I saw this quotation from St. Teresa of Avila today and I thought that it was fantastic.
“Oh, souls set free by the blood of Christ! Learn to understand yourselves. Have compassion for yourselves.”
This seems to be a helpful substitute, in my opinion, for the phrase that we use and/or hear “I need to forgive myself.”
From a Christian perspective, in my opinion, we can trust in God’s forgiveness towards us instead of seeking to forgive ourselves. Our best day of forgiving ourselves is faintly affective in comparison to God’s ability and desire to forgive.
When I hear people say, “I just need to forgive myself,” I can hear what they are saying and find that it works in an appropriate way. This whole thing is probably semantics.
I guess for my own life and for those that’d seek counsel from me, I’ll use this neat phrase from St. Teresa: “Have compassion for yourself.”
Joe Skillen 