Many take actions that they later on regret, either due to its bad results or because their conscience troubles them and turns against them. It could also be that they fail to put matters back to the way they were before taking these wrong actions.
The regret increases more as the person realises the horror of his sin and the greatness of his guilt, just like Judas, and as Cain said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” (Gen. 4:13).
The regret also increases when one realises that it is of no use. For example, a word is said and nobody can get it back, or take it out of the ears of those who heard it, no matter how the person apologises.
Wrong deeds that one regrets could be the result of rashness, hastiness and lack of consideration. It could also be due to lack of consultation before taking such action. The terrible and wrong deed could also be the outcome of anger, inner revolution, loss of self-control, ignoring the results or not giving them a thought completely.
As one regrets what he does hastily and without consultation, he may also regret giving in to his desires and passions, without putting God before him and without considering his dignity as an image of God.
One may also regret not taking the future into account when he acted carelessly in a light, and lazy manner.
Nevertheless, regret has its benefit, as it leads one to repentance, correcting his lifestyle. It also has another benefit, as it leads one to a life of humility and contrition. That is what happened with the prophet David, who every night, drenched his couch with his tears. It also happened to St. Paul, the Apostle, who says, “… I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.” (1 Cor. 15:9).
Regret could be of benefit here, but in eternity it turns into torment. There wouldn’t be repentance, as the time of repentance would be over, “… and the door was shut …” as in the parable of the foolish virgins who heard the Lord saying, “I do not know you.” (Matt. 25:10). The regret here turned into “.. weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 25:30).
Struggle then while you are on earth before it is too late when regret wouldn’t be of benefit. That is the share of those who do not labour now, as the poet says:
If you did not sow and watched a reaper –
You shall regret for wasting the time of sowing.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Words of Spiritual Benefit Vol. IV
Category: TEMPTATION & LUST & VIRGINITY
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Once when Abba Macarius was passing through Egypt with some brothers he heard a young woman saying to her mother: “Mama, a rich man loves me and I hate him while a poor man hates me and I love him.” Abba Macarius was amazed on hearing this. The brothers said to him: “Father, what is this saying that you were amazed [at it]?” The elder said to them: “Truly our Lord is rich and he loves us—and we do not want to hear him. Our enemy the devil is poor and hates us—and we love his impurity.”
Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers
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You feel after [sinning] void of inner peace, you feel unhappy, you feel there is no support, you feel the fear that bad things will happen, you feel that the Lord will not answer me because we live with this comfortable thing that God is supportive, but if God is not supportive, where can I go? I cannot afford life without having support from God.
—Fr. Jacob Magdy -
164. A man knows God and is known by Him in so far as he makes every effort not to be separated from God; and he will succeed in this if he is good in every way and refrains from all sensual pleasure, not because he lacks the means to indulge such pleasure, but because of his own determination and self-control.
Anthony the Great: On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life: One Hundred and Seventy Texts
Philokalia -
“The thought is not a sin.”
—Fr. Paul Girguis -
Do not trust to abstinence not to fall. One who had never eaten was cast from heaven.
Certain learned men have well defined renunciation, by saying that it is hostility to the body and a fight against the stomach.
With beginners falls usually occur by reason of luxury; with intermediates because of haughtiness as well as from the same cause which leads to the fall of beginners; and with those approaching perfection, solely from judging their neighbour.
(…) Do not expect to confute the demon of fornication by arguing with him; for with nature on his side, he has the best of the argument.
He who has resolved to contend with his flesh and conquer it himself struggles in vain. For unless the Lord destroys the house of the flesh and builds the house of the soul, the man who desires to destroy it has watched and fasted in vain.
Offer to the Lord the weakness of your nature, fully acknowledging your own incapacity, and you will receive imperceptibly the gift of chastity.
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
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…There in triumph are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence…In obedience to the Lord’s command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure.
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CHAPTER XXVIII. — A VIRGIN WHO FELL
AGAIN, I knew a virgin in Jerusalem who wore sackcloth for six years and shut herself up in a cell, taking none of the things that bestow pleasure. In the end she fell, abandoned (by God) because of her excessive arrogance. She opened the window and admitted the man who waited on her and sinned with him, because she had practised asceticism not with a religious motive and for the love of God, but with human ostentation, which springs from vain-glory and corrupt intention. For, her thoughts being engrossed in condemning others, the guardian of her chastity was absent.
Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918) pp. 35-180
SO GOOD QUOTES 