“To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering.    We shall meet your physical force with soul force.  Do to us what you will, and we will continue to love you.  We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with[…]

“Joseph, her husband, was a man of integrity.  Not wanting Mary to be disgraced, he intended to dismiss her quietly.  But while he was thinking about these things . . .” — Matthew 1:19-20 Where is God in the midst of life’s unwanted developments, disruptions, crises?  When we are confronted with that for which we have[…]

 This is the irrational season When love blooms bright and wild. Had Mary been filled with reason There’d have been no room for the child.  –“After Annunciation” by Madeleine L’Engle The life of Jesus is God’s gift for us, and the gift is meant to be received.  This season of Advent reminds us of God’s[…]

‘Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to a single deed from which we would never recover; we would remain victims of its consequences forever.”  –Hannah Arendt

I have led workshops and classes in forgiveness for a number of years, in varied settings.  One observation that I have made consistently  is that the receiving of forgiveness is a greater challenge for people  than the subsequest offering of forgiveness.  I say “subsequent” because I find that the experience of being forgiven is critically important to exercising the[…]

“Forgiveness is a particular kind of love that seeks the best for another even when seeking to hold them accountable . . . Forgiveness is a sign that you have come to realize who you are.”  —Nelson Johnson My initial memory of Joe Paterno is from December 1967.  He was 41 years old, in his[…]

Forgiveness is the promise that God sees you in the fullness of who you are, in all your created, inspired beauty, no matter what has happened in your life.

“Forgiveness is an “invitation to the imagination.”  It is not forgetfulness of the past, but rather the “risk of a future other than one imposed by the past or by memory.”  –Christian Duquoc

“When you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them. God sees his Son in us. And so we should see Christ in others . . . and love them. There can never be enough of it. There can never be enough thinking about it. St. John of the[…]