“Repentance is a baptism of tears. Through repentance man is rebaptized, reborn. Through his denial the Apostle Peter betrayed Christ in a way but because he wept bitterly he received forgiveness for his fall. In other words his sincere repentance washed him clean again. You see God first created the earth He sees and all creation and then took from the dust of the earth and created man. Man is firstborn of the flesh and that in Baptism he is reborn spiritually through water, a creation of God and through the Uncreated Divine Grace of the Holy Spirit – through water and the Spirit – he becomes a new man.”
Elder Paisios
~Spiritual Struggle