Appendix B.

Also From the Order of Confession.

(Note: In this context the words “penance” and “canon” refer to a period of exclusion

from the Holy Mysteries.)

Then (after saying the prayer of absolution), the priest gives him a penance

appropriate to his sin. And he says to him:

“Child, the Divine and Sacred Law commands that for so many years you do not

commune the Holy Mysteries but only take Holy Water blessed at Theophany, and if you

abstain from Holy Communion your sins will be absolved. But if you approach and

commune, you will be a second Judas. If you are on the point of death, you may

commune, but if you then recover you must continue with the penance and add on

another canon as a consequence of having communed.”

Pay attention also to this:

According to the 39th rule of St. Basil the Great, a person receives a canon from

the time he abandons the sin: if a person continues committing the sin but does not

commune, this is not accounted to him as fulfillment of the penance. If he abstains from

Communion for a time and then falls again into sin, he begins his penance over again.

If he falls into another sin before the penance has been fulfilled, then you must see

which is longer, the unexpired period of the penance for the first sin or the penance for

the second sin: whichever is longer is the length of the penance that has to be fulfilled. If,

after abandoning the sin, he has abstained from Communion for a time, either of his own

accord or at the command of another spiritual father, then this time counts as part of the

penance.

Pay attention to this:

When there should be found a person who is reverent, and desires to perform a

certain number of prostrations daily, according to his strength, remit one year from his

period of exclusion from Communion, if he wishes to give alms according to his ability,

remit another year. If he fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays, according to the divine rules,

remit another year. But if he wishes to abstain from meat on Mondays also, remit another

year: if from cheese and eggs, another, Similarly, if he performs some other virtuous deed

remit another year. If he is less than thirty years old, reduce it by another. If he is less

than twenty years old, he is excluded from Communion for a shorter time. But if he does

not wish to do these things, let him fulfill all the years that are appointed.

Pay attention also to this:

If a person who has sinned wants to become monk, let him fulfill two-thirds of the

penance and be let off one third. if he wants to go into a cenobitic monastery, let him off

one half. If he fails after taking the habit, let him fulfill all that had previously been

remitted from his penance.

How Spiritual Fathers Should Dispose Those Confessing to Them.

The twelfth rule of the First Council of Nicaea, as well as the second, fifth and

sixth rules of the Council of Ancyra, give bishops the power to increase or decrease the

period of exclusion depending on whether repentance is fervent or apathetic. Let their

former life be taken into account, and whether they are now living in chastity or in laxity

and laziness: and so let love for man be exercised by measure. If they keep unwaveringly

to their accustomed ways and want to continue serving the pleasures of the flesh rather

than the Lord, and are not willing to live according to the Gospel, we have nothing to say

to them.