Concealing the Sins and Aerial Tollhouses

Protopriest Oleg Stenyaev. “An exam without the right to re-sit it: how can we pass the toll houses”.

Protopriest Oleg Stenyaev

There are people who, when making their confession, show false shame in front of a priest and conceal their sins. Such people are in a serious danger of being stuck at the second tollhouse. This kind of shame at making confession is related to the fact that when a person begins to communicate closely with a priest, he or she thinks that if they reveal all their sins, the priest will change his attitude to a negative one.  In fact, it’s the devil who whispers such thoughts into one’s ears. The opposite is true: a priest, if he feels that the confession is not sincere, may become cold towards this person. When a priest sees that the person trusts him completely, he gets compassion for such a person.

The First Epistle of John states, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us’ (1 John, 1:9-10). I mean, if we are not hiding anything in confession, we will be forgiven. If we say that we have not sinned, then ‘we make him a liar, and his word is not in us’. If we go to confession and we are doing it in front of a priest, being selfish, concealing our sins or looking for some kind of excuse, there is a danger that we may be stuck at the second tollhouse.

Old Lady Heals with Prayers

Question from a reader of Foma Magazine:

At my neighborhood there is an old lady who treats children (hernia, fright, hiccups, joints, sore throat and constipation), and she reads Orthodox prayers during the treatment. People are certainly grateful and pay her; she saves a little money from each treatment and gives it to the local church and writes commemorations for the health of the children. She's almost 90 and she doesn't always go to church herself. We had a new priest, and the new priest did not take the money, would not read the commemorations and said that the old lady should give up her healing, and if she wouldn't give up, she shouldn't go to church. The old lady got very upset. She really helps the children. Is our priest right, and what should she do?

Olga

Answer of Protopriest Peter Guryanov:

Hello Olga, In order to answer your question, I need to know what prayers the old lady recites. Your priest is partially right! The Orthodox Church has a very negative attitude toward spells, considering them to be a form of magic, which is always soul-destroying, even if it is white. They cure with the help of the devil, and cripple the soul. Herbalists, healers, and other psychics are all servants of the devil.

Let me repeat: the Church has a negative attitude towards witch doctresses, wisewomen, old ladies who heal with prayers, because they heal with the help of the devil, and prayers, icons, etc. they use as a disguise to deceive people, especially Orthodox Christians. Such healers have nothing in common with the Church and Orthodoxy, it's a trap! Hernia, fright, hiccups, joints, sore throat and constipation should be treated by a qualified doctor! 

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Demonic Visions of Elder Basiliscus

Lives of Russian ascetics of 18^th -19^th centuries. March. The ascetic Elder Basiliscus.

At this time, a god-loving noble man saw the ascetic Basiliscus and asked him to live in the bathhouse, which was in his garden. Referring to his three-year stay with this hospitable man, Basiliscus said that the devil had never been more armed against him than he was at that time. One night, while he was praying and reading with tears the psalm, suddenly he saw a demon in the form of a big, ferocious horse, with a wide opened mouth, ready to swallow him. With a firm belief in God, he shielded himself with the sign of the cross, and the vision faded. The other night a basket came down from the ceiling, and many flies flew out of it with noise; the ascetic did not hesitate, but intensified his prayer to God, and the vision disappeared. For the third time, also at night, a seducer appeared in the form of the ascetic as an elegant woman, and when the hermit, ignoring her, continued to pray, she attacked the ascetic, pulled the chain on which his body cross hung, and so squeezed his throat that his breath stopped, and only in his mind could he read: ‘Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered!’ The vision faded; but the Basiliscus, after such a strong attack by the enemy, long felt the tremors and cold in the body and, encouraged, plunged before the icon of the Savior, gently begging not to put him in the hands of the foes.

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