Repentance is not a single, isolated event. It is a continual renewal of the baptismal commitment, dying to the world and rising to live a life in Christ. It unfolds as a lifelong journey in which the believer repeatedly turns the heart back toward God, allowing divine grace to reshape thoughts, desires, and actions. This ongoing transformation is not merely an emotional moment or a temporary feeling, but a steady reorientation of the entire person toward holiness. As a text beautifully states:, “It is a continuous process of acknowledging sin, feeling contrition, and turning away from a sinful life to embrace virtue through the grace of Christ…”.
St. Isaac the Syrian offers a profound reminder: “This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.” Repentance is a divine gift, one that shifts our focus from worldly distractions to the eternal, cultivating within us a sincere and deep desire for God. St. Tikhon, Bishop of Zadonsk, teaches that we should never disregard Christ or His call to us: “Christ the Lord calls everyone to repentance, but whoever does not repent and does not perform acts of repentance means that he has not listened to Christ and, although called to repentance by Him, has not obeyed Him. Therefore, Christ and His Gospel are of no use to such a person.”
Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou emphasizes the vital importance of repentance in our present times: “One is to have many great evils and troubles all over the world. Catastrophes, not just wars, in many different regions and many natural disasters; and all this is on account of our sins of course. But there is also a scenario in which fewer misfortunes will be allowed to occur, because repentant people will still be found on this earth. It is obvious to everyone, both in Greece and Cyprus, that we are in a time of great turmoil worldwide... A situation in which our countries (Greece and Cyprus) are impacted geopolitically, economically, energetically, and so on. And it is natural to expect that the Middle East will go through changes that will affect our interests of national sovereignty. It is clear that both Greece and Cyprus are heading towards an uncertain future. It is no coincidence that Saint Porphyrios has recently appeared to a professor through whom he told us that we are truly alone, and that we have no true ally on our side except the help of our saints and the Mother of God. In addition, Elder Ephraim of Arizona, who recently passed away (2019) to
the Lord, told us that Greece has turned its back on Christ, and it is sleeping in its own muck. In view of all this, what should we all do, the clergy and the people, as well as the political class, so as to minimize the evil that seems to be pouring out on us? Is there hope, under the conditions where there is no real repentance, that a small part of the people and the clergy will change God’s decisions? Might there be a need for a national “campaign” of repentance and prayer, which will positively influence what is going to happen in our country in the future? So... The question is: “Is there hope, under the conditions where there is no real repentance, that a small part of the people and the clergy will change God’s decisions?” Of course there is hope! Very, very, very much hope! Because Christ exists, there is the Holy Spirit, God the Father; the Holy Trinity! Lord have mercy! After all, we know who will be victorious. Revelation tells us this; the last book of the New Testament. It is Christ! “I have come to overcome, and I will overcome!” All the other events are happenings of history; whether we are talking about wars, earthquakes, natural disasters, plagues, diseases, deaths, falls. All these are happenings, and they all pass away. What do we want? For our generation not to undergo trials and temptations? If we do not have trials, how will we sanctify ourselves? “For there must also be heresies among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.” (1 Corinthians 11:19) “There is no real repentance...” There still is a little repentance, though. I’m a believer. I see a lot of people, especially the youth, who confess and cry during confession; with tears. The last few days I confessed a boy to whom I was constantly giving tissues. What tears! This is how Saint Mary of Egypt must have confessed. I became ashamed. I thought to myself that I had never seen such tears from a person. And I said to myself: this is why it is necessary for all hierarchs to do confessions sometimes; in order to be humbled by the tears of those who humbly confess. When I see that in the Old Testament there is talk of Sodom being destroyed by God, and Abraham asks God: “Lord, but if you find 25 righteous people in Sodom, will you save them?” “I will save them!” “But if there are only 20 instead of 25?” “I will save them!” “If instead of 20, You’ll only find 15?” “I will save them!” “What if there are only 10?” “Of course, I will save them!” “But what if You find only 5?” “Even on account of 5 I will save them!” And it says that Abraham was amazed within himself when he saw how great the mercy of God was, and he said to himself: “But what a miserable people we are! Not even 5?!” Do you know what the Holy Fathers interpret about these few verses of The Old Testament? If there were only two would He save them? Yes, He would save them! Because it says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20). Nowadays, throughout all of Orthodoxy, not only in Cyprus and Greece, but also in Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, the Orthodox in Australia, Germany, America, Canada, everywhere... They write to me from South Africa. And I must say, what a desire for repentance, prayer, asceticism, and monasticism. I did not expect such a thing! If I, the sinner, Neophytos... And you all know me with all my passions and mistakes for so many years. If even I have this compassion for them and I feel sorry for them, then what about Christ? Isn’t He more merciful than I am? Of course! So I think that what the great Holy Elder Ephraim of Arizona... He was a great saint, Elder Ephraim of Arizona, and I knew he was great even before he passed away, but in the first few months since he has passed away he has proved this to be the case. He said, there are two possible scenarios that could happen: One is to have many great evils and troubles all over the world. Catastrophes, not just wars, in many different regions and many natural disasters; and all this is on account of our sins of course. But there is also a scenario in which fewer misfortunes will be allowed to occur, because repentant people will still be found on this earth. I believe in the few, because this kind of work has always been done by the few people, not by the many. And these few seem to exist. It is said that Saint Paisios recently appeared to a spiritual son of his, who is alive on this earth, and he was very joyful. Why was the Elder (Saint) so joyful? Because the Mother of God found repentance on earth, and Christ promised to allow less to happen than we expected and prophesied. Did you hear? The prophecy, Saint Porphyrios says, is given so that it does not happen! Did you hear? The Lord prefers to make His prophet a laughing stock (the prophecy not to occur) on account of His Love for people. That is why we have entered into this discussion of prophesies, to give birth to repentance, pain, and fear of God. Glory be to God, because it appears that something has happened/changed until now. It looks like the second scenario is going to happen. Let’s see what will happen in the end. I believe and hope in the second scenario, because there is hope, there are people who pray and who repent. He also asks us if we need a national “campaign” of repentance and prayer that will positively influence what happens in our country in the future? But it’s not just about our country! One thing that bothers me is that we have this impression that God is Greek. Forgive me, but God made the whole Universe! Do you understand this?! “The worlds”, says a beautiful Psalm! God did everything Himself! Does God not care about the Eskimos and the Chinese; everyone? Do you know what our trump card is, so to speak? We are baptized and anointed, so we can become sanctified. We have more possibilities, but also bigger responsibilities! If we fail, what does the gospel say will happen? “to whom much is given, from him much will be required.” (Luke 12:48) Therefore, we Orthodox are born for holiness, others are born for salvation! You will say to me: “But is this possible outside the Church?” God has His ways, I will not talk about this now!” And these events that will come, wars, and the ones that will follow, migration and disease, will lead many, many people with good intentions not only to repentance, but to the knowledge of the truth; the truth of Orthodoxy. So, it’s an operation (the great events) that needs to happen. Now, whether the operation is performed with or without anesthesia or if it will be painful or less painful, it is up to us to decide.”
Hegumen Nikon Vorobiev cautions that those who refuse to repent endanger their souls: “Know that “God is not mocked” (Galatatians 6:7). The Lord awaits repentance from sinners, and that is why He endures so long. But foolish people think sinners prosper, therefore there is no God. God pities them, admonishes them with good, sorrows, and illnesses, expecting their correction. And if they do not repent, He leaves them to their own devices in earthly life, to be repaid after death. Even the righteous often find death difficult, but of sinners it is said: “The death of sinners is evil and life after death is even more so.” True repentance is not instantaneous, it requires practice, insight, and experience. It is the fruit of a lifetime spent walking with God. As we mature spiritually, we begin to recognize our own sins and understand how far we have fallen from the divine benchmark: to be like Christ. Whenever we fall short, we are called to repent. Like the father of the prodigal son, God is always ready to forgive and welcome us back with open arms.
St. Paisios of Mount Athos once said: “Thousands of times we sin, and Christ forgives us, as long as we repent sincerely.”. And St. Paisios said at another time: “When someone starts making concessions to sin, he darkens inside, the eyes of the soul are clouded, and he can no longer see clearly. Moreover, he is polluted by sin, and sin confuses and entangles him, causing him to see even the pure as sinful. When a person observes the commandments of God, working to be cleansed of one’s passions, then the mind is enlightened; it attains spiritual vision, and the soul becomes as resplendent as it was before the Fall of man.”
