Spiritual Direction
- Many of us pray the words of Jesus daily, with the Our Father. Midway through the prayer we say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us.”...
We glibly pray this at every Eucharist and often in our personal prayers. Yet, it calls on us without any glibness. All of us know intimately how hard it is to forgive someone who has ... See morefrom Jesus’ Prayer of Forgiveness
Lael Johnson added 5d ago
We are always the “stable” into which the Christ is born anew. All we can really do is keep our stable honest and humble, and the Christ will surely be born.
from Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent by Richard Rohr
Lael Johnson added 8h ago
- Forgiveness given and forgiveness received are always the pure work of uncreated grace. Such unearned and undeserved forgiveness is necessary to break down the quid pro quo world that I call meritocracy. Only when we experience undeserved love does this inward and outward flow begin to happen. Before that, we are dry, dead cisterns. Before that, we... See more
from Forgiveness and Freedom
Lael Johnson added 5d ago
- Yet grace offers us another version of justice. Grace makes room ... for justice that is restorative, and dedicated to healing the wounds of injustice. But the grace thing is hard work. It takes faith—because it dares us to believe that not only can victims be healed, but so can the victimizers. It is not always easy to believe that love is more po... See more
from Restorative Justice
Lael Johnson added 5d ago
" Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. "
Howard Thurmanfrom Aliveness: Reframing Productivity by Thomas Klaffke
Lael Johnson added 3d ago
- We are told that we choose whose world we want to live in. We’ll choose wealth or God. We’ll choose violence or God. We’ll choose nationalism or God. We’ll choose racial hierarchy or God. Each case is an example of a different and incompatible operational system. One of those systems, if we live by it, binds us in endless struggle and violence that... See more
from Restorative Justice
Lael Johnson added 5d ago
- Praying to Forgive
Brian McLaren identifies how prayers of petition help us to experience forgiveness:
Since being wounded or sinned against is a terribly common experience, I suspect we need to pay more attention to it. In fact, being wronged is directly linked in the Lord’s Prayer to the reality of doing wrong; we pray, “forgive us our sins as we... See morefrom Forgiveness and Mercy: Weekly Summary
Lael Johnson added 5d ago
It seems to me God’s promise was always a place. A liberation born of location.
from This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley
Lael Johnson added 8h ago
- The mystery of forgiveness is God’s ultimate entry into powerlessness. Look at the times when we have withheld forgiveness. It’s often our final attempt to hold a claim over the one we won’t forgive. It’s the way we finally hold onto power or seek the moral high ground over another person: “I will hold you in unforgiveness, and you’re going to know... See more
from Receiving God’s Mercy
Lael Johnson added 5d ago