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?

Hospital

Equipment &Procedures

Physicians

Scientific Knowledge and Knowhow

Long Life

What do you do when you Sin?

Scripture and Church Tradition

The Body of Christ

SacramentsAscetic practices

Clergy

SOULS

Union with God

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) - RepentanceChange 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 SinsMakeup 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 patternsIdentify the governing passions.Find the one passion which will condition all the other actions.This is the root of your sinfulness.

Know Your Sins3. 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 priest2.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 ChristHe 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 powerNeed 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.

• 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.

The Order of the Sacrament of Confession

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?

Passions Capital Sins Capital VirtuesGluttony Gluttony TemperanceLust Debauchery Chastity Avarice Greed GenerosityAnger Anger MildnessDejection Envy HappinessListlessness Sloth DiligencePride Pride Humility

Passions are the product of the will of egocentric sovereignty

Those inherent weaknesses in a man which entice him to sin.

TasteSmellSound

TouchSight

Emotions Actions Bodily functionsHeart beatDigestionBreathing

God

Brain

MindReasonWill

Soul

Body

Through the Heart we find Union with God

Holy Spirit

Heart

Assumptions Patterns

Passions

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#.

BaptismAwaken

IncarnationResurrection

Death &Final Judgment

Fall

Paradise

Grace

WillSynergy

PrayerFastingStudy

Meditation

Ascetic Discipline

Worship & Communion

Repentance

Theosis

Love GodLove neighbor

Virtuous Life

The Church

Creation

Orthodox Life

Holy CommunionDivine Liturgy