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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