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."

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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).

"And the Ninevites believed God, and declared a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them... And [the king of the Ninevites] arose from his throne, and took off his royal garments, and put on sackcloth, and sat down on the ashes, and commanded that it should be proclaimed and spoken in Nineveh in the name of the king and his nobles, saying, "That neither man, nor cattle, nor oxen, nor sheep, eat anything, nor go into the pasture, nor drink water, and that men and cattle be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God, and that each one should turn from his evil way from the violence of his hands'" (Jonah, 3:5-8).

And here is the repentance of the sinful King David. When David was convicted of sin by the prophet Nathan and his child fell ill, David began to pray and fast, and having secluded himself, he spent the night lying on the ground. And the elders of the house came in to him to lift him up from the ground, but he would not eat bread with them, and so he lay on the ground and wept. and David fasted for a whole week until the death of the child (2 Samuel 12:16-20).

In both cases, we see active repentance and severe punishment of themselves by the penitents. Such are the features of repentance found in the Gospel stories.

For example, the publican Zacchaeus gives away half of his possessions and distributes four times as much to those who are offended by him.

The prostitute does not grudge the precious peace for the feet of the Lord, and is not ashamed to weep in front of everyone, to kiss the feet of the Lord, and to wipe them with her hair.

The publican goes to church, humbly stands "at a distance", beats his chest, not daring to raise his head, and so on.

All these are features of active repentance, effort, podvig, and not only words and illusory regrets for one's sins.