Luke 15:8-18

8 "Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully till she finds it?

9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, and says, "`Congratulate me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.'

10 "I tell you that in the same way there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one repentant sinner."

11 He went on to say, "There was a man who had two sons.

12 The younger of them said to his father, "`Father, give me the share of the property that comes to me.' "So he divided his wealth between them.

13 No long time afterwards the younger son got all together and travelled to a distant country, where he wasted his money in debauchery and excess.

14 At last, when he had spent everything, there came a terrible famine throughout that country, and he began to feel the pinch of want.

15 So he went and hired himself to one of the inhabitants of that country, who sent him on to his farm to tend swine;

16 and he longed to make a hearty meal of the pods the swine were eating, but no one gave him any.

17 "But on coming to himself he said, "`How many of my father's hired men have more bread than they want, while I here am dying of hunger!

18 I will rise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you: