Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Good Letters

Home
Catholic

forgiveness

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

May 2018

May 01, 2018

Sowing the Seeds of Love

My daughter asked me to bring some food to the swim meet when I came....

April 2018

April 06, 2018

Poetry Friday: “To Begin With”

Wakefield’s poem presents the metaphor of a peach as the speaker’s body: “I’ll let the...

March 2018

March 16, 2018

Poetry Friday: “God Reads the Poem of the World with Interest”

How to image good and evil? It’s hard to do in a way that astounds...

September 2017

September 01, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Psalm of Your Face”

“Lord, let…”: this is how nearly every sentence of Nicholas Samaras’s “The Psalm of Your...

May 2017

May 19, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Spirit of Promise”

Memories can make good material for poetry. In “The Spirit of Promise,” Daniel Donaghy is...

February 2017

February 16, 2017

Epiphany in the Memory Unit

By Cameron Dezen Hammon. The priest’s wife handed me her half full can of beer....

March 2016

March 25, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Divine Wrath” by Adélia Prado

Multiple members of my family live with chronic pain, which is why I’m always arrested...

September 2015

September 28, 2015

My Days of Awe, 5776

Impatience. Anger. Wastefulness. Restlessness. Desire. Haughtiness. Greed. Judgement. Pride. § I’ve been paying...

August 2015

August 03, 2015

Original Sin and the Warp Effect

One of the great writers—to my recollection, Flannery O’Connor—said something to the effect that everything...

July 2015

July 30, 2015

Having Enough: Jacob, Esau, and the Great Books

Guest post by Jonathan Hiskes It feels silly to say I studied the classics because...

July 29, 2015

Bullets in My House

By Paul Luikart Last Wednesday I settled down on the couch to do something I’d...

June 2015

June 15, 2015

His Murderer and His Keeper

Some days I can’t remember: Am I Abel or Cain? Blackberry soda in the afternoon...

May 2015

May 20, 2015

Monasticism in Lockdown America, Part 9: Psalms, In the End

Continued from yesterday. Thinking of the psalms as a way to cycle through the...

May 19, 2015

Monasticism in Lockdown America, Part 8: Psalms, In the Beginning

I always privately hated the psalms. Most of them, anyway. As a teenager, I’d leaf...

May 08, 2015

Sugar, Sugar, Part 2: May 8, 2015

Continued from yesterday. When the editors of Good Letters first asked if they could rerun...

May 07, 2015

Sugar, Sugar, Part 1: June 10, 2011

I’ve written before about my father’s alcoholism. From my adolescence until his death, I spent...

April 2015

April 06, 2015

Internet Jubilee: A Holy Year of Mercy

On a recent Sunday, my pastor preached on the idea of the jubilee year as...

April 02, 2015

The Kiss of Judas

When Judas approached Jesus in the Garden and kissed him, how do you think Jesus...

March 2015

March 26, 2015

Monasticism In Lockdown America, Part 7: Holy Fool

Continued from yesterday. Hank’s trembling confession had charged the small jail visitation cell where...

March 25, 2015

Monasticism in Lockdown America, Part 6: Icons

The jail staff asked if I would meet with some of the guys in the...

January 2015

January 08, 2015

Girl Meets God in the Classroom, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. On the first day of my class “Spiritual Autobiographies: Theirs and Ours,”...

September 2014

September 10, 2014

Songs Dead Men Sing

Guest Post by Cathy Warner In the backseat of our minivan I swig an individual...

March 2014

March 24, 2014

When the Matches Go Out

When Marie-Henri Beyle visited Florence, that city named for its place among waters, he thought...

January 2014

January 24, 2014

Walking Toward Forgiveness

Outside our trailer park, a set of railroad tracks ran from east to west, dividing...

January 15, 2014

Waking My Mother: Lost and Found

When someone dies, we say to the surviving family members, “I’m sorry for your loss.”...

December 2013

December 12, 2013

Writing My Mother’s Icon

Blessed Santa Barbara, / Your story is written in the sky, / With paper and...

November 2013

November 29, 2013

He Loves Me Anyway: Black Nativity

Guest Post by Christine A. Scheller What good is a shepherd that goes to sleep?...

November 20, 2013

Complaint to a Profligate God

I am sick of God’s injustice. Everywhere and at all times, the guilty walk free,...

October 2013

October 17, 2013

Honor Thy Mother

It came to me one quiet afternoon, a couple weeks after we were home from...

June 2013

June 24, 2013

Friendship, by Guilt or Grace

In February I published Love and Salt, a book of letters I wrote with my...