Exomologetarion: A Manual of Confession: A Book Most Profitable to the Soul Containing Concise instruction to the Spiritual Father on how to conduct a fruitful confession, the Canons of St. John the Faster meticulously interpreted, pleasing counsel for the penitent on how to confess as one should, and a homily on repentance profitable to the soul. Gathered from various teachers and put into good order.

by our Righteous God-bearing Father Nikodemos the Hagiorite Translated by Fr. George Dokos Volume 1 of The Works of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite “St Nikodemos’ Exomologetarion is a masterpiece of spiritual insight and direction which is composed of three distinct sections: the first being the qualifications of a true confessor, the second being the thirty-eight canons and seventeen penances of St John ‘the Faster’ together with commentaries and interpretations, and the third being St Nikodemos’ own fatherly counsels and a homily concerning the Mystery of Confession.” —“Preface” CONTENTS    The Synodical Act of the Ecumenical Patriarchate    Preface    Introduction    Abbreviations PART ONE INSTRUCTION TO THE SPIRITUAL FATHER    To the Most Reverend Spirutual Fathers in Christ with Filial Veneration    Epigram    Chapter One: What One Must Possess Before Becoming a Spiritual Father       1. Concerning the virtue of the Spiritual Father    Chapter Two: Concerning the Knowledge of the Spiritual Father       1. Concerning knowledge of the divine Scriptures, of the Dogmas, and of the sacred Canons    Chapter Three: Concerning Mortal Sins, Pardonable Sins, and Sins of Omission       1. Concerning mortal sins       2. Concerning pardonable sins       3. Concerning sins of omission    Chapter Four: Concerning the Ten Commandments       1. Concerning the First Commandment       2. Concerning the Second Commandment       3. Concerning the Third Commandment       4. Concerning the Fourth Commandment       5. Concerning the Fifth Commandment       6. Concerning the Sixth Commandment       7. Concerning the Seventh Commandment       8. Concerning the Eighth Commandment       9. Concerning the Ninth Commandment       10. Concerning the Tenth Commandment    Chapter Five: Concerning the Circumstances of Sin       1. Concerning Who       2. Concerning What       3. Concerning Why       4. Concerning Manner       5. Concerning Time       6. Concerning Place       7. Concerning Frequency       8. Concerning the circumstances preceding and following a sin    Chapter Six: Concerning Thoughts       1. How many types of thoughts there are       2. What vain thoughts are and how they are corrected       3. The causes of bad thoughts       4. The internal causes of bad thoughts       5. The treatments for bad thoughts       6. The internal treatments for bad thoughts          A. Prayer, especially noetic prayer, as a treatment for bad thoughts          B. Rebuttal as a treatment for bad thoughts          C. Disregard as a treatment for bad thoughts       7. How harmful bad thoughts are and how beneficial their treatment is    Chapter Seven: Concerning the Mystery of Repentance    Chapter Eight: Concerning an Active Priesthood and Permission to Become a Spiritual Father    Chapter Nine: What One Must Do When He Becomes a Spiritual Father       1. How to conduct confession       2. Pre-confession counsel of the Spiritual Father to the penitent       3. That properly, the Spiritual Father is not to question       4. How the Spiritual Father is to listen to sins       5. What people the Spiritual Father should question and how       6. How the Spiritual Father is to deal with those who are ashamed       7. Whom the Spiritual Father must reprove and when and how       8. How the Spiritual Father is to care for those with thoughts of blasphemy and doubt       9. For whom must confession be postponed       10. That the Spiritual Father is not to confess those with whom he is an accessory in sin       11. How the Spiritual Father should examine those who will be ordained in the future       12. How the Spiritual Father is to deal with those who are excommunicated       13. How to care for those who have made vows       14. How the Spiritual Father is to counsel fornicators, adulterers, sodomists, those who practice bestiality, and masturbators       15. How to care for monks       16. How to care for clergymen who have sinned       17. How the Spiritual Father is to deal with those who are ill       18. That the Spiritual Father should perform confession slowly    Chapter Ten: How the Spiritual Father Is to Assign a Rule       1. That the Spiritual Father is to assign a rule according to the Faster       2. How the penitent who has many sins is cared for       3. When the one placed under a rule should receive Communion       4. That a rule is two-fold       5. That an opposite rule be given       6. What rule blasphemers and perjurers are to be given       7. What rule thieves and the unjust are to be given       8. What rule fornicators, adulterers, and sodomists are to be given       9. What rule accusers and rancorous people are to be given       10. What rule murderers are to be given       11. Advice to the penitent so that he also accepts the abstinence from Communion       12. What rule the infirm and the elderly are to be given       13. As many as do not accept their rule and the abstinence from Communion are to be dismissed       14. How women who are married and who have relatives are cared for    Chapter Eleven: Concerning the Prayer of Forgiveness       1. Thus you make a supplication for mercy and for the forgiveness of the sins of the penitent       2. That the Spiritual Father must place his hand on the penitents       3. Final counsel of the Spiritual Father to the penitent    Chapter Twelve: That the Spiritual Father Is Not to Reveal Sins    Epilogue ADDENDUM    How the Spiritual Father Should Question Those Confessing About the Chief Sins, According to the Ten Commandments       1. Questions concerning the First Commandment       2. Questions concerning the Second Commandment       3. Questions concerning the Third Commandment       4. Questions concerning the Fourth Commandment       5. Questions concerning the Fifth Commandment          If a patriarch or hierarch is confessing          If a Spiritual Father is confessing          If a parish priest is confessing          If an abbot