Quotes about repentance from the holy fathers and modern pastors

Meaning of the word

The liturgical books accepted in the Russian Church were translated from Greek by Sts. Cyril and Methodius. When translating St. Cyril and Methodius were faced with the lack of words and concepts among the Slavs that denote Christian values. There was no exact equivalent for the word "metanoia" (μετάνοια). It was translated as “repentance,” or recognition of past wrongdoing. The Greek meaning of “metanoia” is much deeper: change, insight. Thus, we are talking not just about recognizing one’s sinfulness, but about changing one’s life.

Repentance before preaching the Gospel

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” These were the first words of the sermon of John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ. Even then, repentance presupposed the beginning of a new life. Those who came to the Jordan to St. John, admitting his sins and repenting, was simultaneously asked how to change his life: “What should we do?” Such questions were asked by soldiers and publicans (tax collectors). Answers from St. John also concerned the way of life: “Do not demand anything more specific to you ... do not slander, be content with your salary” (Luke 3:10).

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The Holy Fathers call repentance second baptism. It is with confession that a person’s conscious church life begins; Christians approach it more often than other Sacraments. We talk about what confession is, what sorrows and joys confessors and confessors encounter in our time with the rector of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Saratov, Abbot Pachomius (Bruskov)

– Nowadays, many people lack the most basic ideas about church life, about the meaning and significance of the Sacraments.
In particular, there are many myths, fears and simply fictions regarding confession. How would you define the essence of this Sacrament? – Confession, repentance is an amazing Sacrament that allows a person to change, to start life anew. We remember that in the Gospel the sermon of Christ is preceded by the words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

In our time, the path to God also begins with repentance. It is with confession, with the awareness of one’s sins, that true churching begins. Often a person who comes to church attends services, reads church literature, and engages in some useful activity. But at the same time, he must understand that all this is not enough if there is no repentance. Any external changes must begin with cleansing the passions of your own heart.

– Many of our compatriots call themselves Orthodox. They come to the temple, attend services, but cannot bring themselves to approach the lectern. Why is it so difficult for a modern person to go to confession?

– Modern society lives according to laws that differ significantly from Christian ones. In any situation, regardless of the true state of affairs, a person strives for self-justification and condemnation of others. While in confession it is necessary to courageously admit your mistakes, without looking for justification in any external circumstances. During confession, a person is called to see his soul in its true light. The path of repentance is very difficult, but without the feat of personal confession of sins, salvation is impossible.

– Why is personal communication with a priest necessary? After all, the Lord sees the human heart; will He really not accept secret sighing?

– Yes indeed, the human heart, only God sees its depth. And only He can evaluate the strength and sincerity of repentance. But a priest is not an ordinary person to whom you can tell about your sins or problems. He, as the successor of the apostles, was given by Christ Himself a great and terrible power: to knit and decide (see: Matt. 18:18). But at the same time, the Lord Himself forgives sins and has mercy on a person. The priest is only a witness who will answer for the souls of the repentant at the Last Judgment.

– How responsible is a priest for his children?

– Exactly to the extent that the confessor trusts him, to the extent that he has the courage and determination to act with the blessing of the priest. And if a person, approaching for a blessing, already has his own decision, which is more valuable to him than the opinion of his confessor, if the desire to hear his opinion from the lips of the priest forces him to ask for advice from different priests, if there is no determination to change his life according to Christian commandments, it is hardly possible talk about any responsibility of the priest for such a person. At the same time, it should be understood that it is unacceptable to shift responsibility for one’s life onto the shoulders of a priest.

– During confession, a priest has to hear about the most unsightly actions, about the darkest movements of the soul. But often people come to confession with whom the priest communicates outside of the service. How does he bear this huge load?

– The answer to this question can be heard during the ordination. After all, it is in the Sacrament of the priesthood that a person is given Divine grace, which “heals the weak and replenishes the impoverished.” The priest is not an ordinary person. God gives him not only the power to forgive the sins of others, but also the opportunity to bear the pain of other people, to help the sufferer take the path of correction. In addition, any priest rejoices when a person brings sincere repentance and decides to change his life. After all, he first of all sees not dirt, not passions, but, on the contrary, the wonderful qualities of the human soul, which prompt it to begin the fight against sin.

