Category Archives: Sirach

Forgiveness is a journey

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Lawrence W. Ladd (1879-1945)
Parable of the King and His Servants, ca. 1880
watercolor and pencil on paper
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Bates and Isabel Lowry, 1986.70.5

Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults. Sirach 28:7

Forgiveness is a journey that takes time and our willing participation. God gently calls us to let go of the wrath and resentment that have held us in bondage and become more like God in mercy and kindness. To answer God’s call we work our way through the anger and blame and fear we feel as the result of being treated disrespectfully, carelessly, scornfully, unjustly, inhumanely. We will eventually arrive at the heart of the grief of how others have treated us, how we have treated others, how a societal norm is growing where it is acceptable to treat people as objects to be manipulated rather than as subjects who have been made in love to be loved.

Today I will ask God to show me how to forgive those who have hurt me and to become willing to make amends to those I have hurt. I will remember God’s covenant of love and ask for the grace to grow more like God in mercy, kindness, patience, and compassion.

Words of love

Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 – 1625)
The Sermon on the Mount
oil on copper, 1598
Getty Center

Jesus said to his disciples: “But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:24

Pope Leo’s Lenten 2026 message encourages us to listen more deeply to the Word of God and to fast from using hurtful words.

With dedicated mindfulness and a desire to do God’s will, I can learn to monitor my words. I can choose words that are life-giving and reflect wisdom, peace, kindness, reconciliation, hope for unity and mercy—and shine the light of love and goodness in our troubled world.

Today I will ask the Spirit to help me scrutinize how I communicate with myself and others. I will commit to a new habit of fasting from using written or spoken words that discount, disparage, discourage, or denigrate anyone.

The Lord hears us

James Tissot (1836–1902).
The Pharisee and the Publican (Le pharisien et le publicain), 1886–1894.
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper. Brooklyn Museum.
(Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay.
Sirach 35:21-22a

Holy scripture assures us God hears the cries of the oppressed, the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized, and all who are treated with disdain, injustice, and inhumanity. God invites us to open our hearts and pray from our pain and our need—without subterfuge, self-delusion, or self-aggrandizing. Our faith teaches us that God hears and answers all who willingly pray in humility and truth.

Today I will humbly admit to God my weaknesses and failures, sorrows and fears, desires and needs. I will ask God to strengthen me and guide me along the path of forgiveness, reconciliation, love, and compassion. I trust I will be heard. I trust God will respond with mercy.

Holy solitude

Leopold Carl Müller (1834–1892)
Morning Prayer of a Bedouin

An attentive ear is the joy of the wise.
Sirach 3:29b

To humble myself is to seek the holy solitude of God’s presence. In this way I learn finally the true identity of myself and all people: We are the beloved of God.

Today I will cultivate an attentive inner silence to open my mind, heart, and ears to hear and welcome God’s love.

Release enmity

The Unforgiving Servant – Matthew 18:21-35 JESUS MAFA. from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. [retrieved September 17, 2023].

Remember your last days, set enmity aside. Sirach 28:6a

When I hold on to wrath, anger, vengeance, or enmity, I am in danger of embodying those forces of destruction. When I hold on to kindness, mercy, patience, and compassion, I become more like the Lord whose power of love brings healing and forgiveness to all hearts.

Today I will pray for those who have hurt me, and I will pray for those I have hurt.

Look into the depths

Mount of the Beatitudes

For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. 1 Corinithians 2:10b

God’s Holy Spirit leads me to scrutinize my words, actions, behaviors, and attitudes to discern where I have loved and where I have neglected to love.

Today I will spend quiet time alone and ask the Spirit to open my mind and heart to receive God’s love, to help me choose justice, generosity, forgiveness, and compassion in my interactions—and to be accountable for how I treat myself and others.

Lord, help me trust and practice your law of love today.

Listen

JESUS MAFA. The poor invited to the feast, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48397 [retrieved August 28, 2022].

An attentive ear is the joy of the wise.
Sirach 3:29b

Lord, today I will listen for your voice in sacred Scripture, in my heart, and in the suffering of the world. Help me to quiet my worries. Show me how to respond to the needs of the poor.

A store of love and goodness

“A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good.” Luke6:45a

We have a blessed beginning: we are each made in the image of God’s love and goodness.

May I be willing to be healed of everything that distorts my store of love and goodness: fear, resentment, greed, jealousy, arrogance.

May I uncover the love, forgiveness, generosity, acceptance, and humility that are my birthright and let them flow from me into our fragile world.

My choice

Persian Jesus (Isa) miniature of
Sermon on the Mount

If you choose you can keep the commandments,
they will save you;
if you trust in God, you too shall live;
he has set before you fire and water
to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.
Sirach 15:15-17

Today I will choose the qualities of God: patience, kindness, civility, respect, compassion, delight, and love.

I will choose self-responsibility and forgiveness.

I will choose to act with integrity and mercy.

I will choose quiet time with God.

 

 

Humility

Ryan Hodnett
Violet (Viola sp.) in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
13 May 2018

What is too sublime for you, seek not,
into things beyond your strength search not. Sirach 3:21

It is enough to know God is and to be grateful.