Prelest, also known as spiritual delusion, spiritual deception, delusion, illusion,--according to the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church, a false spiritual state, a spiritual illness, "a wounding of human nature by falsehood"--a man's assimilation of falsehood as truth (Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov). The concept of prelest should not be confused with somatic mental illness of any kind, prelest is rather a spiritual illness-an illness of the soul in its personal relation to God, an illness that is to be cured by humility and Holy Sacraments (Mysteria) and under the guidance of the Spiritual Father (Father Confessor). I

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God."

If we don't have a clear understanding of what the Church really stands for, the consequences could be catastrophic. We could get scandalized very easily by the actions of individuals and become distracted or get to the point whereby we would be ready to reject the Church altogether. A misguided approach to the Church could lead us to a counterfeit relationship with God. And by extension, it could also lead us to a false relationship with our environment.

Let me first clarify that in discussing the illness of the soul, we do not mean psychological imbalances, as understood by humanistic psychotherapy, or illnesses originating from disturbances of the nerves and, in general, physical causes. Humanistic psychology talks about the soul outside the Orthodox perspective. So it is necessary to discuss what exactly man's soul is and what its illness consists of.

The Mystery (Sacrament) of Holy Confession: As with the other Mysteries (Sacraments) of the Church, Holy Confession was instituted by Christ Himself. Jesus told His Apostles: "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (St. Matthew 18:18) Christ's public life began with the cry of Saint John the Baptist: "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (St. Matthew 3:2). The quintessential model of repentance-confession is found in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.