So, you want to forgive, you’ve made the decision to forgive, but you can’t seem to do it. Perhaps you need to spend more time with the source of love, peace, forgiveness and light.  Pray.  Ask God to help you.  Ask God to fill you with love and peace.  Then pray for the person who hurt you.  You may not feel like praying for them at first.  Do it anyway.  Your prayers will change you. Pray. God will give you the strength, love and peace that you need.  Realize that forgiving is a process.  It’s a process that brings healing and peace, but it is a process.  It doesn’t happen all at once.  You make the choice and then you take the first step and the next steps until you’ve accomplished it.  Only months before his death, CS Lewis wrote: “I think I have at last forgiven the cruel schoolmaster who so darkened my youth.  I had done it many times before, but this time I think I have really done it.”  Go through the motions and eventually you, too, will forgive.  Give your hurt and anger to God.  Then give it to God again.  And again.  And again.  As often and as many times as you need to.

Usually, reconciliation follows forgiveness, but sometimes this is not possible or healthy.  Sometimes it is enough to let go of the past, live in the present, and wish well for the other person.  Forgiveness does not always lead to reconciliation, nor does it always need to.  

Many people on their deathbeds ask for, or offer, forgiveness.  I’ve never heard of anyone on their deathbed who said they wished they’d held onto their resentment and anger.  Living in the past prevents you from enjoying the present and living life abundantly. Instead of dwelling in pain and resentment, choose to live in the freedom and healing forgiveness allows.  

Read Luke 15:11-24 and St. Francis’ Prayer: “Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace,” and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally!

Annie

Today’s Reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15%3A11-24&version=NRSV

Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace by St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.*

*http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/saints/saints/peace-prayer-of-st-francis-of-assisi/