Today was the fourth session of the Fall Reflection Series on forgiveness being offered at UST School of Law. As we always do, We began the session by giving participants time to share in small groups some of their experience from their prayer over the last week with the material I distributed last week on the subject of Christin teachings on forgiveness.
After the sharing we took some time for some large group observations, which discussion raised some good points about what it might mean to “practice” forgivness and the fact that forgiveness is a command of our faith, not a suggestion.
Mark Osler then offered the reflection for this week. Mark began by talking about what he termed a lawyer’s view of the process of forgiveness, one that consists of the three stages of blame, repentance and forgiveness. He talked about why, from a Christian standpoint, that process is fundamentally flawed. He then talked about the difference between a model of forgiveness that proceeds from power and one that proceeds from humility. Finally, Mark talked about the different challenges involved in forgiving others, forgiving oneself and forgiving God.
You can access a recording of Mark’s reflection here or stream it from the icon below. (The podcast runs for 24:01.) You can find a copy of this week’s prayer material here.
Creo en Dios! 