QUOTATION: Forgiveness

Forgiveness does not deny the injustice one has been subjected to, but it acknowledges the fact that the human being, created in the image of God, is always superior to the wrong that is committed.

--Pope Francis

QUOTATION: Faith and Forgiveness

Faith has to do, and must have to do, with forgiving; that it aims at leading man to recognize that he is a being that can only find himself in the reception and transmission of forgiveness, a being that needs forgiveness even in his best and purest moments.

--Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Introduction to Christianity, 1968

QUOTATION: God's Forgiveness

The good God is as prompt to grant us pardon when we ask it of Him, as a mother is to snatch her children out of the fire.

--St. Jean Vianney

QUOTATION: Refusal to Forgive

By not forgiving, I chain myself to a desire to get even, thereby losing my freedom.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: The Washing of Feet

The washing of the feet signifies the washing away of stains. You therefore wash the feet of your brother when, as far as lies in your power, you wash away his stains. And this you may do in three wavs :

(i) By forgiving the offences he has done to you. Forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another : even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also (Coloss. iii. 13).

(ii) By praying for the forgiveness of his sin, as St. James bids us, Pray for one another, that you may be saved (James v. 16). This way of washing, like the first, is open to all the faithful.

(iii) The third way is for prelates, who should wash by forgiving sins through the authority of the keys, according to the gospel, Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them (John xx. 23).

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

If God forgives us we must forgive ourselves otherwise it's like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than him.

-- C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis

QUOTATION: God's Forgiveness

Men grow weary of pardoning. They are more severe toward the relapsing sinner, and impose more conditions on him. But the more He pardons, the more merciful does God seem to become. Great sinners who return to Him are His greatest friends. He came for the sick, and for one sinner, He left the angels. Provided there are some humility and confidence in our confession, we are always sure of being welcomed.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: How God Forgives

God pardons absolutely and forever. He casts our sins behind His back, say the Scriptures, He plunges them into the sea, and the scarlet of crime assumes the whiteness of snow, of innocence, in the bath of His mercy. They will never again rise up to accuse us! I love this thought of a large number of theologians, according to whom, they will not even be mentioned at the Last Judgment, because the Lord says "I will pardon you them, and I shall remember them no more!"

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Pro-Life and Forgiveness

We who reject abortion do not reject those who have had abortions. Rather, we embrace them with forgiveness and peace.

--Fr. Frank Pavone

QUOTATION: God's Mercy

Never forget this: the Lord never gets tired of forgiving us. It is we who get tired of asking for forgiveness.

--Pope Francis

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

The forgiveness of God is one thing, but the proof that we want that forgiveness is the energy we expend to make amends for the wrong.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.

--C.S. Lewis

QUOTATION: God's Pardon

Man should consider that God has pardoned him all the sins from which He has preserved him. Think not, therefore, that you may love this Master with a feeble love because He has pardoned you but a few sins. Your debt of love, on the contrary, is greater for His preventing grace which has saved you from committing many. For if a man must love a creditor who forgives him a debt, how much more reason has he to love a benefactor who gratuitously bestows upon him a like amount? For if a man live chastely all his life, it is God Who preserves him; if he be converted from immorality to a pure life, it is God Who reforms him; and if he continue in his disorders till the end, it is also God Who justly forsakes him.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Post-Abortive Women

I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance.

The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.

--Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 99

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the Pater Noster, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Sharp Words

Take pains to refrain from sharp words. Pardon one another so that later on you will not remember the injury. The recollection of an injury is itself wrong. It adds to our anger, nurtures our sins and hates what is good. It is a rusty arrow and poison for the soul. It puts all virtue to flight.

--St. Francis of Paola

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

Be assured that one great means to find favor when we appear before God is to have pardoned the injuries we have received here below.

--Louis de Granada

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

Forgiveness, in its truest and highest form, is a free act of love; but precisely because it is an act of love, it has its own intrinsic demands: the first of which is respect for the truth.

--Pope John Paul II