Today's Word
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Luke 23:34
Today's Reflection
Maria Goretti was eleven years old when she was attacked by Alessandro Serenelli, a nineteen-year-old neighbour who attempted to assault her.
When she resisted, he stabbed her fourteen times.
She died the following day. Her last words included forgiveness for her killer.
She said she hoped to see him in heaven.
Alessandro was arrested and sentenced to thirty years in prison. He was unrepentant for years.
Then, he later said, Maria appeared to him in a dream, gathering flowers and offering them to him. He woke up changed. He converted.
When he was released, one of the first things he did was to seek out Maria's mother, Assunta, and beg her forgiveness.
Assunta forgave him. They received communion together on Christmas morning.
Alessandro went on to live as a lay brother in a Franciscan monastery.
He was present at Maria's canonisation in 1950. He died in 1970.
This is not a comfortable story. It does not make the violence smaller or less terrible. But it insists, with extraordinary force, that forgiveness is possible.
Even this. Even here. Even after this.
Maria was eleven years old.
What is keeping us from forgiving what we have not forgiven?
Today's Prayer
Lord Jesus, you forgave from the cross.
Maria forgave from her deathbed.
We struggle to forgive far smaller things.
Soften whatever is hardened in us.
Where we are holding something, help us to let it go.
Not because it does not matter, but because you do.
Amen.
Today's Call
Name something you have not forgiven.
You do not have to act on it today.
Just bring it to God and tell him honestly that you are not ready.
That is a beginning.