“We believe that our children have been corrected when we see that they repent of their errors.  And though we may have disinherited them and cast them off, we again receive, cherish, and embrace them.  Why, then, should we despair as if the mercy of God our Father might not be appeased by repentance?  He who is both the Lord and a most indulgent Parent promises that He will remit the sins of the penitent.  He promises that He will blot out all the iniquities of the one who begins afresh to practice righteousness.  The uprightness of one’s past life is to no avail to him who lives badly, for the subsequent wickedness has destroyed his works of righteousness.  Likewise, former sins do not stand in the way of him who has amended his life.  For the subsequent righteousness has wiped away the stain of his former life.”