|
To live in forgiveness, we must experience it within our own spirits.
Developing the ability to forgive takes practice, discipline, and
doing. The resources listed below are a collection of prayers,
meditations, theology, biblical study, and literature that help us exercise forgiveness.
Women at the Well: Feminist
Perspectives on Spiritual Direction, Kathleen Fischer, Paulist, New York, 1988.
This book acknowledges the fracture that has occurred in religion,
especially for women. The closing chapter has rituals, exercises, and
meditations that offer new ways to move into
forgiveness.
Wellsprings: A Book of Spiritual
Exercises,
Anthony De Mello, Image Books, New York, 1984. These meditations have been a source of great healing for me,
leading me to forgive and more easily offer to God and Christ my anger
and pain. They offer a place to take the reality of our
emotions and find transformation and healing.
Why Christian? for Those on the Edge
of Faith, Douglas John Hall, Fortress, Minneapolis,
1998.
Thick with theological conversation, this book takes on some of the most
common questions surrounding our Christian faith. The issue of
forgiveness and hope is a central theme throughout the book.
The Women’s Bible Commentary, Carole A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, editors, Westminster/John Knox, Louisville, 1992. This resource offers women a unique insight
into the Word and
invites compelling dialogue with portions of Scripture we have known
so well, yet not fully discovered as women.
House of Light, Mary Oliver,
Beacon, Boston, 1990.
This book of poems engages
nature, creation, God, emotion, and silence in ways that delicately
step around fears and open us up to beauty that leads to forgiveness
in the soul.
The Color Purple, Alice
Walker, Harcourt, Orlando, 1982. This is a story of redemption,
truth, love, and forgiveness. The book exposes the ugly realities of
racism, hate, and patriarchy and yet unabashedly sings with the hope of
love and the healing of forgiveness found in the truth that God calls
each created being to stand fully in the worth of their creation.
The Secret Life of Bees,
Sue Monk Kidd, Penguin, 2002. A novel that takes you deep into the heart of pain, hate, and abuse and then brings
you up and
out, released by the freedom of the divine feminine. The story touches
each reader’s heart in the exact place you yearn to forgive or
be forgiven.
|
Forgiveness
for Good
