Six-year public penance for the present-day Church

 

His Holiness

Benedict XVI

Supreme Pontiff

Città del Vaticano

 

Your Holiness,

by this letter we present to You a proposal of a concrete programme of six-year penance for the whole Church, beginning with 1st January 2008 and ending on 31st December 2013. The form of this public penance would, among other things, be a prohibition against the celebration of the Holy Mass, referring to all priests and bishops. The fruit of the penance in the seventh (sabbatical) year will be the spiritual resurrection of the whole Church.

 

What was the sense of penitential practice in the first millennium in the Eastern Church? Healing of the soul.

 

Similarly as with physical diseases and various injuries the healing of the body requires a certain method and length of time, the soul, too, injured by sin and having fallen into its dependence, needs to be healed by penance (cf. Jn 8:34).

 

Out of a sick soul proceeds a sick mind, and out of the sick mind a sick life style. This means that man loves and seeks that which does him harm and escapes that which does him good and serves him towards obtaining both temporal and eternal happiness. The first Christ’s call is: “Repent (i.e. metanoite = transform your minds), and believe in the Gospel!” (Mk 1:15)

 

Recidivism of sin consists in the fact that man is unable, especially in the critical moment of temptation, to perceive the evil, painful, hurting and humiliating consequences of sin. He is just being one-sidedly manipulated like a paralysed medium of dark powers and lie. Our corrupted nature (so-called old self) is the reason why without God’s enlightenment we are unconscious of the real consequences of deceit (alcoholism, fornication, thefts, suicides, murders...) and let ourselves be deceived again and again. We do not want to hear or see the truth about our sin and we cover our ears and eyes especially in the moment of temptation.

 

The practice of public penance, such as standing in front of the temple during the Liturgy (the so-called weeping) or leaving the temple (the so-called kneeling – before the liturgy of the Eucharist they had to leave the temple and stay outside until the end of the Liturgy), disposed the penitent to realize again and again the evil consequences of his sins; thus he gradually developed hatred of them as well as reluctance to sin or to obey those who put others up to it. Standing before the closed gate of the temple, while others could enter, was humiliating, yet at the same time healing, too. Every week during the Sunday Liturgy he could realize in truth that sin causes separation from God, but also from the community of believers – from the Mystical Body of Christ, just condemnation to the loss of communion with the loving God, and deprival of eternal happiness. Here in front of the temple he could perceive the reality – unless he repents, he shall stand before the closed gate of heaven for ever. Now he is standing just before the temple gate and has a chance to break with the cause of the big evil, which is the sin and its slavery. This educative moment leads to the transformation of mind. Man starts to be thankful to God that He Himself opened the heavenly gate for him and is expecting him with open arms like the prodigal son.

 

There was a similar meaning with the healing punishment – breaking the participation in the Liturgy and during the main part of the Liturgy standing outside with other penitents. In the Eastern Liturgy up to this day the priest or deacon through so-called ektene (litany) before the Creed tells the unbaptized (in earlier times the penitents, too) to leave the temple.

 

The meaning of the penitential practice in the first millennium thus was to transform one’s mind and to achieve the healing of the soul. “You shall know the truth, and the truth (Jesus) shall make you free.” (Jn 8:32) Through acts of penitence man obtains hate for sin and liberation from its slavery. He begins to love himself as well as his neighbours in the right way. Then for both himself and the neighbour he desires the true and eternal good, not some false one.

 

The fruit of the public penance (acts of penitence) was a true Christian life with a view to eternity. Temple and receiving the Saviour in Holy Communion actually symbolize heaven. One could thus realize in truth and practically that now that he could not enter the temple and felt sorrow and grief of soul at the loss of grace, this all was still just in this passing time. But what if he died in the state of sin? Through sin he would close himself the gate to eternal happiness for ever. Yet now he still has a chance; if he goes through the way of repentance like all the saints, he will obtain the lost paradise again.

 

What about today? The need of conversion and repentance is not being emphasized at all. The unconverted and lukewarm Christians either do not go to church, or if they go (in the areas with traditional faith, e.g. in Ukraine) they usually stand in front of the church and do not receive Holy Communion. According to the Eastern practice it seems that the present-day Christians are the greatest penitents – it is a sad irony. In the West, on the contrary, almost all receive Holy Communion, but unfortunately, they do not have the spirit of repentance and do not even receive the sacrament of penance.

 

Today the essential need is to lead the Christians to personal conversion and afterward to inner healing of the consequences and habit of sin. The main demand for the ministry of preaching the Word should thus be – to point to the reality of eternity and to the concrete steps necessary to our salvation. Without the preaching of repentance, without the emphasizing of the reality of sin and its slavery, man is blind and refuses God’s love which is given to us in the person of our Saviour Jesus Christ. That is why reevangelization of traditional Catholics is needed. Sts. Cyril and Methodius not only translated for us Slavs the Holy Scripture but they also gave us the Nomocanon with its forms of public penance (so-called epitemies). We also are to give the converted Christians at their disposal the way to inner healing by means of public penance. There is a need to actualize it, that it may as effectively as possible lead to the aim, namely to the transformation of mind and to the healing of soul. By means of public penance there are conditions given for true rootage in Christ. A single emotional experience of conversion is not sufficient. That it may lead into a true Christian life, it must include the stage of repentance.

 

The paradox is that the contemporary clerical formation influenced by modern psychologies, philosophies, historic-critical method in theology (HCT) and by promotion of respect for other religions (interreligious dialogue) does not lead the intending priests to true conversion, let alone make them strive for the conversion of the sheep entrusted to them. Therefore the greatest obstacle to the conversion of traditional believers is their own priests. The most topical problem today thus is the conversion and process of inner healing of priests by means of public penance. The ideal would be if the future priest underwent the process of true conversion and purification as early as the period of his formation in the seminary (practice of fasting, the order of interior prayer).

 

A proposal for declaration of repentance for the whole Church

(from 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2013)

 

The reason for repentance: Present-day Christianity has nothing to do with the teaching and life of the Apostles and early Christians. Therefore the whole Church must repent. If we consider the theological views (HCT) and moral life of the majority of Catholic priests and theologians, according to the Gospel and according to the Canons of the Eastern Churches they should be excluded from the Church as heretics.

 

We propose to Your Holiness that You declare six penitential years for the whole Church. One of the healing elements according to the Eastern tradition should be a prohibition against the celebration of the Liturgy within this period of six years, applying to all bishops and priests. The Liturgy could be celebrated only by You, Your Holiness. The priests shall devote themselves to the ministry of God’s Word and to prayer, and that in the first place for the sake of their own conversion. They should establish biblical and prayer communities in their parishes and lead the believers to personal conversion. The purpose is to prepare the way for the Lord.

 

The prophet Joel calls: “Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast... and cry out to the Lord.” (Joel 1:13-14)

 

“Yet even now, declares the Lord: ‘Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the Lord, your God... Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.” (Joel 2:12-13.17)

 

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy...” (Joel 2:28)

 

In the course of these six penitential years the celebration of Sunday would include just the liturgy of the Word and thereafter the believers would spend Sunday in small communities in prayer, with God’s Word and in mutual sharing of personal experience how God worked in their lives during the week. The priests should spend the celebration of Sunday in a small community of several priests. They should spend one to three days in prayer and with God’s Word (see Discipleship – New formation, A reform of the theological formation of future priests; www.community.org.ua), so that they may actualize their own conversion and subsequently bring the spirit of true penitence to the believers. (note: we know from experience that when the priests meet together, it is necessary that they set an order of four or five hours of prayer a day – see the prayer-booklet Golgotha – one may pass to a discussion always only after an hour of prayer, otherwise the time is lost in empty talk)

 

These six penitential years would be followed by the sabbatical year from 1st January to 31st December 2014. This would be the year of the spiritual resurrection of the Body of Christ – the Church, the year of a new life, when the whole Church would start a solemn celebration of the Holy Liturgy. The true meaning of repentance is preparation of the way for the Lord through conversion and healing penance.

 

Those that would be converted after the year 2014 would subsequently be led to inner healing through six-year penance. Beside the fasts, bows, order of prayer and community they would go through the penitential practice of standing in front of the church during the Liturgy or leaving the church before the liturgy of the Eucharist or prohibition against the receiving of the Eucharist until the seventh year. The one who would be converted within the general penitential period would complete the remaining years of penance after the sabbatical year.

