5th May

Forgive Their Iniquity

Yet he, because he is full of compassion, forgave their sin and did not destroy; many times he turned away his anger and didn’t rouse all his wrath. So he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that blows past and does not return. How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wastelands! Psalm 78:38-40

Desert Abba Isaac said, “I never permit any ill feelings against a brother to enter my cell. I have also worked to make sure no brother could return to his cell with any ill feelings towards me.

Father, in a world with so much hatred and anger, allow your Holy Spirit to show me my weaknesses with lack of compassion and forgiveness to others. Illuminate the dark areas of my soul that hide any thought, feeling or emotion that harbors a lack of purity towards your creation. May I not grieve you, but seek to put off that which is not of You. Jesus, have mercy on me. Amen.