A Christian, at any rate, an Orthodox Christian, views repentance as a dynamic act of responsibility to God, but also to other people. It is not pining away in narcissistic self-reflection, even while employing self-knowledge and self-examination. Sin itself is a relational act - a break in the "I-Thou" relationship, it concerns my relationship with another person. When the Prodigal son "came to himself" in the Gospel Parable (Luke 15), he did so in relation to his father: "I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (V. 18).

"Pentthos" is the conditioned sorrow of a repentant soul, adding sorrow upon sorrow each day, like a woman suffering in childbirth."

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, but he calls own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers".

To represent the love that Peter and the disciple should have, the Lord presented Himself as a shepherd. It is not the first time the Lord used the image of a shepherd; He spoke one other time about shepherds and flock, both in the Old Testament and the New (Pss 22:1-5; 77:72-73; 13, Zachariah 10:3 Nah 3:18; Isa 40:11, 63:11; Jer 2:8; 3:1-3; ,15; 10:21; 12:10; 1 Peter 2:25; Heb 13:20; Ezek 34: 2-30, 37:24; Matt 9:36; , 10:16, 18:22; John 10:1-17; Eph 4:12.) In the Gospel of Saint John (10:1-17) two images are presented. One is the bad shepherd who enters the sheepfold, not through a gate, but another way, and is therefore not a real shepherd but a robber and thief who owes obedience to no one. The other is the beautiful image of the good shepherd who labors and sacrifices himself for the sheep. The Good Shepherd is Christ Himself. He said, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep" (St. John 10:11).

Repentance is not a self-contained act: it is a passing over, a Pascha from death to life, a continual renewal of that life. It consists of a reversal of what has become the normal pattern of development, which is the movement from life to death. To experience this reversal in repentance is to have tasted of the glory and beauty of God: it is the mark of man's presence before God in the abundance of His mercy.

A man who saw God, a wonderworker, and a zealot for faith in God, Elias was of the tribe of Aaron, from the Tishba, whence he was known as 'the Tishbite'. When Elias was born, his father Sabah saw Angels of God around the child, swaddling it with fire and feeding it with flames.