You have made repentance Heaven's best-kept secret. Repentance may sound joyless, but you, O Lord, make the repentant joyful, giving to each repentance its fitting reward.
Blessed are those who repent of the pride that blinds them to the beauty of others, for you will honor them with the humility that opens men's eyes to the beauty of others.
Blessed are those who repent of covetousness of what is not theirs, because to them will open the satisfaction of contentment.
Blessed are alcoholics who repent and regain sobriety, for they have turned their backs on a suffering they would not wish on their worst enemies, and they shall have as their reward nothing less than sobriety itself. (Their actual reward may be more than sobriety alone, but certainly not less.)
Blessed are those who repent of nursing a grudge, for they shall experience firsthand that forgiveness satisfies more than revenge.
Blessed are those who repent of ingratitude, for they shall discover the true joy of a life of gratitude.
Blessed are those who repent of a lust that drains Heaven and Earth of wonder, for you shall open their eyes to the beauty and wonder in Heaven and Earth that lust has blinded their eyes to see.
Blessed are those who repent of the very hope of escape from this world with its here and now, for you shall open their eyes to see a world you have created as good, and they shall receive the here and now as an icon of Paradise.
Blessed are those who repent of trying to manipulate you with their prayer and ascesis, for you shall reward them with a relation with utter freedom on both sides, in which you seek out men's interests better than men know to seek for themselves.
Blessed are those who repent and expect to be destroyed, for you will blindside them with a reward that is just and merciful, beyond justice and beyond mercy, at one stroke.
Virtue is its own reward. But, without any contradiction, virtue is also the reward for repentance, and what a reward it is!