Various writers share their thoughts
and experiences on the way of forgiveness
“Let us forgive each other,” wrote Leo Tolstoy. “Only then will we live in peace.”
The Way of Forgiveness: Readings for a Peaceful Life is third in a series of books on virtues that transform our lives. First came The Way of Gratitude. Then The Way of Kindness. Our bet is that gratitude, kindness and forgiveness are among the virtues you, like us, value most.
The idea behind our series is to collect for you inspiring stories from writers you love and writers you will love that bring home how powerful these virtues are in bringing grace, joy and peace to your life. Without peace in our own hearts, there can never be peace in the world. It begins on the spot where we are standing.
The Way of Forgiveness features more than 40 stories, poems and meditations on the rewards of forgiving and being forgiven (they often come at once) from Mary Oliver, Anne Lamott, e.e. cummings, Frederick Buechner, Joyce Rupp, James Martin, Maya Angelou, Richard Rohr, Marianne Williamson, Lynn F. Monahan, Jack Kornfield, Dorothy Day, C.S. Lewis and many others. You could do worse than invite any of these folks to your house to sit around the kitchen table and have a cup of coffee and talk about life or anything at all.
This book also intersperses wisdom from the likes of Shakespeare, Oprah and The Little Prince, with texts from Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam.
Here is a fun quote from Erma Bombeck:
“People are always asking couples whose marriages have endured at least a quarter of a century for their secret of success. Actually, it’s no secret at all. I am a forgiving woman. Long ago, I forgave my husband for not being Paul Newman.”
Hey, let’s reach to heaven and invite Erma and Paul to the kitchen table too! Open the window and let the sun shine in!
Can you imagine a world without the lightness of forgiveness? How could anyone go on?
We all need to stop blaming ourselves and others, and lay our resentments on the altar of consciousness, saying, “Please, God, take these thoughts away from me. They are my crown of thorns and they hurt so much. Give me your thoughts. Think for me. Your thoughts only!”
And soon we will hear the voice of Jesus, and soon we will whisper, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And night shall be day, and we shall be well, for we shall know forgiveness too.
The purpose of The Way of Forgiveness is to help you know peace, no matter how troubled your heart may be. “There is a crack in everything,” sang Leonard Cohen, “that’s how the light gets in.” Forgiveness is warm; it heals the cracks. It is strong; it is forever, even if it takes seventy times seven times to get it right.
And most of all, forgiveness is from God. Forgiveness gives you “the peace that surpasses every thought” (Phil 4:7).
To find more information on the book, or to purchase, please visit https://www.orbisbooks.com/the-way-of-forgiveness.html
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