Dear All,
Forgiveness & Healing are, I think, perennials, in that we are never done with them & so we come back to them again & again. However, maybe by choosing different reflections, we get new perspectives on them. I hope so. There are a couple of pieces written by the gifted Joyce Rupp & another by Janet Morley. We have recently discovered her ‘All Desires Known’ – it is a great collection of her writings.
The blessing this week is from Haugen’s III Anthology ’The Hand of God’. We could pray for all those who are in particular need of forgiveness and healing just now. There is a prayer among the reflections that goes well with this.
With our love
Do You Want To Be Healed?
Yes, we want to be healed:
as the dry well longs for water,
as the exile for her home;
as the father wants his children,
and the broken house
demands its people back.
Yes, we want to be healed:
as those who live in fear of the enemy
wish they could breathe safe;
as the fence that divided the village
prefers to be torn down;
as children dream bad dreams
need an unbroken night;
as those who have long been paralysed
now choose to move.
Yes, we want to be healed.
Janet Morley
Acceptance
When I remember
that God tolerates & forgives
the smelliness of my own faults & failings,
I am more ready to accept
what I find disdainful in others.
The more I know my own great need
for the embrace of a merciful God,
the more I can be forgiving & merciful
to those who wound me.
The more I believe
the Holy One loves & accepts me as I am,
while longing for me to be all I can be,
the more I will gather to my heart
all who are part of this vast world of ours.
Dissolving in Tenderness.
I have stood before you
On numerous occasions,
Knowing my transgression,
Guilty, fairly convicted.
Drawing my regret toward you
With a generous reception.
In that moment of pardon,
The falseness of my life
Dissolves in your tenderness.
Joyce Rupp
O Christ, the Healer,
by your wounds others are made whole,
by your tears sorrow is washed away,
come with kindness
to those who today need your touch,
your time,
or who need to know that you remember them.
Amen.