 

These six years of public penance heal our corrupted nature, and God and His grace may then work through us. Here one can truly apply the motto: “Gratia supponit naturam” (grace supposes nature). The Church will never have the spiritual power unless it goes through the baptism of repentance.

 

The period of time

 

In the first millennium, both the length and the methods of public penance were different (1, 3, 7,10, 15, 20 years). In the third millennium, with regard to the seven biblical years, we propose a uniform length of public penance, namely six years. The methods, however, would differ. The close would be the seventh (sabbatical) year, which would be the year of spiritual resurrection. The public penance should be undergone by all who have been converted and baptized with the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:33). After 3½ years it would be appropriate for such Christian to receive the baptism of repentance. Here he would at last be radically separated (purified) from the spirits that work:

 

1)      through occultism, its different forms and practices (homoeopathy, acupuncture, divination, magic, spiritism, superstitions...);

 

2)      from the spirits of lie and death working today through Oriental and other philosophies, psychologies and demagogies...;

 

3)      from unclean spirits (adultery, onanism, pornography, homosexuality...).

 

Those who have already received the sacramental baptism will in the seventh year, in interior prayer as well as in the Liturgy, renew the substance of this baptism through which they were immersed in Christ’s death and at the same time received a new life – resurrection with Christ (cf. Rom 6:3-6; Col 2:12; Eph 2:6). This programme of unity through the spirit of repentance is given not only for Catholics, but for all Christians who received Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord and want to live a new life in truth (true ecumenism).

 

Public penance for a seminary after the year 2014

 

The students of the first year during the Liturgy would stand in front of the chapel (the weeping), the students of the second and the third year would leave the chapel (the church) before the liturgy of the Eucharist (the kneeling) and would spend the rest of the Liturgy in front of the chapel along with the weeping. The students of the fourth year (the standing) would be present at the whole Liturgy, though these seminarists would not yet be admitted to Holy Communion. The students of the fifth and the sixth year would fully participate in the Holy Liturgy. In their seventh year they would then serve the Lord as priests.

 

There is a question what about the liberal professors in the seminary, who as heretics according to the canon of the early councils would not even be allowed to enter the temple and should not only be deprived of their office but as heretics should also be excluded from the Church (excommunication). The exception is those who will renounce their heresy and go through the six-year healing penance.

 

Fruit of repentance and fruit of impenitence

 

The fruit of sin is dependence, pain, suffering, which is neither fruitful nor constructive, but depressing and hopeless (drugs, abortions, euthanasia, murders, suicides; the fruit of impurity is AIDS, decay of families, loss of the sense of human dignity and true values; the fruit of rock music is cynicism, perversities, degradation of personality, opening oneself to satanism and curse...).

 

On the contrary, the fruit of repentance is: peace, joy, enlightenment, assurance of salvation, introduction of moral recovery into the whole society… And this is true love towards myself, towards God and towards my neighbour. Sacrifices connected with repentance are a trifle compared with the sacrifices and suffering claimed by sin and its slavery. The way of impenitence brings unbalance, hopelessness, despair, bad example, demoralization of the whole society and finally hell on earth and hell after death. And this real evil does not make man fear; however, when he is to make a little self-denial for the sake of his good and salvation, he is seized by undefinable terror. What a deceit! Therefore repentance is true heroism. It means to stand against the spirit and system of lie, deceit and death.

 

The Canons of Eastern Fathers, Old-Slavonic Penitential

 

Can. 31 about fasting: “If a bishop, priest or monk does not fast in the Lenten season or on Wednesday or Friday, let him be deprived of office.”

 

Can. 37 about heretical bishops: “A Christian must not leave the martyrs of Christ and follow heretical bishops. For these became alienated from God; consequently, let those, too, who join them be accursed.”

 

Old-Slavonic Penitential (OSP) about fasting: “If a woman gets rid of her child through abortion, let her do penance on bread and water for three years.”

 

“If a woman that committed fornication has destroyed a child in her womb, let her do penance for ten years, thereof two on bread and water.”

