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(121) If you sin in any way before
God (and we sin every day greatly), immediately say
in your heart, with faith in the Lord, who hears the
sobs of your heart, with humble acknowledgment and
feeling of your sins, the Psalm: "Have mercy upon
me, O God, after Thy great goodness;" and say the
whole Psalm heartily. If it does not take effect the
first time, try again, only say it still more
sincerely, with still more feeling, and then
salvation and peace of soul shall speedily shine
upon you from the Lord. Thus be always contrite;
this is the true proved remedy against sins. If
still you do not obtain relief, blame yourself. It
shows that you have prayed without contrition,
without humility of heart, without a strong desire
to obtain forgiveness of sins from God; it shows
that you are not deeply grieved at your sin.
(122) sometimes a man seems to pray
fervently, but yet his prayer does not bring into
his heart the fruits of peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit. Why is this? It is because in praying the
appointed prayers he has not sincerely repented of
those sins which he has committed during the day, by
which he has defiled his heart, the temple of
Christ, and by which he has angered the Lord. But
had he remembered them, had he repented of them in
all sincerity, and judged himself impartially, "the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding"
(Philippians IV. 7), would immediately have entered
into his heart. In the prayers of the Orthodox
Church there is an enumeration of sins, but not of
all; and often the very sins by which we have bound
ourselves are not mentioned; therefore, we must
absolutely enumerate them ourselves during our
prayer, clearly recognizing their gravity with a
feeling of humility and heartfelt contrition. This
is why, in the evening prayers at the enumeration of
sins, it is said: "I have done wrong e either is
this or in that" . . that is, it is left to our own
will to make mention Lion of these or those sins.
(l23). Concerning penitence.
Penitence should be sincere, perfecta, free, and
not in any way forced by any particular time and
habit, or by the person before whom the sinner
confesses. Otherwise it would not be true penitence.
It is said: "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand" (St. Matthew IV. 7). Is at hand - that is,
it has come by itself. It is not necessary to seek
for it long - it seeks us, our free inclination;
that is, you yourself must repent with heartfelt
contrition; "They were baptized of him" (it is said
of those baptized of John) "confessing their sins"
(St. Matthew III. 6); that is, they themselves
acknowledged their sins. And as our prayer consists
principally of penitence and asking forgiveness of
our sins, it must be always absolutely sincere and
perfectly free, not against our will, not forced out
of us by habit and custom. Such also should be our
prayer when it is one of thanksgiving and praise.
Gratitude supposes the soul of the man benefited to
be full of free, lively feeling flowing freely from
the mouth, "for out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh" (St. Matthew XII. 34). Praise,
too, supposes an ecstasy of wonder in the man who
contemplates the infinite goodness, wisdom, and
omnipotence of God in the moral and material world,
and therefore it ought also to be a perfectly free
and intelligent action. In general, prayer should be
a free and perfectly conscious outpouring of the
mans heart before God, "I have poured out my soul
before the Lord" (Prayer of Hannah, the mother of
Samuel (1 Samuel I 15).
(124) When praying, we must truly
sorrow for our sins, and truly repent of them. When
enumerating the sins specified in the prayers, we
must say them feeling them in our heart as if they
were our own. Also we must have an ardent desire not
to sin in future by the same sins.
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