Am I a Sinner?
What is Sin?
•
a(martiða - Amartia Missing the Mark
• Made in the image and likeness of God • Called to be perfect like our Father who is in Heaven
Which do we most want to avoid? • Disease • Poverty • Death • Sin
• The Apostles were poor. • Disease endured with humility, faith and patience will brings you closer to God. • Death does not frighten a believer - it is the door to God’s kingdom and eternal life. • Sin is deadly sickness of the soul - Makes this life and eternal life bitter. • causes discord in families, quarrels among neighbors and relatives. • Makes soul proud and allows envy to poison the heart. • Separates us from God • Sin is the most dire .
What Do You Do When You are Sick?
Long Life
Equipment & Procedures Hospital Physicians Scientific Knowledge and Knowhow
What do you do when you Sin?
Union with God
SOULS
Sacraments Ascetic practices
The Body of Christ
Clergy Scripture and Church Tradition
But Am I a Sinner? • Why is it we find so much difficulty in the world? • Crime, greed, lust, murder, war, hatred, envy...... • Why cant we get along with each other with love? • Do we try to hide our sins and hide from God like
Adam? Do we fool others in this way? Do they fool you?
• What if we could see the sinful nature of all mankind like God can?
• Are you any different than the rest of them? • Reality is we all sin in violation of God’s
commandments. This is why there is so much difficulty in the world.
Reality check • We are morally dulled, indifferent, hardened. • We underestimate our true situation - We do not think we are doing anything morally wrong.
• We are all in danger of salvation. • We need to know our sinfulness and deal with it.
How Do I Uncover My Sinful Tendencies? • Introspection • Discover the patterns in your life that go against the teachings of God.
• Confess and seek forgiveness. • More than cleansing. • Metanoia (μετάνοια) - Repentance Change of mind
How To Know Your Sins A. Recall all your obligations in relation to God, your neighbor and to yourself. B. Go through the Ten Commandments. (Questions in manual or online or red prayer book) C. Review the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). E. Read the Epistle of James and the Epistles of Paul especially 12:9-21 in the Epistle to the Romans. And chapter 4 in the Epistle to the Ephesians. F. Read the 1st Epistle of Saint John.
Know Your Sins • Things that should not have been done Things that should have been done. Good deeds done where the motivations behind them were not pure. • Be specific. Identify the circumstances of time, place, people and so forth.
Know Your Sins Makeup a sheet with the Commandments of God on one side and your life on the other. See how they compare.
Commandments of God
My Life
• Exercise
Know Your Sins 2. Identify the underlying patterns Identify the governing passions. Find the one passion which will condition all the other actions. This is the root of your sinfulness.
Know Your Sins 3. Reflect on these sins and their root until you see that each was committed according to your own desire. Don’t listen to the excuses.
• Work on this until you can honestly say, I am guilty of this and that.
• You will begin to feel burdened and wretched. Don’t feel bad but desire that they all come forward.
• The right condition is a feeling of regret and repentance. This leads to a vow to change (metanoia).
Know Your Sins 4. Seal this work with the sacrament of repentance. Only God can cleanse of our our sinfulness. Through this sacrament one clears the divine ledger.
Repentance • Mystery for the Remission of Sins • Remission of sins is bestowed through the mercy of God through the intermediary of the Priest, after we offer our repentance of our sins.
1.Confession of sins before a priest 2.Prayer of forgiveness pronounced by the Priest.
• An act of mercy for our spiritual benefit. for edification, and not for destruction (2 Cor 10:8)
Repentance • Instituted by Christ
He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. (John 20:22-23) Whatever you bind on earth wi# be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth wi# be loosed in heaven. (Matt 18:17-18; 16:19)
• Priests are the instrument of God’s mercy. Sins are remitted not on their authority but in the name of the Holy Trinity.
• Early Christians confessed to entire congregation. • Why do people now do it in private to
a pastor?
• The body of Christians is weaker now. • Might lead others into temptation rather than
inspire prayerful compassion and sympathetic collaboration in fulfilling the Commandments.
• The Priest is the the same as if it were said to all he is the head of the community.
Remember • Cannot overcome sinfulness by our own power Need grace of God
• Sacrament of Confession is a renewal of baptism cleansing
us of our past sinfulness and making a new commitment to change.
• Sacrament of Holy Communion brings us in union with God.
• Ascetic practices help us change our behavior with greater self-control and a stronger prayer life.
