"A Manual of Confession" by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

This book, Exomologetarion: A Manual of Confession, written by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite has got to be the most intensive and in-depth text concerning the whole role, idea, process of the Mystery of Confession, which is sum 400 pages long(!).  After reading this book it transformed my whole perception of what Confession is and how to properly going about it.  Naturally, I have excerpts from the book.  

“Confession is such a potent treatment that it immediately neutralizes every poison of pardonable and mortal sin […] restoring to the soul its initial health and grace.”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“[I]f you wish to repent properly, must depart from the devil and from diabolical works and return to God and to the life proper to God.”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“Know secondly that the aspects of repentance are three:  contrition, confession, and satisfaction.”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“Contrition is sorrow and perfect pain of the heart…”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“Groan after you have sinned, not because you are to be punished (for this is nothing), but because you have offended your Master, one so gentle, one so kind, one Who loves you so much and longs for your salvation as to have given even His Son for you.  On account of this, groan.”  St. John Chrysostom

“Related to contrition is affliction […] which comes about, not because a person disappointed God by his sins, but because that person was deprived of divine grace…”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“[Going to your Confessor] when he tells you to confess your sins before the Master Christ, then kneel before His sacred Icon, saying: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son (Luke 15:18-19).”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“So then […] you must confess with your own mouth […]but voluntary and by your own free will, saying with David: ‘Out of my desire will I confess to Him’ (Psalm 27:7).  You should not wait for the Spiritual Father to question you, but you should be the first to begin confessing.”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“You must confess compuntionately, with much humility and a broken heart, in the same manner as the harlot confessed her sins, and the Canaanite woman, and just as the Publican prayed, in order for God to accept your confession and grant you the forgiveness of sins: ‘A heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise’ (Psalm 50:17)  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“[W]hen the Spiritual Father is reproving you for some transgression, remaining silent and not angry, nor interrupting his words, but receiving the reproof with joy, as if God Himself were reproving you.”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“You must not accuse one and the other when you confess, making excuses that they were the cause for you to sin…No, you must only accuse yourself, and yourself alone, and your evil will.”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“You must confess truthfully and honestly from your heart, revealing all of your sins just as you committed them…”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

“One or the other, brother: either you will reveal your sins now before your Spiritual Father, or then at the fearful judgment.”  St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite