Dear Sant,
Excellent questions! You really ARE serious about your faith and its practice!
First of all, the Eastern Church does indeed distinguish between the kind of sin that the West calls "mortal" and that can indeed exclude one from participation in the Life of God, in this world and the next - and the kind of "daily sins" that we all commit, i.e. the just man falling seven times daily.
It depends on circumstances as well. A person may be regularly committing a "small sin" and sees nothing wrong with "bending the rules a bit."
That kind of perpetual sinful habit CAN be seen as a more serious sin at another level - an actual act of the will to "pick and choose" which commandments to keep and which to ignore at one's whim.
And it can lead one into more serious sin - once the will is accustomed to the sin of pride.
We generally also tend to be blind about our own sinfulness and the role of the Confessor is also that of helping us see the wrong that we are not aware we are doing and come to a better appreciation of it so as to repent of it.
In the "Way of the Pilgrim," the Pilgrim goes to confession in the Pochaiv Monastery. He writes down all his sins, in the minutest detail.
He is then told by the Confessor that he ommitted to write down that he hates God and his neighbour, hates the scriptures etc.
At this, the Pilgrim is taken aback. How can he "hate God?"
He is told that if he truly loved God, he would be always thinking of Him and prayer would be sweetest thing to him. Instead, he rarely thinks of God and prayer is a "chore."
He hates his neighbour because if he loved him, then every good thing that would comes his way would make him happy. Instead, he grows jealous of his neighbour etc.
The Pilgrim then realized the overall direction in which his life was going and he realized the sinfulness to which he was prone, but was hitherto blinded to.
The point in confession is not to assess whether a sin is heavy or light - although murder and adultery are "up there" with respect to the former, to be sure!
It is to assess whether we are living close to God and are looking for opportunities to deepen our relationship with Him. Are we moving more towards Him daily, or away from Him?
Little sins can be a symptom of the latter, and so, they cover up a deeper moral issue.
Confession is ALWAYS necessary whenever we have committed a serious offence against the commandments of God and His Church. No other form of penance can replace the need for private confession to a priest in that case.
But confession doesn't remove our inclination toward sin and our "state of sinful rebellion."
This is why we must constantly be in the Jesus Prayer and acts of repentance and self-renewal.
The Catechism of St Peter Mohyla lists nine precepts of the Church:
1) Daily prayer, three times daily at a minimum. especially on Sundays and Feast Days, when we are to hear sermons etc. praying always.
2) Praying for all manner of people and interceding for them.
3) Keeping all the Church's Fasts.
4) Holy Communion at least during each of the four main fasts of the year - and more frequently, but at least once a year.
5) Respect and care for the clergy.
6) Observing the laws relating to marriage.
7) Not to read writings that contain outright heresy or question faith and morals.
8) Respect for all church property.
9) Support of charitable institutions.
Some of the Latinizations in our Church have become very deeply entrenched. It is best to tolerate them, if nothing else.
Even a very Eastern parish like mine has the May devotion to the Mother of God, but sings Paraclesis services during the weekdays and Akathists on the weekend.
Alex
