Monday (6th week of Lent).

Thus says the Lord: I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me. Under what condition should all this come to pass? Go ye forth out of Babylon (Isa. 48:17–20).

   Babylon is an image of all-around sinfulness. Abandon sin, turn to the Lord with all of your heart. He will not remember your transgressions, and will consign all of your unrighteousness to oblivion. You will enter again into mercy with Him—and then you need only to walk the way which He will teach you, and your inner peace will be like a river, the good thoughts of your heart like the sand, and the fruits of your good works like the dust of the ground.[1]

[1] The Slavonic for Isa. 48:19–20 reads: …and the offspring of thy bowels like the dust of the ground. The wording, dust of the ground, in the Slavonic refers to Genesis 2:7.