Archdeacon John Chryssavgis: When healing can begin

 When I can confess my peculiarity, my brokenness to someone who does not shame me, who will stand as a representative of the community and as a witness before God, then my healing can begin. When I take off the mask and - together with at least one other person - clearly at my vulnerability, then my recovery an restoration has begun. This, of course, is not easy; it is much easier to continue to hide. Repentance is a risk. It can be a painful process, much like bearing a child. In this process the will is not mortified. Rather, it is "buried alive" in a tomb that becomes the womb for new life.

Archdeacon John Chryssavgis, from Soul Mending, Chapter 1, Repentance as Resurrection

Archdeacon John Chryssavgis: The nature of repentance

Repentance is a way of on-going transfiguration for which one must struggle continually, in which one's heart and mind continuously receive illumination by the Holy Spirit. It is a continuous pathway, a perennial striving, and all-embracing motion, and not merely an occasional emotion. Though it is a mutual, cooperative endeavor between the human being and God, ultimately repentance, like faith, is a gift, a gift that a person either accepts or rejects. If a person is open to God and desires Him above all else, the Holy Trinity will come to dwell in that person and gradually transform the "heart of stone" into a "heart of flesh".
+Archdeacon John Chryssavgis, from Soul Mending: The Art of Spiritual Direction, Chapter II: Repentance and Confession, The forgotten Mystery.