Return to God

Take an interest, at last, in your salvation, O sinner.  Seclude yourself, collect your thoughts and say to yourself:  how much time have you spent feeding the lusts of your flesh and imagination, and what benefit has it brought you; what have you attained by doing this?  Alas, my soul, what a state we have reached, what disorder! 

Look—everyone around me is adorned with virtues and truly fears God; but I alone walk in darkness.  Early in the morning do I repent of my deeds, yet a short while later I commit even worse errors.  The Lord has given me strength and health and lo! I take this for granted and incur the wrath of my Creator. 

Why art thou so apathetic, O my soul:  Why art thou so careless?  After all, thou canst not stay here forever. When the end comes, the Lord will send His angel to get thee and thou wilt have to leave this place whether thou so want or not.  What then? 

Acknowledge at last your extreme wretchedness, O man, and stop contradicting Him Who created you and opposing His commands.  Boldly say to the enemy who seduces you: 

You, O devil, made me an object of shame for angels and men when I took your irreverent advice.  You inspired me to think:  for once I will satisfy my craving and lo! this small act became for me a great abyss and I gave myself up to your shameful desires.  The water found a small crack and made of it a big crevice. 

You have clouded my mind with impure thoughts and hurled me from sin to sin.  You have annihilated my restraint on the pretext of bodily infirmity.  You have alienated me from prayer and vigilance.  You have implanted in me love for money, excusing this with the approaching long years of old age.  You have dried up my tears.  You have hardened my heart.  You have made me stray from obedience to Christ. You have multiplied my distractions.  You have made me insubordinate.  I have reached the point where I fail to labor over needful things and occupy myself with vain endeavors instead.  You have taught me envy and slander.  You have made me haughty, irritable and wrathful.  You have taught me gluttony, drunkenness and sensuality.  You have trained my thoughts to scatter while I read and sing psalms; thus I pray and do not know for what; I read psalms and meanwhile I surrender my thoughts to unrestrained wanderings. 

 

Having thus exposed the wiles of the enemy, tell him with conviction:  I have had enough of you, O devil.  And leave the evil one and join yourself to the man-befriending God.  Are you wounded?  Despair not.  Have you fallen?  Get up and say bravely: now I have begun.  Fall down before your merciful Master and confess your sins.

 

But before you say anything He will already know what you intend to say.  Before you open your lips, He will see what is in your heart.  You will not be able to say, “I have sinned,” before you see Him stretch forth His hands to receive and embrace you.

 

Approach with faith and He will cleanse you straightway as He cleansed the leper, lift you from your bed as He lifted the paralytic, and raise you from the dead as He raised Lazarus.

Preparing for Holy Communion: a prayer to the Theotokos

O Mother of God, who surpasses every mind and word!  O Virgin who exceedest all earthly virginity, for even before the Divine birth was thou a Virgin beyond all virgins—and such didst thou remain both during and after the birth!   

Thee, O Lady do I beg, thee do I entreat, O merciful and man-befriending Mother of the merciful and man-befriending God:  defend me at this hour if ever thou wilt do so, for now am I most in need of thy protection and thy help. 

I am all a mire of filth and sin, a dwelling place of soul-corrupting passions.  Yet I intend to approach the all-pure and terrifying Mysteries of thy Son and God, and therefore do I suffer fear, and trembling embraces me because of the unbearable multitude of my sins. 

But if ever I am to remain without communion on the pretext of my unworthiness, then shall I fall into a great abyss of evil and bring upon myself great chastisement.  I anguish over both the first alternative and the second. 

To thee do I run; be kind to me, my all-pure Lady.  Take advantage of thy motherly boldness before thy Son and God, and gain for me forgiveness of my former sins.  Vouchsafe me to be made pure and enlightened by communion of the Mysteries, and show me how to spend the remainder of my life in repentance, purity and humility.  Remain always with me in my thoughts, words and deeds, in all the movements of my soul and body, instructing me, leading me and guiding me, deflecting from me all hostile powers, and preserving me and providing thy servant, however worthless, with thy grace in every way. 

The Living God is the God of the penitent

Behold, let no one say, I have committed many sins—there can be no forgiveness for me.  He who says this does not know that God is the God of the penitent, that He came to earth not to save the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance, and that when someone repents the heavens rejoice over him. 

True repentance consists of withdrawing from sin and nurturing hatred for it.  For, lo, when someone says from his heart:  I have hated deceit and been repelled by it—then God accepts him with joy. 

But behold, also let no one dare to say:  I have not sinned.  He who says this is blind; he has shut his eyes.  He deceives himself and knows not that Satan is robbing him blind—both in word and deed and through thoughts.  For who can boast that he has an innocent heart and that all his senses are pure? 

No one is sinless, no one is clean of defilement, no man is free from guilt except Him alone Who for our sake was impoverished though He was rich.  He alone is sinless Who took upon Himself the sins of the world, wants all men to be saved, desires not the death of a sinner and is a lover of mankind, abundantly benevolent, kindhearted and sincerely loving. 

Let us also run to Him, for all sinners who have run to Him have found salvation. 

Love humility

Do you wish to lead a proper life?  Exercise humility, for without it, it is impossible to lead a proper life.   

Do all your work in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, and thus shall your fruits be carried up to heaven. 

A man begins to go astray when he withdraws from humility.  He who has abandoned God does the evil spirit oppress, as he did Saul. 

The enemy’s snares are smeared with honey.  He who is attracted by the sweetness of honey becomes caught in the snares and filled with all manner of woe. 

Love humility and you will never fall into the devil’s snare, for soaring on humility’s swift wings you will always remain above the enemy’s snares. 

Arrogance is like a very tall but rotten tree.  All of its branches are brittle and if someone climbs upon it, he immediately falls from the height he has attained. 

Blessed is he who is enriched with good hopes and illuminated with good thoughts: his glory is great and everlasting. 

Let us strive for sober attention, that we might recognize our sins and be constantly humbled, that we might not nurture, like the serpent, a high opinion of ourselves or wickedness. 

Let us love sobriety, that we might have a pure heart and that we might preserve the temple entrusted to us undefiled by sinful corruption. 

Wondrous is prayer accompanied by sighs and tears, especially if the tears are shed in secret. 

He who prays in his mind with faith beholds the Lord before himself.  For in Him do we live, move and exist. 

If your heart has been hardened, weep before the Lord, that He might shine upon you the illumination of knowledge and grant that with an ardent heart you might be carried up to Him. 

Relieving the conscience of inner anxiety

O Lord and Master!  O God of heaven and earth! 

Show Thy favor and open to me the door of repentance,

I pray Thee with mine afflicted soul.

 

Regard me according to Thy great mercy;

incline Thine ear to my prayer and forgive me,

who am guilty of falling into many sins;

forgive me all of the wretched things I have done,

for I have been conquered by my own evil will.

I seek peace and do not find it, for my conscience is stained;

there is no tranquility in me due to the multitude of my iniquities.

Hearken O Lord, to a heart which cries out to Thee with affliction. 

Attend not to my deeds, but to the affliction of my soul,

and hasten to heal me who am cruelly wounded. 

Grant that I may soon come to my senses

according to the grace of Thy love for mankind.

Take from me the burden of my sins and grant me not

that which my deeds merit,

that I may not perish in the end,

and that I may not be altogether deprived

of thought and concern for my restoration.

I fall down before Thy compassion;

have mercy on me who am cast into the dust

by the judgment of my deeds.

O Master, summon me, a captive who is held and bound

by his deeds as with chains,

for Thou alone knowest how to free those who are bound

and how to heal the invisible sores that are known only to

Thee Who knowest all mysteries.

Show Thy favor and stretch out Thine hand to me. 

Draw me out of the mire of mine iniquities,

O Thou who dost not rejoice at the destruction of man,

and Who dost not turn Thy face from those who cry to Thee with tears.

 Hearken, O Lord, unto the voice of Thy servant, who cries to Thee;

show Thy face to me, for I am beclouded;

enlighten me with the coming of Thy Holy Spirit.

 

Grant me, O Lord, diligence,

for I have become defiled,

and turn my labor into joy.

 Tear up my sackclothes and gird me with gladness;

may the door of Thy kingdom open to me that,

having entered therein,

I may glorify Thine all-holy name of

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.