Reconciliation Service

1. Reconciliation Service Blessed With Acceptance

2. “Truly loving another means letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another’s personhood.” Unknown

3. “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”Mother Teresa

4. Denis De Rougamont “Happiness can exist only in acceptance.”

5. "People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." Mother Teresa

6. “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” Paul Boese

7. “Human beings, like plants, grow in the soil of acceptance, not in the atmosphere of rejection.” John Powell

8. "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." Mahatma Gandhi

9. “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” Nathaniel Brandon

10. "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”C.S. Lewis

11. Kathleen Casey Theisen “Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you're going to do about it.”

12. "To err is human; to forgive, divine." Alexander Pope

13. “Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth, and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world.” Brenda Peterson

14. "Forgive and give as if it were your last opportunity. Love like there's no tomorrow, and if tomorrow comes, love again." Max Lucado

15. "The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either -- or both -- when needed?"Gordon B. Hinckley

16. “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest accomplishment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the power to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia

17. "When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines upon you."  Jon Krakauer

18. "Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude." Martin Luther King Jr.

19. "True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience." Oprah Winfrey

20. “The measure of your life will be the measure of your courage.” Matthew Kelly

21. "Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving a criminal of his crime. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being a victim--letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor."C.R. Strahan

22. "People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere, people my deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give you best anyway. In final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." Kent Keith

23. “Forgiveness is the final form of love.” Reinhold Niebuhr

24. “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest accomplishment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the power to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia

25. "Forgiveness, in its truest and highest form, is a free act of love". Pope John Paul II

26. “The difference between what we do, and what we are capable of doing, would solve most of the world’s problems.” Mahatma Gandhi

27. "Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough."Garrison Keillor

28. "Is it easy? Usually not. But you don't forgive people for their benefit. You do it for your benefit." Andrew Matthews

29. "Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.” Mother Teresa

30. "I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him." C.S. Lewis

31. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:44-45

32. "we accept the love we think we deserve.” Stephen Chbosky

33. "forgiveness is not a single act, but a matter of constant practice"Diana Gabaldon

34. "...if anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will be the same again." William P. Young

35. "Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another. "Emma Goldman

36. "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." St. Augustine

37. “Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.” Jean Paul Richter

38. "Forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to go against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil." Pope John Paul II

39. "The way Jesus shows you is not easy. Rather, it is like a path winding up a mountain. Do not lose heart! The steeper the road, the faster it rises towards ever wider horizons." Pope John Paul II

40. “We achieve inner health only through forgiveness – the forgiveness not only of others but also of ourselves.” Joshua Loth Liebman

41. Eleanor Roosevelt “You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.”

42. "I appeal to all of you, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, to see the face of a brother or sister in every human being. What unites us is so much more than what separates and divides us : it is our common humanity.” Pope John Paul II

43. ”If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also.” Saint Philip Neri

44. “He who knows how to forgive prepares for himself many graces from God. As often as I look upon the cross, so often will I forgive with all my heart.” (390) St. Faustina

45. “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” Carl Gustay Jung

46. “Without forgiveness, there’s no future.” Desmond Tutu