There is no evil that we have not committed. We did not do only what we could not do or for which there was no convenient time; but the evil that we could have done, we have done. All the will given to us by God in order that we should strive for Him – the fullness of all good things – we used in order to contain within ourselves all the abominations of the world. We have turned away from God with such amazing ease, as if both divine and natural laws mean nothing to us!

Let us confess to ourselves, my brethren, that in the sight of God our whole soul is sick and covered with wounds, just as the body of Job was all covered with an ulcer and eaten by worms. When sin begins to dominate a person, then this person is punished by the offspring of sin – death. How many times should we have been punished with it for all the sins that possessed us? If mortal sin could plunge us into hell at once, how many times should we have been cast there with our sins? But in spite of this, the Lord, in His abundant and great mercy, does not reject us and not only tolerates us with our sins for so long, but also shows us His boundless blessings. How long will we laugh at His mercy?

Let us confess all the evil we have done, and let us imitate God's love as much as possible. Let us ask Him for punishment for our sins and promise Him that we will no longer anger Him with our bold life. then He will sustain us with His grace, so that we may not fall back into our former sins, as it is written in the Wisdom of Sirach: O Lord, Father and Master of my life! Do not leave me to their will, and do not suffer me to fall through them! (Sir. 23:1).

Let us also think about the gravity of our sins, because any of them is a great and terrible evil, and mortal sin is especially so, since it is hostile to the immeasurable goodness of God, by which we offend God and show contempt for Him. Any mortal sin has such a gravity that neither all the feats of the saints, nor all the holiness of the Angels, nor all the prayers of the Most Holy Virgin can erase it. In the scales of Divine justice, nothing can outweigh the weight of one mortal sin, except the Cross and Blood of the Savior. Therefore, sin is the greatest of all evils.

All the torments of hell cannot be compared in their severity with one mortal sin. The Holy Spirit says through Sirach: hell is preferable to one mortal sin. So great is the gravity of one serious violation of God's will! He who dares to do so has a heart of stone; he is like a dumb animal and a senseless tree. He sins with such ease and fearlessness, as if he wants to harm God, not the True and Living, but the false and pictured. A Christian who sins and insults Christ with such audacity does what the ido-worshippers did not dare to do with their wooden and stone false gods.

And after all this, what else can we do but weep with tears of repentance throughout our lives for the impudence and hardness of heart with which we offended God? And in order for us to please God and give His majesty due honor, we must decide to do one very difficult thing: we must ask the Lord with all our hearts to grant us the strength to fulfill it, because without the intervention of Divine grace we will not be able to change ourselves. Let us fervently pray to the Lord Christ that He would have mercy on us, that He would send us as many sorrows as times we have shown ingratitude to His mercy and love by our sins.

Let us think about our ingratitude to God and the blessings with which He responds to it. As soon as we come to know the wealth of blessings given to us by the Lord, both common to all people and given to each of us personally, we will immediately feel that we are unworthy of all those great blessings and gifts in which God shows us His love. And how can we repay the Lord for all that He has done for us? The angels themselves contemplate with amazement the humility, sufferings and death of Christ, which He took upon Himself for our salvation. We are debtors of God's love. Because He suffered and died for us with such love as if we were alone in the world, we are now indebted to His death.

Thus, seeing ourselves now surrounded by so many blessings of God, we should no longer offend Him with our sins. Let us always repeat the words spoken by the wise Joseph: "How then shall I do this great evil and sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9).

Why should we anger our sweetest Benefactor, who has given us such rich gifts? God created us out of nothing, and we despise Him as if He were nothing. Instead of God, we give preference to our body, which is no different from rottenness. God gave us His life, so that we too might give Him ours, crucifying our passions and not provoking His wounds with our sins, according to the words of the Apostle Paul: "They again crucify the Son of God in themselves, and mock Him" (Hebrews 6:6).

The Lord loved us as befits His Divine majesty, and we preferred to Him abominable pleasures, although they flee from us like a shadow. As Bl. Augustine: "God delivered you from many troubles. When you have gone astray, He has guided you on the right path. When you were perplexed, He taught you. When you grieved, He comforted you. When you were weak, He strengthened you. When you fell, He lifted you up. When you stood, He established you. As you went, He guided you. When you came to Him, He received you. When you slept, He guarded you. When you cried out to Him, He bowed down to listen to you." For all this, we rewarded Him with unheard-of ingratitude.

Let us repent of our impudence and ingratitude, with which we have despised the goodness of God, and from now on with trembling we will fulfill His commandments. We confess that we are worthy that the earth should swallow us up alive, that the sea should cover us with its waves, that the sun should burn us with its rays, and that at last hell should devour us and eternal torment should engulf us with burning flames.

However, as long as we live, our whole life can become a time of repentance and turning to the merciful Lord, Who is always ready to forgive us who forget our sins and grant us endless bliss in His Paradise.