Building on the words of Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, Father Peter Heers speaks about the approaching World War and the urgent need for repentance: “So, all of the prophecies and all of the events are all geared toward our repentance, as we said, which means a return, which means we as Christians all around the world need a return to the inheritance of the apostolic tradition, which has been preserved and guarded within the Orthodox Church. That means repentance is not remorse. It’s not a bad feeling. It’s not simply an intellectual change. It’s a change of orientation; a spiritual orientation and it’s a return to the truth and turn to God in practice. So that’s what we should be about and that means coming back on all different ways that we’ve been apostasied, especially in the West from the true gospel, which has been handed down to us. I mean, we are living through a thousand years of apostasy. This is the fruit of a thousand years of apostasy in the West. This is what we’re facing. It’s not overnight, it’s not over the last 50 years. You can’t turn it back and go to the 1950s and have an idealic America. This goes very, very deep through many stages of apostasy through many generations and centuries. And so, we can’t change the general direction of the entire projectory of the West and the world today, but we can change our own allegiances and turn away from those things which are clearly innovations, clearly departures, clearly not given by God, all the various teachings which are like human ideas that are generated, but do not lead us to union with God. That’s one general way to talk about it, but in particular, these prophecies are given for us to repent from the very grievous way of life that we’ve chosen, abortion, the sexual, total perversity and distortion of marriage. These are the things, the occult, these are the things that the Saints in particular are appointed to as being the cause for the coming world war and the destruction of so much in terms of human beings, most importantly, but also culture and history, historical monuments and all the rest will be utterly destroyed during this massive war that’s coming in the Middle East. And so, because of those gross sins, which if you want to analyze it just in one word, it’s desacralization on many levels. It’s blasphemy on many levels. It’s taking the holiness of marriage and blaspheming and desacralizing from both in and before marriage, the destruction of purity in the youth, all of these things are abhorrent to God and have been for thousands of years, the turning away from the clear teachings and scriptures, the arrogance, all of this, which we see, of course, being led as Gerondisa Galaktia, this recent Saint said, by the people who are pushing it. Of course, according to Metropolitan Neophytos, it’s the new world order elite that is leading the way, but so many people are following as well. And so, let’s first and foremost back away from that, which is provoking the wrath and the imminent destruction. Repent of that, begin to lead a life that’s according to the gospel and then turn toward Christ in his fullness and come back to the teachings that have been passed down in the Orthodox Church, which had never been corrupted. And it’s apparent in the lives of these prophets in these Saints in our day that this is the same gospel, the same power and authority for 2,000 years. That’s one more witness and one more reason why God is allowing these prophecies to become known to people all around the world through our shows, but mainly through Metropolitan Neophytos and Others is precisely the witness of the truth for their salvation, not just to tell us, oh, this is coming, be aware, but all of it is meant to bring us all to repentance and return to the gospel, the unadulterated gospel.”
Elder Sophrony of Essex spoke as follows regarding the non-Orthodox and those who convert to Orthodoxy: “When someone who is not Orthodox comes to the Orthodox Church he must go through a furnace of repentance, of change and regeneration of his entire way of thinking and living. This will take a long time. In order for someone’s positive attitude towards Orthodoxy to become an experience of his heart, he must lead a life of asceticism and crucifixion for many years under the guidance of an experienced spiritual father. Otherwise, the ‘old self’ will remain, with the result that unbelief and the inclination to go back to the old way of life will often occur.”
Each day offers a sacred opportunity to deepen our repentance. Through daily prayer, Scripture reading, fasting, acts of charity, and participation in the divine services of the Church, we make use of the spiritual hospital and tools entrusted to us. These practices help cultivate genuine repentance and draw us ever closer to Christ. As Scripture reminds us: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) .
In these troubled times, confession and repentance are urgently needed. Brothers and sisters, the days of tribulation and examinations are approaching with alarming speed. The hour is near; repent before it is too late and before the Kingdom comes.
Glory be to the Triune God!
