The Eastern Orthodox Church traditionally reads this story on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son,[REF] which in their liturgical year is the Sunday before Meatfare Sunday and about two weeks before the beginning of Great Lent.
In his 1984 apostolic exhortation titled Reconciliatio et paenitentia (Latin for Reconciliation and Penance), Pope John Paul II used this parable to explain the process of conversion and reconciliation.