Back to Basics: How do I offer repentance daily? by Fr. Anthony Mourad
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Back to Basics: How do I offer repentance daily?
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; One God, Amen.
What is daily repentance and how do I offer it? My beloved, we have heard many times over in our life of the importance of repentance and confession. We here at Coptic Orthodox Answers have even done several videos explaining the mystery of Repentance and Confession and we urge you to watch those videos if you want to take a deeper look. However, for today, we want to address the significance of daily repentance and how its an critical building block of the Christian life. Essentially, we want to understand what it means to offer daily repentance and how we can practically do this.
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I always struggle to pray when I see myself as having fallen into sin.
I know its a painful situation but isnt it amazing how His Holy presence makes our iniquities known to us?
Dear one,
Pope St. Cyril VI of blessed memory also gave the advice to his spiritual children that one should not let sin gain the victory over them by allowing sin to make them think they could not turn to God. The timeless wisdom of the fathers of the Church is that we should not let sin cut us off from God further by doubting that we can even present ourselves to God. St. John Chrysostom says this to his spiritual son Theodore who had fallen in sin,
“Do not then despair of the most perfect change [repentance]. For if the devil had such great power as to cast you down from that pinnacle and height of virtue into the extremity of evil doing, much more will God be able to draw you up again to your former confidence; and not only indeed to make you what you were before, but even much happier. Do no be downcast, nor give up hope, nor fall into the condition of the ungodly. For it is not the multitude of sins which is able to plunge men into despair, but impiety of soul. This is why Solomon did not say simply “every one who has entered into the den of the wicked, despises;” but only “he who is ungodly (Proverbs 18.3).” For it is such persons only who are affected in this way when they have entered the den of the wicked. And it is this which does not allow them to look up, and re-ascend to the position from which they fell. For this accursed thought [despair] pressing down like some yoke upon the neck of the soul, and so forcing it to stoop, hinders it from looking up to the Master. Now it is the part of a brave and excellent man to break this yoke in pieces, to shake off the tormentor fastened upon him; and to utter the words of the prophet, “As the eyes of a maiden look unto the hands of her mistress, even so our eyes look unto the Lord our God until He have mercy upon us. Have pity upon us, O Lord, have pity upon us, for we have been utterly filled with contempt. (Ps 123.2-3)” Truly divine are these precepts, and decrees of the highest form of spiritual wisdom. We have been filled, it is said, with contempt, and have undergone countless distresses; nevertheless we shall not desist from looking up to God, neither shall we cease praying to him until He has received our petition. For this is the mark of a noble soul, not to be cast down, nor be dismayed at the multitude of the calamities which oppress it, nor to withdraw, after praying many times without success, but to persevere, until He have mercy upon us.” St. John Chrysostom, Letter 1 to Theodore after his fall
As the Abouna stated, His Holiness Baba Kyrillos VI composed a prayer based on a Contemplation on the 6th Psalm by St. John Chrystosom, in which he said, “O Lord, rebuke me, BUT not in Your Anger...” In that same exposition, he says, “How many times have You forgiven me, yet I provoked You immediately after?!” “How many times have I prostrated in the Church before You, yet I fell immediately into sin as soon as I walked out?!” The Mercy, Kindness and Love of our Lord Christ is immensely beyond the scope of our sin and ignorance. This is the reason He instituted The Mystery of Confession. HH Pope Shenouda III also said, “Even if you are at the peak, summit and highest point of your sin, continue to struggle and pray, because the Lord Christ will struggle with You...” Stay strong in The Faith of Christ the Almighty!
HH Pope Kryillos VI speaks to your situation when he said:
""If you happen to fall into temptation, do not let the guilt of sin be an obstacle to prayer. If you cease praying till you repent, you will never repent, for prayer is the door to genuine repentance."
This is both simple and deep instruction, its better to judge ourselves here and make corrections as needed with our Lords help, than to be Judged over there and be eternally punished for what we should have done here.