“I even heard from church people that you shouldn’t name any sins or confess unclean thoughts, so as not to offend the priest or hurt his soul.

– This is the wrong approach. It is difficult to surprise a priest who has confessed to hundreds, or even thousands of people in his life. There are practically no actions that he has not heard of. Often the reason for such reasoning is hidden pride. A person, aware of his sinfulness, imagines that his falls are somehow special, that no one expected this from him. But the priest sees many passions even before confession. So parents often see, without any recognition, that something bad is happening to their child. And when he decides to admit it himself and ask for forgiveness, the parents rejoice. It is good when a person preparing for confession thinks about how not to hurt the priest’s heart and, if possible, shows love and delicacy. But this good desire must have reasonable limits. After all, when we come to the doctor, we do not ask whether the doctor is afraid of blood, but hope for help. And the doctor must abstract himself from the patient’s experiences precisely for his good. Of course, the doctor analogy is not entirely perfect. A doctor, healing a patient’s body, cannot feel mental pain. The priest, healing souls, shares the suffering and pain of his children. In a sense, the priest constantly dies for his flock. This is the essence of the true sacrificial ministry of a shepherd.

– What gives special grief to the confessing priest?

– It’s very difficult to see when a person, coming to confession, begins to condemn others, and justify himself, putting himself in a favorable light. In this case, it can be difficult to explain to him that the cause of sorrows and disorder is in his own heart. Often people approach confession formally. The sacrament of repentance is perceived as a kind of “pass” to Communion. Mental laziness is becoming a huge problem for many modern Christians. The person seems to repent, realizes the unrighteousness of his actions, and strives for correction. But when the priest begins to invite him to take specific actions, to correct something in his life, he is met with complete reluctance to work on himself, to seriously change anything. Another difficulty that people face as they become church members is getting used to confession. When a person begins to constantly attend divine services and participate in the Sacraments, it can be very difficult to maintain internal burning, a living sense of repentance. To do this, you need to constantly work, be attentive to your actions and thoughts. Reading patristic literature brings great benefit. In general, it should be noted that without reading, a Christian’s development and positive changes in his spiritual life are impossible. The greatest sorrow is caused by the hypocrisy and insincerity of the confessor. In confession, you should not remember the falls of distant youth, for which repentance has already been repeatedly brought. After all, every age and condition has its own sins. You need to repent of what a person is currently sinning. Nowadays, many people have no one to share their problems with, just to talk to. And therefore confession often turns into a conversation about life. This is also wrong.

– What pleases you most during confession?

– The greatest joy for a priest is the sincere appeal of a suffering soul to God. There is no greater consolation for a priest than to see sincere repentance, tears, and determination to fight sin.

– The priest helps a lot of people: he supports them, consoles them, gives advice in the most hopeless situations. What does confession give him?

– Any confessing priest must, of course, constantly confess himself. He will not be able to help people who come to him if he himself does not experience the path of repentance. As for the confession that he accepts, it helps him see his sins better and find answers to some personal questions.

– Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the problems of spiritual leadership, about the need to choose a confessor. But if there is no priest in the parish whom a person could call his spiritual father, should he still confess to one priest?

- I think yes. In spiritual life, consistency and some kind of system are absolutely necessary. Often a person who seeks to confess to different priests does not want to humble himself and values ​​his opinion above the blessing of the priest. Therefore, even if there is no priest in the parish for whom one feels a special affection, it is necessary to choose one confessor. In addition, the relationship between the confessor and the confessor, as a rule, develops over the years. It is necessary to pray that the Lord will send a person who can become a spiritual father.

– Is it necessary to reveal in confession not only sinful actions, but also sinful thoughts?

– It depends on the level of trust between the priest and the confessor. If there is a truly sincere, trusting relationship between them, it is worth talking not only about your actions, but also revealing your thoughts and confessing your passions. Especially if these thoughts constantly return to the person. After all, it happens that a person sins many times during the day, for example, condemnation. And when he thinks about the reason for his falls, he understands that behind this lies the passion of pride and pride.

– Often thoughts of hatred, condemnation, and irritation arise in relation to the confessor himself. Should I talk about this in confession?

– Of course, complete revelation of thoughts is only possible in a monastery. When such thoughts arise in a novice in relation to his spiritual father, or in the brethren in relation to the abbot, they must be confessed. Relationships in the world are somewhat different. Here everything depends on the same trust and reasoning. But if such thoughts constantly arise in a person, they should be confessed in any case.

– You mentioned verbosity as one of the mistakes of the confessor. How short and concise should confession be?

– It all depends on the time and circumstances. Thus, if a regular parishioner confesses on the Twelfth Feast, when there is a queue of several dozen people behind him, he should avoid verbose reasoning. For a long conversation discussing the problems and subtleties of spiritual life, some weekday is more suitable.

In general, there are two extremes. Either a person hides behind general phrases like “sinful in everything, sinned in deed, word and thought,” or he tries to give a detailed description of his life from infancy. Both options are incorrect. It is necessary to clearly, briefly, but at the same time clearly expose sin or passion, and not hide it behind weaving words. Often the reason for an overly detailed confession is a purely formal desire to “fully pay off” with God. They say, here, Lord, I have repented of everything, and I don’t owe You anything more. This is also wrong.

– But many parishioners simply do not know how to confess. They grew up outside the church tradition. And many mistakes that cause grief to the priest are a consequence of this inexperience.

- Yes this is true. But a lot depends on the person himself, on his sincerity and desire to understand church life. If he has some kind of sacrifice, a desire to change, he will definitely learn to confess. The Lord Himself will help such a person.

Interviewed by Marina Shmeleva

Trinity leaf

Metanoia of the ancient Church

A change in lifestyle and values ​​was repentance in early Christianity. One of the most striking examples is the publican Zacchaeus. His metanoia begins with humility. A famous rich man commits actions that are completely inappropriate for him: he climbs a fig tree to see the Teacher - Christ. And when the Lord comes to the house of Zacchaeus, the transformation of man is completed: he distributes half of his property to the poor, and makes multiple compensation for the damage to everyone he has offended. Therefore, the Lord says: “Now is the salvation of this house” (Luke 19:9)

Useful materials

During the Apostolic ministry, repentance also presupposed the unity of word and deed. “What should we do, men and brethren?” - the believers asked the Apostles after the descent of the Holy Spirit. They received the answer: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:37).

The young Christian community itself demonstrated repentance as an act. The converts sold their property, “laying its price at the feet of the Apostles” (Acts 5:1), and began a completely new life, not connected with the previous one.

The same was the image of repentance during the persecution of Christianity. From the life of St. Sebastian knows the episode with the baptism of Eparch Chromatius. The priest asked him:

“Do you renounce your past sins?”

To this Chromatius remarked:

“This should have been asked of me at the beginning: I will put on my clothes again and will not accept holy baptism until I renounce my sins; I will be reconciled with those with whom I had enmity and will love those with whom I was angry; whoever is angry with me, I will ask forgiveness from them. I will forgive all my debtors, but if I have taken anything from anyone by force, I will return it to him strictly... I will arrange all my official and household affairs according to the will of God, and then I will say with boldness: “I renounce all my sins and accept holy baptism.”

Formation of the rite of repentance

Repentance of Chromatia - conversion of a pagan. But with the beginning of the persecution, Christians appeared who renounced their faith out of fear. Already from the 3rd century. The question arose of how to deal with such believers if they wanted to turn to the Church. There was a special rank for this.

According to sources, already from the 3rd century. repentance was public. It included three stages:

• acceptance of the sinner among the repentant;
• penance;
• return to church fellowship.

At all stages, the priest played the most important role, according to the word of the Gospel:

“...Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).

At the first stage, the sinner came to the priest, who found out the sincerity of his intentions. The presbyter laid his hands on him in prayer. But this was only the beginning of reconciliation with the Church. On the first day of Great Lent, the penitent, led into the temple by the bishop, was thrown to the ground “in dust and ashes.” The community prayed for him. The bishop delivered a denunciation.

