Topic: Part 2 of my question about sin and communion

[John The Ninja]

hello everyone 

So I did confession, and I ask my Priest the same question I asked in this thread:  http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php/topic,48036.0.html

This might be a complicated question, so bare with me.

He told me that a sin of hating someone (not just being frustrated with someone, but actually hating them) or a sin of sexual immorality will exclude me (or anyone) from communion.  He then told me to pray the "Jesus Prayer" throughout the day.  I then asked him "if I do fall into a bad sin (like sexual immorality), can the Jesus prayer cause me to be forgiven and able to partake in communion."  He told me "no", I would have to confess that sin before communion.

So my question is, what is the point of the Jesus Prayer?  This may seem like a mean question, but if the Jesus Prayer wont prepair me for communion or cause my sin to be forgiven, then why would I pray it?  This goes for anything in life.  If punching my PC wont fix it, then why would I punch it?  if yelling at a new born baby to stop crying wont cause the baby to stop, then why would I yell at it?

Can the Jesus Prayer only cause "minor" sins to be forgiven?

Thank you in advance

[katherineofdixie]

I don't think the Jesus Prayer has anything to do with sins being forgiven. I could be wrong, of course, but I believe that your priest told you to say the Jesus Prayer to help you avoid sin in the first place. It's not magic.

[izrima]

Yeah, like Katherine said, I think your priest was probably encouraging you to say the Jesus Prayer to help you avoid sin. Many persons, myself included, find the Jesus Prayer to be particularly effective in helping to extinguish the passions and get you through difficult moments.

Ultimately, I think you want to get to a place where you aren't saying the Jesus Prayer because of any reward but simply because you want to--because it is one of the best ways to worship and relate to Christ. So saying the Jesus Prayer isn't going to help you get an ice cream sundae delivered from heaven, but we have writing upon writing from great monks to indicate that it is a very effective way to help humans get nearer to God's divine energies.

You need to take serious sins to confession so that your confessor can discuss how you might avoid them in the future and help you repent. Unlike in Protestant denominations, an effective confession cannot be private.

[choy]

Remember that there is a difference between repentance and forgiveness.  God can (and does) forgive our sins every single minute of every single day.  But do we repent from our sins?  Jesus calls us to repentance.  Forgiveness is guaranteed but the changing of our hearts towards God isn't, and that is what we must do.