Forgiveness

Our thanks to God must be unceasing. Our thanksgiving must never stop, because we are made worthy every time we want to receive this cleansing, and every time we feel a sin, immediately turn the mind to God. “I have sinned Lord, forgive me.” With this “I have sinned Lord, forgive me,” God answers: “My child, you are forgiven; the power of the law is remitted. Proceed to the application of the law.” And the application is beneath the petraheli (stole). There all the sinfulness of man is ended. Forgiveness is so easy! It is very wrong for man, when this forgiveness is so easy and so free, because of his egoism not to want to receive it, not to want to open the doors of paradise and walk eternally in the glory of God!

- Elder Efrem of Philotheou on Watchfulness, Prayer and Confession

(For those readers who are not Orthodox, the reference of the Petraheli is to the stole which the priest places on the head of someone while saying a prayer of forgiveness during the sacrament of confession.)