When sin was most intense in the world, the all-powerful Physician descended into the world. He descended into the land of exile, into the land of our anguish and suffering, which precedes eternal torment in hell, and preaches deliverance, joy, and healing to all men, without any exception. Repent!

The power of repentance is based on the power of God: the Physician is omnipotent, and the medicine given by Him is omnipotent.

Then, during His preaching on earth, the Lord called for healing all those who were sick with sin, and did not recognize any sin as incurable. And now He continues to call everyone, promises and grants forgiveness of every sin, healing of every sinful disease.

Oh, earthly pilgrims! Oh, all of you who strive or are drawn along the broad path in the unceasing noise of earthly cares, amusements and amusements, by flowers mingled with thorns, hastening along this path to the end, known to all and forgotten by all, to the gloomy tomb, to an even darker and more terrible eternity, stop! Shake off the charm of the world that keeps you captive at all times! Listen to what the Savior is telling you, pay due attention to His words! Repent and believe in the Gospel, He says to you, repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven draws nigh.

It is extremely necessary for you, earthly pilgrims, to pay full attention to this essentially useful, salvific exhortation: otherwise you will reach the grave, you will reach the threshold and gates of eternity, without acquiring any correct understanding of eternity or of the duties of the one who enters it, having prepared in it only just punishments for your sins. The gravest of sins is inattention to the words of the Savior, neglect of the Savior. Repent!

The path of earthly life is flattering, deceptive: for beginners it seems to be an endless field full of reality; for those who have completed it by the shortest path, furnished with empty dreams. Repent!

And fame, and wealth, and all other perishable acquisitions and advantages, for the acquisition of which the blinded sinner uses all his earthly life, all the powers of soul and body, he must leave in those moments when the clothes of the soul are forcibly stripped of its body, when the soul is led by implacable Angels to the judgment of the righteous God, unknown to it, despised by it. Repent!

People work, hurry to enrich themselves with knowledge, but only knowledge of little importance, suitable only for time, contributing to the satisfaction of the needs, comforts and whims of earthly life. Knowledge and work, which are essential, for which earthly life alone has been granted to us, the knowledge of God and reconciliation with Him through the Redeemer, we completely despise. Repent!

Fraternity! Let us look impartially, in the light of the Gospel, at our earthly life. It is insignificant! all its benefits are taken away by death, and often much earlier than death by various unexpected circumstances. These perishable goods, which so quickly disappear, are not worthy to be called goods! Rather, they are deceptions, nets. Those who are entangled in these nets and entangled in them are deprived of the true, eternal, heavenly, spiritual blessings brought about by faith in Christ and by following Him along the mysterious path of life of the Gospel. Repent!

What a terrible blindness we are in! How evident is our fall by this blindness! We see the death of our brethren; we know that it is certainly and perhaps very soon before us, because no man has remained forever on earth; We see that even before death many people are betrayed by earthly well-being, that it often turns into misfortune, similar to the daily tasting of death. In spite of this so clear evidence of experience itself, we pursue only temporal goods, as if they were permanent, eternal. To them alone all our attention is directed! God is forgotten! Forgotten is the majestic and at the same time terrible eternity! Repent!

They will change, brethren, they will certainly betray us all perishable goods: the rich will be betrayed by their wealth, the glorious by their glory, the young by their youth, the wise by their wisdom. Only one eternal, essential good can be acquired by a person during his earthly pilgrimage: true knowledge of God, reconciliation and union with God, granted by Christ. But in order to receive these supreme blessings, one must abandon the life of sin, one must hate it. Repent!

Repent! What does it mean to repent? It means to confess, to repent of one's sins, to forsake one's sins, as a certain great holy Father answered such a question, and not to return to them again. In this way, many sinners were transformed into saints, many lawless people into righteous men.

Repent! Reject from yourselves not only obvious sins – murder, robbery, fornication, slander, lies, but also pernicious amusements and carnal pleasures, and criminal dreams, and lawless thoughts – everything, everything forbidden by the Gospel. Wash away your former and sinful life with tears of sincere repentance.

Do not say to yourself in despondency and weakness of soul: "I have fallen into grievous sins; I have acquired sinful habits through a long-term sinful life; they turned from time to nature, as it were, and made repentance impossible for me" [80]. These gloomy thoughts are inspired in you by your enemy, who is not yet noticed and understood by you[81]: he knows the power of repentance, and he fears that repentance will tear you out of his power, and he tries to distract you from repentance, attributing weakness to God's almighty healing.