На тех, которые ежедневно грешат и ежедневно каются

How long will you, friend, endure the enemy and do what pleases him every day? How long, friend, will you serve the body, which is deadly? Accept the advice that is life-giving for you and will serve to cleanse your soul, as well as your body. Come to the Savior, Who heals all those who come to Him with repentance and perfect faith. Thus, of all honorable things, repentance is great and saving. Therefore, once you have become sober, do not plunge into intoxication, sinning daily, now building, now destroying, now weaving, now unraveling, like children who diligently build their houses many times, and then, having overturned them, turn everything into a heap. Avoid the scorpion, whose sting you have experienced. Carefully run away from the serpent, whose destructiveness you have discovered. He who falls twice, stumbling on the same stone, is blind, or so clumsy that he does not see what he should avoid. Having made diligence about this, approach with repentance; Using this means, appease the Creator, humble and lamenting, with downcast eyes and sighs, grieving over what has befallen, directing your attention to what awaits ahead. This is how the publican Zacchaeus was once saved. So Matthew became a servant of Christ. So the voluptuous harlot wife, who knew no bounds to her lewdness to the temptation of those who saw how she quickly wiped the Savior’s feet with her hair, was driven out of the destructive pit of iniquities. So you, too, by putting a rein on your wandering gaze and taking on a sad look, will save yourself; because God raises up the little, exalts the humble, and casts down and crushes those who exalt themselves. Look at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, how these people are cruel, ferocious, hateful, impudent, unclean, indecent, ready with pleasure for any insult and any violence, raining bogey and fire on them, the Lord destroyed every single one. Look at the city of Nineveh, magnificent and decorated, blooming with sins, abounding in vices. God threatened to crush and suddenly strike the city with complete overthrow and fall; but, seeing again that those who indulged in lust, in sackcloth and ashes, in hunger and fasting, with weeping and tears, put aside all pomp, were pale, frightened, awed and changed, became unlike themselves, and were all busy with the same thing, equal to each other and unequal: free and slaves, rich and poor, bosses and subordinates, rulers and subordinates, male and the women, the elders and all the babies - seeing that everyone had humbled themselves, everyone had become chaste, the Lord had mercy, had mercy, saved, spared, canceling the punishment that he had threatened, and wished better to appear to have failed to fulfill his word than to be cruel. Thus, He punishes unyielding sinners, and does not allow the obedient to perish mercilessly. Hurry up: pray, save yourself, take care of yourself. The Lord is ready for mercy, ready to heal, quick to help, does not hesitate to deliver, gives to those who ask, opens to those who ask, supplies the poor, provides for the needy, does not refuse those who seek, is not angry with the fallen, stretches out his hand to save, loves those who seek permission, threatens the disobedient. Did you stumble? - Sober up. Has it fallen? - Turn, pray, ask, fall, covet, seek, receive, be sure of what is given to you, bow, beg for salvation, propitiate the One who is willing to give and can save. And, having been saved, do not lose what you have acquired; fall, rise; Having fallen down, correct yourself; as soon as you have sinned, make amends for your sin; Having been healed, remain healthy; Having received perfect health and been saved, turn away from the illness from which you have been delivered. Therefore, do not rekindle again what you once extinguished, do not fall into the mud that you washed off so well. Don't imitate pigs who love to wallow in mud; do not compete with dogs that eat vomit; “no one” once “lay his hand on the head and turn back in vain”, acquired a kingdom for himself (Luke 9:62). Let no one, having once been washed from filth, return to it again. One Christ, one faith, one cross, one death. One grace, one suffering, one resurrection. He who gave himself up to the slaughter for you should not give himself up again and another time to pay the redemption price for you. You are redeemed, do not stubbornly remain a slave; you have been washed from sinful defilements, do not become defiled, for for your washing there is no other font prepared for the mortal plague. You might be interested in: