+ “Those on whom You dawned with the light of Your love could no longer bear to live among men, but discarded every human love and became strangers to everything in their quest for the beloved. They abandoned their joys and went off in search for the beloved with tears.

They wept when they found themselves in the way, undeserving of the beauty of the beloved. They divested themselves of all the pleasures of the flesh and despised all human enjoyment. They loved weariness and sadness so that the heart of the beloved might become tender towards them.”

+ “These were drunk with love and when they heard : “Blessed are they
who mourn now”, they did not cease weeping.”

+ “ Oh Thou Love Divine, You raised the soul until You seated it in the light of its Creator. You purified it until it resembled its Lord, and the ferocious beasts became tame toward it, for they saw in it the image of its Creator and never stopped breathing its scent.”

+ It was not only the beasts that submitted to it, but the devils also were afraid when they saw the soul surrounded by love and slunk away when they perceived in it the image of the sovereignty of God.” (the Spiritual Elder).
I could find no more wonderful words, dear reader, to express:
 

1. The Meaning of Repentance

Repentance is love, the love of God that protects man from every wrong instinctively and with little struggle and with the support of divine grace. The dawning of divine love that radiates form the cross of the Beloved Christ into the heart of man makes him despise this passing world with all its mortal pleasures. These soon pass and with them life itself when the Lord calls: “This night your soul will be required of you” ... or “give an account of your stewardship” (Lk. 12: 20; Lk. 16: 2).

Is there anyone or anything that deserve more love than Christ?! Christ who loved you and redeemed you and who still loves you and talks to you: “ Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called by your name; you are Mine.” (Is. 43: 1).

Dear reader, the love of Jesus is yours and does not deserve that you should return it with indifference, wrongdoing and aloofness. Jesus does not want to control you or to deprive you of enjoyment, but He knows and you know that all sinful pleasure is temporary, destructive and is followed by remorse. So will you respond to the love of Jesus?
 

2. The Effects of Repentance:

+ The return to the tender arms of the Father.

+ Being saved from the attack of the enemy of good who wants to destroy us.

+ Raising the soul to sit with those in heaven and to live with God.

+ The return to the divine image in which we were originally created.
 

3. The Glory of Repentance:

+ Fellowship with the striving and victorious church.

+ Fellowship in the Divine Nature itself.

+ A happy eternity in the Lord with the host of angels and saints.

The mere fact of your remorse over your sins and your determination to abandon them with the help of the Lord, your faith in the blood of the Beloved and Redeeming Christ, and your honest confession to God in the presence of the priest, are the path to the forgiveness of past sins, a support in facing present weaknesses, and a guarantee of a holy future in Christ, as long as you preserve the integrity of the fellowship and the struggle.

“God who created you without you cannot save you without you.” (St. Augustine)

Let us sit quietly with the Lord, then sit with our spiritual father to experience the sweetness of repentance and the joy of forgiveness.
 

The Lord be with you!

My Lord Jesus Christ,
My spirit is poor when it hangs on to sin and rejects You!
When it relies on self and sells You!
When it resorts to self and acts without You!
The depths of my soul tell me everyday that sin is destructive, and sins control man.
There is nothing that can satisfy me ....... except You!
There is no one that can make my life happy ....... except You !
Grant, O Lord, that I might repent!
That I might turn my back to the mirage .... and the dust!
That I may turn to You with all my heart
Placing my treasure in heaven where You are, O sole source of happiness on this earth!