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Do not despair and do not be self-confident, but cry out in humble hope: “Lord, have mercy!” Look, no one says: “I have sinned a lot, there is no forgiveness for me.” Whoever says this does not know that God is the God of repentants, that He came to earth not to save the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance, and that when someone repents, joy comes over him in heaven. True repentance consists in moving away from sin and hating it. And when someone says from the heart: “I have hated injustice and detested it,” then God joyfully accepts such a person. But be careful that no one dares to say: “I have not sinned.” Whoever says this is blind, has closed his eyes, deceives himself and does not know how Satan robs him both in words and in deeds: now through hearing, now through his eyes, now through touch, now through thoughts. For who can boast that his heart is innocent and all his feelings are pure? No one is sinless, no one is clean from defilement, no one is free from guilt, except the One who, for our sake, became poor, who is rich. He alone is sinless, taking away the sins of the world, desiring the salvation of all people, not wanting the death of a sinner, loving of mankind, compassionate, merciful, soul-loving. Let us also resort to Him, because all sinners who resorted to Him received salvation. Words in Judgment to those on the right hand and on the left At the Last Judgment, the Lord will say to those on the right hand: “Come, sons of My light, come, blessed heirs of My Kingdom, come, for My sake you who have become poor, who have hungered and thirsted, who have not loved the world or everything in the world. Come, for my sake you have left the whole worldly region 7 and joy, relatives and friends, parents and children. Come, you who dwell in the deserts, mountains, dens and abysses of the earth along with the beasts, and rejoice with the Angels in heaven. Come, all you who are merciful and hospitable to strangers, come, all you who have walked the narrow and straitened path. Come, blessings of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!” And to those who exist he will say: “Depart from Me into the utter fire. Go away from Me, you unmerciful, brother-haters, Christ-haters. You did not have mercy - and you will not have mercy, you did not listen to My most pure Gospels and My blessed disciples - and I will not hear your cry; you lived luxuriously on earth, enjoyed the blessings in your life, and here you have nothing to receive: you accepted yours; there I cried daily through the Scriptures, and you, hearing, mocked those who read - and now I say to you: I do not know you. Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” And they will go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting belly. I bring one wish for good, for his sake have mercy and save! As the Creator, You know what you have created. As a Judge, you know what you have condemned (after the fall). As the One Who became Man, you know what you have arranged for salvation. You gave me an undefiled nature, but my father Adam covered it with great uncleanness and made it weak. I added the pleasure of vanity to uncleanness - and now I involuntarily bear punishment. Corruption has been introduced into my very nature - and now I am in misery, like one overwhelmed by the sea. Have mercy on me as the Creator, be compassionate towards my weakness as He who became human for my sake, do not reject me because of my passions, but dispel them by looking at the desire of my will. Do not disdain me because of my uncleanness, but look at my contrition and desire for the best! If you turn away from me because of my bad thoughts, then turn your attention to my crying and to my own condemnation of my voluptuousness. I have the will, but I cannot say that I have the strength. I give you what I have. If you want to give what is missing, give it by looking at my disposition. I am poor, stolen by the serpent; I am weak, bound by corruption; I have no strength, overwhelmed by sin. I have lost Your gift and therefore do not have perfect prudence. I have lost communication with You, so I don’t know where I’m going. I have nothing. If I have anything, then You, being merciful, gave it to me. I am extremely poor, but if I become rich, all this will be Your gift. And now it is Yours, and before it was Yours. I ask only for grace: I confess that through You I will be saved, if only I am saved. The enemy is cunning, and we are careless - let us pay attention, lest we lose the Kingdom Come, let us make an effort, come, let us fall before God, let us continually cry and shed tears before Him, so that He may grant us spiritual enlightenment. Understand the machinations of our enemy and adversary, this hater of all good, who places in our path inclinations and temptations, destructive covetousness, exaltation of this age, carnal pleasure, as well as the desire for a long-term continuation of this life, fear of exploits, laziness in prayer, sleep during psalmody and bodily rest. As diligent as he is, we are so careless and careless, as cunning as he is, we are so inattentive, although we know that our days are shortened, that the time has come and the Lord of Glory is coming in the splendor of His beauty with the terrible Powers of His Kingdom to reward everyone according to their deeds. I am afraid that the word of the Lord will not be fulfilled on us: They will come from the east and the west and the north and the sea and will lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, but we will be cast out (Matthew 8:11). I beg You, Christ, the Light of truth, the Birth of the Blessed Father, the Image and Radiance of His hypostasis, Who sits at the right hand of His Majesty, the Praise and Joy of those who love You, my Life: save me, a sinner, in Your Kingdom and do not reward me according to my deeds, but save me according to Your grace and spare me according to Your compassion, for You are blessed and glorified forever! I am not what I should be, I am afraid of conviction at the Judgment. Give me repentance and strength! Why does the image I have adopted lead me astray, when I am alien to virtues and before God, who watches everything, I do the opposite? Rightly, the Pharisees suffered reproof from Christ the Savior, Who called their appearance hypocritical. And I am most worthy of the same reproach, but, convicted by my conscience, I am indignant, for the truth is bitter to those who wish to appear and not to be. Truly, if you reveal my appearance, then there will be worms inside, if you remove the melted 8 cover, then those around you will see what lies in the coffin. Let it not, however, become clear here: fire will tempt everyone at the Judgment, such as I am. Alas for me, how then will I bear the conviction of my lawless deeds and thoughts! Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy and according to the multitude of Your mercies, cleanse my iniquities! Hear me in Your goodness, Master, and do not reject my request, just as you do not reject the request of all those who truly repent! It is true that my repentance is unclean, for one day I repent, and two days I grieve You. But send Your fear into my heart and establish my soul on the stone of sincere repentance. May the light of Your grace overcome the darkness that is within me. Descend to my prayer, O Good Lord, not according to my righteousness, because I have nothing good, but according to Your compassions, according to Your great and unspeakable goodness. Raise up my members, crushed by sin, enlighten my heart, darkened by evil lust, save me from sinful habits, so that the enemy does not completely overthrow me. All hope is in God's mercy Your grace granted me to say to You, Lord: “As the only Good One and Creator of us all, forgive the iniquities and sins of Your servant, sinful and ungrateful!” I know, Lord, that I exceed all men in sins, but I have for refuge the all-surpassing abyss of Your mercies. I am confident that You accept and have mercy on all who come to Your goodness, for You love to see repentance and rejoice in the diligence of Your servants who struggle. Grant me, Thy unworthy servant, tears, so that with an enlightened mind, with love and faith, I may beseech Thy incomparable goodness and be healed from my hidden wounds. Show me, poor one, Your compassion, deliver me from the torment I deserve, so that Your grace will be preached, as always and everywhere and on countless numbers of careless people, so on me. Just as You filled the waterpots with Your blessing, so fill my heart with Your grace and Your goodness! A compassionate mother, rejected by her child, does not despise it, Lord, because her mother’s compassion overcomes her - may my sins not overcome Your goodness! I know that I will be punished even for an idle word, for evil thoughts, for lust itself. Meanwhile, as soon as pleasure presents itself to me, I immediately and suddenly forget everything and, like a madman, servile in all sin. Vain, angry, relaxed, lazy, absent-minded, gluttonous, sensualist, covered in filth, I wander every hour and do not understand it. Only the hope of the manifestation of Your grace, O humane-loving Master, consoles me and keeps me from despair - whether you like it or not, save me, Most Gracious Lord, according to Your great goodness! There is no longer pardon - here there is a cry As if standing before Thy terrible Throne, O Lord, I see, condemned, both the denunciation of my deeds, and Thy judgment concerning me, which, the poor one, removing me from Thy holy face, plunges me into unbearable torment. And just as then I will cry out to You, so now I cry out with trembling and with tears: “You are righteous, the Most Righteous Judge, and Your Court is righteous, and no unrighteousness has been done to me (by such a court)!” As if standing there, I turn to the Angels: “Good and brightest Angels, shed tears for me, because I did not have mercy on myself, despising God’s mercy, and finally, quite rightly, I am being punished. The Lord offered me mercy, but I never paid due attention to it, I was reckless, and now for a just reason He turns away from me!” Of course, then the Angels will say to me with anger: “Now is the time not for repentance, but for retribution. Prayer no longer has power, tears of repentance are also invalid, only tears shed from torment are abundant; It is not tender sighs that are heard here, but incessant groans and painful cries. Go and accept bitter and heavy retribution for your deeds, burning in flames like an unclean substance and igniting unquenchable Gehenna. Enjoy yourself as the son of darkness, who loved eternal darkness, have fun looking at the black visions for which you abhorred the eternal light.” There, there will be incessant crying and painful gnashing of teeth! Alas, my poor soul, naked from all deeds, how will you look at the Unfeigned Judge, at the approaching angels and archangels and at the earth-born, approaching in countless numbers? Alas, you will be ill then, my soul, but you will not be heard. Everything will change. Everything will become different. The righteous will forever rejoice and the sinners will forever suffer. They did not bring joy to the God of all - and they themselves will be alien to all joy forever. Let us cry out, soul, to God while we are here: “Before we were not even completely lost, save us!” Whether God hears or does not hear prayers - everything is for the good The Lord is the All-Wise Distributor. He looks at the benefit of the person asking and as soon as he sees that what he is asking is harmful or, at least, useless to him, he does not fulfill the request and refuses the imaginary benefit. He listens to every prayer, and the one whose prayer is not fulfilled receives from the Lord the same saving gift as the one whose prayer is fulfilled. Whether a needy person or a debtor comes to the Good, he gives to the former and forgives the latter. Therefore, both leave the door of the Giver with gifts: the needy one receives deliverance from need, and the debtor receives remission of debt. In every possible way, God shows that He is a Merciful Giver: He gives us His love and shows us His mercy. And therefore he does not answer any incorrect prayer, the fulfillment of which would bring us death and destruction. However, even in this case, refusing what we asked, He does not leave us without a very useful gift in the very thing that removes what is harmful from us, and already opens to us the door of His bounties. Therefore, be sure that every request that is not fulfilled is undoubtedly harmful, and the request that is heard is beneficial. The Distributor is righteous and good and will not leave your requests unfulfilled, because in His goodness there is no malice and in His righteousness there is no envy. Painted. – Note. ed. You might be interested in: