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| Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Let’s solve the problem of evil > Repentence versus Remorse | Forum Quick Jump
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 3/17/2002 10:52 AM (GMT -6) |   | Repentence versus Remorse
(text from OCA saite, by Fr. Thomas Hopko)
It is our repentance that God desires, not our remorse.
We sorrow for our sins, but we do so in the joy of God's mercy.
We mortify our flesh, but we do so in the joy
...of our resurrection into life everlasting.
We make ready for the resurrection during Great Lent,
both Christ's Resurrection and our own.
In his writings, Saint John Climacus (7th c.) follows this teaching of Saint Paul. It is the classical teaching of the Christian spiritual tradition. The end of blessed mourning is not despondency or remorse, it is repentance and salvation. It is the "mourning which causes joy."
Mourning, according to God, is sadness of soul and the disposition of a sorrowing heart which ever madly seeks for that which it thirsts ...
Mourning is a golden spur in a soul which is stripped of all attachment and all ties ...
Keep a firm hold of the blessed joy-grief of holy mourning and do not stop working at it until it raises you high above the things of this world and presents you pure to Christ.
The fruit of morbid mourning is vain glory and self-esteem, but the fruit of blessed mourning is comfort.
He who is clothed in blessed and grace-given mourning ... knows the spiritual laughter of the soul.
My friends, God does not ask or desire that man should mourn from sorrow of heart, but rather out of love for Him he should rejoice with spiritual laughter.
When I consider the actual nature of compunction, I am amazed at how that which is called mourning and grief should contain joy and gladness within it, like honey in the comb (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 7)
"So do not make a passion the remedy against passion," says Saint Nilus of Sinai, "lest you anger ... Him who granted you this blessing (of mourning and tears). For in shedding tears for their sins many people forget the purpose of tears, and getting into a frenzy, they go astray." (Saint Nilus of Sinai, 5th c., Texts of Prayer) | | Back to Top | | |
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