Category: Words of Wisdom

Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you – out of love – takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice. – Dag Hammarskjold

No matter how people try to explain forgiveness, there will always be a part of it that is hard to understand. Forgiveness is never an easy thing. It is not resolved through a given formula. It is not achieved by sheer willpower and strength.

For people who have been terribly hurt, forgiveness will always beg the question for justice. When an offender is forgiven, who will pay then for the damage he has done? It is this element that often bewilders our hearts and our minds. Must forgiveness mean the absence of justice for the one who has been hurt?

But justice must never be missing. It may remain invisible to our eyes, but it is there. In forgiveness, it is a justice that is veiled in mercy, a mercy that comes from love.

In its highest ideal, it is love itself that pays. It is love that makes the necessary sacrifice.

For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:6-8, WEB

Let no person, no matter how well intentioned he may be, prevent anyone from approaching the Mercy of God. – Jocelyn Soriano

There is a simple solution to many of our troubles – MERCY. Mercy alone mends the heart that hurts. Mercy alone keeps us from despair. Mercy alone gives us the freedom to forgive.

Through mercy, God sends us hope, and our faint hearts are revived. Through mercy, our understanding and compassion for others is extended, and we are relieved from the wrath that poisons us from within.

Man has made a very great fall. But there is no fall so great that the cross could not remedy. By God’s mercy, even heaven and earth are bridged and reconciled, and the people living in darkness are able to see a great light.

Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck. -Mark 9:42 (WEB)

It’s not enough to weave beautiful rugs. You have to think beautiful thoughts while weaving them. – Charles Loloma

Many times, the routine of working takes away what’s really valuable in one’s work. We work only to earn or because we have nothing better to do. We work with our hands, but we fail to use the heart and the soul.

Let us not waste the opportunity to gather blessings each day. When we work, we can be blessed if we offer our labors to God as we work with diligence, a spirit of self-sacrifice and joy.

In such a way, our work helps us discover what’s good and beautiful within us. We are no longer slaves but masters. We are no longer mere tools but artists creating a masterpiece worthy of eternal rewards.

And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men… – Colossians 3:23, WEBBE

You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. – Song of Solomon 4:7, NRSVCE

We do not live merely to survive. We live to seek that which is beautiful, and if possible, to remain in it for as long as we could. Because only in finding the beautiful do we also find our true selves. We find that which we have lost, what we have been made for from the very beginning of the world.

Along the way, we have filled our hearts with other things, things like wealth or fame or worldly power. We have filled our souls with things that could never satisfy the depths of its desires.

Somewhere along the way, we remember. When we see something so beautiful it captures our very soul, we are reminded of what we really are and what we really need – we are eternal souls longing for incomparable beauty, such beauty that we can find only in God!

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” – St. Augustine

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it… At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.” – C.S. Lewis

Just for today, try to create something just for the sake of making something beautiful, something that will reflect the beauty of your own soul. – Jocelyn Soriano

Evil can never truly create something good. All it can accomplish is to destroy what is valuable. It tends to corrupt what is pure. It goes forth to darkness and to its own destruction.

To be able to create something good and beautiful is always a power that comes from love. When we love, we overflow in joy and in every sort of goodness. This goodness overflows and extends beyond ourselves. It seeks to express itself, to communicate its affection, and to render all things capable of receiving the same light it has found.

For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. – Colossians 1:16, WEB