Orthodox Confession to spiritual director

Status
Not open for further replies.
HomeschoolDad

HomeschoolDad

Moderator
Staff member
I understand that in Orthodoxy, it is possible to “confess” to one’s spiritual director, who is not necessarily a priest, and after this confession, the priest grants absolution.

How does that work? It seems as though the priest does not actually hear the sins being confessed. Does the spiritual director, after having heard the confession, go to the priest, say “OK, I’ve heard his confession, he merits absolution, he’s good to go” (or words to that effect), and then the priest administers absolution?

And is there any similar practice among Eastern Catholics in union with Rome?
 
No. In EO the spiritual.director is always a priest. So is the man to whom we validly confess - only a priest can hear confessions.
The lay spiritual director is something I only heard of here on CAF as being acceptable in RC. But in RC also the confession is only valid to a priest. So I doubt that EC would have a different practice than EO and RC and accept confession to a lay spiritual director.
 
What you may have heard of is this - people choose to go to the monasteries and confess to monks and nuns. This is something I heard of being done and unless the said monk is also a priest (a nun can’t be a.priest) what people do is against EOC teaching and highly irregular. A monk is not a priest no matter how holy he is unless ordained.as such.
 
Maybe he’s referring to a starets?


I remember reading the Russian Orthodox Church had a problem where people were visiting starets rather than priests for stuff like guidance and confession.
 
Last edited:
There was an Orthodox poster on CAF years ago who seemed to have a very dim view of the Orthodox bishops, and was completely devoted to monastic Elders and accept only their guidance as law. Is this mystical, anti-clerical movement popular in Orthodoxy?
 
Full Disclosure: I am Maronite Catholic, not Orthodox. That being said, I’ve worked a great deal among various Orthodox and Eastern Catholic scholars, including with Met. Kallistos Ware and the late Fr. Robert Taft, S.J. I’ve never heard from any of them that a spiritual director must be a priest - otherwise, that would rule out the ancient tradition of spiritual mothers (since women cannot be priests). And there were monks and Desert Fathers who were not priests, but served as spiritual fathers (or mothers) to many - St. Antony the Great comes immediately to mind.

I also remember Met. Kallistos giving a talk about how at one time there was a “tradition” of confessing to one’s spiritual father/mother and even receiving “absolution.” But that practice was later condemned and abandoned. Today it is expected that a person confesses to a priest. But it’s also assumed that one will talk with their spiritual father/mother about their faults and “thoughts” in order to receive the healing grace of Christ to overcome them.
 
It is my understanding that in some traditions nuns would confess to their abbess and then the priest would grant absolution… but I’ve never heard of it outside of that in a lay context.
 
I’m not Orthodox but it seems that if their Church had had to take an active stance against it to reaffirm the ecclesiastical power of the bishops then it must have gotten out of hand.
 
Of course their bishops are generally monastics themselves, so in a sense the monks do rule the Church…
 
That’s actually not completely the case today. At least, not in the U.S. Not sure about the mother countries.
 
Mary888 said:
No. In EO the spiritual.director is always a priest.
Click to expand...
I think that varies by church. This has come up multiple times on the byzcath.org forums–where the question is more whether this could be done by Catholics . . .

And the two interesting versions are about wives in real areas. One variant is to confess by phone to the priest in the next town, and be absolved by her husband, but I’m more enchanted/amused/something by the places where relations are warm enough that the Catholic wife confesses to the orthodox priest, and vice versa, and are absolved by their own husbands!
 
dochawk said:
And the two interesting versions are about wives in real areas. One variant is to confess by phone to the priest in the next town, and be absolved by her husband, but I’m more enchanted/amused/something by the places where relations are warm enough that the Catholic wife confesses to the orthodox priest, and vice versa, and are absolved by their own husbands!
Click to expand...
I had to read this over a couple of times before it made sense to me. That would indeed be an interesting scenario. Am I to understand that the Orthodox would tolerate such a thing as telephone “confession” to one’s spiritual father?
 
In the case of telephone, it’s to another Orthodox priest, rather than to har husband, the only Orthodox priest in town. “Awkward” doesn’t even begin to describe, “Forgive me, honey, for I have sinned.” 😱

I am not stating that this is universal, or normative.
 
I am pretty sure they only recieved absolution from a priest. I think it is interesting how many refer to the priest as their spiritual father. I do not know what most Orthodox experience, but I think it would be really helpful if everyone had a regular confessor and guide who could give more specific guidance and help lead people to holiness. It seems like in the Roman Catholic Church confession is pretty legalistic and it follows a specific form. A bunch of steps to follow and different things you have to recite. I think the Orthodox view and practice of Confession would be much more helpful and bring more healing as well as being more personal
 
In every case of which I’m aware of confession to another, absolution came from a priest of the same church. I’ve never even seen a suggestion that it could be otherwise, even when the confession was to a priest of another church whose orders were recognized.

And it’s important to remember that the actual sacrament is Reconcilliation; Confession is the current (and long-standing) form of that sacrament . . .

hawk
 
Some info:-

Cann 844§3.
“Catholic ministers administer the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick licitly to members of Eastern Churches which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church if they seek such on their own accord and are properly disposed. This is also valid for members of other Churches which in the judgment of the Apostolic See are in the same condition in regard to the sacraments as these Eastern Churches.”

and under Cann 844 §2
“Whenever necessity requires it or true spiritual advantage suggests it, and provided that danger of error or of indifferentism is avoided, the Christian faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister are permitted to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid.”
(ETA bolding in the above quote is mine)
 
Last edited:
rosejmj said:
It seems like in the Roman Catholic Church confession is pretty legalistic and it follows a specific form. A bunch of steps to follow and different things you have to recite.
Click to expand...
I don’t experience confession this way.

If you do, you always have the option of having a face to face confession or confession by appointment where Father will have more time to talk to you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top