"Many think that you have to do a million and a half good deeds, read forty-eight thousand kathismas and receive Communion twenty-eight thousand times, and that's it, you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And you must also name every sin at confession, because if you didn't name it, it isn't forgiven, as if naming a sin were already forgiveness. No, let us not deceive ourselves. A forgiven sin is one that has ceased to exist. And how can a sin cease to exist in a person's heart? Only in one way: if the grace of God comes and heals him of that sin.

But God cannot be forced to come; that is impossible. However many prostrations you make, you cannot compel God. What then is needed for the grace of God to come? Longing is needed, a thirst for purity. 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.' Only one who thirsts for a righteous life will be filled with the grace of God. Whoever has no such thirst will not be filled."

~ Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov (1951-2020)

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