Then the second, longest stage began - penance. Those who carried out this feat were divided into 4 groups:

• those crying (during the service they stood outside the church, asking for prayers for themselves);
• those listening (stood in the vestibule);
• those who fell (were at the service before the Liturgy of the Faithful, they were obliged to leave with the catechumens at its end);
• stand-up (were present at the liturgy until the end, but were not allowed to receive Communion).

For many days, and sometimes months, even years, the sinner moved from one category to another until he turned out to be “worth a purchase.”

The third stage of repentance came after penance. Usually, penitents were introduced into church communion during Holy Week, shortly before Easter. Prayers were said over the penitent, he again asked for forgiveness from the faithful, confessed his renunciation in front of everyone, making a promise to correct his life. Upon the laying on of hands by the bishop, a person was forgiven of his sins. Now he could begin to study the Holy Mysteries.

Definition of virtue

The common Slavic word “repent” has several meanings: to punish oneself, to admit guilt, to regret what one has done. In Greek, this word has the following meaning: change of thoughts, repentance, rebirth, complete change of being. This word itself in Greek - metanoia (read as metanoia) consists of two Greek words. The first is meta, which in this word means transition from one state to another. The second is noia, which is formed from the word nooz - (mind, reason, thought, way of thinking) + the suffix - ia, which has the meaning of quality. Accordingly, the resulting word means a transition to a qualitatively different way of thinking.

According to the teaching of the holy fathers, the virtue of repentance is the cornerstone in the matter of salvation.

Secret Confession

From the middle of the 4th century, when persecution ceased, there were significantly fewer apostates, and other sins associated with various kinds of passions came to the fore. Confession remains public. But voices are heard about the seduction of such a confession for other faithful.

There is an opinion that the main reason for the appearance of secret confession was the gradual cooling of ardent religious feelings. Not for everyone, confession becomes “metanoia”, when the sin committed is absolutely rejected and can easily be called out loud as non-existent.

Increasingly, believers are ashamed to name their sins in front of everyone.

Interesting fact

It is believed that in the East confession remained public until the 5th century, in the West until the 7th century. Already from the 4th century. Only grave sins (murder, sacrilege, fornication, incest, insult to authority) were subject to public confession.

Gradually the need for painstaking work with the believer and his spiritual problems begins to be realized. Priests-confessors appear with a special blessing from the bishop for this work. Since the 9th century, after the iconoclastic heresy, the practice of making confession only by hieromonks was established in Byzantium. It was believed that monks who showed particular firmness of faith were more reliable spiritual leaders than lay priests.

The Sacrament of Confession in Rus'

Rus', which received Baptism from Byzantium, made an attempt to adopt this tradition. However, the number of monastics was too small; there were even few white clergy. Therefore, confession in Rus' was performed by both monks and lay priests. But at the same time in the X-XVII centuries. The tradition was absolute obedience to a confessor, even a lay one, similar to how a monk obeys his elder.

Interesting fact

Until the middle of the 17th century. Confession in Russia had many features that brought it closer to the repentance of the first centuries of Christianity.

For example, according to the Trebnik of 1647, the penitent, like the custom of the 3rd century, was led into the temple by the priest. Next, the priest “will place him in front of the royal doors... in the church the priest will put on sacred clothes and take up the Holy Gospel and the Honorable Cross and place it on the lectern in front of the Holy doors right at the royal doors... Anyone who wants to repent enters with fear and humility and a contrite heart, with his hand bent to Persian... and lays his hand and head on the lectern, weeping with tears his sin.”

The confession itself included questions about all aspects of life. There were lists of questions for lay men, women, boyars, the tsar, monastics, priests, etc. Trebniks until the 17th century. There are no special prayers of permission. After all, the whole sacrament as a whole became “metanoia” for the penitent.

Confession and Communion

In the ancient Church the two sacraments were not strictly connected. So, the life of St. Mary of Egypt (IV century) tells that she began to receive Communion after her personal repentance before the icon of the Mother of God. There is no evidence that any confessor performed the sacrament of repentance over Mary.

Interesting fact

It was possible to begin the Holy Mysteries without confession in Rus' until the beginning of the 18th century. The ban on Communion without confession was introduced only during the Synodal period of Church history.

Currently, the issue of the connection between Confession and Communion is being discussed in the church environment, but the tradition of not taking Communion without confession is preserved everywhere.

Make a firm intention to lead a life pleasing to God

And immediately repent of those attempts that happen to you due to weakness or the cunning of the enemy or due to a coincidence. It is common for a person to fall and rise, and it is common for fallen angels to fall and remain in the fall.

Prescribe in yourself an image of correction, think about what good things you need to leave behind, what virtues you should implant in your body and soul. Don’t think about it just once during the week, but think about it every day, what you forgot today, you’ll remember tomorrow. The more you immerse yourself in consideration, the more satisfactory your confession and repentance will be, the more palpable and abundant the renewal bestowed by confession will flow into your soul.

How is confession done in church now?

The modern rite of confession has developed since the middle of the 17th century. after the liturgical reform of Patriarch Nikon. It is much shorter than the rites to which our ancestors of the 10th-17th centuries were accustomed.

Repentance and Confession

According to the Trebnik, it is necessary to perform the sacrament before the icon of the Lord. The Breviary indicates that the believer when performing the sacrament is one, “and not two or many.” But this rule is almost always violated, since, as a rule, there is more than one person who wants to begin the sacrament.

Now the rank includes:

• the priest's initial cry, “Blessed be our God...”;
• the so-called “ordinary beginning”, according to liturgists, is one of the most ancient elements of any worship service, dating back to the Apostles. This is the Trisagion, the prayers “Holy Trinity”, “Our Father”;
• Psalm 50 (“Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy”);
• two priestly prayers;
• a brief address by the priest;
• Symbol of faith. It must be said by the penitent, but in practice it is often done by the priest;
• questions to the confessor;
• prayer of permission. While pronouncing it, the priest places the epitrachelion on the penitent.

at the end of the sacrament, “It is worthy to eat” is sung and dismissal is pronounced. But since in most cases confession occurs during worship, most often this is not done.

How to repent of your sins

Repentance involves changing the way you think and live. According to the Orthodox understanding, verbal confession is only one of the stages of repentance. “Metanoia” itself is a process in which the following is distinguished:

• repentance, that is, awareness of one’s fall. This stage is necessary, but getting stuck on it can lead to despair from the sight of your sins. The most striking example of repentance without repentance is Judas, who betrayed Christ and committed suicide out of despair;
• turning to God, that is, seeking the Lord’s help in overcoming one’s fall;
• actual verbal confession of sins to the priest;
• the resolution of sins coming through the priest from God Himself;
• liberation from sins, strengthening in good deeds, that is, actually a change in life. This stage requires the constant help of God; many experienced confessors say that a person needs not so much to try to cope with sin on his own, but to show the desire, the will to change.

  Lectern, Gospel and Cross

How do the concepts of “soul”, “conscience” and “repentance” relate?

“The living soul,” the breath of life, is God’s gift to man, created “from the dust of the ground” (Gen. 1:7). The voice of the soul is the conscience of a person. As the Apostle John the Theologian wrote, “If our heart condemns us, how much more will God? for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things” (John 3:20).

Just as the body requires food and clothing, the soul also needs to satisfy its needs. The main one is the need to communicate with your Creator, God. If a person withdraws from this communication, he feels the conviction of his conscience - the image of God in the soul. Then a person needs repentance. The Holy Fathers advise that when preparing for it, one should be guided precisely by the convictions of conscience, but they warn that a person’s conscience can die, suppressed by many worldly concerns.

Daily confession of sins in home prayer

In the prayer books, among the evening prayers there is “Everyday Confession of Sins.” In addition, experienced confessors advise checking your conscience using prayer 3 of the evening rule and prayer 4 before Communion.

Can repentance fix the past?

