By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin
"May he who was born and in the manger reclined for the sake of our salvation, Christ our true God, through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother and all the saints will have mercy and save us."
Pious listeners! How will we be saved, how will the Lord have mercy on us? We all sin, we all offend God.
Yesterday, standing in church, we rejoiced with all our hearts and thought that all our lives we would joyfully strive against sins; and no sooner had we left the church than we began to sin, as before, not only in thought and desires, but also in words and deeds. After every sin and transgression, we repent, mourn, lament, but as soon as our conscience is calmed, we are again taken for the same, for the same sins.
And how many times we made a promise to keep ourselves from sins in every possible way, and did not keep it! How will we be saved, how will the Lord have mercy on us?
Do not be discouraged: the Lord will save you and have mercy on you. You weep over your sins, you grieve, you lament that you offend God with your sins: cry more, grieve more, but do not be discouraged, but trust in the Lord and resort to Him. He was born so that we could all be saved through Him; He came into the world to save sinners. The Lord came to save sinners. Why should you be sad, sinner? You are the first of sinners - the Lord will save you first. Just don't stop crying, don't put off repenting of your sins. Immediately, at the very moment you sin in something, turn to God with repentance, with tears. If you sin again, repent again, resort to Him. And if after that you sin - again to Him with tears, with repentance. How long do we do this? Until the time when you wholeheartedly with all your heart you will say to the Lord: Lord, it is impossible for me to be saved without Your help, without Your mercy; You are my salvation, You are my God, You are my joy.
The Lord, when he sees that you, with all the desire to save yourself from sins, and you still cannot help but sin, you sin and repent all the time; you fall and cry all the time; you cry and fall again, when He sees this, He will immediately rush to your aid. Like the mother, while her child, falling several times, does not cry in pain, does not rush to him, as soon as the child falls and cries heavily, she immediately runs to him, and the more painfully the child cries, the sooner she runs. So is our Lord Jesus Christ: He does not immediately rush to help us when we fall into sin, but when we weep bitterly for our sins. He allows us to fall into the abyss of sin, so that we might more strongly call upon the unexplored abyss of His mercy, in which alone is all our salvation, all our joy, all blessing.
Do not be discouraged, pious listener: the Lord will have mercy and save you, through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother and all the saints. Amen.