Forgive and Forgiven: Dealing with Standoffs

Is it challenging to ask for forgiveness? Perhaps, it is even more difficult to offer forgiveness. Wherever you may find yourself, both are essential when it comes to healthy and loving relationships. Jeff Cavins recounts a time in his life where he struggled to admit his need for forgiveness. He shares what he learned from that experience and offers encouragement for everyone to grow in forgiveness.

Snippet from the Show
“Forgiveness is the restoration of freedom to oneself; it is the key held in our own hand to our own prison cell.”
-St. John Paul the Great

Ephesians 5:25

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Matthew 18:21-22

“Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”

Quotes on Forgiveness/Mercy

• “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 ‘Our Father’, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.” - Saint Philip Neri
• “Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave.” - St. John Chrysostom
• “No one heals himself by wounding another.” -St. Ambrose
• “Holiness does not consist in not making mistakes or never sinning. Holiness grows with capacity for conversion, repentance, willingness to begin again, and above all with the capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness.” - Pope Benedict XVI