Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) writes about this as follows:

"Anyone who strives to ascend to the marriage of the Son of God, not in clean and bright garments, arranged by repentance, but directly in his rags, in a state of decrepitude, sinfulness and self-deception, is cast out into utter darkness - into demonic delusion.

Repentance and everything of which it is composed, such as: contrition and sickness of the spirit, weeping of the heart, tears, self-condemnation, remembrance and premonition of death, of God's judgment and eternal torment, sense of God's presence, fear of God – all these are gifts of God, gifts of high value, original and fundamental gifts, pledges of higher and eternal gifts. Without first receiving them, it is impossible to receive subsequent gifts."

"No matter how lofty our podvigs may be," said St. John of the Ladder, "but if we did not acquire a sick heart, then these podvigs are both false and in vain. At the departure of our souls, we will not be accused of anything as that we have not wept unceasingly over our sins. For weeping has a twofold power: it destroys sin and gives birth to humility."

But what does the process of repentance consist of? It is preceded by the understanding by reason of our violation of God's commandments. This is followed by asking forgiveness from God, as well as from a person, if the sin was associated with guilt before him. But this is not yet repentance.

In addition to the confession of our sin, we must bear the labors of repentance – prayers of repentance and, perhaps, for the physically healthy, prostrations, fasting, abstinence, etc.

But even these are still not sufficient signs of the fullness of repentance. It is possible to do all this, but still not repent, not to reconcile God with oneself, not to receive His forgiveness and the return of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of His grace to the heart.

True repentance is born deep in the heart. Shame for sin, a feeling of dirt on his spiritual garment, disgust at his inclination to sin, which defiles the soul with disgusting impurity and an abominable smell, should appear in him.

And so, when our soul becomes heavy from this smell and impurity, when we begin to despise ourselves for our spiritual ugliness, when we mentally fall before God, stretching out our hands to Him with a request for forgiveness and help, when, in the words of Elder Silouan, "we descend into the hell of repentance and truly feel ourselves worse than any creature," then our real repentance begins. It is always not in external manifestations, but in the deepest experiences of the heart.

"Give your soul to hell, you will be rich," said Elder Zachariah of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Is there a limit to repentance? There is none, and, as St. St. Mark the Ascetic: "If we strive in repentance until death, then we will not fulfill what is due, because even then we will not bring anything equivalent to the Kingdom of Heaven."

* * *

Let us look for examples of repentance in the Holy Scriptures and in the history of the Church of Christ.

This is how the repentance of the Ninevites is described in the Bible, which the Lord Himself sets as an example (Matt. 12:41).