holy in the name of the Son. May you be pardoned and reconciled in the name of the Holy Spirit'” (Chapungco, 108).
But for most of the Syrian Eastern Catholics– for example, the Chaldeans, the Malabarese, the Maronites– they “have been inspired by the Roman Ritual” and use an indicative formula (eg: “I absolve you…”)
Confession in the East 