Forgiveness

Thank you everyone for your replies. I have been too busy lately to reply but will do that when I get back from our family retreat on Sunday night. God bless you all.

 

You are right. I think the point of it was that God was training her in following His will, which was the most important thing for her. A bi-product was this "flitting about" that drove her sisters to distraction and kept her humble.

 

This is the Feast Day of st Gerard Majella a humble Redemptorist lay brother.

One day St Gerad cut thorugh the Church to do some work, as a short cut when He heard the voice of the Lord calling him to prayer for the tabernacle to pray, he was heard to cry out,

' No Lord, I have to work!!! Your love is killing me!!'.

 

[?, member: 4028"]I could use some thoughts, inspirations and prayers about forgiveness.

I still struggle with lack of forgiveness towards a few people and despite much prayer, the wounds remain. I have prayed much for those who have offended me and even offered up masses for them, but I simply can't reach out and reconcile and it grieves me because I know my inaction wounds our Father.

The thing is that when I have come close to picking up the phone or writing a letter, I can't go through with it because I have to admit that I'm still hanging on to those old wounds. I know that these are footholds and I don't want to hold on to them, but somehow I can't let them go.

I just keep praying for the gift of forgiveness because I can't do it on my own, but it hasn't been given to me yet.

Has anyone been delivered from grudges or wounds? Care to share the prayers that you think helped?[/quote

Forgiveness is not easy but it is not easy either to truly meditate on our scourged Jesus, beaten down, bleeding Jesus 'til He was crucified---all for us that we may be forgiven by Our Father and we can attain salvation. My tears would flow knowing and feeling in my heart how Jesus loves me, how He took the beatings for me just to save me from all the wrongs I've done to Him, then I compared the faults others have caused me, the trauma I've been through and the lifestyle I had chosen to escape my dark past (indulging in more darkness).... I came to realize, I had to forgive my transgressors, I made more mistakes against God than any individual person has committed to me. MOSTLY, I HAD TO FORGIVE MYSELF. Forgiving myself for being too careless, for being such a fool or even stupid for allowing others to cause me pain/ trouble. Jesus has been merciful to me guiding me back through the Holy Rosary (i only prayed once a week then), St. Padre Pio and St. Sr. Faustina.

 

Yes, I believe in forgiving others one must forgive oneself for it is in forgiving oneself where true healing comes.

 

I love this picture. I sent this one to my sister when she was grieving. I just wasn't able to share to her the deep dark secret that I was able to forgive and set me free.

 

I remember the photo of this young girl during the Vietnam War. I was a young teen at the time and I didn't completely grasp the horror of it at the time. To think that this 9 year old is now 53 and has had a life of pain. And yet as the article shows she was healed only through Jesus and found her way to forgive. Make sure to click the video as well in the article - really quite wonderful.

http://aleteia.org/blogs/deacon-gre...=mail&utm_content=NL_en-Apr 18, 2016 02:00 am

 

Forgiveness for deep , deep hurts is not a one off, I have come to believe but a lifetimes journey amidst the mountains fpf Grace and memories. If the hurts are so deep, as they are for so many in this poor suffering world, they begin to define us , make us who and what we are.

I used to believe , much earlier on that forgiveness was simply a rule set dwon beofre us by God. But forgiveness is much more than this , forgiveness, Mercy is simply part and parcel of who and what God is ; for God is love and the greatest expression of God's love is His Mercy. We, who are Eternally called to enter God's Love cannot enter and become one with the Trinitarian heart of God , become as one with Him, unless we become like Him. Remade in His image , forgiving and Merciful ourselves as He is.

A good part of this process is that terrible scars and memories of the past come back to haunt us. I recall the times I was beaten and tortured. I recall the times they tried to murder me and my family. I recall the periods of imprisonment and solitary confinement, the massive widespread discrimination, simply because I was Irish and a Catholic. I recall the pograms when they attacked Catholic areas and burned them down wholesale. But most of all looking into the faces of those whose faces were contorted by loathing and venom as they looked on me and mine simply because of our relgion and Nationality.

