Repentance

And so it is appropriate to pray to the Father and to invoke him with all our soul, sighing, not outwardly with the lips, but with the inward spirit⁠a that comes from the depth, repenting the former life we led, confessing our sins, understanding the vacuous lie we lived in, and the hollow zealotry, wailing because of the darkness and the wave that engulfed us, weeping for ourselves so that he would show us compassion, hating ourselves because of what we are now.
The Savior again said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be pitied.⁠b Blessed are those who are hungry, for they will be filled.”⁠c
He said once more, “If one does not hate his soul he cannot follow me.”⁠d
This is because the beginning of salvation is repentance.
And so, “Before Christ appeared, John came, preaching the baptism of repentance.”⁠e
And repentance occurs in pain and sorrow.
The Father, however, is good and loves humanity, and he listens to the soul who calls on him, sending it the light of salvation.
By the Spirit he therefore said to the prophet: “Say to the children of my people: ‘[If] your sins reach [from earth to] heaven, and if they are [red] as scarlet, and blacker than sackcloth,⁠f [and if] you return to me with all your soul, and say to me “my Father!” I will listen to you as a holy people.’”
Yet another passage: “Thus says the Lord, the holy one of Israel: ‘If you return and weep, then you will be saved,⁠g and you will know where you were when you hoped in what is empty.’”
And in another passage, he said: “Jerusalem wept much, saying, ‘Have pity on me.’ He will be gracious to you at the sound of your weeping. And when he saw, he answered you.
And the Lord will give you bread of adversity and water of affliction. From now on, those who lie to you will not approach you again. Your eyes will see those who lie to you.⁠h
And so it is appropriate to pray to God both night and day, spreading out our hands to him like those who sail in the middle of the sea.
They pray to God with all their heart without duplicity, because those who pray with duplicity only lie to themselves.
In fact, so that he might know who deserves salvation, God examines the inward parts and searches the depths of the heart.
For no one who is still in love with the place of lies deserves salvation.