 

Can. 41 about abortion: “Concerning women that repeatedly committed fornication and removed what was born of them, and repeatedly attempted abortions, the earlier canon prescribed that they should not be admitted until death. We, however, have come to a different finding and decided that they should fulfil penance of ten tears according to the degrees set.”

 

OSP about murder: “If somebody commits a murder involuntarily, let him do penance for five years, thereof three on bread and water.”

 

Can. 40 about murder: “Who killed somebody knowingly, let the one not be admitted to the sacraments for ten years (note: in earlier times 20 years), these ten years being laid out as follows: Two years with the weeping, three years let him stay with the listening, four years with the kneeling and merely one year let him stand with the believers.”

 

Can. 39 about sins against the first commandment – magic, divination, superstitions: “Who will do magic and witchcraft, let the one do penance for the period of time determined for a murderer.”

 

“Who became involved with diviners or the likes of them, let the one, too, do penance for the period of time determined for murderers.”

 

“Those who practise divination and live by the pagan custom or bring into their houses somebody that he should work there magic and perform purification (from so-called geopathogenic zones), let them do penance for five years.”

 

“Spiritual persons or clerics must not be sorcerers or enchanters or astrologers or make so-called amulets, which are chains on the soul. We have ordered that those who wear them be excluded from the Church.” (can. 36 of the Council of Laodicaea)

 

OSP about sins against the first commandment: “If somebody would enchant (i.e. practise sorcery) and pray to demons (energies) or invent human names for them, let him do penance on bread and water for five years.”

 

OSP about sins against the sixth and the ninth commandments: “If somebody has a wife and lies carnally with a woman slave, when this misdeed has been proved, the slave is to be sold by the prince of that land to another land. The price then taken on for her is to be given to the poor. Likewise the fornicator according to the law of God is to be ordered by him, through the priests, to seven-year penance: For two years let him stand outside God’s temple during the Mass. For two years let him enter the temple until the Holy Gospel and for the rest of the Mass let him stand outside and hear the Mass. The next two years then until “I believe” and in the seventh year let him stand, but not receive. They are then obliged not to eat except merely bread and water for seven years.”

 

Can. 46: “Can. 25 of the Saint Apostles – If a bishop or a priest is convicted of fornication or of breaking his oath or of theft, let him be deprived of office.”

 

Can. 41: “If somebody’s wife commits adultery or somebody else commits adultery, they have to do penance for seven years.”

 

OSP: “If a cleric commits fornication with somebody’s wife or with a virgin, let him do penance on bread and water for three years. If he is a monk, let him do penance for four years, thereof three on bread and water. If he is a bishop, let him be deprived of office and do penance for ten years.”

 

OSP: “If somebody commits fornication with a widow or a virgin, let him do penance for three years.”

 

OSP: “If a layman that is married commits fornication with somebody’s wife or a virgin, let him do penance for five years, thereof three on bread and water.”

 

OSP: “If somebody thinks about somebody else’s wife and cannot commit a sin with her, let him do penance for one year.”

 

OSP: “If somebody commits fornication on himself (onanism), let him do penance for one year.”

 

OSP: “If a layman under the age of 30 commits fornication with a quadruped, let him do penance for ten years, unless he is married; if he has a wife, let him do penance for fifteen years.”

 

OSP: “If a cleric commits the sin of Sodom (homosexuality), let him do penance for ten years, thereof three on bread and water.”

 

Can. 48 about the fruit of repentance: “Can. 68 of Saint Basil – We write all this, after all, in order that the fruits of penance may be tested, for we do not judge these things by time but rather pay attention to the manner of penance. Should they persist unyieldingly in their customs and should they desire more to be slaves to the lusts of the flesh than to the Lord and should they not take on a life according to the Gospel, we then have no common talk with them.”

 

The practice of public penance concretized for six years (see the letter Prayer and Fasting)

 

1)   Concerning attendance at the Liturgy:

a)      In the course of the first six years of general penance the priests would not celebrate the Liturgy (2008-2013).

b)      The second stage (2015-2020) – introduction of penitential practice: standing in front of the temple, leaving the temple in the middle of the Liturgy. This should be undergone by the students of theology in particular.

