Faith Practice Three: Forgiveness

Focus of the session:

We examine how forgiveness is a divine gift while taking into account the challenges and obstacles to putting this into practice. Forgiveness is integral to the task of dying; forgiveness is nurtured by the faith community.
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The faith practice of forgiveness encourages the acceptance of God's mercy and enables reconciliation. This becomes a key factor in the end of life issues, particularly for family relationships. Forgiveness is actually initiated by God, not by us. We enter into God's forgiving acts. Forgiveness is challenging, for it is a process that we cannot complete once and for all. It may be found through the experience of this session that more questions are raised than answers.

This particular session includes talking points such as "Who Deserves Forgiveness" that addresses the difficult question of “Is there anyone beyond forgiveness?” It also includes music involving the topic of forgiveness and activities such as "Lectio Divina" that encourages participants to reflect on the words of Psalm 51.

Key Points:

• The journey of forgiveness lies constantly before us
• The obstacles to forgiveness are many
• Forgiveness is an unnatural act
• Forgiveness is a divine gift, something we live into