Letter 7: I know, dear brothers, that from the fear we all owe to God, you are already constant in your prayers and urgent in...

I know, dear brothers, that from the fear we all owe to God, you are already constant in your prayers and urgent in your petitions to Him. But I want to add my voice to your devotion: in order to appease and seek the Lord's mercy, we must lament not only in words but also with fasting, with tears, and with every form of earnestness. For we need to face the truth: the catastrophe that has devastated — and is still devastating — our flock has come upon us in proportion to our sins. We did not keep the Lord's way. We did not observe the commandments given for our salvation. Our Lord did the will of His Father. We did not do the will of our Lord. We chased after property and profit. We gave ourselves over to pride, rivalry, and strife. We abandoned simplicity and faith. We renounced the world in words only, not in deeds. Each of us pleased himself and displeased everyone else. So we are being struck as we deserve, since it is written: "That servant who knows his master's will and has not obeyed it shall be beaten with many stripes." But what blows do we not deserve when even the confessors — who should be examples of virtuous living to others — fail to maintain discipline? While an inflated and reckless boasting about their own confession goes to some people's heads, torments fall upon them, and those torments do not deliver them because they come without repentance. So let us pray — urgently, persistently, day and night — that God's favor may be restored to us. But let us also correct what needs correcting. Let discipline be restored. Let humility return. And let the confessors themselves be the first to show that their confession was born not of pride but of genuine faith — by living humbly, quietly, and in obedience to the order of the Church. Nothing threatens us more than believing we have already won when the battle is still raging.

Epistle 7