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the healing power of forgiveness

Posted on October 15, 2006 | Filed Under grace 

Marie Roberts is the widow of the man who entered the Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, thirteen days ago, taking ten young girls hostage and eventually killing five before taking his own life. On Friday, she released an open letter to the Amish community through her pastor. The text of her letter follows …
To our Amish friends, neighbors, and local community:
Our family wants each of you to know that we are overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace, and mercy that you’ve extended to us. Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. The …

living witnesses … witnesses to life

Posted on October 5, 2006 | Filed Under spirituality 

From today’s news outlets …

By Michael Rubinkam: In Amish village, forgiveness lives

Just about anywhere, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims’ loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman’s family or threatened to sue.

But after the slayings of five children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish people in Nickel Mines urge forgiveness of the killer.

“They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent … and they know that they will join them in death,” said Gertrude Huntington, an author on the Amish …

fighting terror … a different way

Posted on April 20, 2006 | Filed Under grace, spirituality, terrorism 

“I realize now how precious life is,” said Anthony Aversano, whose father, Louis, was killed in the World Trade Center. “How I fight the terror in me today is to live my life well.”

That quote comes from a Los Angeles Times account of the witnesses called yesterday by the defense team for Zacarias Moussaoui. Each of the six witnesses provides powerful personal testimony of a journey from grief to forgiveness, from fear to faith, of living the truth of Paul’s admonition in the letter to the Romans: Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good. They …

transforming memory

Posted on October 20, 2005 | Filed Under grace, spirituality 

We are a product of our memories …

I heard someone make that comment a few days ago. It’s true. We do not encounter the present moment with a “clean slate,” but with the blessing and the burden of our memories. Our memories shape the ways we interpret and react to the situations we encounter. And our memories direct our steps. We try to create or find situations that will duplicate our good memories and we try to avoid situations that may duplicate our bad memories.

When we accumulate enough of one or the other, they become solidified, as it were, …

good people

Posted on June 28, 2005 | Filed Under general 

I have been privileged to know some good people in my lifetime:

people who fight to defend other people’s rights
people who say “I forgive you” … and mean it
people who seem never to tire of serving friends and strangers
people who believe in a project and support it wholeheartedly … and don’t care about who takes the credit
people who can be passionate and articulate about their faith without drawing attention to themselves
people who live their faith in decisions about lifestyle, investments, career, politics, social life
people who teach their children about social justice
people who tell their children about Jesus

I have been so blessed …

as we forgive our debtors

Posted on June 14, 2005 | Filed Under justice 

I was delighted to hear this week of the commitment of the G8 nations to forgive some $40 billion worth of debt of the eighteen poorest nations in the world.


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