Your favorite quotes from the Church Fathers on Repentance?

[SingularityOne]

Looking for some good quotes on Repentance.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I think I would say I like Abba Sisoes who was dying, saw the saints and angels coming for him, and the Uncreated Light, and said "Pray for me, I have not yet begun to repent."

 

[Phronema]

"Through repentance the filth of our foul actions is washed away. After this, we participate in the Holy Spirit, not automatically, but according to the faith, humility and inner disposition of the repentance in which our whole soul is engaged. In addition, we must also have received complete remission of our sins from our spiritual father. For this reason it is good to repent each day, in accordance with the commandment that tells us to do this; for the words, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near' (Matt. 3:2), indicate that the act of repentance is unending."

- St. Symeon the New Theologian from The Philokalia Vol. 4

I like that particular passage because of the perpetual nature of the message that repentance is an ongoing action.

 

[JohnTh]

Something non-standard but very useful: learn from mules. (widely quoted in Mount Athos)

Also, be sure to know that hell isn't the consequence of sin.

 

[Coolbutclueless]

"a dog is better than I, for he has love and does not judge"
- desert fathers (sorry don't remember anymore than that)

 

[nicholas123]

By St. Basil, on Hexaemeron. Homily V, point 6. (He really likes analogies and so do I)

"We know besides that the industry of agriculturists remedies the natural defects of certain trees. Thus the sharp pomegranate and bitter almonds, if the trunk of the tree is pierced near the root to introduce into the middle of the pith a fat plug of pine, lose the acidity of their juice, and become delicious fruits. Let not the sinner then despair of himself, when he thinks, if agriculture can change the juices of plants, the efforts of the soul to arrive at virtue, can certainly triumph over all infirmities."

 

[Nick1000]

 

[AMM]

Hm, interesting. I guess that makes sense - it’s a changing of the mind, in the literal Greek, after all. And that change is a reorientation towards Christ. Good quote.

 

[SingularityOne]

Amen. I’m sure St. Porphyrios would agree (as would all the fathers). Great to remember this “positive repentance,” haha.