A man guilty of many sins repented of them bitterly and returned to the right path. Another time, his concupiscent soul regained strength; he destroyed his penitence and gave himself once more to his evil inclinations: thus he again left the good way and fell into every kind of criminal deed. Later, sorrow gripped his heart, and shame reduced him to the most wretched state. When nothing was left to him but despair, he wished to repent once more: but he had not the strength. Day and night, like a grain of wheat in the frying-pan, his heart was full of fire, and his eyes shed tears of blood. With the water of his tears, he washed away the dust that had soiled his path.
One morning, a mysterious voice was heard by him in these words, to make him fit for repentance and to ease his way to it: “Hearken to what the Lord of the world says to thee: When thou didst repent for the first time, I forgave thee and accepted thy repentance; I might have punished thee, but I did not. Another time, when thou didst fall again into sin, I gave thee respite, and in My wrath I did not cause thee to die. But today, when thou acknowledgest, O fool, thy new treachery, thou wishest to return to Me for a third time. So return in earnest; I open My door to thee and await thee, since thou hast atoned for thy transgressions through thy repentance.”