Wednesday, June 13, 2012

St. Isaac the Syrian: The Gift of Repentance

Repentance has been given to mankind as a grace beyond grace. Repentance is a second birth from GOD. This second birth we receive in earnest in Baptism.

Repentance is the gateway to mercy which is open for all who seek it. By way of this gate we enter divine mercy, and apart from this entrance one cannot find mercy.

For "all have sinned", according to divine Scripture, "and are jusified freely by grace" (Rm. 3:23,24). Repentance is the second grace and is born in the heart as a result of faith and fear.

Fear is the paternal rod which guides us as far as the spiritual Eden; but once we have reached there, it leaves us and turns back.

Eden consists in divine love, wherein is the paradise of all blessedness. This is where St. Paul received supernatural sustenance.

After having tasted of the tree of life, he explained, saying, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the human heart, what GOD has prepared for those who love HIM" (I Co. 2:9). --St, Isaac the Syrian

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