Repent now, before Death

Repent before death closes the door of your life and opens the door of the Judgment. Repent before death, and, because you don’t know the time of your death, repent today, this instant and don’t repeat your sin.

In one of his prayers, Saint Efraim the Syrian says:
Before the wheel of time stops turning in my life, have mercy upon me.

Before the wind of death blows and sickness, death’s herald, makes its appearance in my body, have mercy upon me.

Before the majestic sun in the heavens becomes darkness for me, have mercy upon me; and may Your light shine on me from above and drive out the gloomy darkness from my mind.

Before the earth returns to the earth and decays, before all the features of its beauty decompose, have mercy upon me.

Before my sins are revealed at the Judgment to my shame before the Judge, most gracious Lord, have mercy upon me.

Before the heavenly powers emerge, escorting the Son of the King, to assemble all our fallen race before the Judge’s throne, have mercy upon me.

Before the sound of the trumpet heralds Your coming, spare Your servant and have mercy, Lord Jesus.
Before You shut Your door to me and before I am fed to the unquenchable fires of Gehenna, have mercy upon me.

Saint Nikolaj Velimirović, The Ochrid Lives of the Saints, August 20. (Usually known in English as ‘The Ochrid Prologue’. Πролог in Church Slavonic meant ‘Brief Lives of the Saints’, W.J.L.)

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