Forgiving is a constant daily exercise in our lives, and that very experience allows God’s love to put us back on our feet. Realising that we are forgiven is the starting point for trying to be merciful, opening our gaze on others and being truly free. The queue Just as I was feeling pleased to have arrived in time for the doctor’s appointment, a lady suddenly jumped the queue without thinking anything of it. I could feel myself getting angry and was about to say something when certain images from the war in Ukraine came to my mind.  Immediately I decided to turn my rights into courtesy, into a welcome. But how difficult it is to put aside the idea of what one feels is one’s right! When I got home I told my family what happened and about my inner battle. After a long silence our eldest daughter started telling us about her latest experience.  She too had been standing in a queue at the university secretary’s office and, confronting another student’s lack of respect, strongly reprimanded him to the point of making him ashamed. “Maybe I was wrong,” she added. In the end we concluded that whether it’s big or small, war lurks within us but it can be overcome with forgiveness. (F.I. – Italy) A lesson to remember My wife is a teacher and one day while she was at school and I stayed at home, as a surprise I decided to do all those little repair and cleaning jobs that sometimes get neglected due to various other commitments. I was happy at the thought that she would be pleased, but as soon as she got home she started complaining that the front door had been left open: “Didn’t it cross your mind that thieves might come in?” I was confused. I did not remember leaving it open but I did not want to argue so although I was sorry, I decided not to add fuel to the anger. In the afternoon my wife asked to speak to me. She wanted to apologise: “Seeing how many things you did and thinking how I told you off for something so trivial, I felt humiliated by my blindness. You taught me a real lesson with your silence”. A few days later she confided in me that, when she told the school what had happened between us, it created a great atmosphere of respect in the class that there’d never been before. (L.D. – Hungary)

Edited by Maria Grazia Berretta

(taken from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Città Nuova, year VIII, no.2, July-August 2022)