How Often to Confess and Commune

Confession and Communion are distinct mysteries. The Eucharist is the Church's central act, the Body and Blood of Christ given for the life of the faithful; confession is the mystery of repentance, in which sins are named and forgiven. The tradition relates them closely — repentance prepares us to approach the chalice — but it does not simply fuse them into a single event.

In the early Church the faithful communed often, at every Liturgy they attended, as St. Paul assumes when he warns each communicant to "examine himself" (1 Corinthians 11:28). Over later centuries, in much of the Orthodox world, Communion grew rare — for many, only once or a few times a year — and a habit formed of confessing each time, since a great deal had usually happened since the last confession. Understanding that history explains why practice today is not uniform: different customs preserved different pieces of an older whole.

In much of the Slavic world — Russian, Ukrainian, and Romanian practice especially — a strong tradition holds that one confesses before each reception of Communion. This grew up in centuries of infrequent communion and expresses real reverence: no one approaches the holy Gifts without first laying their conscience bare. Where this is the custom, a member who wishes to commune will typically go to confession the evening before or that morning.

In much of the Greek and Antiochian world, confession and Communion are less tightly coupled. Frequent Communion is encouraged, while confession is made regularly but at intervals — a rhythm often set with one's spiritual father, and in some places guided by norms such as confessing about once a month for those who commune often. Neither pattern is a departure from Orthodoxy; each guards something true, one the awe of approach, the other the Eucharist's place as the regular food of the faithful. The twentieth-century revival of frequent Communion in many jurisdictions has made the question a live and pastoral one rather than a settled formula. On what actually readies a person to receive — prayer, fasting, and reconciliation — see preparation for Holy Communion.

Because the practice varies, the honest answer to "how often?" is worked out with a priest, not read off a chart. A person newly serious about the faith, or carrying grave sin, needs confession before approaching; a person communing every Sunday still needs confession regularly, that Communion not become a routine taken for granted. Frequent Communion is not casual, and rare Communion is not automatically more reverent; both can be either faithful or careless, depending on the heart.

Preparation is the constant beneath the varying frequency: the appointed pre-Communion prayers and canons, the eucharistic fast from food and drink before the Liturgy, and peace with one's neighbors. Settle the rhythm with your spiritual father, who knows both the tradition and you, and then keep it faithfully rather than by mood.