Repentance

marina008

Hello brothers and sisters,

i have two questions and I need you're advice.
1. How can we love people that annoy you and how can you love everyone?
2. How can we repent properly?
What do you guys do when you repent?

Thank you

Please pray for me

LondonCopt

I'm sure others will be able to give you better answers than I will be able to, but I really recommend listening to these talks http://www.orthodoxsermons.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=57&Itemid=26 ; (especially the "Road to Change" series)

I guess the key to loving everyone though is realising that God loved you first and unconditionally, enough to die for us and save us when there was no need for Him to do so.

God bless,
Matthew

Slave

When we relize how much we do and always have anoyed The Father with our sins and yet he was(the son) willing to be nailed on the life giving cross, I suppose it makes it eiser to be kind to people who do not suite our taste. And if you remmber the most important coomandment of the Lord was love one another as i have loved you. Just smilling at someone is an act of love. True repentace comes from the heart. To repent means you fell really sorry about the sin you did and you fell broken hearted, the next step is to confess it before God, next step is turn away from it and not to do it again, next step and one of the most important parts off repentance is PENANCE. THAT IS THE TRUE MEANNING OF REPENTACE THAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, AND WILL RESULT IN TOTAL FORGIVNESS. PRAY FOR ME

mikeforjesus

by penance do you mean confessing to God in the sight of a priest? that should not be the last thing.

clay

[quote author=marina008 link=topic=7507.msg98938#msg98938 date=1230762463]
Hello brothers and sisters,

i have two questions and I need you're advice.
1. How can we love people that annoy you and how can you love everyone?
2. How can we repent properly?
What do you guys do when you repent?

Thank you

Please pray for me


Hmmm. I am a novice at this. I think we want to have the fruits of the Holy Spirit, but we also want to be able to do what is worldly, and gives us pleasure. We sort of don't want to get caught from our sins. We kind of want to be able to do them, and hope to God that we don't get the consequences.

I think, though, repentance has a sort of different mentality- a mentality given only by God, "transformed by the renewing (meta) of the mind (nous) (hence, metania). I believe that the repentant soul is not someone who is trying to maintain this 'middle road'. The repentant soul is probably the one that realises that without God, he or she will die. I think the repentant soul is not that dirty, naked, emaciated kid that would have anything the world has to feed him with, but that shaggy, midget and hated tax-collected that will do anything to overcome his fears, to remove and go over all the obstacles- put his reputation on the line; to not care for taunts and persecution; to not care that he might not actually catch the Lord- but does everything conceivable to meet God. If he cannot go through the people, he looks eagerly for a tree, makes a spectacle of himself, and even risks falling down.

I think that is what repentance looks like. Perhaps King David was right when he said the Lord desires a "contrite heart", a "lowly spirit" or when Christ said "blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom". I think that means, casting away those silly thoughts that you are anything without God. It is to remove that "pride of life". It is to really get rid of the belief that the world can offer you something "bigger (greater) than Jesus" in the words of John Lennon. It is this longing for Christ as that precious jewel, whom we would spend everything for. If anything hindered us from God- any temptation, we would get rid of it, and get rid of it in a hurry. If the computer caused you to sin, we would put it out. If you had prideful thoughts, you would keep confessing with all honesty with your spiritual father. You will do everything to get rid of sin, and you will pray from your heart to detest it- to get rid of that fanciful belief that your old ways had any fruit.

It is to see when you look in the mirror, a person who is compelled by the love of Christ by the Cross, to follow Him to death.  Strive not to look good in front of others, but to be good, in the heart, where it counts. Life no longer would be characterised by your other pursuits, but every pursuit can only exist because it edifies, and brings you closer to God. Any hindrance must die- or you will die. And you must protect it- even if the legions attack you, whether physically like to St. Anthony or psychologically like to St. Moses the black (properly, the white!), we would resist- and persevere for years and even decades, holding fast to that hope that God is perfecting you; and even rejoicing in those tribulations, and not angry that God gives you strength to bear even more- shaving away all the layers that have kept you from having that "refined gold of faith" described by St. Peter.

Slave

No penance does not mean what you think it means. it means to do good works to really prove you have repented.  For example if you hurt people and bin mean, you fell sorry, confess, (penance) be kind to every one espacially to those you hurt that is one example of it. and a real good example of penance espcailly when you bin really bad is acts of love kindness charity to others who need it, sort of make up for the sins you bin forgivenand showes you really in you heart turned away from sinning, pray for me, and dear child may God bless you on all the aspects of your life; you are on the right track :)