John Chrysostom, Second Speech

of your compassions and of your mercy, and do not condemn me with my iniquities, nor repay me according to my sins. You know the multitude of my iniquities, that it is great and not subject to number; but I also know the sea of your love for mankind, that it is incomparable and invincible. For you are the one who takes away the sin of the 63.926 world, who came down from heaven to earth, to seek the straying and lost sheep; the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep, and who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. Have mercy, have mercy on the work of your hands; do not abhor me, the unworthy one, but pity your creation, you who for my sake endured the cross, and accepted the marks of the bruises, but having healed, wipe away all things with the medicine of compassion, and with the sponge of your love for mankind; For you can do all things, and nothing is impossible for you.

Pierce my hardened heart, lighten the burden of my conscience, receive my tears and my groaning, as you did those of the harlot, as you did those of Peter, the chief of the apostles; receive this my small confession and repentance, you who received the thief's good-mindedness on the cross; receive the fruit from my lips, as a living sacrifice, well-pleasing, for a fragrant aroma. I beseech, be entreated; I implore, be moved. Manasseh, that king, also sinned, but having repented he was not destroyed; David also sinned before him, but having lamented his sin he was shown mercy. I have many such examples comforting and consoling my despondency, driving away despair from me, and nourishing my hope of salvation. Console my heart, you also, O Father of compassions and God of all comfort; guide and gladden my soul, O source of mercy and of good things. From of old you have done many things, great and wonderful, glorious and extraordinary, of which there is no number; but if you save me, the profligate, if you present me, the unworthy, you will be marveled at more and greater; for so great is the power of your mercy and love for mankind, that it can make a pearl from mire, and from being a son of Gehenna, make a son of the kingdom. And still I will cry out to my Lord, and to my God I will pray; govern the remainder of my life according to your will; establish me in your fear; strengthen me in your love, and in the multitude of your goodness; grant me a good end worthy of your love for mankind, and look upon my bones and my joints and the whole composition of my being in your mercy and love for mankind, and having guided my wretched soul to a place of relief and rest, restore it, for there are many mansions with you, distributed to each according to their worth. Still I pray and beseech, grant, O Lord, also the grace of understanding to my unworthiness, to think on the things that are well-pleasing to you, and profitable for me, and not only to think on them, but also to do them, not to be carried away and led astray by vain things, not to do things that are improper, to be humbly minded without vainglory with the humble, and to sympathize with those who suffer, and to forgive those who sin. For I know that, if I do not forgive, I will not be forgiven.

For this reason, I beseech you, forgive all things to all who sin against me; for they are not the cause, but I, the wretched one, who do not do your will, and do not keep your commandments. But those who love us, reward with your rich gifts; and my spiritual father, and the brethren whom you have given, O compassionate one, pitying me together with them in your love for mankind, according to the judgments which you know, have mercy. Let these words of my prayer be my intercession both in life and in death; let this confession and these tears be directed as incense before you 63.927; but I await each day the inevitability of death. And my wretched body, given over to the grave, will decay, and into the things from which

οἰκτιρμῶν σου καὶ τοῦ ἐλέους σου, καὶ μὴ συγκαταδικάσῃς με ταῖς ἀνομίαις μου, μηδὲ κατὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας μου ἀνταποδῷς μοι. Οἶδας τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἀνομιῶν μου, ὅτι πολὺ καὶ ἀριθμῷ μὴ ὑποκείμενον· ἀλλ' οἶδα καὶ τὸ πέλαγος τῆς φιλανθρωπίας σου, ὅτι ἀνείκαστον καὶ ἀνίκητον. Σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ 63.926 κόσμου, ὁ ἀπὸ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβὰς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τοῦ ζητῆσαι τὸ πλανηθὲν πρόβατον καὶ ἀπολωλός· ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς, ὁ τιθεὶς τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων, καὶ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἁμαρτωλοὺς σῶσαι, ὧν πρῶτός εἰμι ἐγώ. Ἐλέησον, ἐλέησον τὸ ποίημα τῶν χειρῶν σου· μὴ βδελύξῃ με τὸν ἀνάξιον, ἀλλ' οἰκτείρησον τὸ ποίημά σου, ὁ δι' ἐμὲ σταυρὸν ὑπομείνας, καὶ τὰ τῶν μωλώπων καταδεξάμενος στίγματα, ἀλλ' ἰασάμενος, ἐξάλειψον πάντα φαρμάκῳ συμπαθείας, καὶ σπόγγῳ φιλανθρωπίας σου· Πάντα γὰρ δύνασαι, ἀδυνατεῖ δέ σοι οὐδέν.

Κατάνυξόν μου τὴν πεπωρωμένην καρδίαν, ἐλάφρυνον τὸ βάρος τοῦ συνειδότος, δέξαι μου τὰ δάκρυα καὶ τὸν στεναγμὸν, ὡς τῆς πόρνης, ὡς τοῦ κορυφαίου τῶν ἀποστόλων Πέτρου· δέξαι μου τὴν μικρὰν ταύτην ἐξομολόγησιν καὶ μετάνοιαν, ὁ προσδεξάμενος τοῦ λῃστοῦ τὴν εὐγνωμοσύνην ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ· δέξαι μου τὸν ἀπὸ τῶν χειλέων καρπὸν, ὡς θυσίαν ζῶσαν, εὐάρεστον, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας. Παρακαλῶ, παρακλήθητι· δυσωπῶ, δυσωπήθητι. Ἥμαρτε καὶ Μανασσῆς ἐκεῖνος ὁ βασιλεὺς, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀπώλετο μετανοήσας· ἥμαρτε καὶ ∆αυῒδ πρὸ ἐκείνου, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἀποκλαυσάμενος ἠλεήθη. Πολλὰ ἔχω τοιαῦτα παραδείγματα παρηγοροῦντα καὶ παραμυθούμενά μου τὴν ἀθυμίαν, ἀποδιώκοντα τὴν ἀπόγνωσιν ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, καὶ τρέφοντά μου τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς σωτηρίας. Παρακάλεσόν μου καὶ σὺ τὴν καρδίαν, ὁ Πατὴρ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν καὶ Θεὸς πάσης παρακλήσεως· ψυχαγώγησον καὶ ἀγάθυνον, ἡ πηγὴ τοῦ ἐλέους καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν. Πολλὰ ἐποίησας ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος μεγάλα καὶ θαυμαστὰ, ἔνδοξά τε καὶ ἐξαίσια, ὧν οὐκ ἔστιν ἀριθμός· ἀλλ' εἰ ἐμὲ τὸν ἄσωτον σώσεις, εἰ ἐμὲ τὸν ἀνάξιον παραστήσεις, πλείω καὶ μείζω θαυμαστωθήσῃ· ὅτι τοσαύτη σου τῆς ἐλεημοσύνης καὶ τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ἡ δύναμις, ὥστε καὶ ἀπὸ βορβόρου μαργαρίτην ποιεῖν, καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ εἶναι υἱὸν γεέννης, υἱὸν βασιλείας ἀποτελεῖν. Καὶ ἔτι κεκράξομαι πρὸς τὸν Κύριόν μου, καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν μου δεηθήσομαι· κυβέρνησον τὸ ὑπόλοιπόν μου τῆς ζωῆς κατὰ τὸ θέλημά σου· στήριξόν με εἰς τὸν φόβον σου· στερέωσόν με ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ σου, καὶ ἐν τῷ πλήθει τῆς χρηστότητός σου· χρηστόν μοι τέλος καὶ ἄξιον τῆς φιλανθρωπίας σου δώρησαι, καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ καὶ τὰς ἁρμονίας μου καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν σύνθεσιν τῆς ὑποστάσεώς μου ἐν ἐλέει καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ σου ἔπιδε, καὶ εἰς ἀνέσεως καὶ εἰς ἀναπαύσεως τόπον τὴν ἀθλίαν μου ψυχὴν ὀδηγήσας, ἀποκατάστησον, ὅτι πολλαὶ μοναὶ παρὰ σοὶ ἑκάστῳ κατ' ἀξίαν διανεμόμεναι. Ἔτι δέομαι καὶ παρακαλῶ, δὸς δὴ, Κύριε, καὶ χάριν συνέσεως τῇ ἐμῇ ἀναξιότητι τοῦ διανοεῖσθαι τὰ σοὶ εὐάρεστα, κἀμοὶ συμφέροντα, καὶ μὴ μόνον διανοεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ διαπράττεσθαι, τὸ μὴ συναρπάζεσθαι καὶ συναπάγεσθαι τοῖς ματαίοις, τὸ μὴ διαπράττεσθαι τὰ μὴ δέοντα, τὸ ἀκενοδόξως ταπεινοῦσθαι τοῖς ταπεινοῖς, καὶ τοῖς πάσχουσι συμπαθεῖν, καὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσι συγχωρεῖν. Οἶδα γὰρ ὡς, εἰ μὴ ἀφήσω, οὐκ ἀφεθήσομαι.

∆ιὰ τοῦτο, παρακαλῶ, συγχώρησον πάντα πᾶσι τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν εἰς ἐμέ· οὐ γάρ εἰσιν οὗτοι αἴτιοι, ἀλλ' ἐγὼ ὁ ἄθλιος, ὁ μὴ ποιῶν τὸ θέλημά σου, καὶ μὴ φυλάττων τὰ προστάγματά σου. Τοὺς δὲ ἀγαπῶντας ἡμᾶς ἀντάμειψαι ταῖς πλουσίαις σου δωρεαῖς· τὸν δὲ πνευματικόν μου πατέρα, καὶ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς, οὓς σὺ δέδωκας, εὔσπλαγχνε, κρίμασιν οἷς ἐπίστασαι σὺν ἐμοὶ φιλανθρώπως οἰκτειρήσας, ἐλέησον. Ταῦτά μου τῆς προσευχῆς τὰ ῥήματα ἔστωσαν ὑπερεντυγχάνοντά μου καὶ ζῶντος καὶ θανόντος· αὕτη ἡ ἐξομολόγησις καὶ τὰ δάκρυα ὡς θυμίαμα ἐνώπιόν σου 63.927 κατευθονθήτωσαν· ἐγὼ δὲ καθ' ἑκάστην ἀναμένω τοῦ θανάτου τὸ ἀπαραίτητον. Καὶ τὸ μὲν σῶμά μου τὸ ἄθλιον ταφῇ παραδοθὲν διαφθαρήσεται, καὶ εἰς τὰ ἐξ ὧν