Morning Reflection

Good morning. It's the weekend. I love you, weekends of no commitments. They are such a treat, eh?

I'm working my way through this book called Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr. Today's was very good, so I wanted to pass it along to you. The book is comprised of one-page daily reflections from Richard's books and audio CDs. This particular reflection is adapted from "The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis." It's about forgiveness - a theme that seems to be popping up every single place I look. I've bolded the lines I found most impactful.

Jesus revealed to us how to bear the pain of the world instead of handing on the pain to those around us. When you stop resisting suffering, when you can really do something so foolish as to welcome the pain, it leads you into a broad and spacious place where you live out of the abundance of Divine Love. I can't promise you it will leave quickly or easily. To forgive is not the same as to forget.

Forgiveness has the power to lead you to your True Self in God. Because the hurts of life are so great, you cannot let go of the pain on your own. At that point, you need to draw from a Larger Source. What you are doing with forgiveness is changing your egoic investment in your own painful story - which too often has become your ticket to sympathy and sometimes your very identity. Forgiveness is one of the most radically free things a human being can do. When we forgive, we have to let go of our own feelings, our own ego, our own offended identity, and find our identity at a completely different level - the divine level. I even wonder if it is possible to know God at all - outside of the mystery of forgiveness.