A Daily Dose of God

Sirach tells us, “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.”  St. Paul tells us, “For if we live, we live for the Lord.”  And St. Matthew tells us that Peter finds out there is NO LIMIT to the number of times we are called to forgive!

That was difficult for Peter to accept, to understand, and to practice AND it is no less difficult for us today!  But FORGIVENESS is hard to offer and sometimes hard to accept.  FORGIVENESS is foundational to Christianity: “True Freedom in Forgiveness”

When, the former President, Bill Clinton met Nelson Mandela for the first time, he asked: "When you were released from prison, as you marched from the cellblock across the yard to the gate of the prison, the camera focused in on your face.  I have never seen such anger, and even hatred, … as was expressed on your face at that time.  That's not the Nelson Mandela I know today, what was that about?"

Mandela answered, "I'm surprised that you saw that, and I regret that the cameras caught my anger.  As I walked across the courtyard that day, I thought to myself, ‘They've taken everything from you that matters.

Your cause is dead.  Your family is gone.  Your friends have been killed.

Now they're releasing you, but there's nothing left for you out there.

and I hated them for what they had taken from me.

Then, I sensed an inner voice saying to me, ‘Nelson! For twenty-seven years you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man!

Don't allow them to make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner!'  "You can never be free to be a whole person if you are unable to forgive.”  (King Duncan, Collected Sermons, 09/04/11)

I offer you this Irish Blessing: “May those who love us, love us; and those who don’t love us, may God turn their hearts and if he doesn’t turn their hearts; may God turn their ankles, so we’ll know them by their limping.”  That is a cute, but it doesn’t encourage us to forgive!  Forgiveness is learned the hard way – practice, practice, practice!

As you know yesterday was the 19^th anniversary of 9/11 – a day seared into our hearts and our memories.  Today we remember that even in that tragedy thousands of ordinary people helped others, loved others and forgave others!  FORGIVENESS is mercy in action.

Spend sometime today forgiving or praying for forgiveness.

May God Be Praised!  

Continuing praying for an end to the COVID 19 Pandemic: Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.”  You are my refuge and my hope, I turn to you during this COVID 19 Pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….”

[Psalm 143 and Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Send Your light to me as I wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give me hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]