Repentance (Metanoia)

Metanoia means a change of mind, and the change is a turning round of the whole person rather than a feeling of regret. It is the first word of the Forerunner's preaching and of Christ's, and the fathers treat it not as a single act but as the ordinary condition of a Christian life: St Isaac the Syrian says it is fitting for all at every hour. Orthodoxy holds that no sin is beyond it while there is breath, and that despair of forgiveness is a graver thing than the sin despaired of. Repentance is therapeutic rather than penal: the Mystery of Confession heals, and the canons a confessor gives are medicine, not punishment.