of a monastery or an elder is confessin          If a teacher or mentor is confessing          If a king or ruler is confessing       6. Questions concerning the Sixth Commandment       7. Questions concerning the Seventh Commandment       8. Questions concerning the Eighth Commandment          If a nobleman is confessing          If a judge is confessing          If a patriarch or hierarch is confessing       9. Questions concerning the Ninth Commandment       10. Questions concerning the Tenth Commandment PART TWO THE CANONS OF ST JOHN THE FASTER    Prologue: Concerning St John the Faster    Canon 1: The Apology    Canon 2    Canon 3    Canon 4    Canon 5    Canon 6    Canon 7    Canon 8    Canon 9    Canon 10    Canon 11    Canon 12    Canon 13    Canon 14    Canon 15    Canon 16    Canon 17    Canon 18    Canon 19    Canon 20    Canon 21    Canon 22    Canon 23    Canon 24    Canon 25    Canon 26    Canon 27    Canon 28    Canon 29    Canon 30    Canon 31    Canon 32    Canon 33    Canon 34    Canon 35    Canon A    Canon B    Canon C    Some Pertinent Subjects Outside of the Canons of the Faster       A. Concerning Those Who Have Denied Christ       B. Concerning Those Who Have Committed Bestiality       C. Concerning Those Who Marry a Second and Third Time       D. Concerning Marriage Between an Orthodox and a Heretic       E. Whose Offerings are Not Accepted       F. Concerning Fasting on Wednesday and Friday       G. That One Should Not Demand Usury, That Is, Interest       H. Concerning Clergy Who Marry After Ordination and Monks and Nuns Who Marry After Taking the Monastic Schema       I. Concerning the Monastic Schema and Monastic Apparel       J. Monks and Hieromonks Are to Reside in Their Monasteries and They Should Not Be in the World Involved in Ecclesiastical and Political Affairs PART THREE COUNSEL FOR THE PENITENT    To the Brethren in Christ Greeting    Epigram    Chapter One: How Everyone Should Prepare Before Confession       1. What is repentance?       2. The aspects of repentance       3. Contrition       4. Affliction       5. Confess to an experienced Spiritual Father       6. How one is to examine his consience       7. Sin wrongs God in three ways       8. Sin wrongs the sinner in three ways       9. Sorrow over temporal goods is futile    Chapter Two: How the Sinner Should Confess       1. The meaning of confession       2. Confession must be voluntary       3. Confession must be compunctionate       4. Confession must be accusatory       5. Confession must be honest       6. Confession must be done without shame       7. Sins will be made manifest either now or then       8. If a single sin is unconfessed, the other sins also remain unforgiven       9. Confession must be resolute    Chapter Three: The Sinner Is to Accept His Rule With Joy       1. The meaning of satisfaction       2. Examples of people placed under a rule for their sins       3. Whoever keeps their rule is a genuine child of the Church       4. The penitent should of his own accord seek even a greater rule       5. The sinner will receive either a temporary rule now or an eternal rule then       6. The penitent must maintain the abstention from Communion    Chapter Four:Precautions After Confession       Precaution 1: Remembrance of Sins       Precaution 2: Avoidance of the Causes of Sin       Precaution 3: Frequent Confession          Benefit 1          Benefit 2          Benefit 3          Benefit 4          Benefit 5       Precaution 4: Remembrance of the Last Things       Precaution 5: Knowledge of Sin          1. Knowledge of sin according to sin in and of itself          2. Knowledge of sin according to its circumstances             Circumstance 1: The sinner             Circumstance 2: The cause             Circumstance 3: The place             Circumstance 4: The time             Circumstance 5: The evil results                Evil 1                Evil 2                Evil 3                Evil 4                Evil 5                Evil 6                Evil 7          3. Knowledge of sin according to the three punishments it received             Punishment of sin in the angels             Punishment of sin in men             Punishment of sin in the Person of Jesus Christ       Precaution 6: Prayer       A Prayer    Epilogue HOMLY ON REPENTANCE    Introduction    Part 1    Part 2: The Harm Caused to the Salvation of Those Who Sin With the Hope of Confessing and Repenting       1. An excessive amount of sins       2. The excessive gravity of sins       3. Disregard, boasting, unrepentance, and denial    Part 3: Concerning the Treatment of Those Who Sin With the Hope That They Will Confess and Repent       1. Prayer as a treatment       2. Knowledge of true repentance and its fruit as a treatment          A. Confession must entail grief             B. The grief must be drastic          C. The grief must be great and extreme          D. The grief must be supranatural          E. Pain of heart is an element of repentance          F. Grief and contrition is primarily a charisma of God          G. Confession does not remove the evil inclinations of the heart          H. What one needs to do after confession          I. True repentance requires four things          J. How the Scripture reveals the evil inclinations of the heart          K. Those who have recently repented are like the sick when they just recover from an illness          L. What gives rise to grief and contrition          M. Pain of heart must be perpetual          N. Why this grief must be perpetual          O. Repentance does not erase the scars and marks of sin          P. How many good things pain of heart brings          Q. The lifestyle and diet of those who are penitents and culpable must be different from that of those who are blameless          R. The signs of forgiveness of sins from God       3. How the saying, “Fall and rise,” is explained       4. A fearful story    Conclusion INDICES    SCRIPTURAL INDEX    Old Testament    New Testament    INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND NAMES Item Number: BKUM829 Publication data: Thessalonica, Greece: Uncut Mountain Press, 2006 Format: softcover Number of pages: 479 Dimensions (l × w × h): 20.5 cm × 14.0 cm × 2.7 cm Additional information: black-and-white illustrations ISBN: 960‒86778‒3‒1 $24.95 (USD)

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