The Great Work of Love - Forgiveness

“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”

                                                                                                      Henri J.M. Nouwen

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it is so difficult,

it seems,

to love

not love as the feeling

you feel when you get a feeling

you never felt before

not love as when hormones rage

nor as the easy affection that comes

with commonality

but love as

willed regard

love as listening

helping

caring

and yes

forgiving -  the hurt

the pain

the discomfort

forgiving others for what they have done

forgiving them for what they cannot help

(Like race and culture – I know – they don’t need forgiving for that

  but somehow we think they do)

forgiving ourselves

for those moments when we have behaved badly

and loved poorly

each moment of Sacred Life

is about forgiveness

that hard work

of seeing the Sacred in each other

of knowing

that for all the differences

for all the failure

that the one there,

right there in front of us,

is a child of God

a brother, a sister

a precious soul

we are the fellowship of the weak

we need each other

and forgiveness is the work of love