The son made his speech of confession as planned, but it is not certain that he was able to finish as a number of early manuscripts do not have "Ma…

Father, I have sinned against heaven. The iteration of the very same words comes to us with a wonderful power and pathos. The contrite sou…

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his nec…

Gregory of Nyssa: The younger son had despised his father when he first departed and had wasted his father’s money. But ov…

The son’s speech was never completed (v.21). Instead the father more than reversed the unspoken part about becoming a “hired man” (v.19). What he g…

Father, I have sinned against heaven. Here another branch of repentance is pointed out: a conviction of sin accompanied by grief and shame…

And the son said unto him, father
Or "my father", as the Syriac version reads; and the Persic version adds, "pardon …

Having viewed the prodigal in his abject state of misery, we are next to consider his recovery from it. This begins when he comes to himself. That …