Repentance, of course, does not change the events of a person’s past life - “you can’t undo what’s done.” But it changes the attitude towards these events and, with the help of God, gives strength to overcome the consequences of the sins committed.

Repentance as a virtue

Thus, we see that in repentance the most important thing is the vector, the direction of life. If for a carnal person the vector of life is his “I”, then for a repentant person the vector of life is directed towards the Lord.

Archimandrite Platon (Igumnov), discussing repentance, writes: “The meaning of a person’s moral self-determination lies in freely overcoming sin and turning to virtue. Since usually a person is constantly in the grip of passions, any episodic repentance for committed sins is not yet completely adequate to the concept of repentance. A person must strive to throw off sin that is hateful and alien to his nature and continuously turn the strength of his mind to God, so that his repentance becomes a new self-determination in freedom and is crowned with the triumph of grace in his personal life.”

It follows that repentance is not only a vector of life, but also a constant process that must be carried out in a person incessantly, just as passions incessantly act in him.

The Gospel of Repentance

“Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman taken in adultery, and, placing her in the middle, they said to Him: Teacher! this woman was taken in adultery; and Moses commanded us in the law to stone such people. What do you say? They said this, tempting Him, in order to find something to accuse Him of. But Jesus, bending low, wrote with his finger on the ground, not paying attention to them. When they continued to ask Him, He bowed down and said to them: He who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her. And again, bending low, he wrote on the ground. They, having heard this and being convicted by their conscience, began to leave one after another, starting from the eldest to the last; and only Jesus remained and the woman standing in the middle. Jesus, standing up and not seeing anyone but the woman, said to her: woman! where are your accusers? no one judged you? She answered: no one, Lord! Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; Go and sin no more" (Gospel of John 8:2-12)

“As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the toll booth, and he said to him, “Follow Me.” And he stood up and followed Him. And while Jesus was reclining in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined with Him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples: Why does your Teacher eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Jesus, having heard this, said to them: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, go and learn what it means: I want mercy, and not sacrifice? For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Gospel of Matthew 9:9-13).

“...But He told them the following parable: Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? And having found it, he will take it on his shoulders with joy and, having come home, will call his friends and neighbors and say to them: rejoice with me: I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent” (Gospel of Luke 15:3-7).

Do not agree with the thoughts of the evil one, who will inspire you:

How to tell your spiritual father a sin, both heinous and base? Now hide it, and you will be less ashamed to talk about your sin, as if it were long past and barely remembered. Recognize the voice of the ancient serpent, coming in the form of an enemy, may he steal your good thoughts, may he kill you with evil advice and destroy you by taking away the salvation offered to you in repentance by the Lord.

Turn away from the evil one, do not listen to him, do not taste the poison that is deadly to your soul.

Reject false, harmful shame - the keeper of sins, reject its mother - pride, blame and condemn yourself. Bow your head in contrition of spirit, confess your sins to God - and through the medium of the servant of God the grace of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you, bringing into the house of your soul the remission of sins and in return for them the truth from God with eternal salvation, may you be blessed and may you glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit now and ever and ever. Amen.

Holy Fathers on Repentance

“With regard to active life, we cannot do anything worthy without repentance; but the Lord has much mercy on us for our intention. He who forces himself and holds on to repentance until his death, even if he sins in anything, will be saved for forcing himself; for this the Lord promised in the Gospel.” (Venerable Mark the Ascetic)

“...A dead body does not rise by human force, but a dead soul rises through repentance.” (St. John Chrysostom)

“...If, enjoying sin, you become stuck in it, then repentance will turn away from you, because you knew how good it was and preferred sin to it.” (St. Ephraim the Syrian)

“Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a covenant with God to correct life... Repentance is the constant rejection of bodily consolation. Repentance is the thought of self-condemnation and care for oneself, free from external cares... The repentant is an unashamed condemned... Repentance is the cleansing of the conscience" (St. John Climacus)

“When a person stops praying, he moves away from God and becomes like an ox: he works, eats, sleeps. And the more he moves away from God, the worse it becomes. The heart becomes cold, and then he can no longer pray at all. In order to come to one’s senses, the heart must soften, turn to repentance, and be touched” (St. Paisius the Holy Mountain)

