The wealth of grace that was bestowed upon me when I departed, I, the wretched one, have squandered needlessly, O Savior; living licentiously, I falsely dispersed it to the demons: therefore, as I turn back like the prodigal son, receive me, o Bountiful Father, and save me.
Sticheron from Matins
How good is God to Israel, to those that are of a clean heart! (Psalm 73:1), exclaims King David, the psalmist. And of clean heart are not only those who refrain from all evil but also those who have fallen, sinned, become defiled, but afterwards were cleansed by God, having repented for their evils and sought help from God: Blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, o God (Psalm 51:9-10). God loves a pure heart, lives in it, and the pure heart sees God, as testified by the Savior Himself: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). The purity of heart is found in non-malice, but its beginning is in self-awareness, repentance, and correction. Our task is to abandon evil and approach and adhere to God with humility, repentance, sincerity, and God’s task is the cleansing of the heart: Cease to do evil; Learn to do well… though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:16-18). This is ample testimony of God’s love, a sure proof of His true fatherhood. Therefore, heeding St. Apostle Paul, who says: Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), let us awaken from insensitivity, from spiritual death, to rise, to come to ourselves, to return to God, to the home of our Heavenly Father, to our true home. Like the example of the prodigal son from today’s narrative, who coming to himself, said: “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants”. And he arose, and came to his father (Luke 15:17-20).
Our Elder Bishop Mr. Parthenius, Abbot of the Sacred Bigorski Monastery, being a good father and careful spiritual shepherd, inspired by the Heavenly Father’s love for man through the Gospel story of the prodigal son, and as a humble labourer in that endless, unfathomable, deep and spacious Divine paternal love, divinely inspired, spoke about true repentance and return to the Heavenly Father, Who is full of love for each of us.
Our Elder Bishop Mr. Parthenius, Abbot of the Sacred Bigorski Monastery, being a good father and careful spiritual shepherd, inspired by the Heavenly Father’s love for man through the Gospel story of the prodigal son, and as a humble labourer in that endless, unfathomable, deep and spacious Divine paternal love, divinely inspired, spoke about true repentance and return to the Heavenly Father, Who is full of love for each of us.