• The Church is for our spiritual healing.
The Order of the Sacrament of Confession
• Trisagion Prayer • Penitent says: Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I confess before You a#
that is in my heart and mind, both hidden and known, that I have committed this day. Wherefore I beg of You, righteous and merciful Judge, remission of the grace to sin no more. • Priest says: My brother/sister, whatever brings you before God and to me, you relate not to me, but to God, in whose presence you stand. • Penitent then makes an oral confession. • Priest puts his stole over the penitents head and says: My spiritual child, what you have confessed to my humble person, I who am lowly and a sinner have no earthly power to remit, but God alone. But because of that divine word, spoken to the Apostles a%er the resurrection of our Lord saying, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are retained” we make bold to say” Whatever you have related to my lowly self, and whatever you have failed to relate, whether through ignorance or forgetfulness, may God forgive you in this present life.
What Are Our Moral Duties? • Christ defined our moral duty in two commandments: 1.To love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind. 2.To love one’s neighbor as oneself.
• This is not possible without some degree of self sacrifice and struggle to overcome our passions.
They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with passions and lusts (Gal 5:24)
What are Our Passions? Those inherent weaknesses in a man which entice him to sin. Passions ď Ł
Capital Sins ď ˘
Capital Virtues
Gluttony
Gluttony
Temperance
Lust
Debauchery
Chastity
Avarice
Greed
Generosity
Anger
Anger
Mildness
Dejection
Envy
Happiness
Listlessness
Sloth
Diligence
Pride
Pride
Humility
Passions are the product of the will of egocentric sovereignty
God
Soul Mind Taste Smell
Reason Will
Holy Spirit
Brain
Assumptions Patterns
Sound Touch Sight
Heart
Through the Heart we find Union with God
Emotions Actions Bodily functions Heart beat Digestion Passions Breathing Body
Passions • Subordinate our soul to the our egoistic will. • Result from putting our own pleasure first and forgetting God
• Healing begins with faith and repentance. • Restraining fleshly appetites and pride is essential.
How Does Sin Develop? 1. Suggestive thought 2. Reaction - Coupling with a feeling 3. Struggle 4. Attraction 5. Assent 6. Concrete action 7. Enslavement - Pattern of behavior
To Overcome Passions • Must undue the patterns that enslave us. • Must develop Self-Control. • Must learn to control the action of our Mind • Must become “watchful” • Be ever repentant - humble • Seek the help of God’s grace - participate in the sacraments
• Engage in ascetic practices.
Elder Paisios • Humility • Adults who do not accept insults and biting criticism are more foolish than little children who don’t want to even hear about the doctor. • We ought to give more gratitude to those who have pricked us and brought out the thorn of our soul... • No one climbs to Heaven through worldly ascent, but through spiritual descent. • He who lacks humility and good thoughts is fu# of doubts and questions. • One who is proud is always unsettled inwardly as we# outwardly. Due to the flightiness of egotism, one always stands on the surface of things and cannot proceed to the depths, where the divine pearls are found, so as to be spiritua#y enriched.
Elder Paisios • Pride • The proudest person is not he who brags about himself with pride, but he who brags about being very humble.
• He who justifies himself when he makes mistakes transforms his heart into a demonic refuge and wi# continue to err, ever more so.
• Those who do not accept criticism, even &om their loved ones, receive
the mockery of a# those with a worldly attitude, and, in the end become quarrelsome and spiritua#y useless.
• Blows are necessary for the salvation of our soul because they purify the soul.
Elder Paisios
• The most blessed of a# people are those who exhibited the
greatest repentance, with pain and inner contrition, and, in this way, extinguished the proud enemy. They humbled their unruly flesh with asceticism - subdued it to the spirit - and granted the greatest joy to Heaven with their repentance (their return to God).
Elder Paisios
• We must view as saints a# other people and only yourself,
only yourself you should view as a sinner and inferior to a#, no matter other people my be sinful. Only yourself sha# we view as a sinner and inferior to a#.
Orthodox Life Incarnation Resurrection
Baptism Awaken
Grace
Worship & Communion
Synergy
C r e a Fall ti o n
P a r Theosis a Virtuous Life Death & d Final Judgment i s Prayer Ascetic Fasting e Love God Love neighbor
Discipline
Will Repentance
The Church
Study Meditation
Holy Communion Divine Liturgy