(This dialogue is the second of a series originally published in 2017 at http://www.breathingforgiveness.net) As a combat veteran, I have killed others.  In war those killed on the ground, up close and personal, are called enemies.  Later on in a veteran’s life he or she becomes more conscious of a nagging feeling, uncertainty or doubt that[…]

  (This content was first published in 2017 in Yago Abeledo’s outstanding site, Breathing Forgiveness: http://www.breathingforgiveness.net ). Glen Miller is a veteran of the Vietnam War.  He served as an Army Ranger Team Leader from September 1969-September 1970.  Six men made up a standard Army Ranger combat patrol.  Glen has also been  an adjunct professor[…]

“Compassion bears the pain of the past.  It does no longer try to accuse, to suppress, to condemn, to refuse.  It allows memories to uncover the origins of shame and hurt.  Such memories will bring deep sorrow.  But it is through sorrow and grief that we will set each other free from the chains of[…]

“Yes, in a gospel sense, forgiveness is unilateral in declaring liberation from deathly retributive cycles while practicing the freedom of assertive love.  It is about recognizing the image of God somewhere in even the worst offender.  But this love is also committed to dignity, to re-membering all that has been dis-membered, to truth-telling, to the[…]

“When the apology meets an offended person’s needs, he does not have to work at forgiving.  Forgiveness comes spontaneously; the victim  feels like his offender has released him of a burden or offered him a gift.” –Aaron Lazare* Aaron Lazare has done some important study on the dynamics of apology, and the role it plays[…]

“When soldiers return from war, they cry because they are alive.  Their parents, wives, husbands, children and friends cry for joy. But when the parades end, what do they have?  What do the wives, husbands, children, brothers, and sisters of soldiers receive when their loved ones return from war after so much fear, hatred, and[…]

We must “make revolution as a people who have been forgiven,” and remember that we carry liberating love in vessels of clay. –Jose Ignacio Gonzalez Faus

But Thomas,  (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.”  But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails,[…]

“God has made known to us the mystery of God’s will, according to God’s good pleasure (delight)  set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” –Ephesians 1:9-10 “Atonement is the path I step into so that my identity[…]

“What kinds of pastoral models were used in your own diocese back in Long Island?”  “Well,” I said hesitantly, “while people on Long Island gathered to reflect on the gospel in light of their own lived reality, the final word always belonged to the pastor.  The heirarchical model of church and pastoral practice is standard[…]