Light of Orthodoxy

To repent is to smile, not to frown—to look up, not down. It is not just the recognition that things have gone wrong, but the realization that through Christ they can be put right. It is not the sight of our own ugliness but the vision of God's beauty.

Wild brambles in the heart cannot be uprooted without the pruning shears of the heavenly Gardener, and the good fruit of truth and righteousness will not grow without the rain of tears and sorrows.

Tell me, what is more beautiful than a soul undergoing tribulation, which knows that by enduring it will inherit joy in all things? What is more courageous than "a humble and contrite heart" (Ps. 51:19)? Without difficulty it routs the massed troops of devils and pursues them to their end.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity. Suffer with the sick. Be afflicted with sinners. Exult with those who repent.

To say that God turns away from the sinful is like saying that the sun hides from the blind.