Forgiveness is so hard that sometimes it really, truly kills you. That’s why we have to keep doing it, because if we stop, we might never start again.

Jesus had no patience with rules that interfered with divine mercy, nor with preferring the maintenance of feuds to reconciliation. The nature of divine mercy is so radical, however, that your neighbor is precisely the person who is in need of mercy, even if that person is your sworn enemy.

Jesus knows that we sin not only when we are at our worst, but also sometimes when we are at our best, trying hardest to protect the innocent, to protect the Church, to do the right thing. We are stained even by some of our noblest efforts, and we don’t have what it takes to make the stain go away.

The same Jesus who requires impossible reconciliations becomes the reconciliation Himself. He gives what he commands, then He commands what He gives.

For our biggest problems, the Forgiver is the main event. To know Him is the most important thing of all.

This radical mercy means that Jesus already loves the people who hurt us, and He wants them as much as He wants us.

Mercy and forgiveness have always been available. All we need to do is claim them. Repentance is how we say "yes".

It isn’t God who throws useless lives into the flames – people are more than happy to do that. God certainly recognizes when a life is dry.

You cannot make me hate you. You cannot make my life a wasteland. Forgiveness gives us power over anger.

When we pray we are turning as much of ourselves as we have toward as much of God as we understand.

Saints are humble because they all remember how much help their holiness took.