Disentangling Repentance and Sorrow
Disentagling repentance and sorrow reveals that repentance does not mean sorry feeling, but sorry feeling can go along with repentance, and it often does. Repentance is to turn away from and stop a previous belief or action. Sorrow often enforces a willed choice to stop doing the repented thing, but sorrow does not guarantee that. When we are sorry, we often resolve not to do what made us sorry again, which is repentance. Also, when we explain why we did something, we mean to show that the situation reveals why we don't want to do it again, or that we have some reason or can show some desire to resolve ourselves against doing it again. Repentance is not a feeling of sorrow, it is an act of the will to keep from doing a thing in the future.