Quotes of the Day for April 7, 2026 – Thoughts on choosing forgiveness the a choice of choosing God
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“And here was the turning point. He did not say to me, “Jackie, you have to forgive.” The words that so many well-meaning friends and even clergy have said to me through the years. Here is what he said: “Jackie, you can choose to forgive.” “Choose” being the operative word. Choose. It was up to me. It was up to me to make the conscious decision to forgive. I was ready. I was ready to choose to forgive.” (Jackie Morfesis)
“If we “forgive men their trespasses, [so] your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt 6:14-15). Let us “make every effort along the way to settle” our debts with God and our adversaries (Lk 12:58). This action is more than mere religious talk or an empty gesture – it is a choice with urgent and eternal consequences….Forgive everyone for everything and share the burden of the sins of all. If we come to know that we are truly forgiven – we will be in paradise.” (Dynamis 11/11/2020, Father Stephen Freeman)
“Usually we think: “First I will correct myself, purify myself, accomplish some spiritual feat, and then God will forgive me.” But the Canon [of St. Andrew of Crete] says the opposite. We cry out: “Lord, grant me forgiveness now, because without it I have no strength even to begin to weep for my sins.” Here forgiveness is not a reward at the end of the road. It is the foundation upon which the whole road is built. We ask for mercy as for “spiritual oxygen,” without which we would simply suffocate in our own weakness.” (Metropolitan Luke Kovalenko)
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Christ…allows us to enter the sacred realm of God’s forgiveness! But the request is contingent on our action. We say, in effect, ‘We forgive; so forgive us too.’ Our act of forgiving our neighbor is performed in time; but then we take the act and fly with it to the eternal realm, where it becomes our plea for the right to live with God. The person who is able to forgive all the sins of every person committed against him, those transgressions that injure his name, or reputation, or career, or finances, or family, or estate, the person who can forgive all these wrongs has truly become crucified to the world. How can his own sins be held against him? This is the single petition that requires the believer to make himself worthy of it, not by any special form of knowledge or asceticism or piety, ”but only by lifting his head and stretching his arms toward heaven, and entreating for the forgiveness of everyone’s sins, for the sake of God’s name.” (Matthew the Poor)
“Firstly, forgiveness is liberation from sin… purification from spiritual pollution… as the holy Psalmist David says, Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin (Ps. 50:4). Or: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me (Ps. 50:12). In the Bible, the ability to forgive--that is, to cleanse from sins--is attributed to God Himself…by forgiving, we overcome our sinful nature and imitate God. The culmination of this forgiveness was Christ’s words on the Cross: while experiencing the most intense agony, He cried out to God the Father to forgive His persecutors, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Lk. 23:34). And every time we commit sins for which the Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate and suffered in order to free us from the bondage to sin, we crucify God. But He still asks the Father to forgive us as the only Intercessor between God and us (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5). And we receive forgiveness in the sacrament of confession. Thus, forgiveness as a deliverance from sin and addiction to it is possible provided that we believe in the redemptive feat of Jesus Christ.” (Nikolai Gerasimov)
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