ГРЕХ

(see also: Fall, Repentance). No! I do not disdain prisoners, as you write in your letter, knowing that I too am in the bonds of sin. And such an arrest, i.e. sinful, is the most blasphemous, it is only about such an arrest that a monk can and should grieve and care, since his shame and his torment are eternal, unless a person breaks the bonds of sin in advance by repentance. 19. Pray to the Lord to forgive me, who in this letter dared to expose the secret shortcomings of my neighbor, for cleansing from which Saint David prays, calling them, however, a great sin, as one that decisively stops spiritual progress. “Cleanse me from my secrets,” he says, “and from strangers spare your servant... then I will be blameless and cleansed from great sin” (Ps. 19:13-14). My sins, not only secret, but also obvious, my falls are actually committed, imprinted by insensibility! 155. Another brother asked the same Great Pimen: “What should I do with my sins?” “The elder answered: “Whoever wants to be cleansed of the sins he has committed by crying is cleansed from them, and whoever wants to be saved from falling into new sins is saved from them by crying. This is the path of repentance, handed down to us by Scripture and the Fathers, who said: “Cry, because there is no other way but crying.” 156. Consider: there is nothing wonderful, extraordinary, that we fall into errors, that sin operates in us! Only the inexperienced are surprised by this, and only the inexperienced are embarrassed by this. We are all in decline; We are already conceived in lawlessness, we are already born in sins. One must bear with patience and longsuffering “the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar,” i.e. the action of sin in oneself, and with mercy towards oneself, purify oneself through repentance, presenting one’s weakness before God, constantly showing it to Him. 160. You might be interested in: