“The Lord greatly loves the repenting sinner and mercifully presses him to His bosom: “Where were you, My child? I was waiting a long time for you.” The Lord calls all to Himself with the Voice of the Gospel, and His Voice is heard in all the world: “Come to Me, My sheep. I created you, and I love you. My Love for you brought Me to Earth, and I suffered all things for the sake of your Salvation, and I want you all to know My Love, and to say, like the Apostles on Tabor: Lord, it is good for us to be with You.””
Saint Silouan the Athonite
+
“Can it be that he who has fallen cannot get up? Can it be that he who has turned away cannot turn back again? Dost thou not hear how kind the Father is to a prodigal? Do not be ashamed to turn back and say boldly: I will arise and go to my Father. Arise and go! He will accept thee and will not reproach thee, but rather rejoice at thy return.”
Saint Ephrem the Syrian
+
“A brother asked Abba Macarius, ‘My father, I have committed a transgression.’ Abba Macarius said to him, ‘it is written, my child, ‘I do not desire the death of a sinner so much as his repentance and his life’ (Ezek. 33:11, 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Pet 3:9). Repent, therefore, my child; you will see Him Who is gentle, Our Lord Jesus Christ, His face full of joy for you, like a nursing mother whose face is full of joy for her child. When he raises his hands and his face up to her, even if he is full of all kinds of uncleanness, she does not turn away from that bad smell and excrement but takes pity on him and lifts him up and presses him to her breast, her face full of joy, and everything about him is sweet to her. If, then, this created person has pity for her child, how much greater is the love of the Creator, Our Lord Jesus Christ, for us!’”
Saint Makarios the Great of Egypt
+
“Let no one despair over his uncleanness or turn away from Sanctification and purification; there is great joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents.”
Saint Neophytos the Recluse
+
“One man sinned but repented, and this continued all his life. Finally he repented and died. An evil spirit came for his Soul and said: ‘He’s mine! The Lord said, ‘No, no, he has repented! ‘But he repented and then sinned again,’ said the devil. The Lord said to him: ‘If you, being evil, would take him back after he repented to Me, then how can I not accept him if after sinning he has turned to Me in repentance? You forget that you are evil, and I am good.’”
Saint Ambrose of Optina
+
“There is more Mercy in God than there are sins in us. Confess your sins at once, whatever they may be.”
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
+
“But how can it be that our Good Shepherd, Who for three years sought the sheep which had wandered amiss, crying out so loudly that His throat was parched, and following roads so worn and full of thorns that He shed every drop of His blood and delivered His very life. How can it be, I say again, that now, if His sheep should follow after Him, turning to Him with love and calling out to Him for help with hope, He would decline to cast His eyes on the sheep that had gone astray. How could He not take it into His Divine embrace and, put it among the Angels of Heaven, and prepare a welcoming banquet for it?”
Saint Theophan the Recluse
+
“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 straightaway 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.”
Saint Ephrem the Syrian
+
“Repentance will bring you humility. Humility will bring you the Grace of God. And God will uphold you in His Grace, and will give you whatever you need for your Salvation.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
+
“The Lord calls to Him all sinners; He opens His arms wide, even to the worst among them. Gladly He takes them in His arms, if only they will come to Him.”
Saint Macarius of Optina
+
“To what end do fasting and penitence lead? For what purpose is this trouble taken? They lead to the cleansing of the Soul from sins, to peace of heart, to union with God; they fill us with devotion and sonship, and give us boldness before God.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
+
“For whoever kneels even just once under the Stole of the Priest, Divine Providence will arrange things in such a way that Christ will finally gain him.”
Saint Ephraim of Katounakia
+
“Confession is a way for man to come to God. It is the offering of the Love of God to man. Nothing and no one is able to deprive us of this Love.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
+
“It is a Spiritual Gift from God for a man to perceive his sins.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
+
“However many and however great and burdensome your sins may be, with God there is greater Mercy. Just as His Majesty is, so likewise is His Mercy.”
Saint Tikhon Patriarch of Moscow
+
“When Praying in the evening, do not forget to confess in Prayer to the Holy Spirit with all sincerity and contrition, those sins into which you have fallen during the past day. A few moments of fervent repentance, and you will be cleansed by the Holy Spirit from every impurity; you will be whiter than snow, and tears, purifying the heart will flow from your eyes; you will be covered with the garment of Christ’s righteousness and united to Him, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
+
“A Priest is walking down a lonely road on a hot day when suddenly out of the bushes jumps a wild looking man with a gun. The man says to the priest, “I have killed 99 men, and you will be the 100th.” The Priest says to the him, I am ready to die; but please before you shoot me, give me a little water to drink. I am so thirsty. The murderer is confused for a moment, and then directs the Priest at gun point to his hovel in the bushes where he gives the Priest a cup of water to drink. As the Priest is drinking the water, the murderer dies of a heart attack. The Angels from Heaven come to escort the Soul of this murderer to Heaven, but the demons contest with them. “This man murdered 99 men and committed many other smaller sins. His Soul belongs to us.” But the Angels answer the demons,” But he also did two great deeds for the Gospel of Christ which outweigh all his sins. First he confessed his 99 murders to a Priest and second he gave water to the thirsty. No sin, no matter how many times repeated, is greater than the Mercy of God.”