But I remember too my own hatred in response , how it destorted and twisted my young self into the mirror image of those who hated me so much and this was certainly the worst thing they ever did to me, their greatest victory, to remake me in their own vile image.

But, it seems to me if I not fallen so very, very low I would not have have gottent to rise out of the gutter and degradation of my hate and fly so high. For it was only by praying constantly and having the Rosary forever in my hand that I overcame the past. and rose above it.

If on the other hand there had been no war, no hate and I had lived a , 'Normal' life I would probably have become a very lukewarm Catholic , perhaps a lukawarm and a very bad priest. But I have had to cling so very ,very close to the Hand of Christ during this walk amongst the mountains of forgiveness. or else to simply become lost in the hurt and pain there.

So God uses our greatest obstacle ,as He always uses the Cross of our greatest pains, to raise us to share in the Glory of His Most Glorious Ressurrection.

 

Interesting upbringing you had Padraig.

What you say here is so different from my own upbringing on the other side of the world.

'' I recall the times I was beaten and tortured. I recall the times they tried to murder me and my family. I recall the periods of imprisonment and solitary confinement, the massive widespread discrimination, simply because I was Irish and a Catholic. I recall the pograms when they attacked Catholic areas and burned them down wholesale. But most of all looking into the faces of those whose faces were contorted by loathing and venom as they looked on me and mine simply because of our relgion and Nationality''.


It is like you have already lived the times I expect to soon come here, and all over the world.

 

Mac - you have hit the button spot on.

God has/is preparing us all in different ways.

Padraig is a step ahead of many of us in so many ways

 

It is a coincidence that we are discussing forgiveness for today is the Feast ofa lady who gave remarkable show of forgiveness; Blessed Marie-Ann Blondin:

Blessed Marie-Ann Blondin:



Marie was a Canadian, from a devout farming family who founded her own Order of teaching sisters back in the 1800's. It was a huge sucess until the villain of the piece a newly appointed Chaplain to the sisters a Fr Louis Adolphe Marechal showed up on the scene.




The Father was a very bad boy in capital letters and with the support of the local Bishop Bourget who had appointed the deviL;

View attachment 4808

He hijacked poor Marie's order and took control of it himself. To do so he seems to have blackened the saints name and poor Blessed Marie-Ann got dumped in the laundry in the basement out of the road fro the reast of her life, some forty years as someone who had a , 'bad character' and had to be, 'Watched'.

However when Marie came to die she asked for Fr Marachal to come to her death bed. as a sign of reconciliation. Now after a lifetime of kicking her in the teeth by blackening her name this was quite something.

So the Blessed Founder was forgotten about for about a generation, no one even remembered she founded the order. But then a chaplain researched the history of the order and during a retreat gave a series of talks about Marie Ann and hey presto she was on the road to sainthood. She was declared Blessed by Pope St JP2 in 2001.

What an extraordinary story of forgiveness.




:

 

Just found this thread; it's wonderful. Adding a blog post from a few years ago (2018)...thought it seemed relevant to the goings on in the Church today, as well as the worries for those who have drifted so far away from the Faith....

Be True, Not Right – Judgment is for God

December 1, 2018

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Mark 7:1-5

This post may make some people mad. That is okay. This post is directed towards those who know the Catholic faith is true and right. To those that know the teachings of the church are the proper way to live, this post is a word of caution to you.

God tells me that ultimately the church (on both sides) doesn’t quite have it right. The left has chosen to embrace sin…. But He really truly talks to me about not judging people all the time too and honestly, it is the people on the right who I see tons and tons of judgment from. Just in the past two days I have read reports from solid solid Catholics who are speaking about schism. Let me tell you something, CHRIST ALLOWED THE AUTHORITY TO WALK HIM ALL THE WAY TO THE CROSS, even though the authority was wrong and He was right. Schism is rebellion, and that is precisely what Satan wants. Rebellion.

I now do spiritual direction and I am on a Deliverance Team. The people that come to see us would typically fall in the category of “left”. Though to God they fall in the category of “child,” just as each of us is a child of God. They are steeped in sin, and aren’t really convinced that what they have been doing is wrong. But the Holy Spirit has obviously gotten a hold of them because they know they’re life can be better which is how they walk in the door in the first place. I see repeatedly that these people are VERY VERY BROKEN. It’s as if I can see demons who have talked to them their whole life… so their whole perception of themselves, of others, and of the world… it’s based on a lie. They are objectively living in sin… But if I step back and really look, it’s as if they are sitting in a chair and demons are pounding on them. Demons that started pounding on them as babies. Usually that lie is that they are not loved or worth anything. They do not rest securely in God’s love. So they make up a God that they can live with so they can continue to cope. They deny sin because sin was inflicted UPON them by people who they loved and they cannot reconcile that in their heads…. And it manifests in rage too because from that perspective it’s as if you have to justify your existence. You rage because everything your whole life has screamed at you that you’re worthless…so you scream back…thinking inside “I have a right to breathe”…but not really believing that you do deep down. The deepest core of that rage is the belief that your very breath isn’t worth anything. This rage, which really boils down to self-hatred has boiled over in the streets. People screaming… look I AM WORTH SOMETHING… and it’s a demonic misperception… And it is precisely here that God’s mercy can break through.

I cried after meeting with some of these people because how do you preach the absolutely beautiful Doctrines of truth without inflicting more damage? Truth stabs them in the heart if it is presented too harshly because they were never taught, or sometimes they were taught but taught by total hypocrisy, where the rules were taught but not lived…. So for me, and for our deliverance team, we take a walk, a spiritual walk with them, mostly just asking them questions. It becomes really beautiful when they realize of their own accord (with the help of the Holy Spirit) that they have to change…. And it’s how true conversion takes place. This is actually what deliverance is. We teach them how to forgive, and then we teach them how to renounce the demons who have spoken to them, so their perception of reality becomes a Godly one. And the change is astonishing. And the whole time, it is them who says the prayers, not us. We teach them to take the authority of their own life back from the devil.

It is all like watching the church crisis on the front lines.

All the while God is telling me the road is narrow. People fall off to the left and right. I struggle with social media now because I just objectively want to speak truth, but the walking wounded are so so terribly wounded that they perceive wrongly because demons have trained them how to think their whole lives. I so totally understand why Christ said, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” Because it isn’t as if they didn’t know they were nailing Him to a cross. They knew that…But they believed it to be a good because of what demons had done to them. Christ could see that. That’s why he could separate the people, who are made in God’s image, from the demons who have totally rejected God. And it IS why He was so harsh on the Pharisees, because THEY DID KNOW better. I feel like the people who believe the orthodox teachings of the church really have to be careful about this…. Objectively their opinions are “right” but how are they viewing the other person? If they want their demise and not their salvation, then they are not being TRUE to what Christ taught. Do not mistake forgiveness and obedience with condoning sin. To be truly lifted out of sin, we HAVE TO FORGIVE, but that doesn’t mean a person doesn’t have consequences. And obedience, the reason it is so important is because it is precisely the thing that Satan would not do. Jesus was obedient, even unto death, and it brought Resurrection.

Ultimately what God shows me is that He wants is restoration of union with HIS WILL, like it was in the garden before the fall. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and HE DID THAT, but WE HAVEN’T embraced it. That’s why the church herself will go through a Passion, because a Passion will bring us to Resurrection. A birthing. Where each person can be fully realized in what it is God actually wants for us. If only we would listen, we would have the full power of God behind us. I believe this will happen, but not before we are ALL stripped naked, and humiliated. I just hope we can stand up at the foot of the cross. I pray for the grace of perseverance everyday now. God wants a different looking church than what we have right now and it will quite literally be a hell of a ride before we get there. Pray without ceasing. Stop judging, start listening and start walking with people in love. If they don’t listen, you don’t acquiesce to evil, you stand in it’s way, just like Christ did. He didn’t leave, He didn’t attack, He didn’t stop preaching truth. He stood in the way. And it led to the cross and brought Resurrection.


https://www.catholic365.com/article/9622/be-true-not-right-judgment-is-for-god.html