Repentance 6

Let us suppose that we have made some progress, it being Lent and all, in repentance. Now the bottom line is that we want God to forgive us.

…forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors…

The hardest part of forgiveness is to forgive those who have wronged us. It might be thought that it would be easy but it’s not. It takes a great deal of humility and work in the heart to arrive at a moment of forgiveness for the other—never mind the heart; consider that the head has known this for ages and we still have not forgiven as we ought.

The heart is where we must forgive whatever our mind tells us. Without the heart, we have got nowhere. We have to learn to love. We have to learn to see ourselves as we should be, and to turn in that direction.

With best wishes for a blessed Pascha—

Orthodox Monk