 

2)   Bows: young people can do 200 bows daily (1 hour), older people can e.g. touch the ground with their head 40 times from the position of kneeling.

 

3)    At least one hour of interior prayer (see 7 words from the cross – the booklet Golgotha; so-called “erko” – interior prayer; Stations of the Cross).

 

4)   Holy hour (20°°-21°°) – At 21ºº priests give a blessing and pray for the sick and possessed. Every Christian should receive this blessing with faith.

 

5)   Continual prayer (prayer-guard) – every believer should be involved in a prayer-group and take one hour of prayer-guard of his own (ten days a month).

 

6)   A tenth of time – 2 hours and 24 minutes daily devoted to prayer and the Scripture.

 

7)   Involvement of every believer in a community – new celebration of Sunday.

 

8)   Practice of fasting (Monday, Wednesday, Friday = 3 ½ days a week).

 

9)   Short stops for prayer during the day (1 minute) at 9°°, 12°°, 15°°.

 

10)      Modification and purification of house/flat:

a) Every Christian home should have a separate space which would serve as a place to pray – a prayer corner. According to the Eastern tradition this corner should consist of a small altar with the Holy Scripture, a picture of the Mother of God with the Child Jesus in Her arms or also a cross and a little lamp with eternal light (as a symbol of God’s presence). If someone has a family house, the ideal is to have an underground chapel (a so-called cave – hermitage) where one can call upon God and praise Him even aloud and where also other Christians might gather for prayers – the centre for the home Church (cf. 1Cor 16:19; Rom 16:5).

b) Purification from pagan symbols and unclean pictures – signs of the zodiac, pagan idols, statuettes of Buddha, symbols of Egyptian and Greek mythology, Chinese and Japanese porcelain and decoration (dragons, Feng Shui...).

c) Purification of bookcase from occult books (instructions for meditations, Oriental philosophies and religions, literature of the New Age…) and from immoral literature (immoral novels…); on the other hand, one needs to have sound Christian literature – Holy Scripture, the lives of saints, The Imitation of Christ..., but to avoid literature which is written in a liberal spirit and ruins the Christian faith. 

d) The question of television: Television must not become an idol or a thief of time for a Christian. I will either maintain discipline, or, if I do not, I need to admit that I am a slave of television, and I must have the courage to remove it from my house.

e) Purification of technological equipment: In case this otherwise neutral technology (e.g. computer, internet, radio, hi-fi, video ...) serves the kingdom of God, it is a useful help; however, if it is abused towards demoralization and paralyzation of spiritual life, then it is necessary to draw radical conclusions therefrom. A Christian has to break with music behind which is the spirit of violence, impurity, cynicism, occultism and of other perversities (rock music, music of the New Age...). It is likewise necessary to radically reject improper films, computer games, whatever negative influence of internet and the like.

 

Conclusion

 

Your Holiness, hereby we have presented to You a proposal of a concrete form of repentance for the whole Church. It relates to the experience of the healing effects of public penance, which was practised especially by the Eastern Church. We believe that the unsolvable state of the Church will be solved by God through all-Church repentance lasting six years. For the whole of this period there would be a prohibition against the celebration of the Holy Liturgy applying to all bishops and priests. We believe that the fruit of repentance will be that the year 2014 will be the year of spiritual resurrection of the Church, and You will see it.

 

Do not be afraid to declare 1st January 2008 the time of repentance for the whole Church for six years.

          

  In Christ,

Fr. Metod?j R. Špi?ík ThD. OSBM

Fr. Markian V. Hitiuk ThLic. OSBM

Fr. Cyril J. Špi?ík ThD. Ing. OSBM

Fr. Eliáš A. Dohnal ThD. OSBM

 

Pidhirtsi 1st November 2007

 

Copies:

- Cardinals and Bishops of the Catholic Church

- Bishops of the Orthodox Church

 

 

Literature:

- Правила Св. вселенских соборов с толкованиями, ISBN 5-901094-24-7, Тутаев 2001

- Правила Св. поместных соборов с толкованиями, ISBN 5-901094-30-1, Тутаев 2001

 

Address: Monastery OSBM, 80660 Pidhirtsi, Brody district, Lvov region, Ukraine

www.community.org.ua