Orthodoxy is a joyful faith. It does not prescribe feigned grief, a serious facial expression, or anything like that. On the contrary, it is believed that even repentance should be joyful.
What is repentance and how to carry it out is often completely incomprehensible to modern man. Unfortunately, a superficial attitude towards the world and the state of one's soul is now being cultivated, introspection is not recommended, and guilt is considered destructive.
When repenting, the Orthodox often use the canon of repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. The main purpose of reading this canon is to remind yourself of the true meaning of earthly values, to realize the transience of the world and time.
Canon is a church form of prayer. Many believe that the main thing in prayer is the content, and the form is superfluous. This is partly correct. Indeed, if the repentant canon to the Lord Jesus Christ or any other prayer is read inattentively, a person will not receive any benefit. Prayer is not a spell, it does not act outside the will of a person, its main goal is to make it easier for a person to communicate with an incomprehensible God.
You can draw an analogy with a declaration of love. In recognition, the main thing is the content. But if a young man does not know what expressions to choose and how to start, he risks scaring the girl with strange words. Poetic lines close to him will help a lot. So it is in prayer: the content is more important than the form, the latter is only help. But can everyone express their thoughts about sin and their souls as fully as the holy fathers? The canon of repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ allows you to put into words the vague movements of the heart, to think over your life to the smallest detail, to find in yourself the vices that you did not notice before.
Each church form of prayer - and there are several more - is built according to certain rules. For example, any canon, including the canon of repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ, consists of eight songs. Moreover, there are nine songs according to the numbering, but the second is always skipped. Each canto consists of the song itself and of several verses, which are interspersed with the refrain established for this canon. In the penitential canon, it is supposed to repeat: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Repentance should possess a person almost constantly, but especially this topic needs to be worked on before confession.
The daily canon of repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ is a wonderful practice of preparing for confession. In this case, the canon is read at the discretion, once before communion is obligatory.
The penitential canon to the Lord Jesus Christ was written many centuries ago, but now it is still relevant. Thoughtfulreading the entire canon takes about 20 minutes. The canon itself is published both in Russian and Church Slavonic. You can read it this way and that, the result does not depend on it.
Prayer work is one of the hardest. It seems that saying aloud or to oneself some words cannot give satisfaction to desires, that this is just self-hypnosis, a waste of time. However, even if this is so, the thoughts that are set forth in the canon will be very useful to any thoughtful person.
Orthodox canons are read at any time of the day, alone or out loud, with a group of worshipers.
