In today's gospel Christ tells of the parable of the sower.

In today's gospel Christ tells of the parable of the sower. But lest we feel saddened that not all of the seeds took root, listen to what Fr. Alexander Elchaninov wrote in his diary: "...let us not be downhearted. See how the sower goes on sowing among the rocks and thorns and by the roadside. This means that he places some hope even in such fields as these. And we know from the lives of the saints which had seemed irreclaimably stifled by sin, blinded by passion, hardened by evil, became good ground, fertile and productive, purified of poisonous mixtures and alien seeds."

Fr. John