When someone called this to my attention, I was quite angry. But a few days later, he was not only critical of the paper, but also of me. When I had publicly read the paper, I had given ample opportunity for questions, and had even submitted the paper to selected individuals before reading it. I had written a philosophical paper and a colleague criticized it behind my back. I remember the time I discovered this prayer. This prayer has helped me immensely in this regard: Without forgiveness, the reliving of a scenario seems to get worse with every self-retelling. When I am in a “non-forgiving mood,” I tend to exaggerate all the bad features of a memory, omit all the good features of the perpetrator, and attempt to construct a scenario whereby the demon-other has perpetrated the unforgivable-then I get good and mad. The prayer that helped me to forgive and pray for enemies The memory of an offense seems to mushroom in its proportions and emotional discharge. In any case, one thing is clear: without forgiving, forgetting is impossible. As you know, forgiving-the intention to let go of an offense intentionally and unjustly perpetrated against us-takes far less time than forgetting. If one party does let go (forgives), the cycle frequently devolves, and forgiving eventually turns into forgetting. Why? Because violence begets violence, vengeance begets vengeance, resentment begets resentment, and the cycle will continue and grow so long as one of the offended parties does not let go. It will probably come as no surprise that Jesus mentions this one prescription more often than any other commandment, injunction, or prescription in the New Testament. 18: 21-22) and to ask the Father to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt. Jesus enjoins us to pray for our enemies and forgive one another from the heart He tells us to forgive seventy times seven times (Mt.
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