Properties and power of repentance

Repentance is omnipotent, as an institution of omnipotent God. There is no sin that can withstand the face of repentance. It is a gift given to fallen human nature, it is a remnant of our primitive fragility, as is the consciousness of fragility and lamentation about its loss, it is the proclamation of baptism, it is the connection between earth and heaven. Through it all sin is cleansed and blotted out. If you are burdened with grave sins, do not stop at all from beginning to repent. A minor sin will remain unerased if the sinner neglected to repent of it, as insignificant, in his opinion. Almighty repentance saved entire cities, kingdoms, and canceled the sentences already pronounced by God.

Fighting Sin

St. Theophan the Recluse wrote that it is necessary, first of all, to hate sin. But this is not enough. God's help is needed to overcome sin and its consequences. For this you need the sacrament of repentance.

At the same time, it should be understood that the fight against sinful passions takes a whole life. There is a well-known story about Abba Sisoes, to whom his spiritual son complained: “What should I do, Abba? I have fallen! St. Sisoy answered his brother: “If you have fallen, then get up!” “But, father, I rose and fell again!” - “And get up again!” Having asked how long the fall and repentance would continue, the brother received the answer: “Until you are taken from here, good or bad.”

“It seems there are no particular sins” - it just seems

He who has saved himself from mortal sins should not think that he needs a little repentance. Your sins are light before your eyes, but you do not know what the severity of them is in the face of justice, and you cannot imagine how you yourself suffer from these sins in your soul, you do not see the darkening of your gaze and worldview from them.

When we remove the blinding entertainment from us, when we delve deeper into ourselves and begin to examine ourselves, comparing the states of our souls with what the commandments of God require and what the Holy Fathers explain, then we ourselves recognize small sins as no longer small.

Lessons of repentance from Holy Tradition

Tradition tells of many cases of sincere repentance and complete change of life already in the first century of the existence of Christianity.

Repentance of the Apostles

One of the most striking examples of repentance is St. Peter. The Great Apostle, revered as one of the “pillars of the Church,” experienced his renunciation of the Teacher for many years. The repentant mood penetrated so deeply into Peter’s life that he could not hear the rooster crow without tears of repentance.

The great Paul, “Apostle of the tongues,” called himself “a monster” and “the least of the Apostles.” He always remembered that he was a persecutor of Christians, converted by the Lord Himself.

Repentance of the saints

One of the most amazing is the penitential feat of the harlot Mary. Repentance and trust in the Lord made her a great ascetic, known as Mary of Egypt.

Holy Venerable Mary of Egypt

But the path to changing yourself is not easy. There, the repentant encounters many temptations, and therefore it is so important to attribute your change not to your own efforts, but to the Lord. The life of Jacob the hermit (March 4) provides an example of both the fall and the uprising by the power of God.

St. James, living in the desert for many years, acquired the gift of clairvoyance and healing, and even cast out demons. Having once expelled the unclean from a young girl, the elder dreamed of his own holiness. Immediately the grace of the Lord left him. The monk, a virgin from his mother’s womb, first fell with the girl, then, fearing publicity, killed her. Falling into despair, the monk, who had ruined his feat, would return to the world. But the brothers’ convictions had an effect on the sinner. It was not God’s will for him to perish. Having secluded himself, the monk prayed for forgiveness for many years. And after 10 years the monk received a notice of pardon. He again became a miracle worker, but never again attributed miracles to his exploits.

Why hesitate?

Why stop, come into doubt and double-mindedness, with which the devil amuses himself and strengthens himself against us?

You might say that numerous, grave, long-term sins lead to doubts and double-mindedness, from constant falls into sin the strength of the soul has become exhausted, I feel a weakening of the will itself.

Yes, your sins are grave! For all doctors, your condition is incurable, but not for the doctor - the Almighty and Infinitely merciful Lord. He will not reproach you, no harsh word will come from his mouth, He calls you to Himself solely to grant you forgiveness and healing.