Post #2438967

@badbede@deacon.social Here I shall insert a plug for churches that require confession. I cannot in good conscience take communion without periodic confession of my sins, out loud, to a person in authority. It sounds very scary, but it is extremely therapeutic, particularly when such confession results in spiritual counsel rather than penance. This is much more likely to encourage one to root out habitual sin, because one knows one will have to confess it again. Also, purity of heart comes from keeping watch over the threshold of the heart, and not allowing temptation to enter. On that subject, I do not know of any text as beneficial as this one by an early monastic father: https://orthodoxchurchfathers.com/fathers/philokalia/st-hesychios-the-priest-on-watchfulness-and-holiness.html