Perhaps worst of all is that when Christ comes to meet me in love, I will find this love to be intolerable. Looking to be consoled in my own sense pleasures, I will not find peace nor rest in Christ. Abba Dorotheus of Gaza teaches,
“For through this body the soul gets away from its own passions and is comforted; it is fed, it drinks, sleeps, meets and associates with friends. When at last it goes out of the body it is alone with its own passions and, in short, it is tormented by them, forever nattering to them and being incensed by the disturbance they cause and being torn to pieces by them so that it is unable to remember God. For the mere remembrance of God comforts the soul, as it says in the Psalm, ‘I was mindful of God and I was made glad’, and the passions do not allow this to happen. Do you want me to give an example to make this clear? Suppose one of us were shut up in a dark cell with no food or drink for three days without sleeping or meeting anyone, or psalmodizing, or praying, and not even thinking of God. You know what his passions would do to him, and this is when he is still in this world-how much more so when the soul goes out of the body and he is delivered up to his passions and is all alone with them? How grievous the agony a man has to suffer from his passions can be perceived from a trial like that [of isolation and powerlessness]. When someone has a fever, what is it that burns him? What sort of fire and what sort of fuel produce that burning heat? If a man has a body of bad melancholic temperament, is it not the bad temperament which makes him feverish and annoys him and afflicts his life? So also is the soul under the influence of strong emotions [passions]; the conflict, arising from its own bad habits, punishes it all the time, the memory being always embittered, the mutterings of its passions constantly emerging, always burning it and enraging it... For then the gnawing of conscience and the memory of deeds long done would be worse than innumerable and indescribable torments. For as the Fathers tell us, the souls of the dead remember everything that happened here-thoughts, words, desires-and nothing can be forgotten.” Abba Dorotheus of Gaza, Homily on The Fear of Punishment.
@@CopticOrthodoxAnswers I think you've just given me the antidote for my gluttony and cigarette addiction. This is a strong message. I do not want to go over to the other side with these or the many other faults I have. You may of had this on one of your video's before but I missed it. This has never before been explained so clearly to me. I hope others will read this and take note. Thank You Fathers !
@@williamedwards2512 What a profound conclusion you have drawn from the wisdom of Abba Dorotheus, glory to God!
I fall into deep sin pray for me and I love this channel as someone who's read the Bible for decades with the Protestant influence I have never heard sweeter answers to things than what I'm hearing where can I hear more personally please pray for me
I've fallen short to lust, laziness, fear, lying please pray for me.
I am here to say i love this videos and you guys to never stop even though you dont have a million views quality is better than quantity
Very nicely explained.
Hallo ! Father Anthony , You're always a channel of blessing to me & I am grateful for your preaching.
Thanks so much. May God bless you 🙏🙏.
Father, in our orthodox belief we have to tell the priest what ever I sinned. But I'm not comfortable to tell or repent to the priest. How about if he tell somebody else? What can I do?
When I became an orthodox, I had the same problem. I told that to the priest and he said that it's understandable. He also said that he would get fired if he told anything to anyone. Now I have done the confession monthly for over a year and I don't worry about it anymore. I trust my priest and I like going to the confession. It's still difficult to tell him some things but afterwards it feels good.
@elegia what were you before?
@@biblicalfacts3409 I was part of Lutheran church but not an active member. When I was about twenty, I left the church and about four years ago I converted in Orthodox faith. I was attracted to Orthodox faith because I liked how active you are supposed to be in it. In Lutheranism you didn't really need to do anything other than believe (or that's how it felt to me) and that didn't seem right.
@elegia according to the coptic church, are evangelicas saved?
@@biblicalfacts3409 I am such a new Orthodox Christian that I can't really offer my opinion of that.
Often i have fallen into the sin concerning confession as coming to a church father in the presence of God, rather than presenting myself to God in the presence of His priest.
Glory to God who works with us where we are in our lives and meets us in our weaknesses. He looks on your coming to confession with love. May enter into the fullness of this healing encounter with God
Great fr......Im from eastern orthodox
🤎
God bless
If one needs to repent of their sins daily, they are not saved. They haven't repented at all. Repentance is not asking for God's forgiveness every time you sin. True repentance is turning away from sin.
Are you protestant?