THE FORGIVENESS PRAYER

Fr. Robert DeGrandis is considered by many to be one of the major leaders for the renewal in the early days here in the U.S. While conducting healing masses across the country, he saw a real lack of healing and he and his prayer team begin to ask the Lord why. The Lord showed him that forgiveness was a "key" to true and lasting healing. He wrote this prayer and began to say it with all in attendance at the beginning of each healing mass. There was an immediate increase in the amount of healings at each mass.

 THE FORGIVENESS PRAYER
Fr. Robert DeGrandis
Lord Jesus Christ, I ask today to forgive everyone in my life. I know that You will give me strength to forgive and I thank You that You love me more than I love myself and want my happiness more than I desire it for myself.

Lord Jesus, I want to be free from the feelings of resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness toward You for the times I thought You sent death, hardships, financial difficulties, punishments and sickness into our family.
Lord, I forgive myself for my sins, faults and failings. For all that is truly bad in myself or all that I think is bad, I do forgive myself. For any delvings in the occult; Ouija boards, horoscopes, seances, fortune telling, lucky charms, for taking Your name in vain, for not worshiping You, for hurting my parents, for getting drunk, for taking dope, for sins against my purity, for adultery, for abortion, for stealing, for lying. I am truly forgiving myself today. Thank you, Lord, for Your grace at this moment.

I truly forgive my mother. I forgive her for all the times she hurt me, resented me, was angry with me and for all the times she punished me. I forgive her for the times she preferred my brothers and sisters to me. I forgive her for the times she told me I was dumb, ugly, stupid, the worst of the children or that I cost the family a lot of money. For the times she told me I was unwanted, an accident, a mistake or not what she expected, I forgive her.

I forgive my father. I forgive him for any nonsupport, any lack of love, affection or attention. I forgive him for any lack of time, for not giving me his companionship, for his drinking or arguing and fighting with my mother or the other children. For his severe punishments, for desertion, for being away from home, for divorcing my mother or for any running around, I do forgive him.

Lord, I extend forgiveness to my sisters and brothers. I forgive those who rejected me, lied about me, hated me, resented me, and competed for my parents' love, those who hurt me, who physically harmed me. For those who were too severe on me, punished me or made my life unpleasant in any way, I do forgive them.
Lord, I forgive my spouse for lack of love, affection, consideration, support, attention, communications, for faults, failings, weaknesses and those other acts or words that hurt or disturb me.

Jesus, I forgive my children for their lack of respect, obedience, love, attention, support, warmth, understanding, their bad habits, falling away from the church and bad actions which disturb me.
My God, I forgive my in-laws, mother, father, son or daughter-in-law and other relatives by marriage. For their lack of love, words of criticism, thoughts, actions or omissions that injure and cause pain, I do forgive them.

Please help me to forgive my relatives, my grandmother and grandfather who may have interfered in our family, been possessive or my parents, who may have caused confusion or turned one parent against the other.

Jesus, help me to forgive my co-workers who are disagreeable or make life miserable for me. For those who push their work off on me, gossip about me, won't cooperate with me, try to take my job, I do forgive them.
My neighbors need to be forgiven, Lord. For all their noise, letting their property run down, not tying up their dogs who run through my yard, not taking in their trashcans, being prejudiced and running down the neighborhood, I do forgive them.

I now forgive my clergyman, my congregation and my church for all their lack of support, pettiness, bad sermons, lack of friendliness, not affirming me as they should, not providing me with inspiration, for not using me in a key position, for not inviting me to serve in a major capacity and for any other hurt they have inflicted. I do forgive them today.

Lord, I forgive all professional people who have hurt me in any way: doctors, lawyers, policemen, hospital workers, for the things that they did to me, I truly forgive them today.
Lord, I forgive my employer for not paying me enough money, for not appreciating my work, for being unkind and unreasonable with me, for being angry or unfriendly, for not promoting me and for not complimenting me on my work.

Lord, I forgive my schoolteachers and instructors of the past, as well as the present. For those who punished me, humiliated me, insulted me, treated me unjustly, made fun of me, called me dumb or stupid, made me stay after school.

Lord, I forgive my friends who have let me down, lost contact with me, do not support me, were not available when I needed help, borrowed money and did not return it, gossiped about me.
Lord Jesus, I especially pray for the grace of forgiveness for that one person in life who has hurt me the most. I ask to forgive anyone who I consider my greatest enemy; the one who is the hardest to forgive or the one who I said I would never forgive.

Thank You, Jesus, that I am free of the evil of unforgiveness. Let Your Holy Spirit fill me with light and let every dark area of my mind be enlightened.
Amen.

God has mercifully made our fantasies the pursuit of power, of sensual satisfaction, of money, of learning, of celebrity, of happiness so preposterously unrewarding that we are forced to turn to him for reality, for help and mercy." Malcom Muggeridge

Anne Rice is Called Out of Darkness

Called Out of Darkness is a beautifully written book of one woman's journey to a personal relationship with Jesus as her Lord and Savior. An intimate story that isn't overly syrupy and does not justify any of the personal choices author Anne Rice has made in life makes this book very readable to a vast audience that might not otherwise pick up a testimonial book of this type.

Her descriptions about the importance of family and moral values as well as church attendance forming character can be read between the lines. The truth and value of the "little things" that others do for and to you and how they make a lasting impact on character formation are subtle traits within the context of the story.

We are all pursued by the Hound of Heaven and the use of the poem by Francis Thompson fits into Anne's story perfectly. Her longing for the Eucharist has a depth of understanding that even protestants can relate to.

The scandals plaguing the Church did not keep her from choosing to pursue Jesus through the Sacraments that were familiar to her from her childhood. Her embracing of the modern Church service versus the Latin Mass she had grown up with are evident. She speaks with joy at not being ridiculed by those in her family who had never left the Church but instead loved her back to Jesus.


As a convert to the faith, I was overjoyed that she looked with awe at many of the same things I loved when I converted: The Nicene Creed, the Gloria, the prayers of consecration and the Agnus Dei. Her descriptions of these standards of the Church echo my own sentiments and show a woman who has come to terms with what she chose to walk away from and what she now chooses to embrace.

I have never read Anne's "vampire writings," and probably never will, but I see an amazing openness and frank love of truth and sense of justice in her clear and eloquent writings. I look forward to many more descriptive and faith conveying books to come from a woman whose obvious vocation is writing for the glory of God.

In Genesis, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers with the words, "Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve his present end, the survival of many people." ( Gen. 50:20) I look forward to Ms. Rice's future work to draw on the past she came from to lead many to the Lord. He knows her name, as He knows each of ours and He has called her out of darkness.

CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS
By Anne Rice
ISBN:978-0-307-39759-1

For more book reviews see http://keamusa.com