Vigils Reading

ON REPENTANCE

From the writing of St Silouan the Athonite

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Glory be to the Lord that He gave us repentance. Through repentance we

shall all, every one of us, be saved. Only those who refuse to repent will not find

salvation, and therein I see their despair, and shed abundant tears of pity for them.

They have not known through the Holy Spirit how great is God’s mercy. But if

every soul knew the Lord, knew how deeply He loves us, no one would ever

despair, or murmur against his lot. Every soul that has lost peace should repent

and the Lord will forgive her her sins, and there will be joy and peace in the soul…

Here is a token of forgiveness: if you detest sin, it means the Lord has forgiven you

your sins…

The truly repentant man readily bears every affliction – hunger and

nakedness, cold and heat, sickness and poverty, humiliation and exile, injustice

and slander; for his soul is turned with longing towards God, and he has no care

for earthly things but prays to God with a pure mind. But the man who is attached

to worldly goods and riches can never have a mind pure in God, since in the depths

of his soul he is constantly preoccupied with his possessions; and if he does not

repent whole-heartedly, and mourn at having grieved God, he will die bearing the

burden of his passions, without having come to know the Lord…

Let us not be distressed over the loss of worldly goods: such losses are a

small matter. My own father taught me this early in life. When some misfortune

happened at home, he would remain serene. When our house caught fire and the

neighbours said, ‘Ivan Petrovich, your house is burnt down!’ he replied, ‘With

God’s help I’ll build it up again.’ Once we were walking along the side of our field,

and I said, ‘Look, they’re stealing our sheaves!’ ‘Aye, son,’ he answered me, ‘the

Lord has given us corn and to spare, so if anyone steals it, it means he’s in want.’

…

The Lord is quick to forgive the sins of the merciful. The merciful man bears

no ill-will. He will suffer injury or the loss of his goods with unconcern, for he

knows the mercy of God, and no one can take the Lord’s mercy from us: it comes

from on high; it is of God… But we here below are swept about like dust before the

wind, while our minds cling to the things of this world… A little wind can blow it

out like a candle; but the spirit of the saints glowed with fire like the burning bush,

fearless of the wind… The love of God is a consuming fire. For the love of God the

saints bore every affliction…

All my desire is to learn humility and the love of Christ, that I may offend no

man but pray for all as I pray for myself… This is the law we have: if you forgive

others, it is a sign that the Lord has forgiven you; but if you refuse to forgive, then

your own sin remains with you. The Lord wants us to love our fellow-man; and if

you reflect that the Lord loves him, you have a sign of the Lord’s love for you… If

you do not feel pity for the sinner destined to suffer the pains of hellfire, it means

that the grace of the Holy Spirit is not in you, but an evil spirit. While you are still

alive, therefore, strive by repentance to free yourself from this spirit.

7 Saint Silouan the Athonite. Trans. Rosemary Edmonds. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999. 345-

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