HOW TO ADMONISH THOSE WHO HAVE EVIL DEEDS TO GRIEVE FOR. 

To have evil thoughts is a sin; but to put them into action is a more serious sin. 

Those who have acted out their evil desire are to be admonished to cleanse the evil they have done by a perfect sorrow, lest they be the more involved in the debt of evil done due to an inadequate satisfaction. One's tears of compunction must be in proportion to the gravity of the sin. 

They must be admonished never to stop recalling their sins to mind. "My sins are always before me...Turn away Thine eyes from my sins." As if saying, 'I beseech Thee not to regard my sin, for I cease not from regarding it.' Thus the Lord spoke through the prophet saying: "I will not remember thy sin, but do thou remember them."

They must remember their sins AND deplore the defilement of their waywardness in each and every sin. Then they must cleanse themselves through and through by their tears. 

We must weep for each sin separately, for the mind does not grieve for all sins equally at one and the same moment, but, while memory stings more sharply now for this sin, now for that, the soul is cleansed from all by its pangs of sorrow for each. This is how to deserve the mercy of God. God had made this requirement to make us deserving of His mercy for "He does not wish the death of a sinner..." And Paul says: "If we should judge ourselves, we should not be judged." 

This, however, should not give anyone a false security. And preoccupation with external worldly things makes one an easy prey of the devil. The world tends "to comfort the soul with sweet words" -- to prevent the soul from grieving over her sins. This worldly "comfort" consists in the devil telling the soul about the graver faults of others, that the mercy of God is so great and that there is much time for repentance. 

The devil's intention is clear: that we delay repentance by feeling no compunction for the evils we have done AND thus receive no blessing in the life after. Experiencing little joy in its sins the soul will be overwhelmed eventually with eternal punishment. 

St. Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule, Part III, Chapter 30