Saint Nikolai Velimivoric
+
“To repent is not to look downwards at my own shortcomings, but upwards at God’s Love. It is not to look backwards with self-reproach but forward with trustfulness. It is to see not what I have failed to be, but what by the Grace of Christ I might yet become.”
Saint John Climacus
+
“A true Christian is made by faith and love toward Christ. Our sins do not in the least hinder our Christianity, according to the word of the Saviour Himself. He deigned to say: not the righteous have I come to call, but sinners to Salvation; there is more joy in Heaven over one who repents than over ninety righteous ones. Likewise concerning the sinful woman who touched His feet, He deigned to say to the Pharisee Simon: to one who has love, a great debt is forgiven, but from one who has no love, even a small debt will be demanded. From these judgments a Christian should bring himself to hope and joy, and not in the least accept an inflicted despair. Here one needs the shield of faith.”
Saint Herman of Alaska
+
“Your accumulated offences do not surpass the multitude of God’s Mercies: your wounds do not surpass the Great Physician’s skill.”
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
+
“If a person becomes aware of his sinfulness and grieves over it, he can be cleansed by the tears of repentance, at which time the Grace of God returns”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
+
“You, sinner, who have fallen into the depths of evil, when you represent to yourself the multitude of your sins and fall into despair and hardness of heart, remember that the Heavenly Father sent His Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, into the world for your Salvation from sins and from eternal condemnation for them. Turn then with faith to this Mediator before God for men, imploring Him from the depths of your Soul to wash away by His All-Cleansing Blood, shed for us on the Cross, your iniquities too; turn zealously to repentance, confessing your sins before His Priest as before Himself, that you may be justified, after which, if the minister of the Sacrament of penitence finds you prepared and fit, draw near to the Holy Cup and you shall be cleansed of your sins: peace shall flow into your Soul like a river and you shall be the son of the Heavenly Father, ‘who was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found’. (Lk 15:32).
Saint John of Kronstadt
+
“The Merciful and All-powerful God accepts all who come to Him. He stretches out His right hand to help our weakness. And so, even it you are full of evil habits that weigh you down like chains, do not despair of receiving your freedom. Begin the unseen warfare, fight bravely and constantly, and admit your defeats bravely.”
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
+
“The Lord, like a child-loving mother washing her child of all dirty, forgives us and graciously Sanctifies, as long as we repent sincerely.”
Saint Silouan the Athonite
+
“Sinner, abandon your passions and sinful habits. Heaven, with more than ninety-nine Righteous ones is calling you! The Angels in Heaven rejoice over a single repentant sinner. Heaven is seeking your Salvation. Only repent and be converted, and break yourself of sin.”
Saint Sebastian of Optina
+
“The Church is a hospital, and not a courtroom, for Souls. She does not condemn on behalf of sins, but grants remission of sins.”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
“The long-suffering of God is unchangeable and His Mercy is kind… How many criminals are there who go out to kill and rob that He conceals in order that they may not be captured and placed under tortures? Pirates sail the sea and God does not order the sea to drown them. How many falsely swear by Holy Communion and He tolerates not repaying them for that with evil? Robbers steal on the road and He does not give them over to the beasts to tear them to pieces… Libertines go off with prostitutes and He tolerates them. Why all of this? Because He waits for repentance and conversion. Truly, God does not want the destruction of a sinner… That is why, brethren, let us be ashamed before the most lenient Lord God.”
Saint John the Merciful
+
“From the moment you feel you are not as you should be before God, and say humbly ‘O my God, I have sinned,’ God forgives, helps and provides His Grace.”
Saint Paisios the Athonite
+
“Remember the fall of the mighty, and be humble in your virtues. Recollect the grievous transgressions of those who of old trespassed and repented, and the sublimity and honour of which afterwards they were deemed worthy, and take courage in your repentance.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
+
“You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.”
Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
+
“Blessed is the sinner who has turned to God and has come to love Him.”
Saint Silouan the Athonite
+
“Just as our Lord is solicitous about our Salvation, so too the murderer of men, the devil, strives to lead a man into despair… Judas the betrayer was fainthearted and unskilled in battle, and so the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to hang himself; but Peter, a firm rock, when he fell into great sin, like one skilled in battle did not despair nor lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a burning heart, and the enemy, seeing these tears, his eyes scorched as by fire, fled far from him wailing in pain.”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
+