Pastoral Counseling

Guilt Objective guilt – you are guilty Subjective guilt – you feel guilty Teach the differences Show understanding and acceptance. Help to illuminate sources of guilt Change behavior Work towards forgiveness

Parentless Generation Fear – Anger – Hatred – Apathy How do you honor parents who don’t deserve to be honored? Is forgiveness necessary for relationship? How do help guide people towards forgiveness?

Forgiveness There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Only when we can accept forgiveness can we find the inner freedom to give it. Receiving forgiveness requires a confession that we have hurt somebody and also the humility to acknowledge our dependency on others.

Forgiveness To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We also free ourselves from being the “offended one.” We no longer carry them with us or pull them as a heavy load.

Forgiveness How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received. If our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive. Forgiving others is first and foremost an inner movement. It is the healing of our own hearts.

Forgiveness We are all wounded people. Who wounds us? Those whom we love and love us. Rejection, abandoned, abused, manipulated, or violated. Those who love us wound us. This is what makes forgiveness from the heart so difficult. Forgiveness often seems impossible, but nothing is impossible for God, who gives us the grace to go beyond our wounded selves and forgive.

Forgiveness Forgiving does not mean forgetting. When we forgive the wound may stay with us for a long time. Forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. Forgiveness allows us to claim our own power and not let these events destroy us; it enables them to become events that deepen the wisdom of our hearts.