Repentance must be the soul of prayer, without which prayer is dead, stinking with proud and seductive conceit!  Repentance is the only door through which one can obtain from our Lord the saving pasture.  He who neglects repentance is bereft of all grace...  The merciful Lord prepared the way for our divine heavenly eternal Kingdom, showed the door through which we might enter into the salvic pasture of the Holy Spirit and Truth, the door of repentance.  If we neglect to repent, without any doubt, we will remain outside the door.  Good deeds, natural in feeling, will in no way replace repentance.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov